Firefox 4.. Is it worth to download?

[1stsim144]

I'm curious here, and wanna ask other users who is currently using FF4.. Is it worth to download the beta or I should wait for the final release?

[Light]

Ever since 3.5 came out, Firefox is a treasure trove of bugs, memory leaking and frustrating complications when multiple tabs are open.
Usually Firefox eats 1.5GB of RAM with just 50 tabs open for me.

Unless these issues have been addressed in FF4, I'm going to enjoy ranting in their beta feedback.
I'll post how it all turns out tomorrow, I just finished downloading but it's time to sleep.

[Metty]

I'm still using 3.0.1.4, I am enjoying firefox only using 300mb max with my usual 10 tabs and stream page open. Albeit with some very random crashes from time to time (maybe once a week or so).

[Henreh]

sigh...5 tabs open 200MB eaten...

/perma switch to chrome

[Sandrie]

I've used FF4 for a week or 2 and downgraded back to 3.6, I would suggest waiting until they finish beta before getting it. I liked some of the changes, but it still eats up a ton of memory and also I couldn't watch youtube or do much at all without crashing/constantly killing the plugin container/whatnot. I think even though they are on the what 8th beta(????) they definitely have a more kinks to work out.

[1stsim144]

I am using Chrome atm. Because I gave up entirely in FF for the memory leakage and the SLOWNESS..@_@
Kinda reminds me of IE. Lol..But Lord, IE still holding the first place in suckage.

Was thinking of trying FF4 because of the e-mail updates I received... I'll wait for your update Light!

[Shugi]

Use Opera for now, until Firefox fixes their memory leaks.

[Nihil679]

I'm using the beta full-time because I can.
I usually leave my Firefox opened 24/7 because I don't enjoy opening up a new window. Currently at almost 300,000k, so memory leak is most likely still there.

Personally, I think the only reason you should go Firefox at the moment over Chrome is for any plug-ins you want that are Firefox-specific. Firefox 4's current looks is very similar to Chrome (tabs are the header-thing, second line is address bar, simplified).
I'm not heavy in determining speed, so I can't give you anything there. It feels faster to me, but again, my noticeable difference threshold in these areas are terrible to determine.

Before (they fixed it now), flash media would often glitch and freeze on the screen. The program itself worked, but it sort of "took pictures" in a weird way to explain it. There's also the fact that they took out middle-click new tab since they integrated the top header as the tabs now, which is kind of eugh for me since I actually used it a decent amount of times before.

In short, if you don't have a reason to get Firefox 4, you might as well stick to whatever you were using (pretty much Chrome). From what I've seen other people use Chrome, there's not a lot of differences with the latest beta version other than the normal Firefox flaws people already pointed out.

[Uncharted]

Originally Posted by Shugi

Use Opera for now, until Firefox fixes their memory leaks.

same here, FF is slow as sh*t, opera works wonders and i love the tab staking and auto-fill with ctrl+enter

[Shugi]

I'll sum it up once again.

Opera - Massing Tabbing without a drop in speed.
Chrome - All around goodness.
Firefox - Lag like shit if you love to customize and add a ton of plug-ins. Without plug-ins, there is no real reason to get it.

I still use firefox anyhow.

[Kotarou]

I only have Firebug and a skin change running on FF4 b9, averaging 100mb memory usage on 3 tabs. ...I have absolutely no issue running 12 tabs (I don't even normally hit that number, its just about 6 tabs), seeing as I have 4gb of RAM to burn.

Does Chrome still have no RSS? :U

[1stsim144]

Originally Posted by Kotarou

I only have Firebug and a skin change running on FF4 b9, averaging 100mb memory usage on 3 tabs. ...I have absolutely no issue running 12 tabs (I don't even normally hit that number, its just about 6 tabs), seeing as I have 4gb of RAM to burn.

Does Chrome still have no RSS? :U

You need download the extension for Chrom
https://chrome.google.com/extensions...bbbdekmmmcbfjd

I did try Opera before but it seems.. 'huge'. Like.. You know.. Huge. ._.;

[Shugi]

The biggest problem with Firefox is mass opening links. When I open 3+ links at once I lag for quite a while waiting for everything to load.

In opera I can open 50+ tabs at once and have absolutely no problems. Chrome is around 25+ before I lag.

Since I use RSS, opening 10~20 tabs at once is pretty normal for me at least.

[Light]

So far I found one nice thing about it.
This makes sorting easier, and hides away any NSFW material unless you choose to enter it via Grouping of Tabs as I've done here.

This is a welcome change for me, as I used to run 3-4 Firefox windows in order to sort my tabs.

Spoiler!

I did slam Firefox with 400 tabs, something I would have used in the past, and it held up better than usual. Of course with that many tabs the memory has an excuse to be so large.

My grand test was running 5 videos, 3 large downloads and a flash game.
Normally a single video and a download would cause PluginContainer to go apeshit and lock up the browser, but much to my surprise; PluginContainer held up quite strong.

524MB of memory was used, and as each video finished playing, roughly 70MB was freed up instead of remaining idle; closing the video tab altogether cleared 30MB more.

The flash game which used to lag and lockup midway actually completed without a hitch as well.
The 5 videos also didn't lag, which blew my mind.
--
As a brief test run, I can easily say that FF4 handles memory a lot more efficiently, though I still believe that if you're playing a power intensive game or streaming your desktop, that firefox should still be terminated to free up as much as you can.

I'll continue to test things as time goes by, but so far it exceeded my expectations in terms of handling flash videos/games ect.
The team finally did something right with PluginContainer.

Give it a try, you may like it.

[kag]

I use chrome cause of firefox memory leak.

I just use google reader for RSS and Reader Plus extension for Chrome to make everything useful.
Otherwise i won't have used Chrome without my RSS and mouse gestures.

If opera did it right with their new browser, it might just pull me back.
Hopefully their built in RSS is being improved.

[JoyDivision]

The only thing bad about FF4 and what is preventing me from upgrading to it is the number of addons that are currently compatible, which is to say very few.

[1stsim144]

Thanks light! That really convinced me to download it except one thing. The add-on. ESPECIALLY Last-Pass add-on. Is it even compatible for FF4 yet? (EDIT: Yes, it is.)

I'm gonna download it tonight. :3

Owh and urm.. The format for bookmark is same as FF3 right?

[Nihil679]

It still has the bookmarks toolbar that you drag tabs and drop to, yes.

[k0n]

I would only use it to test out the features. There's some add-ons that aren't compatible with this new beta version.

[zgmfx19a]

Originally Posted by 1stsim144

I did try Opera before but it seems.. 'huge'. Like.. You know.. Huge. ._.;

Huge? Wut? The only huge thing I can think of is the speed dials...

Ionno. I've been using Opera for over 2 years already. Imo, it's better than Firefox in nearly every aspect except for add-ons, and even at that, Opera has already began to release "extensions". Should that area trump Firefox, I don't see why anyone will wanna use Firefox, except for the loyalty factor, and those resistant to changes.

Speed dials, tab stacking, synchronization, mouse gestures. I can go on. It does have a con, and that is that there are sites not compatible with Opera.