Get Firefox 3 Beta 1
November 21st, 2007 · by David Bradley
TechCrunch has an interesting piece on the forthcoming version 3 of the Firefox browser, which is “out” in beta 1 right now. Turns out that Mozilla (makers of Firefox) are yet to solve the memory problems that have plagued the browser since version 1.5. Firing up Firefox can take up 40% of your computer’s processing power and that’s before memory leaks that drain even more kick in.
Regardless, if you want to get hold of version 3 ahead of full release, just follow this link to the download. But, before you do ask yourself what Firefox gives you that you couldn’t get with Opera, which doesn’t suffer from memory gluttony and leakage. Check out this comparative speed test between Opera and Firefox (oh, and they include a test against IE too). They’re conclusion is that O >> FF >> IE
Add me on StumbleUpon
Join me on Facebook
Browse my Flickr Photos
Follow my Tumblr Page
Check out my Pownce Profile
Follow my Twitters
Network with me on LinkedIn
Shout me on Digg
4 responses so far ↓
Asa Dotzler // Nov 21, 2007 at 11:41 pm
I think we’ve got to the root of the problem that Duncan and some other Firefox 3 Beta 1 testers are seeing.
Starting yesterday, we began receiving reports, like yours, of a new memory/cpu usage issue that happens shortly after a normal startup and can spike the CPU and chew up hundreds of MB of RAM. This is apparently happening to people with new profiles or in profiles that have a very outdated list of bad sites for the Phishing Protection feature and the Malware Protection feature.
What’s going on is that soon after Firefox is started, Firefox tries to fetch updates to the site forgery and malware lists — the lists of bad sites that allows Firefox to warn users about suspected Phishing and Attack sites. If the profile has very outdated or no local lists, as is the case for a new Firefox profile, Firefox is trying to bring down these rather large lists in one big chunk rather than slowly in small chunks. This causes Firefox to consume large amounts of CPU and memory and can slow the users machine to a crawl.
This problem is due to the change in the “SafeBrowsing Protocol” which only affects Firefox 3 Beta 1 and nightly build users. If you’re on Firefox 2, this isn’t going to affect you.
The work-around for this problem was for us to throttle it on the server side. We’ve done that and if he tries Firefox 3 Beta 1 again, it should be fine.
David Bradley // Nov 22, 2007 at 7:50 am
Thanks for letting us know Asa, that sounds like a plausible explanation to me. Any other visitors having (other) issues with FF 3 beta?
BlogMeTheMoney // Jun 5, 2008 at 4:46 am
Ive yet to try it but I thought I read somewhere else that is uses significantly less resources than the others? I dont normally download Beta’s so I cant say other than what I read. Anything that saves resources is a big plus for me since I use Vista
BlogMeTheMoneys last blog post..Adsense Alternatives: Part 4 of 4
David Bradley // Jun 5, 2008 at 7:33 am
I just saw that release candidate 2 is now out…perhaps that’s even better. I had problems with RC1 and so will hold off installing version 3 at least till I get a strong positive vibe from the community.
Leave a Comment