Firefox

[bounddosster]

I use Firefox as my main browser. I know some of you out there also do so this is mainly a question for you.
Have you been having any trouble with Firefox lately?
For the past two to three weeks I found it has slowed a lot and keeps shutting itself down for no reason. I'm up to date on updates and not running any add-ons. I find using Firefox is getting very annoying. Are there other browsers that have the privacy standards of Firefox?

[Shannon SteelSlave]

I have heard great things about "Duck, Duck, go" from many sources. (Heck NPR can't be wrong) Haven't tried it yet as I am sure my ancient operating system won't support it.

[Gregovic]

I haven't had any issues with Firefox (also my main/only browser) but I do tend to not be on the very latest release (I'm currently on 101.0.1).

[ponylady]

@shannon: duckduckgo is a searchengine, not a browser.

And no, i haven‘t noticed the fox slowing down.
Updated your windows lately, maybe ?

An alternative could be the brave browser.

[bound_jenny]

Try Vivaldi, another browser based on Chrome. I use that mainly at work. Not quite as memory-hungry (or leaky) as Firefox.

I don't know if it's been fixed but Firefox had huge memory leak problems causing the computer's memory to be gradually gobbled up until none was left, every time a new tab was opened and then closed. After a morning's work, I would have to shut down and restart Firefox to free the memory for other important stuff (besides littering). So I found Vivaldi. Nice interface and runs smoothly.

Jenny.

[Kinbaku]

I use Firefox 102.0.1 on my Linux computer. I have no problems with it, but it used my Swap memory without releasing it again. So after about 14 days I close Firefox and restart it and once every 1 or 2 months I also restart the computer. I do have a lot of tabs open (14 tabs at the moment on Firefox ).
I also have Chromium web browser on my computer, but rarely use it. On my previous computer, Firefox regularly crashed while Chromium gave no problems (my old computer had only 512 MB of internal memory).

With the Brave browser you can even earn money when you use it.

[ponylady]

Try Vivaldi, another browser based on Chrome. I use that mainly at work. Not quite as memory-hungry (or leaky) as Firefox.

Yup, that“s right & mainly caused by the way FF handles multimedia.
I should have mentined i run with 64 gigs of RAM when i said i have
No problems.

[Sashauk]

I have used Firefox for years, and I agree it has become noticeably slower of late. I can't say I ever have it crash on me, but sometimes it takes a couple of tries to load some web sites.

Like Jenny I would suggest you give Vivaldi a try, I have that as my back-up browser. As Jenny said it's based on Chrome, but it's a great deal more configurable than Google's offering.

[bounddosster]

Thanks all, I did download opera last night as a backup quite configurable and fast but I'm not so sure about the privacy issue.
I'll give Vivaldi a go and see, I've not heard of it before.
I think some of it could be down to my laptop. I use to have a Toshiba for years last running windows 7 which I liked then the hard disk went and I upgraded to a hp with windows 10 and I'm not keen on windows 10 & 11 won't run and I hate my laptop but stuck with it now can't afford another one.

[bound_jenny]

I should have mentined i run with 64 gigs of RAM when i said i have
No problems.

Oh... then it should gobble all that up by 2038, if you leave everything running...

Jenny.

[Kinbaku]

... and I upgraded to a hp with windows 10 and I'm not keen on windows 10 & 11 won't run and I hate my laptop but stuck with it now can't afford another one.

An HP is usually very compatible with Linux. You could set up Linux Mint Mate instead of Windows, it's free and after getting used to it just as user-friendly as Windows.
Currently I am working with Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 (the heaviest version of Linux Mint) on a DELL desktop with internal memory of 7.7 GiB with a 1TB hard drive. I bought it in a world shop together with screen, swivel screen mount, keyboard and mouse for less than 100 USD.

It stays running for me day and night with Firefox (currently 15 tabs open), Thunderbird email program (with 8 tabs open), a few LibreOffice spreadsheets open, and then while I'm at work the Gimp editing program (is something like Photoshop) or other programs running.

You can try it first on your Toshiba computer with all on a USB stick. There are hundreds of different Linux versions that might suit you better. I chose Mint because everything is already largely installed here without having to search for compatible programs for your video card, printer, sound, ...

[Lotharjulz]

...

[Shannon SteelSlave]

My Firefox gets buggy after a day or 2. Have to look into that.

[bounddosster]

You can try it first on your Toshiba computer with all on a USB stick. There are hundreds of different Linux versions that might suit you better. I chose Mint because everything is already largely installed here without having to search for compatible programs for your video card, printer, sound, ...

I like the idea of Linux as I've always hated the Windows monopoly. but I've never got around to it for fear of knacking my pc.
The Toshiba hard drive is knackered so I assume unusable for trying this or am I wrong about that?

[bounddosster]

Used to use Firefox ages ago, but find chrome to be far superior on any computing platform. I doubt though your Firefox is getting noticeably slower just based on versions alone. There are a lot of zero day exploits going around lately and your computer might be compromised. Good way to check is to see if your windows/system/ hosts and resolve files are "clean". A lot of exploits change your dns to resolve with their own servers to spy and mitm

For medium privacy I use Chrome Incognito/ExpressVPN (how I interact with this site)

For maximum privacy I use Ubuntu Live USB/ TorBrowser / ExpressVPN

And for a minute there I actually thought he was speaking English!.