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reddragdivaThe Linux build of Firefox 1.0PR appears to be a lemon. Mozilla has been a paragon of stability for the past two years: the application that just doesn't crash. Firefox has carried this on. Until now. I've sent enough Quality Feedback Agent crash dumps and am presently rediscovering the joys of Mozilla 1.7.2 (FreeBSD native builld), which not only works flawlessly but is much smaller and faster than the old fat bastard version despite doing all it does and more. I might even try Netscape 7.2 (Linux build) for all the eyecandy.
(Firefox 1.0PR for Windows appears as solid as its predecessors and I still recommend it for all.)
Comment on #wikipedia: "quality feedback agent? They should call it crap feedback agent."
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:00 pm (UTC)The newest Firefox (0.9.3-6, Debian) is moderately stable, but reproducably segfaults on certain ECMAScript-"enhanced" webshites. (And that's why I keep an ad-infested copy of Opera around.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:31 pm (UTC)This is Macho Geek talk, little girrul. You just sit back, look purty and admire our incomes, okay.Not really. When an app is running, it uses memory then gives it back, and sometimes it takes memory and forgets to give it back. If you leave it running ages, the memory leak means it appears to get BIGGER AND BIGGER AND BIGGER and dies or has to be killed. Well-written apps don't leak much if any.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 03:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 11:44 pm (UTC)When techies say "memory", they invariably mean "RAM". RAM is only used for temporary storage for software that is in some sense in use; the contents are lost when the computer is switched off. When we're referring to lasting storage we'll tend to say "hard drive space".
I could mention at this point that programming techniques have been known for decades that manage an application's use of memory automatically, and automatically detect and reclaim unused memory blocks so that these leaks are pretty much impossible; but for reasons I still don't understand, only a tiny minority of programmers are switched on to these techniques, while a great majority prefer to try and manage their memory "by hand" leading to the problems discussed here.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-01 04:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 03:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:26 pm (UTC)It does beat the old days, when it didn't so much leak memory as throw it over the side with a bucket ...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-01 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-01 01:42 am (UTC)But ATM not even 0.9.3 crashes any more on that specific site. Damn frequent updates, should've mirrored it locally, I guess.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:03 pm (UTC)I had the misfortune to use the Linux version at work all day today, didn't crash once on me.
Wonder if 1.0PR is in the ports tree yet for FreeBSD... hmmm...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:27 pm (UTC)Not yet. They're still in ports freeze for the iminent 5.3 release, and it looks like they've decided to patch 0.9.3 rather than import 1.0PR.
But you should probably still upgrade, to get the security fixes.
-roy
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 03:20 pm (UTC)At least one of the patches commited on Tuesday looks like it's for a security issue (the oversize image one).
-roy
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:05 pm (UTC)I've been living out of an iBook for the past few weeks, and found that I only use Mozilla for a handful of picky sites; Safari seems to be good enough for most things, and quite a bit zippier.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:06 pm (UTC)http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vulnerabilities.html
The list doesn't explicitly say which platforms are affected by which bugs, but there's a fair chance that at least a couple of the buffer overflows will be platform-independent.
-roy
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:10 pm (UTC)Debian haven't updated to 1.0PR yet, so I'm still on 0.9.3 atm. But on the windows box it's running 1.0PR without any complaints (well Nat's not complained to me yet).
I just keep a copy of Opera to hand for sites that Firefox doesn't like still though, but I find I rarely fire it up now.
(no subject)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:34 pm (UTC)I wouldn't mention it if I hadn't heard a pile of similar reports, as exemplified by the IRC quote. From someone running it on a Linux box, so I can't blame the compatibility layer either.
Not a literally fresh install, I shouldn't think!
Date: 2004-09-30 04:02 pm (UTC)Re: Not a literally fresh install, I shouldn't think!
Date: 2004-09-30 11:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 02:48 pm (UTC)Okay, glad that's not just me. I was prepared to blame my bitrotted ancient linux install with all the junk I've hacked onto it in an attempt to make WPI things work.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 03:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-01 12:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 03:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:00 pm (UTC)Nearly there.
Do you also use addressbooks via LDAP, perchance? If so, might I use you as a test bunny?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:11 pm (UTC)But the customer uses !outlook anyway, so there.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 05:43 pm (UTC)Now if I could figure out just how to forbid any of the applications that I running from opening IE under any circumstances without uninstalling it completely and thus breaking WinXP completely I'd be a very happy camper.
(Well, that and stopping it from playing the MIDI's or other audio files that some clueless, evil people still place on web pages under *any* circumstances what-so-ever.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 06:20 pm (UTC)Well, under W98 at least.
I've found some programs (GetRight, Kazaa and ad-supported freeware) like IE to deliver their ads.
Fortunately the firewall takes care of that.
Not liking the new Firefox.
At work, I can't seem to switch highlight off.
At home, half my bookmarks appear to be missing.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 11:32 pm (UTC)("Try again with a fresh profile" is the standard answer to Mozilla problems.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-30 05:45 pm (UTC)- Aidan
No leaks, Mr Mandelson
Date: 2004-10-01 02:30 am (UTC)Now, Java can happily leak interesting resources even while its garbage collector sits around reclaiming RAM, but a decently written C++ program doesn't leak.
C, on the other hand, requires an enormous amount of care to avoid leaks.
(Can you tell my code is expected to run non-stop?)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-01 01:39 am (UTC)Not that I'm under any illusion that IE isn't an enormous pile of crap, mind you...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-01 01:45 am (UTC)Downloaded 1.0PR and installed on Win2000 box only a few days ago (and recommended a housemate do the same...she had long-ago kicked IE but the recent virus-within-a-picture thing gave me a scare). 1.0PR seems kinda nice...it's got a few new bells and whistles but I've not had a single problem with reliability despite some heavy use. *pinches self just to make sure*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-07 06:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-07 06:39 pm (UTC)