Firefox: Early Memory Lead, Addon Compatibility, Bugs, the Firefox Button, & Tabs on Top

Yesterday I gave my first impressions on Firefox 4 Beta 1. Today I am back with a few things I have noticed while browsing.

The first thing I would like to point out is that Firefox has improved its memory usage. I am not getting crashes like I did in the older versions. For that reason, I decided to run a test. I loaded 8 websites just like last memory test, then let leave the browsers alone for 30 seconds and 3 minutes. I left my addons on in Chrome and Firefox (this gives a more life-like trial because addons are enabled in regular browsing). The results were quite surprising.

Chrome always used the most, while Firefox was always the least. Another interesting thing to be noted is that Opera and Chrome increased in usage as time went on, while Firefox decreased. While Chrome may be double Firefox, its still not a big deal at all due to tab isolation, but Firefox now has it to a degree AND uses the least. If things stay the same or get better (which they should) for the official release, I no longer have memory problems. All Firefox would need to do to get my usage is improve its speed and offer addon alternatives to Opera features like built-in e-mail and Opera Link.

Yesterday I pointed out that there are several ways to force addon compatibility. However, they have been replaced by one single addon, the Addon Compatibility Reporter. The features are built right into the addon page. The addon allows you to force all addons to attempt to work, while in turn you tell the developer if they worked successfully. At the moment about 50% of the addons worked, but almost all of my addons are popular so that should be fixed too.

They don’t call it a beta for nothing. I’ve had several problems with Firefox. For starters, on occasion I can’t find some buttons for a few of my addons. While this could be a compatibility problem, it is unlikely because it has happened with several of them (even addons that supposedly work like ABP). Even a built-in button, the “Feedback” button, sometimes disappears.  Another problem is that the close, maximize, and minimize buttons sometimes disappear as well (in fact, they are like that right now). This can be fixed for a moment by going into safe mode, but then you have to re-do your settings.

I also talked about an orange Firefox button that allows you access to your most common settings. However, a lot of people do not like the orange, plus the tabs were not on the title bar, thus losing valuable screen real estate. However, there is a helpful trick to change this.

I would also like to show you a video I watched  that presents some that tabs should be on top.

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