Why does firefox completely die on macs?

[gravenewworld]

I have been using my bros old mac computer and whenever I use firefox, after a little while it will just completely stop working and you won't be able click on anything. I thought this was just a problem with my MAC, but I have also noticed that the same thing happens on my bros new MAC and his roommate's MAC as well. So is this a common problem that has a solution? Why do you have to constantly force quit firefox and open it up again to get it to work after a certain amount of time has lapsed?

 

[christianjb]

I haven't noticed this, but it sounds like a memory leak. Post your problem to macrumors.com, they know everything about mac troubleshooting.

 

[Moonbear]

I don't use Firefox often on macs (Safari works fine for me for most browsing), but when I do, I've never had any problems with it. Could it be one of the websites you're visiting, or a conflict with some other software you're using?

 

[Thrice]

I thought this was just a problem with my MAC, but I have also noticed that the same thing happens on my bros new MAC and his roommate's MAC as well.

logical conclusion: macs suck.

 

[-Job-]

logical conclusion: macs suck.

Wouldn't a more logical conclusion be that FireFox for Macs sucks?

 

[Thrice]

Wouldn't a more logical conclusion be that FireFox for Macs sucks?

Obviously not, since Moonbear's version works. The only variation is in the hardware & from this survey we know 3 out of every 4 macs suck.

 

[-Job-]

Obviously not, since Moonbear's version works. The only variation is in the hardware & from this survey we know 3 out of every 4 macs suck.

She said she doesn't use it much. She could also have different OS and FF versions.

If there's a widespread issue with an application it's the application manufacturer's responsibility, since it's their job to ensure that the program works correctly on the host OS and not the other way around.

Is this some anti-mac bias or pro-firefox bias?

 

[Thrice]

Is this some anti-mac bias or pro-firefox bias?

A bit of both, I suppose. This forum isn't well tuned to my type of jokes.

 

[Moonbear]

Obviously not, since Moonbear's version works. The only variation is in the hardware & from this survey we know 3 out of every 4 macs suck.

Actually, I have two different Macs, running slightly different versions of OS 10.4 (one's a G4 processor, the other an Intel processor). Firefox runs on both. Neither sucks. What sucks is the crappy Windows XP PC I have to use for work...it's a good thing my office doesn't have a window, or it would have been thrown out it by now for all the grief it causes me. When I get completely fed up with it, I just bring in the mac laptop. Do people even realize how much time they lose in productivity on a Windows machine? The reason I use Firefox from time to time is that the Windows-slaves have set up one of the websites for managing courses in a way that's not compatible with Safari, but Firefox works with it (and then one of the others is compatible with Safari but not Firefox ). I'm just happy it works with Firefox, because the only time I used IE was the day I got the PC to get online and download Firefox. I think I have the only Windows machine that's still virus free.

 

[Thrice]

What sucks is the crappy Windows XP PC I have to use for work...it's a good thing my office doesn't have a window, or it would have been thrown out it by now for all the grief it causes me. When I get completely fed up with it, I just bring in the mac laptop. Do people even realize how much time they lose in productivity on a Windows machine?

I'm a linux guy so I completely agree. Hell I lose productivity when they use windows (cleaning out the spam they send me). Life would be a lot easier if most people used some *nix. PS you probably do have a virus & go easy on the smileys next time :p

 

[NorthernPenguin]

Firefox on Mac

Interesting comments, however somewhat uninformed on Macs. MAC OS X (assuming you are using a Mac with this OS) is really Unix BSD under the hood... and a very nice GUI on top.

I've been developing for a number of distro's of Linux & Mac for a number of years, so my experience is very current.

As for Firefox giving you problems, it could be a number of issues such as OS, version of Firefox, etc...



===================
"Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic."
...Arthur C. Clarke

 

[B. Elliott]

I've noticed Firefox can be bit unstable at times. I have a standard PC and it sometimes wants to crash or a tab that I've opened may decide to no longer respond. It happens so rarely though it's not really a problem for me. The most stable browser I've found yet (not sure if it works on macs) is Opera. I can't think if a single instance where it's crashed, stopped responding, or done anything out of the ordinary. The only problem I have with it though is the incompatibility with ActiveX. I've tried a few workarounds but so far nothing has enabled it.

 

[sephirothrr]

Well, Firefox has a nasty habit of core dumping at untimely intervals, causing memory issues. The massive amount of memory Firefox uses doesn't help either.

 

[-Job-]

Typically, i see IE use more memory that FF. At one time i recorded IE using over 500Mb on a page with 5 images, the largest of which was 1.7 Mb.

 

[Moonbear]

I've noticed Firefox can be bit unstable at times. I have a standard PC and it sometimes wants to crash or a tab that I've opened may decide to no longer respond. It happens so rarely though it's not really a problem for me. The most stable browser I've found yet (not sure if it works on macs) is Opera. I can't think if a single instance where it's crashed, stopped responding, or done anything out of the ordinary. The only problem I have with it though is the incompatibility with ActiveX. I've tried a few workarounds but so far nothing has enabled it.

Opera works on Macs, but not that well. It's not as fully functional as it is on a PC.

 

[k3N70n]

I see some advantages to FF (eg. plugins, security, etc), but why doesn't anyone use Opera? I find FF to be a huge resource hog as well as extremely slow startup.