I have just updated (one of mine) to 7.0 and this post is my 1st use of it.
so web hear say about it is cut and pasted below:
<hr>
http://mashable.com/2011/09/27/firefox-7/
Firefox 7 Is Here: Will It Stop Hogging Memory & Let You Browse Faster? [REVIEW]
Christina Warren 2 days ago by Christina Warren 60
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Mozilla’s rapid release schedule for Firefox continues with the arrival of Firefox 7 for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Firefox 7 comes less than six weeks after the release of Firefox 6. Mozilla moved to a more rapid release cycle with a more streamlined, frequent and incremental upgrade cycle a la Google’s Chrome browser, after Firefox 4 launched back in March.
As a result, most of the changes have taken place under the hood. Mozilla boasts that Firefox 7 uses less memory and performs faster.
Firefox 7 also improved its support for cutting-edge web technologies, including hardware-accelerated Canvas for HTML5 animations. That means that web apps and browser-based games should get better performance.
Memory Improvements: Your Mileage May Vary
The Firefox 7 team says that the latest version of the browser uses less memory, a reduction of anywhere between 20% and 50%. In a blog post at Mozilla Hacks, Firefox developer Nicholas Nethercote details the memory improvements. He says the benefits will be most noticeable for users that:
Keep Firefox open for a long time
Have many tabs open at once
Use Firefox for Windows
View pages with lots of text
Use Firefox while also using other memory-intensive programs
In our tests, using a mid-2010 MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM running OS X Lion, we were unable to ascertain just how much better Firefox 7 used memory as compared to Firefox 6. However, we did pit it against the most stable release of Google Chrome.
I opened up the same browser pages in Firefox 7 and in Chrome. They included Mashable, Variety.com, Google+, Facebook, Mashable‘s backend website and Hulu.com. On Hulu, I played a video in high definition.
To take Flash out of the equation, I then removed the Hulu tab from both browsers. These are the results.
As you can see, the main Firefox app uses the same amount of memory in both tests. The “plugin-container” process is actually what Firefox uses to sandbox some plugins, like Flash, so that even if that process crashes, the rest of the app stays in place.
Mozilla’s tests indicate that peak memory usage for Firefox 7 is lower than its predecessors and that sustained usage is more consistent. We haven’t had enough time to test whether memory usage continues to increase the more time a tab or window is left open, but we’ll assume this is true.
For Mac users, Firefox 7 is still no match for Google Chrome, at least when it comes to memory usage. To be fair, Apple’s own browser, Safari, has memory performance issues with OS X Lion, and Firefox 7 could perform better in Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier. Firefox has historically had better Windows performance, especially when it comes to memory usage, and we expect those are the users that will really see the benefits.
Is the Rapid Update Cycle Working?
I’m conflicted about Mozilla’s rapid-release approach to Firefox. As nice as it is not to have to go months or years between major updates — especially when it comes to support for newer HTML5 and JavaScript technologies — I have to wonder if this process isn’t too rapid.
Because Firefox has historically been such a version-number driven product, users are conditioned to expect major feature improvements every time a release is introduced. On the flip-side, Google doesn’t make a big deal about the version numbers of its Chrome browser. Users just know it as Chrome.
Part of the reason that a rapid update cycle works for Google Chrome is that the updates take place completely in the background. Because of how Chrome plugins are designed, most will continue to work with new versions. Firefox has a much larger and more complex add-on environment and as a result, there will always be add-ons that are incompatible with the latest release.
While I firmly believe that the move to more rapid, consistent improvements is good for the browser ecosystem as a whole, I’m not convinced that the Firefox team has figured out the best way to alert users about updates or that that the messaging behind how these updates work is on target.
What do you think of Firefox 7? Let us know in the comments.
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60 Comments
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Techanol Follow
i thought chrome takes more memory usage. because my chrome mostly crashes when i opens more than 10 tabs and firefox dint even crash even working 20 tabs.
http://www.techanol.in/
2 days ago Reply 2
farjah96 Follow
Is there any issue regarding the addons from the oldversion firefox, will it be compatible to the new one? I gave up my older firefox due to can’t handle more than 20 tabs as of the moment experimenting chrome.
http://piefae.blogspot.com
1 day ago Reply 0
Robert Davey Follow
I stop using Firefox once I started using Chrome, but will check it out. My last Firefox version was 4
2 days ago Reply 2
Jamezs Gladney Follow
Same here. I find it ‘lighter’
1 day ago Reply 2
SoyMarketing Follow
Same here…
1 day ago Reply 1
Scott Dunsmore Follow
Memory killer.
2 days ago Reply 0
Farer Lychnis Follow
Is this available now ?
2 days ago Reply 0
Farer Lychnis Follow
It’s a little bit cool as I think.
I’m using 7.0 now.

2 days ago Reply 2
Stuart_Weidner Follow
OK, great article. I am wondering though, does anyone else have trouble watching videos on youtube with Firefox, I am using firefox version 5.0.1 and it doesnt show the play or pause button that allows you to navigate through videos by fast forwarding or rewinding a video.
I had no idea my firefox browser was so out of date? Firefox 7 is here and I’m still running 5?
2 days ago Reply 0
Satish Gadhave Follow
Youtube works just fine with Firefox, no matter its 5 or 7. I suggest to recheck your flash version. As player runs on flash, keeping it up to date matters.
1 day ago Reply 0
Clover Thompson Follow
I love firefox and hate chrome. Chrome eats my computer where firefox lets me run my three social sites, hulu and netflix together without crashing.
2 days ago Reply 3
Anne Thomas Follow
I gave up on Firefox about 2 months ago when it just got too bloated to do much of anything :(
Reminded me of why I gave up IE years ago..
2 days ago Reply 1
Kari Rippetoe Follow
I did the same thing – stopped using IE and started using FF. That was 4 or 5 years ago. I loved FF, but now it slows down to almost a halt if I have more than 10 tabs open. Then there are the constant and nagging reminders to download the latest update (and when I try to, it just sits and never updates).
1 day ago Reply 0
Andy Riches Follow
If you guys are getting stopped up when you are doing such simple things on your computers, you have some pretty darn bad computers. As for Firefox, they went way wrong with Firefox 4 and up. I use Firefox 3.6.22 and it blows Chrome out of the water. Upgrading to 3.6.x is the only way to go with Firefox in all honesty.
2 days ago Reply 0
CGregz Follow
As a fan of 3.6.22, i understand. The web developer tools on FF are solid, and so much more effective than Chrome. Other than that, though, it can’t hold a candle to chrome.
2 days ago Reply 0
chingweitweets Follow
I’m not sure the RAM numbers you show are correct. In my experience, Chrome is a memory hog too. Remember that Chrome starts a separate process for each tab (and in the Mac Activity Monitor shows up as separate entries for Google Chrome, Google Chrome Renderer, Google Chrome Worker). On my system, if I add up all the Chrome processes’ RAM usage, it comes out higher than Firefox 7.
2 days ago Reply 2
Christina Warren Follow
Yeah, that screenshot was just shows the highest processes but even looking at everything, in my test, Chrome came out ahead. Way ahead. But your point about how Chrome handles its memory is totally valid.
2 days ago Reply 0
Максим Афанасьев Follow
So proof screenshot is like this
http://vault.pmpc.ru/vf/28091112/38d143e9046d712281c142a68.jpg
(in FF and Chrome opened my favorite 10 sites)
and problem Firefox is not in memory at all.
1 day ago 0
Josef Higgins Follow
While I can’t speak about developer tools on browsers, I can say Chrome on my notebooks run much faster and stable than any browser available. I constantly have 20+ tabs open and Chrome extensions galore installed, all the while running multiple (resources + data hogging) applications running. All of this and my notebooks moves flawlessly, always. That’s what impressed me about Chrome a few years back and it’s only gotten better with each new release.
2 days ago Reply 0
James Shanahben De Castro Follow
Self-update is a must
2 days ago Reply 0
Nicholas Fargher Follow
So far I hate it. I installed and now it crashes EVERY time I open it.
2 days ago Reply 1
Jason Bourgeois Follow
Same here. Very annoying. I had to completely uninstall and reinstall 3.6.12 just so i could download an alternate version. Right now I’m using 7.0 Beta 6 and it’s more stable than the regular release 7.0. The latest 6.0.2 release I was using before was also severely unstable for me for some reason, and then 7.0 took it to a new level and wouldn’t open at ALL.
1 day ago Reply 0
Mohd Luqman Follow
I want to update but I learn from past experiences that updating means disabling all adds on, so no. Will update perhaps after several weeks.
2 days ago Reply 2
Le Cooper Follow
Its no Chrome
1 day ago Reply 0
Mike Weisz Follow
So far… no. And ever since FF6, with my machine (AMD hexcore w/ 16gig ram), it seems to chug/freeze at times worse than ever for no reason at all. Not sure what more FF could possibly want from me.
1 day ago Reply 1
Tim Shelburn Follow
I want Firefox 8!
1 day ago Reply 0
James Trageser Follow
FF is getting worse!
1 day ago Reply 0
Brendo Tron Follow
Here I am, just upgraded to FF7, and, after the same amount of time, I’m back up to over 1.2GB of ram used.
When Firefox STARTS, it’s using over 500MB. I really don’t understand how this is possible.
1 day ago Reply 0
Lauren Manchester Utd Follow
I like more google chrome. Has a better resolution, at least it works better on the site i visit
http://manutdnetwork.com/
1 day ago Reply 0
Caroline Boodoosingh Follow
Updating!
1 day ago Reply 1
K Mur Follow
As a web developer, I prefer Firefox over Chrome since Firebug is a significantly better add-on then the developer tools Chrome has to offer.
Performance wise Chrome does seem faster but I don’t have as many add-ons installed as I do on Firefox. Majority of the add-ons installed are developer based so it can hinder the performance a bit.
Also you will notice if you are streaming netflix, youtube, pandora or slacker radio the plugin-container will start to hog memory resources, I would constantly see a Norton system message.
Lets hope 7.0 fixes that.
1 day ago Reply 0
arenaut Follow
Don’t forget Opera. I gave up on Firefox after memory issues with FF6 and Chrome was no better on a range of MacMini’s MacBook Pro’s and a Mac Pro Tower with 8GB of Ram. No such issues with Opera.
1 day ago Reply 0
Vostok Follow
I’m sorry but I’m still not using it. I was an avid Firefox user before Google Chrome came out. The thing that bugs me is that Firefox uses way too much memory compared to Google Chrome. It’s bloated and sluggish to put it in simple language. When I fire up Chrome, my memory is around 700 MB. When I open up Firefox, it jumps up to 1.35 GB after 1 page of browsing.. for example visiting mashable.com. Just unacceptable. I’m not a big add-on user either.. I just had “ad-block plus” installed in Firefox.. that is now available in Chrome too so no reason for me to go back to Firefox. Also, Chrome feels a lot “lighter”.
1 day ago Reply 0
davidnathaniel Follow
Firefox 6 creeps up to 1.9GB of memory on my end and won’t let it go unless I force-quit it, even after closing all windows and tabs!
I was so frustrated by the memory hogginess of Firefox, I switched to Chrome! What a difference!!!
1 day ago Reply 0
BonnieLowe Follow
Didn’t take much prompting for me to jump from IE to Firefox when the fox first came on the scene. (I really hated IE.) Now I’ve recently started using Chrome. Still use both… but I’m finding that many websites just function better when viewed with Chrome. So I’m very close to leaving Firefox behind. It was cool when it was new… but I think it’s getting left behind as Chrome gains momentum. I do tend to keep my browser open for long times, with several tabs open at once. The only thing I wish Chrome would do is prompt me with an “Are you sure you want to close all 342 tabs?” type of message when I accidentally click the wrong x. ;-)
http://ProfitBasedMarketing.com
1 day ago Reply 0
Fred Faulkner Follow
Wow, that was fast.
1 day ago Reply 0
lightfallsup Follow
[short answer is no]
1 day ago Reply 0
THERCOM1 Follow
Não vejo nada de interessante no firefox por todo lugar que se está navegando aparece bandeira na frente da tela.
1 day ago Reply 0
Carlo Borja Follow
we’ll see.
1 day ago Reply 0
Minho Doh Follow
파폭7 나왔습니다. 언넝 까세요.
1 day ago Reply 0
Ron Edrote Follow
Fast and the Furios Firefox 7
1 day ago Reply 0
Francois Mathieu Follow
Firefox 7 beta made me switch to Chrome.
1 day ago Reply 0
Pete Perry Follow
i don’t understand why anyone would use FF. Ever.
1 day ago Reply 0
zakkforchilli Follow
There was Flash still probably running on Variety or Facebook for small ads? that’s possible.
You should have thrown photos of Safari memory MURDERING ass on here.
1 day ago Reply 0
John Morrison Follow
Running FF7 on Puppeee (a eeePC derivative of Puppy linux) and it’s using (the FF and plugin container combined) 59mb of RAM. This is 3 tabs open (FB, mashable, and a page with a lot of scripts running) Youtube videos run smoother than in FF6, which is nice.
1 day ago Reply 0
zly_1990 Follow
Yeah, I can confirm FF in Linux uses much smaller RAM than that reported in Windows. I once opened around 60 tabs when browsing danbooru and firefox(6) only used 500mb. On starting up, firefox only uses 50mb.
Firefox has about:config feature which chrome does not have. If every options are hard coded, it is no wonder chrome can be that fast, but this leaves many heavy users with no options.
One more thing, Chrome used a lot of HDD space. Chrome will store cache files in home folder. It does not have the feature to clean cache automatically when closing. Firefox does. Thus, after a few month, chrome can eat up up to giga bites of HDD (Personal experience).
about 20 hours ago Reply 0
caesar castro Follow
useful browser indeed
1 day ago Reply 0
melanconium Follow
FF7 tends to become better than Chrome. A friend of mine affirmed it starts faster than the last version of Chrome. About memory Mozilla made promises and has respected them.
I was ready to quit FF for Chrome until I finally installe FF7 bêta and now I enjoy the final version.
I’ve just got a crash (with the bêta) when I wanted to empty historic.
BTW I recommend Firefox users to install the Omnibar (plugin) to get the same searching speed than Chrome (it’s pleasant to integrate Google search directly in address bar).
Basically FF 4 to FF 6 was a mistake. I hope they’ll continue to do better job from now.
1 day ago Reply 0
HanQ Kim Follow
i don’t care, as LONG AS IT LETS ME USE MY GOD DAM ADD-ONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1 day ago Reply 0
Wazbir Hazarika Follow
Chrome crashes very often. Firefox FTW!
1 day ago Reply 0
ZeroOne3010 Follow
In this pace we’ll see Firefox 43 by next summer… They’ll soon realize that it’s a bit stupid to increment the major version number this quickly. I have been a happy Opera user for probably more than 10 years already. I only use Firefox for web development because of Firebug, but Dragonfly seems to be gaining.
1 day ago Reply 0
Satish Gadhave Follow
I think firefox’s rapid release cycle is fine but they dont have to change version numbers like 6 to 7 directly. Instead, they can release it as 6.1, 6.2 etc.
What they add/update are small changes, no need to change complete version for that.
1 day ago Reply 0
Mike Lazarus Follow
How will developers support the faster browser upgrade cycles?
1 day ago Reply 0
Paul Santosh Follow
it may be slow, like the previous versions
1 day ago Reply 0
James Nichols Follow
i fit the model they they set forth and see no memory improvements what so ever.
1 day ago Reply 0
ShareMyCode Follow
Now, the HTTP protocol is hidden. The solution here
http://www.sharemycode.com/item/view/77/mozilla-firefox-7-some-changes
about 15 hours ago Reply 0
Ken Wintersgill Follow
for firfox lovers
about 15 hours ago Reply 0
practravelgear Follow
“I would constantly see a Norton system message.”
I’m using AVG and am getting the same kind of warnings after the upgrade. My new version of Firefox is using even more memory than before, despite only having a few add-ons. With six tabs open, no video, it’s at 253mbs. 4X what anything else is using.
about 7 hours ago Reply 0
James Trageser Follow
DEFINITE IMPROVEMENT!
about 4 hours ago Reply 0
Jonathan Santeramo Follow
I love Firefox 7. I have confirmed that for me, it uses less memory than Firefox 6. I also love that Firefox 7 submits performance data, which I opted into. That way, I’m helping out Mozilla and the future development of Firefox.

about 3 hours ago Reply 0