SillyDog701

[Antony]

Mozilla today release Firefox 7, a new update rushed out in its six-week release cycle. Apart from the obligatory housekeeping (for those who must rush to the latest), under-the-hood tweaks, optimizations and minor bug fixes, Mozilla claims Firefox 7 drastically reduces memory consumption over its infamous predecessors which have always been criticized for memory leakage problems.

According to PCMag.com, Mozilla claims the MemShrink project reduces memory use by 20 to 50 percent.

the release notes is available

The latest version of Firefox has the following changes:

• Drastically improved memory handling for certain use cases
• Added a new rendering backend to speed up Canvas operations on Windows systems
• Bookmark and password changes now sync almost instantly when using Firefox Sync
• The 'http://' URL prefix is now hidden by default
• Added support for text-overflow: ellipsis
• Added support for the Web Timing specification
• Enhanced support for MathML
• The WebSocket protocol has been updated from version 7 to version 8
• Added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of Firefox
• Fixed several stability issues
• Fixed several security issues

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. Web and extension developers should also view the curated list of platform changes. You may also be interested in the list of changes in the previous version.

Firefox 7.0 is available in over 70 languages, and is available here.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.22) Gecko/20110902 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.14 Firefox/3.6.22

[Anonymosity]

I wish the Mozilla developers would quit dumbing things down. I had to add another new setting to my user.js file to stop the hiding of http/: in the address bar.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:7.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0

[Antony]

I wish the Mozilla developers would quit dumbing things down. I had to add another new setting to my user.js file to stop the hiding of http/: in the address bar.

How, do you mind sharing?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.23) Gecko/20110920 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.14 Firefox/3.6.23

[Fulvio]

Explanation about how to restore the http. But this is not new, as it has appeared in Opera and Chrome. May be, everything is dumbed down.
Interestingly, I updated v.7 via incremental update, and it left me in the beta channel.
For further explanations look here.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:7.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0

[Anonymosity]

To get back the protocol info in the address bar, go into about:config and set this:
browser.urlbar.trimURLs - set to false

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:7.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0

[geffr]

I just checked memory use. I've been running FF for several hours. 6.x averaged about 425k, with 2 tabs I'm currently at 350k; so possibly a small improvement.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[Mandrake]

I have to say I'm very impressed. Memory use is dramatically reduced for me. I used to regularly see 1GB+ of memory usage, but I've yet to see Firefox 7 crack the 700MB mark.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[geffr]

I'm at 392k right now, which does appear to be in the average range for me with 7.x, so I'd say I'm seeing about a 10% improvement for 6.x on XP SP3 with an older Quad cpu & 3 gb ram.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[James]

I've been online now for a couple of hours... several tabs open and I'm running at 250k. There's no question but that memory usage has been greatly improved.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[geffr]

Wish I knew what you're doing right/I'm doing wrong. 250k would be a big improvement. I am running a lot of add ons:

No Script
Ad Bookmark Here
AddBlock +
Forecast Fox
I M Translator
Java Quick Starter
Optimize Google
Show ip
Startup Service (I don't even remember installing this one!)
Web Mail Notifier
& a 4 more that theoretically don't run unless i tell them to during the session.

I SUPPOSE that might be part of the problem!

Are any of the above known to be huge memory hogs? Forecast fox is so inaccurate it's kind of a waste.......

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[James]

Hmmm... I'm only running AdBlock and Norton Security toolbar. These add-ons may be part of your problem. For the most part, I don't see the point of them. We got along perfectly fine with Netscape without all these "extra" extensions. Now we so load down our browsers with add-ons and themes etc. it's no wonder they chug along slowly.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[geffr]

No Script in particular is a life saver & one of the main reasons I still choose FF over Opera.

However, if anyone has specific knowledge of any of the other add ons I mentioned being a known memory hog, i would appreciate the info.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[James]

Well, geffr, I'm not convinced that noscript is such a big thing. I've been online now for almost 15 years and I've never been compromised... never had a problem. And most of my family (wife, kids... all on their own computers) are the same... no issues whatsoever. I know that these extensions have their advocates and I also know that using one's head while one surfs is also a huge part of the equation.

I don't click on links in my e-mail. I don't download programs UNLESS the site is safe (and proven to be by Norton Security) and has a proven track record. I lock down my social network, not allowing any apps to run (silly games like Farmville are out as far as I'm concerned) and not using my FB account or Twitter account to log me in elsewhere. Frankly, I honestly don't need Adblock Plus and I'm seriously thinking about disabling it.

BUT we're all different and we all have our own hang-up and insecurities... me included. FF 7 does not present a memory problem for me... nor does IE 9 nor does Chrome, the three browsers I frequently use. I hope you find an answer to your issue although it sounds like a minor one. Good luck.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[Antony]

Back to the removal of http:// in URL bar issue.

Thanks God that Mozilla do not hide the display of https:// (secure connection), now, where is the familiar padlock icon (when I am on secure connection)? I am pretty sure that a huge group of internet users are used to the indication of padlock icon when doing some secure connection.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

[Anonymosity]

With https: sites, there is a larger blue or green identity button with the domain name of the site in it. It is pretty hard to miss.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1