I’ve had it up to here *raises hand* with a certain “feature” of Firefox. Firefox being one of the most popular and feature-filled browser out there today it’s nearly impossible to switch to an alternative if you’re a heavy web user. The “add-ons”, previously extensions, is what keeps me using Firefox. I couldn’t live without the extra functionality, whether it be for development or just every day browsing. Safari, IE and Opera just don’t have the same extensibility as Firefox. However, Firefox’s most attractive feature is also it’s downfall.

Why? Well, firstly and most obviously…the browser is still fucking slow when compared to any alternative (except maybe IE). The add-ons slow the browser to a crawl which makes starting the browser from a fresh start extremely painful. Of course, this is hardly comparable to alternative browsers seeing as they extensible functionality is significantly less…

But that’s not my problem. My problem is that Firefox INSISTS on checking for add-on updates, updates to incompatible add-ons  and/or installing new add-ons before the fucking browser opens. Add this extra time to the already painful initial loading time and it becomes infuriating when in a rush to browse to something that you need ASAP. Let me set out several different scenarios:

  1. You have a  slow netbook. You occasionally use it to browse the web. Due to this Firefox nearly always checks for add-ons since a certain amount of time has elapsed to check for updated versions. It takes ages to load the browser due to the low processing power in the netbook AS WELL as the time to check for updates.
  2. You use Firefox in different connection scenarios. Sometimes you have to use a proxy. Sometimes you have a direct connection. Sometimes the proxy is unavailable (because you are no longer at a location) and need to change connection settings. The update dialog pops up and starts auto-checking for updates. It timeout-fails because the proxy is unavailable, BUT YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE CONNECTION SETTINGS BECAUSE YOU CAN’T TILL THE MAIN BROWSER POPS UP.
  3. You are on the go. You have a Mobile Internet connection. It happens to be in a 2.5G area and Internet is slow. Firefox insists on checking for updates and begins to download them. Not only is it using your Internet quota but it’s fucking slow because of your current connection speed. You are ON THE GO, YOU WANT THE PAGE NOW, not after some useless add-on has updated.
  4. You want to load a local HTML file. You have NO connectivity. Firefox add-on update timeout-fails. I just want to view the OFFLINE file.
  5. You just finished updating your add-ons (finally). You are now bombarded by millions of tabs that you didn’t want (and it slowed your browser load time)….just to be told that the add-on (you don’t really care about) has been updated! Fuck. Off. I guess this is more directed at developers than Mozilla.

I’m all for updating things, whether it be for features, compatibility or security, but this add-on update dialog has to be fixed. CHECK FOR UPDATES AFTER YOU LOAD THE FUCKING BROWSER. FUCK. I WANT THE PAGE NOW, NOT 1 MINUTE LATER.

Oh, and get off your arses and pass the ACID 3 test.

That is all.