Firefox is the best browser around right now, with a large open-source community behind it. Firefox maybe the best in terms of features and flexibility, but all of this comes at a price. Firefox is a resource hog. Firefox 3 has been a lot better at managing resources, yet it has high memory usage, and occasionally, CPU usage hit 100% and the system hangs. It can take up 140 MB of RAM when multiple tabs are open.
There are many reasons for Firefox hanging and/or using excessive memory. Plugins and extensions, which are not part of the default Firefox install may cause this. Poorly optimized sites which load several images and ads may cause this. These are inevitable.
Before mentioning the tips, let me say that upgrading to Firefox 3 is absolutely essential. Firefox 2 was notorious for poor resource and memory management, and Firefox 3 has improved in that aspect a lot. The tips mentioned here are for Firefox 3 (but will work for Firefox 2 too).
- Disable Java:
Disable the Java plugin, by going to Tools>Options>Content tab> uncheck Enable Java. Most sites do not use Java. So, you end up wasting CPU resources for a plugin(yes, it is sorta plugin) that you do not use. - Install Flashblock:
If updating Flash plugin does not help, install Flashblock extension. You will see a play button instead of the Flash content. When you want to play something, click the play button.
