Firefox

[kayvee]

My computer:
Pentium III 866MHz
384MB SDRAM
Intel 82810e Graphics Card

I use Firefox as my primary web browser. It works fine. But the problem is that it alone uses about 50% of my CPU. And when I visit a flash video website (like youtube or google video), Firefox and Xorg combined use up about 98% of my CPU. Plus, flash videos do not work properly with an extremely slow frame rate.

Previously, I had Win XP on this machine. Firefox used to work absolutely fine at that time (including youtube videos). Is this usual in kubuntu? It is important because it would eventually decide whether I will be going with kubuntu or revert back to Win XP as I cannot upgrade the graphics card and can only go up to 512MB of RAM.

Please help me! I do not want to go back to Win XP and all the pains associated with it :-(

[djseverin]

Re: Firefox

Hi Kayvee. Would you please post the version of kUbuntu you are using, the version of KDE and the flash version you are using?

The older flash packages pre Feisty were not too great. The newer Flash 9 seems to work quite well.

Cheers,
Sev

[kayvee]

Re: Firefox

I am using Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon with KDE 3.5.8 and the latest Firefox and latest Flash Player available from medibuntu repository. I will check it tomorrow and post the actual versions.

Flash Player Details:
flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.48.0.2+really0ubuntu12

[eggbanjo]

Re: Firefox

try running one of the 'cut' down foxes

iceweasle
swiftfox etc,

see if that helps

[Bongo5HH]

Re: Firefox

I am using Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon with KDE 3.5.8 and the latest Firefox and latest Flash Player available from medibuntu repository. I will check it tomorrow and post the actual versions.

Flash Player Details:
flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.48.0.2+really0ubuntu12

Gutsy with KDE 3.5x is a real system hog. You might want to attempt KDE4 or go to one of the other desktops for Ubuntu that is less heavy.

Kev

[dog_soldier]

Re: Firefox

i wouldnt use kde4 . i did and had to reinstall the os. i would try feisty

[cantab]

Re: Firefox

I have a lower spec, and while firefox is a horrendous MEMORY hog, it doesn't really seem to load the cpu, not even when viewing flash, which works fine. The flash player is prone to hanging it when closing tabs containing flash content though, and there's always slowdown at startup when it's loading half a dozen tabs at once. This applies with both the stable version and the firefox 3 beta.

Firstly, make sure it's firefox that's the issue, and not something else.

Next, check the sites your using. Is something loading up a java or flash object (perhaps an advert :@ ) that's chewing up the CPU?

Next, check your extensions, they can use CPU and memory beyond what firefox itself will.

If none of those work, I suspect something about your system is broken. Possibly relating to your graphics (as that's what's most different to mine). If you're using Compiz, try turning it off, it's been known to heavily slow down KDE (though why it would only affect firefox is a mystery).

That said, I get similar CPU loads. Browsing hovers around 50%, a Youtube video upped it to 80% or so. It's possible the flash plugin is more efficient in Windows (or even that Firefox is). Though KDE is rather 'heavy' itself, consider Xubuntu (using XFCE) instead. Given sufficient disk space, you can install it alongside kubuntu with sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop.

[kayvee]

Re: Firefox

Thank you for your suggestions.

I posted another question in the Hardware Support forums recently about this issue. I noticed that it is just not with firefox but with a few other programs like OpenOffice that I see a high CPU usage ultimately resulting in an extremely slow computer. One of the responses that I found interesting was:

Your 82810E integrated graphics relies heavily on the CPU. Install a separate graphics card, which need not be expensive, and you should find a real increase in performance.

Presently, I am considering getting a new PCI graphics card for this system.

As far as installing XFCE goes, I do not think that is going to solve my problems here. It is these apps that are responsible for hogging up all my memory and/or CPU. Even though XFCE itself is a lightweight desktop environment, because I would be using the exact same apps on XFCE also I feel that it would not make any difference.

i wouldnt use kde4 . i did and had to reinstall the os. i would try feisty

I never thought Gutsy/Feisty would make a difference. If that is the case, I can try out different distros and see how it goes...

[cantab]

Re: Firefox

As far as installing XFCE goes, I do not think that is going to solve my problems here. It is these apps that are responsible for hogging up all my memory and/or CPU. Even though XFCE itself is a lightweight desktop environment, because I would be using the exact same apps on XFCE also I feel that it would not make any difference.

XFCE will use less memory by itself than KDE. Which leaves more left for your memory-hungry applications.

OTOH, firefox is a terrible memory hog. Konqueror is lighter, about half the usage on KDE (more on a non-KDE desktop as it has to load the KDE libraries). However, IMHO it's a bit crap. You could try Galeon or Epiphany, but won't get the full benefit in terms of memory saving unless you also switch to GNOME (or maybe XFCE). Or consider Opera if you're OK with using non-Free software.

Again, with Office software, consider not using the heavyweights. Gnumeric has the edge on OOCalc in some areas (like graphing) anyway. You could go really minimalist and use Siag if you're OK with learning Lisp for your spreadsheeting!