I started using Mozilla Firefox over a month ago, giving IE the boot.

However, I find that, having 4 or 5 browser windows open each with several tabs causes my PC to slow to a crawl after a few days.

Has anyone else had that experience?

Why would you need more than 1 window open with tabs? I usually just have the one window open with multiple tabs in them.

Recent versions of Firefox seem to have some memory leak problems. I think it may depend a little on which and how many extensions you have installed. Assuming you're running some version of the WIndows OS then leaving your PC up for days without a restart is going to slow things down no matter what programs you're using.

I just shut down each night. I've never understood why that's not more common. I don't use my computer while I'm sleeping so I just turn it off. The next day when I turn it back on it seems to be running ok.

My PC has been on for weeks, it's fine The reason I leave it on is because it does stuff when I'm sleeping. Defrags, scans, updates, downloads etc etc.

Yes, Firefox does suffer from some memory leaks that make memory usage skyrocket every so often. The simple (but annoying) solution is to simply close all instances of Firefox to release the memory. And some actual extensions leak even more memory, so be careful of that too.

Also, some Firefox features by default use a large memory footprint. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reducing_memory_usage_(Firefox) for more info on how to tweak/disable them.

That's true I forgot about letting the computer work while you sleep. My bad.

Mine is usually on for about 2 months between reboots. FF does leak memory quite bad, I think it's been an ongoing problem with it from the begining, But it should be sorted by closing and opening the browser.

Use Linux preferably Ubuntu th elinux version of firefox doesn't leak any memory on my side. And I also use it as a server so it's on most of the year.

Thank You

Originally Posted by Numbah1

Use Linux preferably Ubuntu th elinux version of firefox doesn't leak any memory on my side. And I also use it as a server so it's on most of the year.

Thank You

I do the same thing

Have you tried switching to IE7 Beta 3? No memory leaks here

Check out this recent (minor) hit to FF
http://news.com.com/Trojan+piggyback....html#talkback

On the subject of turning your computer off... I was taught a few years ago, by people that care about cpu's operating voltage, temp, etc etc that it's actually better (if you can) to leave your computer on. While rebooting does get rid of all those memory leaks, it's actually painful to the hardware. The initial serge of electricity can cause components to break down faster. I dont know what most manufactures suggest, but it makes good sense.

Yeah it's kind of a catch 22 situation Dan.
We run software that needs to be restarted on hardware that needs to be left on.

Like with most electronics heating a cooling causes damage from condensation forming and the expansion and contraction that comes with temperature changes., It's much better for the hardware if it's kept at a constant temprature.

I heard vista is coming with a function that will stop this stupid thing where we have to reboot everytime we install something. Vista will be able to shut doown and restart individual processes. It would be nice if we could reboot like that, too.
Or at least have it shut down and restart processes when their page file usage gets to a certain point.

I find firefox works pretty good.. although after a while of tab browsing that it likes to go poof. and have to restart firefox.

Originally Posted by stOx

I heard vista is coming with a function that will stop this stupid thing where we have to reboot everytime we install something. Vista will be able to shut doown and restart individual processes. It would be nice if we could reboot like that, too.
Or at least have it shut down and restart processes when their page file usage gets to a certain point.

The early versions of windows use to do that by holding down the shift key when restarting, witch would make just windows restart but for some reson thay stopted doing that

I'm not too sure as i'm not a full-time Mozilla Firefox user but in the latest edition 1.5.0.5 (I think) the memory leak isn't as bad or has gone, but it's still heavy and I find IE7 or Opera 9 much lighter and Opera has better security and some good features.

Have you tried buying a bit more RAM so you can run it top speed without switching or anything, the RAM would also be good for speeding other things up.

Yeah Firefox uses a lot of memory for me too, but I have heard that firefox 2 will be better. I hope it is.

Firefox barely uses any memory for me. And I normaly have 3-10 tabs open at any given time