Is Firefox on Mac just bad?

S

scottmso

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 15, 2004
Messages
380
I bought a MacBook about a month ago (I was a Windows user before) and for the most part I love it! However I've noticed one thing - Firefox unexpectedly quits on me all the time. It crashes on me at least once every other day, and usually more often. Firefox on Windows would never crash!

I talked to one of my Mac-using friends and he says he's had the same problem and recommended that I use Opera. But I want to stick with Firefox if I can. Does Firefox on Mac just suck in general, or is it me? I am using Leopard (it came with 10.5.1, upgraded to 10.5.2) and Firefox 2.0.0.12 (no updates since I got it.)

Any comments appreciated....thanks!
 
I haven't really had any trouble with FireFox on the OS X platform but you should try out Safari anyways, it's better than FireFox IMO.
 
If you really wanna use Firefox on the Mac, try the prerelease versions of Firefox 3. It's a significant improvement. I used to use Firefox, but I switched to Safari on my Mac. Firefox is amazing on Windows and Linux, but the Mac experience leaves something to be desired.
 
I've only used Safari, but I do have Firefox 3 installed and it's much better than the older versions. Like CEpeep said, give the beta a try, it has a lot of new features and fixes a lot of problems.
 
I have FF installed on my MB just incase a webpage won't open in Safari for whatever reason. However, Safari...<3! I didn't believe Arcy when he said Safari > FF on OS X. However, the man was not lying!
 
safari crashes on my mac all the time too. They're probably annoyed with all my error reports sent. :p
 
jnick said:
I have FF installed on my MB just incase a webpage won't open in Safari for whatever reason. However, Safari...<3! I didn't believe Arcy when he said Safari > FF on OS X. However, the man was not lying!
Click to expand...

Despite doing the broadband configurations to firefox, I cannot get it to load pages nearly as fast as Safari. Safari does sometimes refuse to load pages, thus I keep it around for the same reason as jnick
 
As the poster above mentioned, try FF3 beta 3. Its significantly faster than FF2 on OSX, it melds better with the OSX style and its stable enough for daily use.
 
I've had crashing issues with Safari, never Firefox. I stopped using Firefox a while ago, it was just too clunky and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the Apple software.

Anyway, since Safari crashes and Firefox is too clunky, I started using Camino and I love it. It doesn't crash and it's a nice lightweight, fast browser.
 
I've been using the Firefox 3 Beta for about a week or so now. Nothing but praises for it, works absolutely great!
 
I had the same problem on my MacBook ... I also had that problem with Safari too though.
 
Don't have a problem with either crashing on my iMac.

I prefer Firefox as I need to use the Web Developer plug-in. If something like it were to come out for Safari I'd definitely consider moving over to it.

Firefox 3 is loading some pages different so I'm holding off on using that until official release to ensure it's not a bug.
 
I have always used Firefox on my PC's, but when I switched to Mac I started using Camino. Then I used Opera.

However, I've found that I like the way the tabs and shortcuts behave - and it's consistent so I just stick with Firefox on both. Works fine for me, no issues.
 
illgiveumorality said:
For the sake of discussion, camino was even slower than firefox on my computers. It is very fast on intels, though.
Click to expand...

That is strange. Camino always seemed really quick compared to Firefox and Safari on my old 12" PowerBook G4.
 
I use safari on a PC. I'm using it right now. I noticed that I can't get the new yahoo mail to work on it. I have to use classic. Is there a way to get it to work or am I out of luck?
 
With Tiger Firefox worked fine. I have it on both my PC's and it's excellent. But now that I have Leopard, it's a lot more unstable. It unexpectedly quits, and it's actually compatible with less pages now than Safari. Safari now is all I use on my Mac and it never crashes. When I open multiple tabs in Firefox, it really starts to lag, even though i've got Core Duo processors and 2 GB ram. Safari however, can open window after window after window after window after window... etc. and never seems to lag a bit. Snappy and accurate. I miss some of the features of Firefox, like forcing all new windows into new tabs. How do you do that with Safari by default? Anyways. FF is still excellent on my windows machines, but even updated versions of firefox run crappy on my mac.
 
I've used Firefox on my mac for a long while, and I absolutely love it, but I have not upgraded to Firefox 3 yet, so that might be even better
 
i use FF on leopard and XP and only have problems with my mac. yes it does crash all the time!, but only on videos. also most videos dont display correctly on the screen, i have to scroll down so that the top of the video is at the top of the brower for me to see it. I only put up with it b/c i love my extensions.
 
my firefox tends to crash when I attempt to close all windows by presssing apple+w to close like 4 tabs. Luckily theres a restore button to reload all the pages.
 
I've never had crashes with FF, but it is slow as hell. I used Camino for a while, but since it doesn't identify itself as the latest version of Firefox it doesn't work with some sites. (I hate that. Why do sites do this?) Anyway, I use Safari almost all the time, but I keep slow Firefox around just in case. Sounds like you've got some problems if it's crashing all the time. Kill your preferences and give it another shot.
 
RCGodward said:
I used Camino for a while, but since it doesn't identify itself as the latest version of Firefox it doesn't work with some sites. (I hate that. Why do sites do this?)
Click to expand...

Incompetent web developers checking the user agent string for the browser name/version instead of the engine/version the browser uses and not building accessible sites to work from the ground up with standards and progressively enhancing from there so they will degrade gracefully.
 
So far, no problems with it. I've been using it intenesly for a few days.
 
Firefox (2) for Mac is mediocre but the new version (3) kicks ass. It still has some bugs (it's still beta) but the overall experience is great. I just wish it would import my Camino bookmarks.
 
SirKronan said:
I miss some of the features of Firefox, like forcing all new windows into new tabs. How do you do that with Safari by default?
Click to expand...

I don't know about by how to set it as default but I Command-click links to force them to open in a fresh tab in the current window. Is that what you mean? I love the 'merge all windows' menu option in Safari to make every Safari window a tab in one instance of Safari too.
 
Yes, it sucks. I use Safari and Camino and both are great. Use Camino if you are dead set against using Safari for some reason.

I hear that Firefox 3 is an improvement but I have yet to try it out, no reason aside from browser sync from my PC Firefox installation for me to use it.
 
please don't use profanity or their acronyms in the thread title.

thanks
 
I agree, I am using the beta 3 on my mac mini and so far its so much better.
 
Just wanted to shoot a recommendation for those having issues with Firefox.

Out of no where for the past week or so I have been experiencing a lot of crashing with Firefox, before hand it might of happened maybe twice in 4-5 months.

I remembered that on my PC (Vista) a recommended solution for some problem I can no longer remember was to create a new profile. So I decided to try the same for my mac.

Bingo, so far no crashing. I know off the bat things are better because a page that caused Firefox to crash twice in a row worked right after creating the new profile.

I seriously doubt that removing the Firefox.app package removed the contents of it's application support folder so for those of whom were just reinstalling Firefox, this could be why you still had problems after doing so.

Profile location:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/

Profile manager:
Load terminal and paste the following:
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -ProfileManager

Just create a new profile and copy your bookmarks and the contents of your extensions folder from the old profile folder (something.default) over to the new profile (something.nameofnewprofile), all should be well.

I hope this helps out those of you whom are having issues with Firefox.
 
It usually stop loading pages for me every 2 days, a quick restart fixes it though
 
Archer75 said:
I use Firefox in OSX and greatly prefer it to safari.
Click to expand...

me too.

I like FF over Safari because it seems like FF handles most internet content just like IE would. too bad I can't say the same about Safari.
 
Firefox 3 Beta4 is night and day better than FF 2 for me in OS X.

I prefer it to the webkit nightly builds I was using before.
 
I have and use both Firefox and Safari on my Mac. At first, Firefox was my main browser but recently I've been using Safari a lot more. I still love both browsers though, so either way you'll have a fine browser. I'm still running FF 2, and haven't got the version 3 Beta yet. I will check that out though now that I've heard it is such a big improvement.

The only thing I can noticeably say is leagues better in Firefox than Safari is how Firefox manages Bookmarks. I hate the Safari bookmark management. Other than that I love it.
 
I am running Firefox beta 4 now and I love it. Before firefox on a mac was ok. Firefox 3 is great.
 
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