Is Firefox 3.5 crap?
Already the bug reports are piling up. How’s Firefox 3.5 running on your system? Mine crashes almost as often as older Firefox versions do. The developers reportedly will be rushing out a fix.
I’m rooting for Firefox to add ePub capabilities and other e-book-related features. But If Firefox is to be a reliable e-book reader, suitable for nontechies, then the developers need to try a lot harder.
The scariest bug report—which I haven’t confirmed: “I’m also receiving frequent ‘Server Not Found’ errors messages when trying to load new pages. Worryingly there are reports that FF3.5 has corrupted XP, and impacts on other browsers installed due to the new DNS prefetching.” This is via an eWeek commenter.
Technorati Tags: Firefox 3.5,Firefox
July 7th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
It’s been working in a very stable and satisfying fashion on my computer with a Windows XP Pro OS. I’ve been very satisfied with it and I really like the bookmark integration with the “Awesome Bar”.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I’ve got it running on two Windows XP machines and a Macbook Pro with no problems yet.
(Well, other than a few extentions I love haven’t released new versions yet….)
July 7th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I’m running Firefox 3.5 on a Mac and have only experienced one crash since upgrading (don’t think it crashed at all before). Hopefully a fix will be out soon!
July 7th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
On my Macbook, Macbook Pro and Asus Netbook it’s running just fine. However, I prefer Safari on the Mac because the color rendering is much better and I prefer Chrome on the Asus because it is so fast.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
It’s running great on my Vista and XP machines. I did have a couple of Firefox (not PC) crashes, but it’s easy to restart it. And, so far, I find it to be much faster and pleasant to use.
July 7th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Thanks, guys! I’d rather the news be good. Perhaps it’s the quirks of my particular system. May your good luck continue! David
July 7th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I’ve had no problems with FF3.5 at all, and it runs the best part of 12 hours a day. That being said, the beloved NoScript and AdBlock extensions are cleaning-up my browsing experience tremendously, so I’m probably not hitting bugs that some other users do. The only reason why I restart FF is when an Add-On needs updating. I noticed a net performance improvement on some websites, and I love the new features. Oh, I’m on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7 by the way.
July 7th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
FF 3.5 is working just fine for me, too, on a Vista machine. I think it’s definitely a leap forward, other than a few extensions that haven’t been updated yet. This update has caused me to stop using Chrome completely, because now there’s really nothing Chrome does that FF doesn’t.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I run Firefox on all my computers, 3 XP and 1 Mac OS X. All run very stable and satisfactorily. No issue what so ever.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
No problems with FF 3.5 on my two Intel Macs under 10.5.7 at all. I don’t think it’s crashed once so far. The 3.5 betas crashed occasionally when trying to print to PDF files, but that’s an old, old FF issue (which may have been fixed in the 3.5 GA version as I don’t recall it happening since I upgraded to it).
3.5 is much faster and seems like an excellent release so far.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:10 am
I’ve had problems with it on Linux. The first time I ran it, it not only crashed it brought down the X server. Other times it takes forever loading a web page. It seems to get stuck on the “Looking for webpage ..” part. I’ve reverted to 3.0.11.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:34 am
I have it running on all my Linux machines without a hitch, and have been doing since the early alpha releases. This release is rock solid, so it may be worth checking your hardware or OS for problems and issues.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:14 am
There are loads of problems with FF 3.5 in Windows Vista 64 for me.
Not that it crashes a lot, but it has happened. I have had some problems with multiple FireFox.exe running when opening many FireFox windows (by dragging and dropping tabs out of the FireFox window, which is a new feature).
And sometimes it has slowed down to a crawl(which many also reports happening) where you almost can’t type anything in the address bar because of incredible slow action.
Google toolbar spell checking doesn’t work as it should, which is also known to happen for many people.
And loads of important plug-ins/add-ons doesn’t work.
The speed in genereal is much slower than 3.0.11, which was extremely snappy for me.
When uninstalling 3.5 and reinstalling 3.0.11 everything is just fine again. It is much, much snappier and faster in the older version and there are no bug problems for me.
So, what to do, now that all security patches will only apply to 3.5?
It will be extremely disappointing for me to be forced to go back to 3.5 for security reasons, now that I have felt the love from the 3.0.11 version once again!
The only thing I notice that is better with 3.5 is the new “open new tab” button for the tabs, which is no big thing.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I don’t know who to blame anymore – 10 months ago i got a dell laptop with vista home on it and ever since i got it it’s been crashing – first i blamed dell, then vista, and as the months went by it was crashing more and more. last week i installed firefox 3.5 and ever since it’s crashing about three times a day! and it crashes out the laptop too. when i reboot, i get a message from firefox “oops! this is embarassing. one of your tabs seems to be causing a problem” but my tabs are always different!
and i also get a more than usual amount of “server not found” errors.
this sucks
July 17th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Crashing a lot on Vista 64. I am willing to suspend judgment; a lot of bugs are caused by pesky plugins.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:48 am
FireFox has been crashing a lot since I updated to 3.5 on my Mac G5 running OS 10.4.11. I just updated to 3.5.1 so we’ll see if this is a fix.
I have the same system at work, but with an older 3.0.11 FireFox and I have no problems with crashing.
July 20th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Yup. Since installing ff3.5, I get “server not found”, on an unscientific basis, I estimate about 25% of the time. My heart wants to say all the darn time, because the internet now feels like a pain in the but.
Umwhat? FF broke the internet? Wasn’t there an extensive beta to this?
And Windows 7 using magic to generate excessive heat even while at system idle – the future looks great for software!
July 20th, 2009 at 1:58 am
yes!!! i just got the 3.5.1 update yesterday morning – i almost did a jig!
wishing all of us luck…
July 20th, 2009 at 4:50 am
in response to chris’s comment, my system was also overheating with FF3.5 on vista – big surprise! but it was the FF application that was out of control according to taskmanager…
July 21st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Firefox 3.5 will not load on my Vista 64 desktop. I saved an old copy of FF and it worked again. Windows Explorer works fine – naturally since it is Micro$oft. What the F is going on with Firefox??
July 24th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I just installed 3.5, with the amazing success, that it doesn’t start up at all anymore. I can see the process in TM, but that’s it. multiple restarts don’t help either.
I am a developer, who needs the ff firebug and am ANGRY!!! delays my work for more than 3 hrs now.
vista 32Bit etc.
ff= the new explorer?
July 24th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
FF 3.0 crashed far more than earlier versions and FF 3.5 crashes 5-10 times per day. At the same time I use Opera and it has yet to crash… I do enjoy FF and it’s usability&functionality but I am worried we are seeing a relatively sad trend here.
July 24th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Crashes 2-3 times a day although i am on it alot. seems to be with more than 3-4 tabs open. Getting annoying now because when you restart it you get the “this is embarrassing” message
July 28th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
lost all my bookmarks with regular upgrading to 3.5.1
not able to retrieve from the older version again
it crashes for no reason at all and “server not found” problems abound
will not use it again
July 28th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
“”The scariest bug report—which I haven’t confirmed: “I’m also receiving frequent ‘Server Not Found’ errors messages when trying to load new pages. Worryingly there are reports that FF3.5 has corrupted XP, and impacts on other browsers installed due to the new DNS prefetching.””
This is true !
will not use Firefox anymore
July 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
it crashes all the time on my computer. When I use build-in search it crashes every other time I enter a query. When I use google toolbar search box, it is better.
My main problem is that with 6 tabs open it takes over 25% of my 3.2 GHZ processor, at times even 80% and over 200 MB memory. A real resource hog. IE works WAY more stable.
I think I will abandon FF for good.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I installed 3.5.1 a week ago, and it has been crashing every hour, sometimes twice an hour. I have finally gone back to 3.0.11 and no crashes so far.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:14 am
Incredibly slow! I’m like what the ****? It is so bad I’ve switched to chrome with no problems. OMG! It is unusable on my machine. Takes forever to load pages and at 1/4 of the time it hangs. What the heck did they do?
August 1st, 2009 at 7:33 pm
The 3.5.1 ran fine on Windows, but I only have Debian Linux x64… It’s very hard to find 64 bit builds of firefox.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:56 am
It seems to me as if FF 3.5 is less robust than 3.0.11 in some ways. I have a bad habit, I often end up with 50+ tabs open at a time some times as many as 200. To me it seems that 3.5 handles this type of load with less grace than 3.0.11 – it tends to crash or be sluggish, under these conditions.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
Oh by the way this is my experience even with FF 3.5.1
August 6th, 2009 at 2:35 am
I have the problem with pages not loading correctly. The DNS prefetching issue happens to me all the time. I tried using (Insert other browser name here) but FF 3.5 seem to mess them up too. I went back to FF 3.011(Which worked perfectly) hoping the issue would be sorted, but after updating to 3.5.2 again and the issue still exists. I’m 32 bit Windows 7, but the issue exists on Vista Premium and XP Prof also. Come on FF SORT IT OUT!!!!
August 6th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Even after the 3.5.2 update, it crashes about once every 10 minutes on my Vista machine. It’s getting so bad I’m thinking about making IE my default browser again.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:33 am
This is a sad day for me. Ever since I first switched to FF, it has been my default browser. But today, after upgrading to 3.5.2, I dont see any improvement, and Chrome becomes the default. FF still hangs for about a minute after it opens, freezes while scrolling, and crashes a few minutes later. I think they took a really nice piece of software, added some funky gadget (prefetch) and boom !
August 7th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
crashes way too often and is very very slow. running on vista
August 8th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I’m about to give up on Firefox after having been a loyal user for many many years. I can’t even function with the latest update. I’m tired of abandoning my sessions and having firefox crash during important online work. Running XP Pro. I have no add ons other than Norton Toolbar which of course is not installed since the 3.0 update wiped out compatibility. I wish I could go back to Firefox2. I just downloaded Safari. I’ll see how that goes.
August 9th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Now that I switched to windows 7 from Vista, ff seems to be okay, at least without any crashes thus far…but yeah, it uses up way too much memory
August 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am
FF 3.5.2 crashes on open attempt from Linux FC 8. Reverted to 3.0.13 which works OK. No idea why FF 3.5.2 crashes
August 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
@Wish Firefox would stop updating!
You can download old versions of firefox here. http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.php?old_firefox=7
I just rolled back to FF2
August 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
2 main problems i have with firefox 3.5-3.52 is that it will not go fullscreen on a youtube video or any other video in the browser without crashing all the windows…and popup window scripts lock in place. outside that it is running fast. I have reverted back to the trusty 3.013.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:31 am
FF 3.5 crashes, crashes, crashes, even when I am reading a page that I have been reading for several minutes. Why did I upgrade? Woe is me (or, “Woe am I”)!
Running Mac OSX 10.4.11, Intel Core Duo 2.1 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM
August 12th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Firefox 3.5.2 is extremely slow and won’t load many pages on a Win 7 64bit system. The beta worked much better on the system. I have been a faithful firefox user however on my home computer (Win 7 64bit) I can no longer tolerate the problems with firefox and I don’t use it anymore. Thinking about going back to the older version.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:23 am
My Firefox starts off fast, but after about an hour of intense usage (I’m a web developer), it slows down to a grinding halt. I notice that it chews up memory (has always done this), and when it grinds down to a halt, it starts consuming 25%-50% CPU for no reason. Pages are a pain, and the only way to rectify this is to restart. I’ve tried some workarounds, but so far, no results to speak of.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:50 am
this version of Firefox, 3.5.2 crashes much more than all the previous versions. It’s annoying
August 14th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Installed 3.5.2 last night and I regret making the decision to upgrade. Frozen screens (wont let me type addresses), takes its sweet time loading pages. For the first time in yonks I am seriously thinking of dusting off my old faithful – Opera. Pity, I love Firefox but what to do?
August 14th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I un-installed the skype (4.1.0.141) extension add-on and Firefox is screaming away! I wonder why….
August 14th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
IMO it is a bug ridden piece of crap.
I never wanted this POS update.
I had a previous Firefox version running on my machine, worked perfectly. I get regular update notices all the time…so figured this one too was just an update.
Turns out it installed a new Firefox version 3.5.2 and since them, pages either do not load right, or require multiple attempts to load, or load with the frames fragmented. Happens regularly with Yahoo.com and MSN.com.
This browser is a royal PITA.
I hope they issue a bug fix soon.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I am abandoning FF 3.5.2 for memory issues and CPU hogging. Page loading slow, delayed typing in text boxes and frequent crashes.
Asus G1 – WIN Vista 32 bit – 2.0 Core Duo – 2GB Ram.
I was streaming a football game in FF (single tab) and it was really jerky and slow so I closed FF and used Chrome. Chrome was smooth and fast.
I am now using Chrome as my default browser after being a very early adapter of FF and recommending it to multitudes.
This is a sad day.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I installed 3.5.2 on my XP Pro at the office and FF freezes when I click on anything. I uninstalled and reintalled FF 3.011 and its freezing too.
What is going on? This is a sad day, I adored FF when it worked!
Does Chrome have spell check? LOL
August 18th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Running on XP Pro 2002 SP3. Since upgrading to 3.5, I’ve had the program crash many times. Once it crashes a reboot is needed to restore stability. It seems to me that there is some interference if IE is open at the same time for any reason.
Session manager has been a help (rather than losing all tabs), but not a fix.
August 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I’m glad that I researched Firefox 3.5-3.5.2 before upgrading. I will definitely stick with version 3.0.13 unless all the problems I’ve read about are definitely resolved. Version 3.0.13 is very stable with no problems to speak of other than the the large memory footprint it makes which I control using a program called Minimem which works very well. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Firefox. I read that version 3.0.13 will be supported until January 2010 so there is no rush to upgrade to version 3.5.2. If they don’t work out the problems with the latest version then I’ll stick to my current version whether it’s supported or not as I really love this browser!
August 20th, 2009 at 9:27 am
FF is a CPU hogger. Restarting it don’t help. Created a new profile, got rid of all add ons, still does not run smoothly. What a pain.
August 20th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Firefox 3.5.x has given me anxiety attacks. Whenever GMail goes to collect new mail, Firefox slows down, the entire system pauses. Google Reader has not-infrequent slowdowns, and occasionally Firefox even hangs, where the window fades. But, before we blame Google, my key repeat speed on a commonly used textbox on Twitter is crap-poor. I feared malware or keylogger, but despite going into safe mode, scanning with every tool in the book, including Stinger, I found nothing. And my crap-poor Firefox performance — which in turn impacts performance across the ENTIRE dual-core 4GB sytem — remains.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
It is crashing all the time. 3.5.2 version
August 24th, 2009 at 8:16 am
“It is crashing all the time. 3.5.2 version”
Yes indeed. OS: windows 2008 server standard
August 24th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Running Windows XP Business
The latest version 3.5.2 doesn’t start up at all…
hope i don’ lose all my bookmarks…
testing out Chrome …
August 24th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
well it is a crap now. I’m using ff 3.5.2 and it won’t load some pages.
August 25th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I have 3.0.13 and it crashes like crazy is slow a lot of the time and takes up too much memory when it loads. This is not the firefox I remember when I started using it a few years back. Infact my explorer is now faster and has yet to crash on me. Mozilla has to do something about this.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Using 3.5.2 on Windows 7 64 Bit RC and after opening a few windows it EATS RAM!!! and it gets very slow.. I have a Phenom 2 720 x3 .. 8GB ram!! have to shut it off to get back the ram and start it up again or it just gets slower and more unresponsive. what is going on Mozilla?
August 26th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I hate to report similar negative performance from FF 3.5.2. I just purchased a new Toshiba 64bit Vista Home Premium laptop. The first thing I installed was the newest version of FF. I was amazed to have it cease to respond several times and crash my whole system twice. I have used FF many years and never had a problem. I currently run FF 3.5.2 on my XP desktop with no problems. I have to think these problems are related to incompatibility with Vista 64bit. I have switched back to Explorer 8 until this problem is resolved.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I’m having the same issue with Firefox 3.5.2 after this recent update. Does anyone have a solution? (besides the Safari/revert…I’d like to stay with Firefox if possible).
Mac OSX 10.5.8
2.5GHX Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB
Slow loading pages, and images/pictures sometimes don’t show up at all. I’ve cleaned out the cache, verified/fixed permissions on the HD itself (just to make sure), upped the cache amount in FF preferences….no go. Even my main google page won’t load correctly. See a lot of “Transferring data from……..” messages when loading pages, frequent crashes and “server not found” errors as well..
My Windows PC, on the same network with IE, works fine. My download speeds (www.speedtest.net) are 15 up / 6 down. Ping to http://www.google.com averages about 65ms. All seems well…..except for FF.
I’ll give Chrome a shot….
August 27th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I am using firefox 3.5, it is 100% crap material, facebook and many other websites not working properly and also crash problem sometime
August 27th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Using 3.5 on Linux Mint. Crashes on youtube.com when maximizing video.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Quite often I was not able to open hyperlinks in ff3.5 – I uninstalled the Skype extension and now everything is fine!
August 30th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Well I have windows 7 RC.. and I seen the post about Skype extension SO I removed the Skype extension and NOW MY FF3.5.2 works great!!!!
Skype causing my issues with Fire fox!!
Went from Slow and what not to Normal operations
August 31st, 2009 at 7:26 am
I have just uninstalled FIREFOX and switched to IE8 after experiencing many problems on Vista and XP with the new version. After using FF since the early versions, I am disappointed that the need for change can turn a good product bad so quickly. Maybe I’ll try again when 3.6 is ready but, so far, I am pleased with IE8.
September 1st, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Running FF 3.5.2 on Vista 64 Ultimate & it’s very buggy.
Crashes when banking & on FB.
Also, when I close the browser it still runs in the background & I have to use task manager to stop it before opening it again.
Hope they sort this soon or it’s ‘Chrome’ time.
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
First off Mozilla has been having some trouble with xp and keeping it working properly and this windows 7 stuff is almost complexity unsupported
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
also i forgot that a few systems of the thousand just don’t work well with it my friend has every bug in the book but i only have 1 or 2
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:09 am
Updated to 3.5.2 a few days ago on my Mac G4 and now experience freezes. Bookmarks will not work on some web pages (won’t open) and I can no longer highlight a current web address and pull down to bookmark bar. I had no problems with the previous version. Looks like I need to revert and trash 3.5.2.
September 5th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I have found Firefox 3.5.2 to be awful. Within minutes I discovered that I had to remove Yahoo toolbar because it causes the menu that normally displays when the left mouse button is clicked to stop working. So far I have had memory leaks (up to 750MB of RAM used,) getting the “server not found” error for pages like Google, crashes and they have changed the way that new search engines are added to the search engine box – you have to download a plug-in and the add-on site is a mess, I cannot find one to add my country’s version of Google so I am stuck with having to open a new browser window, browsing to my country’s Google page and then searching. Firefox 3.5.2 is a constant headache – I’m going to downgrade and NEVER auto upgrade again. Like previous versions this also randomly starts using huge amounts of CPU, sometimes without any pages with flash or java running. I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end for Firefox. The person who thought this was ready for release should be sacked.
September 7th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
What a big disappointment 3.5.2 is. I get the “server not found” error all the time, and it does appear to have fucked DNS on my PC.
I hope Mozilla/Google gets the “Microsoft” treatment and ripped a new one. I guess they figure with their previously loyalty they could just put out shit and people would be OK with it.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Yes I have 3.5.2 installed and it crashes all the time. Seriously considering using IE for my main browsing use again (have not done that in years). Or have to go figure out how to downgrade.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I have had several problems with bad SSL certificates and hangs on exit.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I think maybe I have found a solution to my problems with crashes. I do not know all the technical reasons why this is so, but here is what I have noticed.
I had been saving downloads to a particular drive. The crashes started only after my first download of the session — not necessarily right away, but only after I had downloaded something. The drive to which downloads are saved would sometimes have a delay in reading or writing — such as if the drive had spun down or — as was the case with one drive — the root folder had a huge number files already in it. Once I switched to a drive without these factors slowing down reads and writes, Firefox stopped crashing — even with several windows open, and even with each window having dozens of tabs open. And in general, Firefox performs very much better, and the laptop fans don’t go on as often as before.
I think performance suffered because that drive was not ready on demand, and I think Firefox was polling that drive even when I was only switching tabs — because that is when crashes would often occur. (My clue in this regard is that I tried to eject the drive from my Mac, but got an error that Firefox was still using it; I had not downloaded anything for over an hour. I could not eject the drive gracefully until several minutes after shutting down Firefox.)
Hope this helps someone else. I know this is incredibly frustrating… Felt like Windows 95 days were back.
Cheers!
September 9th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Now, after a lot of use (on PC’s) with Vista, XP and even on a very old laptop which is getting very shaky, I have to report not a a single crash or even a mild stumble!
Is it something you guys are doing to your computers?
September 12th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I have been using Firefox for 5 years now. I put a new hdd in my dell laptop and installed 3.5. Recently I have been having problems with my hdd locking up out of nowhere. I thought that it was the hard disk, maybe I bought a junk one. It would say that there is no hdd in bios. If I turned off my pc and turned it back on, it would boot normally. I noticed a pattern, though. It would only happen when I got on Firefox. Other browsers (aol or explorer) work fine! Ugh, I like firefox the best, but I can’t keep doing this to my pc! I wonder if an older version will work ok?
September 12th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Mine is freezing up all the time. I do web development so at any given moment I’ll have 20-30 tabs open. That’s a lot, but earlier FF could handle it just fine. It periodically freezes up and I can’t type into boxes like this one. It’s a mess.
3.5 is proving to be the Vista of Firefox. New version, bloated, crappier. The developers need to understand that less is more. What new features came with 3.5 that I supposedly need? None. Give me an earlier version and I’ll be happy…
September 12th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Ditto Bryan (last post).
Serious problems with Firefox 3.5.2, most of them in other apps (not in the browser itself). Frequent systems hang-ups, “not responding” messages in Outlook and Excel, sometimes total crashes (computer freezes).
I’m running XP Pro. Not obvious that it was a Firefox problem (I thought it was just an overloaded PC), but when I finally unintalled FF and switched to IE8 all those problems disappeared. I’ve been running for a week without one hang-up.
Very discouraging.
September 12th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I’m having trouble believing that Mozilla have let version 3.5.2 go on this long now without admitting any problems or flagging that an update/patch will be out soon. As with most other posters here, I’ve been driven mad by freezes and timeouts looking up pages that other browsers can load instantly.
IE8 is actually quite good – and if (like me) you haven’t used IE for ages, I suggest giving the new version a go. It’s simple, stable and quick. Opera is excellent. I’ve been using it now for a few weeks and it as fast as IE8 but with a few more handy add ons included like a spell chekka and a better download manager than IE8.
Firefox was great up until this disaster but if they keep pretending there’s nothing wrong they’ll go the way of Netscape.
September 12th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Firefox 3.5.2 is a piece of junk, it’s like they are making it crash on purpose to get us to use a different browser, like Chrome. I do not understand their thinking?
September 16th, 2009 at 2:40 am
On Windows 2008 server standard x64 3.5.3 crash all the time. It can take from a bunch of hours to a pair of minutes but doesn’t stop crashing all the time.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:51 am
so, turns out firefox crashes everytime one of your addons needs to update. This never happened before, and it happens all the time now. If you havnt updated, DONT UPDATE.
September 17th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Firefox 3.5.3 crashes all the time for me as well. In fact, I’ve had lots of problems with the 3.5 series in general on several machines. One has a pretty vanilla install with no firefox addons and it still crashes. lol I finally made the decision to ditch firefox today until they get their shit sorted. 3.5 is just junk IMO.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I just wanted to confirm that x64 Firefox 3.5 crashes all the time. I never thought I’d be saying this, but is now the time to go to IE 8?
September 18th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
I noticed some serious issues with Firefox 3.5+ on my Gateway laptop. It “locks” for a couple of minutes every hour or so and takes over a minute to load. This is happening with Windows XP Pro and a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro RC. The odd thing is it runs perfectly fine (other than a longer load time) on my Desktop that was running Vista Ultimate and now running Windows 7 Pro RC.
September 19th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Try to disable the Shockwave Flash plugin – it’s very difficult to work without it, but at least it’s possible…
I think it’s time for Opera 10.
I’m working on Vista x64 + FF 3.5.3.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I rarely shut my computer down and I have no idea what version of FF I was using before, but in the last week or ten days I’ve had frequent crashes which got worse. Eventually, wouldn’t load pages. I’ve run virus scans, disabled all add ons, nothing helped. Uninstalled and reinstalled a previous version and still nothing. IE’s fine, although I see the setting to automatically detect network was off when it wasn’t before.
Have now installed Opera and it works and seems quick. I don’t know what happened with FF, but I’m afraid it’s no longer usable. Now I need to figure out how to recover all my passwords (got backups of the config files).
September 20th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I´ve been using Firefox for years without any huge problems, but since I installed the latest version – 3.5.3 – I have had a lot of problems with both my laptop and my stationary computer. Both are working with Vista. Running Firefox cuts of my internet connection after a while. Seems like Firefox is also affecting the Explorer browser negatively. Explorer also stops working after a while. Also noticed that a torrentdownloader like BitLord gets turned off mysteriously. After uninstalling Firefox on my laptop the problems have diminished considerably.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:22 pm
3.5.3. Windows XP pro, chrashes randomly more then IE 4 did back in a day. Sometimes every 5-6 minutes. Noticed also a change in how IE 8 works when firefox installed. It takes IE a while for it to start working (couple of minutes). Strange but this might be something else…
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Just disable the google talk and update plugins, FF will work again!
Tools > Add-ons > Plugins : disable the two mentioned plugins..
September 25th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Ive had it with firefox..using it for the past two always problems either its crashing or its deleting bookmarking,not saving history..Google Chrome it is for me now
September 28th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
TEMP SOLUTION
I ended up downloading the test firefox 3.6, which is actually being called Namoroka 3.6 Alpha 1 http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.6a1/releasenotes/#downloadandinstall , to see how it would do. So far, so good.
Will be using this until the official version comes about.
Note: A good few of my addons are not compatible with this new version however it is way more stable that I am willing to wait.
WAY FASTER BROWSING TOO…
September 29th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Uh, bad news. I just had my first crash. I’m going to Google Chrome until Firefox gets themselves together with all this crashing business…
October 4th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
After a long battle and hesitation, on vista 64, I was forced to uninstall FF 3.5.
It would lockup in the background, corrupting all other browsers. none would be able to access internet.
(all other internet dependent apps worked tho. email, online games etc.)
now I truly reclaimed my internet.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Been using FF2 for many years all day everyday. Use firebug and webdeveloper extension for work and one of the main reasons FF is my default browser. Never had many issues running FF2
Was reluctant to switch to 3.5.3 Updated home and all work pcs to latest version since I thought “its firefox, has to better upgrading”.
Constant crashes of FF 3.5.3 even when away from PC(updates disabled). Constant disconnections and hanging on connecting to a website or even refreshing pages(even google). All errors are random, here and at home and I can’t find link accept for the browser version. Work Pc complete fresh install of xp sp2 and FF 3.5.3 still random crashes with only adobe suite and office software. I need firebug and web developer tools extentions so have to use FF, just need to find a stable version.
October 8th, 2009 at 8:06 am
i have also crashing firefox 3.5. Its getting really anyoing i already did a clean install of windows xp because i thought my computer was bugged but it wasnt my computer. I’m really dissapointed because i’m a big fan of FF
October 8th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Bottom line folks: DON’T download or install FF 3.5.x. Atrocious. Sad because FF used to be the standard by which other browsers were measured. Interestingly, when you go to “Add/Remove Programs” the size shown for FF 3.5.x is HUGE! (if you don’t believe me, check for yourself) Had to reinstall FF 3.0.8 in order to have a stable, working FF, but after using Chrome for a while, I’ll be hard pressed to go back to FF…sad, indeed…
October 9th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
ff3.5 can barely open a web page – it cycles continuously and the only option is to shut down ff & try again. Chrome is much faster and actually allows you to browse the web!
October 9th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I found installing 3.5.2 over the top of 3.5.3 has made FF much more stable. Been testing all week and it’s not a nightmare surfing the net anymore as 3.5.3 was. Both home and work PCs rollback. Reluctant to upgrade again even when the mozilla crew releases a new version.
My uncertainty towards upgrading firefox is starting to feel like upgrading microsoft windows OSs, you never know if it will be better or worse. I wonder what mozilla is up to because I don’t see any new versions or notices on the official mozilla site. This will bump chrome up a few notches in the browser wars for sure!
October 10th, 2009 at 6:06 am
On my Vista64 box it bites.. really badly.. random freeze ups.. and a particular bug that annoys.. after I close it freaks, and if try start a new instance I get “Firefox is all ready running” but I cannot find any process for it.
I went back to Chrome. At least its reliable even if it does not have all the bells and whistles.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Firefox 3.5.3 on XP Home (no pirate)
Disaster
FF used to be the best browser ever, now two main issues:
1. Images will not load on Google Image search (not even in safe mode, not even after clean reinstall, simply NO DAMN WAY, and
2. “Server not found” message every time, after page reload it will be loaded.
Annoying!
October 11th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I’m on Windows 7 and I cannot get firefox 3.5 to come up at all. The hourglass is there for a few seconds and then just disappears. A previous version had worked except it kept losing my bookmarks. I uninstalled and installed version 3.0 and still cannot get the darned thing to come up at all.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I’m using FF 3.5 on a Vista x64 system and on a Vista x32 system and have been getting the dreaded “Server Not Found” error repeatedly. I’m ready to switch to Opera. I’ve been loyal to FF but this is getting ridiculous.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Firefox 3.5.3 is the worst one yet. Instead of solving crashes and hangs it actually increased. I am so sick of this crap. I hate IE and now starting to hate FF. I used to promote FF to all my friends and relatives. Some have gone back to IE and dont ever want anything to do with FF.
Guess Mozilla made an ass out of me!!!
Will try Chrome next, hope its better than these two!
October 15th, 2009 at 2:11 am
I’ve been using FF since it first came out.
FF3.5 is the most unstable browser I have EVER used.
(Daily crash guaranteed, memory hog, process hog, freezes up etc)
I think I’m going to go back to 3.0
October 17th, 2009 at 6:28 am
3.5.3 totally blows chunks. I’ve rolled back to 3.51
So far no crashes. Now I have to roll back the other computers & laptops till they fix this pile of dung
October 19th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I’m a FF fan and find it v. good for site development troubleshooting, but 3.5.2 clearly has problems. It seems to just stop loading pages at random, which when you have a lot of tabs and sites open it’s particularly disappointing.
Just trying another update and writing this from Chrome whilst it installs
October 21st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I have FF 3.5.3 and not only does it crash and lock up but on occasion it hogs 50% or more of my processor resources for no apparent reason. When FF gets very slow or locks up I check the Task Manager and the resources of my Core 2 Duo are at 50% and I cannot shut down FF. I must go to the task manager and shut it down manually. I am very unhappy. I am using XP Pro 32 bit.
October 21st, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I love Firefox 3.5.3… in Win XP Pro.
But it runs terrible in Windows 7 Ultimate final release. Firefox frequently freezes, and almost all sites load very slowly.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:04 am
FF 3.5 crashes on me several times a day. I have used FF since the 1.x days with few problems. I am now using K-Melon most of the time until they get this figured out.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I can’t stand up Firefox 3.5.3. I tried all methods to solve random “server not found” errors but no way to get it right. It’s crap and I have to give up.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I agree FF 3.5 crashes often. Best try other versions.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Firefox have shot themselves in the foot.
This 3.5 won’t let me into facebook. I am now ditching it
October 30th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
This version of firefox crashes all the time on my vist64 home prem. PC. It’s not very reliable at all.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:01 pm
“Server Not Found” message comes up with every other site I go to. Pondering testing out their new Beta version…
November 1st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
As soon as I switched to version 3.5 my pages haven’t been loading at the speed at which they should. I’ve also been getting several page not found errors.
Moved to Opera and things are just fine.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Firefox 3.5.3 on linux – terrible!
I was fairly happy with 3.0 and even with 2.x! Since the installation, 3.5.3 crashes quite often. With Debian, there is known bug that automatically logs me out when it encounters certain websites. To some extent, the plugins make it even worse(especially flash). On XP, it’s a bit better, but works well only on high end hardware. On Opensuse 11.1, it crashes often as well. I am waiting to install Opensuse 11.2 soon.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Firefox 3.5.4, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091016 Firefox/3.5.4 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) under Windows XT crashes every hour or so.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Firefox 3.5.4 is nothing but annoying, so after years of using FF I will be waving bye for now. It won’t close 9 times out of 10, have to go and shut it in the task manager. And, I have no extentions loaded, no viruses, new (one month) old computer… and clean as a whislte. It’s just a pain in the arse now. Off to opera
November 4th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I have been having the same problems with Firefox crashing and now it won’t even load at all! I am getting extremely frustrated with it. My Internet Explorer is working just fine.
November 15th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Overwriting: taking a portion of a screen and laying it OVER another portion. In a box for text, only toe top 1/3 is viewable, and unable to be read. I have spent 1 1/2 months trying to correct, with nothing from firefox but BS. IE (although I hate it) works fine.
I am through with Firefox. They won’t fix what they can.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I’ve got so many problems with FF since installing the 3.5.x lines (I’ve tried them all) that I’ve pretty much given up on FF for now.
No plugins installed nothing else on my system running and the CPU’s pegged at 100%. I’m using Vista x86 Business
November 18th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Why on earth have we gotten so many comments to this post, anyway?
November 19th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
i have 2 vista machines – one is wireless the other is plugged directly into the router. neither can access the internet through FF. FF 3.5 completely f’d up my ability to get to the web. totally useless. i too have tried everything, save upgrading to Windows 7. not sure that’ll fix it.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Chris Meadows– because FF is STILL substandard on many platforms despite all the complaints and new versions.
(Re why this post draws so many comments.)
Thanks,
David