Firefox is pissing me off

Firefox on Linux has some genuine issues. I'm using Ubuntu and the version Firefox that comes with the stable updates. Ever since 3.0 I've noticed the same issue. It is getting worse and it is pissing me off more and more. I'm learning how to use Chromium-Browser. I do not like using Chromium-browser because it is Google. It kind of pisses me off too, but I can live with it until either Firefox get's its shit together or Opera does. Opera has it's own set of pains in my ass.

The Firefox issue is the same one I've complained about before. At seemingly random intervals the browser simply takes a break and hammers my system. This happens on all open windows at the same time. It makes videos running in Flash skip. It makes my typing erratic. It grinds my machine. The issue causes full crashes. It get worse over time. Blah blah blah. I'm sick of dealing with it. Linux needs to focus on a different browser to be the default.

Opera seems to work. That is, Opera does not have the issue listed above. Opera does have issues with cut and paste and in Google Docs which bites me in the ass when I blog. This is unacceptable. It is a list of simple interface issues that keeps me from using Opera as my full time browser. Otherwise, I would love to. It is open source and other wise as fully usable as functioning Firefox on the same Linux system.

What happened tonight sent me over the edge. I have to jump through a couple extra hoops to blog from Chromium-Browser, but it is doable.

There I was using Chromium-Browser for everything except blogging. That is three tabs open. One on Gmail. One on Google Docs at the list of documents and one tab for my current day's blog entries. That is it. It doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing. Like I mentioned, the issue is kind of random except for the fact that it gets worse over time.

It used to be that if I shut Firefox down and then started it back up again, the problem would be fixed for some time. Not tonight. No. I tried this and it didn't seem to be working. The problem just came right back with a vengeance. I gave up and killed the running copy of Firefox and switched to editing my blog entries with Chromium-Browser regardless of the speed bumps.

After running for quite some time, Chromium-Browser was running well. It seemed to be hitting the CPU a bit hard. I have several copies open. I have everything running and if Chromium-Browser hits my machine hard while working, I'll forgive it for now.

I wanted to know what part of Chromium-Browser was hitting the CPU. It had to be Hulu. I killed the Hulu tab and the machine was still making noise. The fans do that. It is a massive drain on my sanity, but I'm too broke to fix or replace the problem. So, what is hitting the browser?

The next step in the diagnosis is to run 'top' and figure out what process is eating the system alive. <yelling> It was Firefox!!!! </yelling> Some retarded zombie process of Firefox was pulling 99% of on CPU, because Firefox is THANKFULLY nut multi-threaded. Otherwise Firefox would have been bogging my machine.

Firefox on Linux SUCKS!!!! Fix it or fix Opera. Opera will be easier. There is less wrong with it.