It's the season of giving, so I'm giving up on Firefox in favor of Chromium

[bucolic_frolic]

Firefox has become extremely slow to load on bootup. 10 tabs can take 15 minutes. When i launch Chromium it loads in 20 seconds. I found a forum online where dozens of people reported the same problem and no solution, and that other browsers do not have this problem. I thought it was one of the ad blockers, but that didn't help. But it is PITA learning a new browser. Privacy issues, security settings, operating tabs. Apparently flushing cache doesn't help. Reinstalling doesn't help.

I might test FF again on another hard drive OS that is fully installed to see if it's anything in the way the software is tweaked on this unit. Love it (no, not really - hate it) the way these issues can exist for years - 3 years - and no one ever solves it and the company doesn't go there either.

Maybe go Chromebook next time? Throw it away when the software's bad. Is that a real option?

[hlthe2b]

1. Yeah and despite using it for many years, knowing how to configure inadvertent

blocks of photos, videos, websites (as well as with my own ad-blockers or internet security packages), I am increasingly finding some sites just won't work on Firefox, yet MS Edge and Chrome work every time.

I have so depended on Firefox and really don't like the interphase of Edge and Chrome, but still...

[Tetrachloride]

2. I suggest getting adblocking "hosts.txt" file.

Install and reboot. Any neighborhood geek should have it.

i hear Opera is worthwhile.

As for myself, I have a Mac. Similar apps usually.

[HuskyOffset]

7. Another option for the technically adventurous: pi-hole

I bought a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB RAM) kit to run pi-hole, an ad & malware blocking DNS server. It does take a bit of tech savy and some reading of documentation to set up (or a friend who can do it), but once you do it works great and can block ads & malware for your whole subnet, not just a single computer. You don't need to run it on a Raspberry Pi (a little single board computer), but that's the way I did it.

[Tetrachloride]

8. now this interesting. i will bookmark

[Wicked Blue]

3. I refuse to buy or use any Google product

I use Firefox, Thunderbird and Duck Duck Go instead.

[SmartJellyfish]

4. Do you have enough memory?

You should have at least 8 gig of RAM. Also, do you have a solid state drive? SSDs are lightening fast to load programs compared to the old spinning hard drives.

[packman]

5. I was about to say the same

Look to your computer may need updating if older - I'm using Win11, SSdrive, 32 RAM, etc., etc. - Never had a problem with FoxFire . It loads quickly, keeps multi-tabs open, no photo/video/audio problems and comes with the features I love and have grown dependent on .

BTW - got my wife a relatively inexpensive Dell All-in-One on Amazon to replace her 5 yr. old computer and it does meet all our needs including some and now I'm thinking about replacing my 3 yr. old one. Getting too old to fuss around with things that don't go fast enough for me.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

20. oops! 4G here, but only 39 tabs currently

free -m
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 3930 2936 170 117 823 786
Swap: 2947 968 1979

Firefox does seem to dive down a black hole every few weeks, but session restore works.

[TlalocW]

6. The one thing that keeps me on Firefox

Is that there's a setting for blocking autoplay of videos that Chrome doesn't have - at least the last time I checked. If someone knows differently, or if there's a hack I couldn't find last time I checked, please, let me know.

[MichaelSoE]

10. I just put a reply up in this thread about Vivialdi

You can definitely block autoplay and much more

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Gotta be an add-on for that functional feature

[MichaelSoE]

9. I use Vivaldi which is a chrome based browser with it's own modifications

Vivaldi is a freeware, cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by Tatsuki Tomita and Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who was the co-founder and CEO of Opera Software. Vivaldi was officially launched on April 6, 2016.

Although intended for general users, it is first and foremost targeted towards technically-inclined users as well as former Opera users disgruntled by its transition from the Presto layout engine to a Chromium-based browser that resulted in the loss of many of its iconic features. Despite also being Chromium-based, Vivaldi aims to revive the features of the Presto-based Opera with its own proprietary modifications

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser)

Easy to use and highly customizable. During the browser wars back in the 90's I refused to use I.E. and stuck with Netscape until Opera came out in 1995. Stuck with it for years. Then they started using Chrome as a base in 2013. I wasn't thrilled but continued using it.

2016 Vivaldi was released and I have been a very happy camper. I highly recommend it.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. I've installed Vivaldi

It will take time to learn, but wow it was easy to install, the privacy and security features are impressive, and the help features extensive.

I had installed it once before several years ago, then had a brief stint with Opera. Likely will migrate my very light Chromium usage to it and learn it well. FFox is having those slow loading problems. I wonder if they just slow it down for power users.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. Sounds more like some sort of problem

specific to your computer.

I'm still using Firefox, and it is not slow to load up.

[LAS14]

13. Has Chromium got anything to do with Chrome? nt

[bucolic_frolic]

15. Well yes, they're almost twins

[LAS14]

17. Browsers, not metals? Are they both Google? nt

[bucolic_frolic]

18. Yes, Google

[ItsjustMe]

14. Firefox has always been garbage

I will never understand why people use it

Browser Market Share Worldwide
https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/worldwide

[LeftInTX]

19. I removed all the extensions and FF loaded quickly

This also removed ad blocking software.(Maybe I could have eventually figured it out)
I went with Chrome.
FF takes 15 min to load, unless I remove my extensions.