firefox 3 - new memory usage record - ouch!

I love firefox 3 - I have been using it now since the delicious plugin got released (as per my post here). But this morning after the computer rebooted following Microsoft’s Vista patches last night, restoring my session ended up creating a monster.. Firefox 3 chewed through nearly 1.5GB of memory.. ouch! Thanksfully a reboot and starting a new session solved it. I wonder what caused it

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One of the differences using Flock is that I do not have a delicious shared toolbar at the top of my browser like I did in Firefox. That means that its an extra step to access the same favourites I use both at home and work. I haven’t tried installing the delicious plugin yet but maybe that will rectify it.

In any case, one of the results of this change is my old favourites which I no longer saw is now visible again and it was interesting to revisit some of them. Some like Neowin and The Register hadn’t changed and I’ll probably continue to visit them infrequently but it was interesting to see how much CNET had changed - there seems to be a much greater integration with and emphasis on individual commentary (ie blogging). I wonder if that makes it better?

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The path to a new browser:

1. Installed Firefox 3
2. Found most plugins I needed didn’t work (yes its in beta I should be patient)
3. Read a post about memory issues in Firefox generally (which I felt constantly) and how Flock was not (no longer?) just an “addon” to Firefox but a complete replacement. Supposedly it integrated new social platforms (Facebook, Flickr, delicious, twitter) and solved the memory issues with Firefox. The latter especially was a sweeping statement but he went on to say that he was wrong about Flock.
4. So seeing as I had the same opinion of Flock when I tried it at launch I figured maybe I should give it a try
5. Downloaded.
6. Installed.
7. Love it - didn’t need several plugins and I only had to add IETab, mouse gestures and FireFTP. I await to see the memory improvements but I love the media streams.

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ok so the test with opera collapsed - I stopped using it very shortly after my last post. Too inflexible and I just didnt like the interface. I went back to IE 7 before trying the final release of Firefox 2..

.. and now I am a convert again for the first time in about 9 months. I wonder how long it will last this time - I have a sneaky feeling this time could be for good. It brings back memories of when I switched from Netscape to IE all those years ago. So why the change?

Delicious integration, mouse gestures, faster AJAX sites, more plugins - and more importantly it doesn’t feel like im now missing out on anything by switching.. IE7 feels no quicker than firefox and there was only things to gain by switching.

One great thing about the delicious integration is its allowing me to access my work and home favourites whether I am at home or work. This convergence between web and desktop is definitely the way to go - I disliked delicious.com as a website app - I used it only to store random links I hardly used (and therefore rarely logged into it). Now it stores all my links and I use it daily.

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Well its been a few weeks since I installed opera. I have been on holiday for one of those weeks so really this is only my initial thoughts. not looking good for opera though

Opera is quick to launch and ctrl-enter to select your login is a godsend but.. it seems speed isnt everything I thought it might be!

1. flickr doesnt work - you would have thought this would have been an important site to get working as I reckon those people who use Opera are much more likely to use Flickr than the general public.
2. my stock site doesnt like it though with some fiddling, I now have it working
3. there arent any of the cool plugins you get for firefox
4. the interface just feels weird - though I guess I might get used to it especially the home button being hidden in the address bar.
5. Outlook Web Access doesnt work right (looks the same as Firefox)
6. It feels slower generating websites - they build up in front of you whereas IE just displays them.. I wonder if IE is actualy slower but that instant display just gives instant gratification

All in all I am using IE more still than I am using Opera - even though Opera is currently set as my default.

If only Firefox was as quick as Opera

Oh and I still dont like tabs - I guess I am going to have to get used to them

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