Did anyone else notice the snap version of Firefox 102.0.1 is a bit faster?
I used Firefox as my first browser for the past couple years (anit-google kind of), but had to resort to using MS Edge when Ubuntu insisted on using snap for Firefox. It was way too slow on initial startup and even a second launch was slower than I was willing to put up with.
MS Edge has worked well for me, but I still have the Firefox snap installed and use it here and there. If it keeps improving I may promote it to my primary browser again.
Have you tried Waterfox? It is not snap, you download a tar file, unpack it , and use the binary. Looks very similar to firefox, runs fast, sends you updates.
Truthfully, I’ve never had problems with Firefox, but maybe I’m too elderly to notice any slowing. Neville, I might install Voidlumina in my sandbox to give Waterfox a try.
Firefox itself is pretty much the same speed as always once in operation. The snap version starts up WWAAYY slower. Time how long before you see your home page. It was 20 seconds for me with the snap before the newer one. With Chromium, Edge, or the deb version of Firefox it was more like 1 second, maybe 1.5 seconds. All these on the same laptop. Core i7, 16 GB RAM, SSD, basically pretty beefy without being a gaming laptop.
So its the startup thats slow, not the running?
Tbat makes sense, snap is a container I think, or some sort of virtualization. That always adds overhead. For example running VirtualBox uses about 10 percent of my CPU time. Simpler containers like Docker use less. I am not sure what snap is, but I bet you use more CPU running firefox inside snap than native.
A snap is Ubuntu’s creation that runs as a container basically. It’s very similar to AppImage or Flatpak.
I’ve used other snaps like Chromium and they startup great. It’s just the Firefox one that’s super slow on startup. The newest version is slow, but livable.
I’ve also used Firefox forks before like Waterfox. Thanks for the suggestion.
I got sick of Firefox constanty forcing* an update (the SNAP version in Ubuntu) - ended up grabbing Firefox ESR binary (tar.gz or something) and unzipped to my home drive and run it from there with a *.desktop file in my ~/.local/share/applications folder…
Not currently using it however. I was using for my old job, 'cause I used Firefox for one customer, and Chrome for another… Default Firefox nearly drove me batty forcing updates and REFUSING to load new tabs until I restarted it (and not remember all the tabs I had open)… I NEEDed to be able to open new tabs constantly using ServiceNow (we just call is SNOW) for a major customer - and this would happen to me every couple of days - to the point it became a MAJOR PITA!
I read some time later after I found my “portable firefox” solution, that this enforced updating wasn’t from Mozilla, it’s something Canonical build into the SNAP! WTF?
I do the same thing with TOR, but it manages to update itself without enforcing a restart (and when TOR [Firefox based] does restart on the prompt after updating - ACTUALLY REMEMBERS all the tabs I had open!).
firefox is a bit of an issue as a package in rolling release distros too.
I update about once a fortnight, it almost always involves firefox, and if is 100Mb… larger than a kernel update.
Surely they can send a patch, rather than the whole binary?
Today the 106.0 snap version installed and I swear, again, it’s quicker to launch. It’s still not as quick as Edge (deb), but it’s much quicker than it has been. Almost enough that I might use it as my default again.