It seems I was a little too hasty in giving Firefox 3 Beta 5 as much credit as I did earlier. Ffb5 does work extremely well, untill it doesn’t. As far as I am able to tell, the browser becomes extremely slow at random times often after keeping the browser open for some time, this is a result of a boost in memory usage and cpu load for no apparent reason. Surprisingly this problem does not occur to everyone, I only found a few reports. Nevertheless, this is a very big issue, that didn’t occur in ffb4. Obviously the browser is in beta stage, so whining is out of question. However, I could have recommended ffb4 to those willing to experience the speed improvement with only a few downsides, but I can’t say the same for ffb5. As the release of Firefox 3 draws nearer, I hope this problem gets fixed as soon as possible. I will still keep using ffb5 
Post comments if you are having a similar problem and also if you know what’s causing it.
Firefox 3 Beta 5 Not So Resource Friendly Sometimes
Published April 23, 2008 Uncategorized 5 CommentsTags: 3, 4, 5, 7, best, beta, browser, bug, crash, date, explorer, fast, fastest, ff, ffb5, Firefox, freeze, fx, gran, html, ie, internet, issue, javascript, Linux, memory, mozilla, nothing, opera, paradiso, performance, personal, problem, ram, release, rendering, secure, slow, speed, ubuntu
I have the same problem too on Ubuntu, its kinda strange, i hope it will be fixed in the next release, and i hope the next release is not too far, because it really is horrible.
Having the exact same problem. Not sure why. I installed the cpu graph under Ubuntu and sometimes it crunches the CPU horribly when slow, other times, it has no CPU usage and is still randomly slow.
hello,
using a ubuntu 8.04 machine on a laptop and FF3b5, i have the same problem.
as i use the built-in gnome systen monitor (which sits in my panel as an animation), i could see that the CPU is loaded by “IOWait” instructions.
i have no idea what causes it; i refuse this being caused by some addon.
i hope it will get fixed soon.
Same problem. Installed new Ubuntu and Ffb5 and it just slows down randomly. I guess I’ll switch back to Ffb4! But anyway… it’s nice to see I’m not the only one experiencing this problem! Cheers
I’m having the same issue on Windows XP, believe it or not. Sometimes, seemingly at random, FF will lag out beyond belief. I’ve had to switch to IE just to get work done and I can’t really single out a specific cause. It’s sad