Getting FireFox to run well on the G5

[giza]

I upgraded from FireFox 1.5 to FireFox 2.0.0.1 on my iMac G5 the other week, and immediately saw a huge performance issue. My browser would lock up for seconds at a time in various points. It could be while typing a blog post, or scrolling down a page, or even when right-clicking on a link. It was the stranged thing. So I fired up Activity Monitor and sure enough, FireFox was the culprit. For reasons unknown, FireFox would just chew up all the CPU time it could whenever it felt like it.

So, I did some Googling and discovered that other people have been having this problem. Apparently the FireFox 2 builds for OS/X have been optimized for... Intel systems. Oops. The good news is that the community has taken it upon themselves to start building G5-optimized builds. The links to the latest versions of the G5 builds can be found at:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=256517

And for those out there with G4 Powerbooks, the G4 builds can be found at:

http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2007/01/06/firefox-2001

Share and enjoy!

Comments

[shenryyr.livejournal.com]

I'm having that exact problem, but in windoze on a dual-core amd :9

it's damn annoying

[omnibahumut.livejournal.com]

Really? Thats interesting because I was considering getting a dual-core AMD in my next PC :(

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Cool :)
Hope those work and that it's not another, deeper issue that is being hidden for now with the optimizations

[gizmo-nine.livejournal.com]

Every time I hear someone say “G4” I want to punch something.
They took away my Tech TV.
*grumbles* "oh I know.. lets get rid of the popular tech shows and replace them with crappy shows about video games... videogame programming 24/7 .. it will be awesome!"