[thelist] Firefox, CMS, and latency

Bob Meetin bobm at dottedi.biz
Sat May 21 10:59:12 CDT 2011


On 05/21/2011 09:29 AM, Felix Miata wrote:
> On 2011/05/21 08:21 (GMT-0600) Bob Meetin composed:
>
>> I wonder if anyone else ever experiences this.  I am running Firefox,
>> v3.6.17, on Linux.
>
> Which? There are many. Each builds its own, or provides its own customized source for self-building (e.g. Gentoo).
>
>>  I have WebDeveloper, Firebug and ySlow installed.
>> Every now/then I run into latency problems with my CMS (especially)
>> websites.  When I start Firefox it is fine.  Then after a while it starts
>> to slow down, to almost crawl, and I run into severe latency.  Moving,
>> placing the cursor, then typing all experience delays.
>
>> Am sort of wondering whether this might be related to some of the
>> developer tools installed or other.  Although the problem is emphasized on
>> my CMS sites, I can also see the latency when accessing Google, etc.
>> Restarting Firefox typically solves the problem.  Thoughts?
>
> Serious testing requires multiple browser versions be installed. One way is to use whatever version is installed via the distro's package management system as primary, and use Mozilla.org's static builds as additional, which is a relatively simple process. Simply download the Firefox .bz2 build of choice, and extract into a dir such as ff4, ff2 or ff5 in /usr/local, /opt or even /home/<username>.
>
> It's best to use separate profiles for separate versions. Startup can be facilitated by adding the specific versions as new menu items and using -no-remote -P profilename as startup options, but starting from a term or shell provides the option to see error messages that may occur running or starting up. -no-remote as a startup option allows you to have multiple versions open concurrently. I typically have at least 6 Gecko versions open 24/7, save for restarts.
>
> Just like with other versions, you can also install Mozilla.org's version matching the distro's latest version (e.g. 3.6.17). Using it with the same profile as well as a different one should tell you if it's a profile problem or a problem with the distro's build customizations.
>
> Using FF2 or older may require installation of a "compat" version of libstdc++ in parallel with the currently installed version.

Ubuntu Linux 10.04.  Serious testing/benchmarking is beyond my time constraints.  As per what David suggested, I seem to recall disabling the developer toolbars in the past and seeing less if any performance hit. It's more of a feeling than reality.  Next time this happens I'll monitor more closely if I disable the toolbars. I also have Seamonkey, Epiphany and of course Konqueror installed of course with no additional toolbars. They 'feel' quicker but it may be because I don't run them long enough for any latency build up.  Yes it does seem to be related to time.  No it's not related to a particular website.  When one is impacted all are impacted.

Anyhow, I will monitor better.  Was really wondering if anyone else had encountered the same.

-- 
Bob Meetin
dotted i
303-926-0167 (home/business)
www.dottedi.biz/blog.php



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