Why is Firefox on Linux Mint so slow?

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I’ve been using Firefox on Win 7 and now on LMC-20.  FF still runs great on Win 7, but is very slow finding and loading pages on LMC.  I’m using Firefox 119 on Linux, and 115.4 on Win 7.  I have the settings all the same on each version and I keep LMC updated.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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I would suggest starting each with a fresh profile, using the same version of FF, to compare. It is possible there is something in 119 that is slowing things down, or perhaps some setting in the Linux profile.

I normally use Waterfox G, but I do still have Firefox installed in Linux (not Mint, but another Ubuntu derivative, KDE Neon), and I just tried 119 out, and it seems just fine.

It sounds like it may be some kind of issue with DNS. There may be a change in how Firefox does that between 115 and 119.

Or, perhaps there is a difference in the system settings between your Linux and Windows setups. Are other browsers slow on Mint also?

Edit: It could also be a general slowdown in the networking somewhere. Can you do a speed test (I always use Ookla’s speedtest.net for that) and see what you get with each of them?

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Charlie

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Ascaris wrote:

It sounds like it may be some kind of issue with DNS. There may be a change in how Firefox does that between 115 and 119.

That’s what I was thinking too, but I’m using the default secure DNS setting on both.  This slowness has been like this on Linux for some time going back to FF 103 or 104.  Once the webpage loads, things run normally.  It’s the loading of the webpage that’s so slow.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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It should be noted that I have Firefox 115.4 esr on the Win 7.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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You could try the suggestions here:

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/firefox.html 

Before doing that, see if other browsers are affected. If it’s just Firefox, you can try the suggestions in the link.

 

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Charlie

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Some interesting things in there. Although, for item 7.1 (test with a fresh profile) there is an easier method that’s been available for a while now. Type about:profiles in the address bar and then create a new one. You can even run multiple profiles simultaneously in separate windows.

And oh, Firefox 119.0.1 on Mint 21.2 here. No issues.

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Charlie

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Another tip: not everyone uses a proxy server to access the web – but Firefox installs sometimes go ahead and enable one of the proxy modes by default. And sometimes this can impact your connectivity to the internet if you are not actually using a proxy.

So, go in Firefox’s network settings. “No Proxy” should be set if you are not using a proxy.

However, if you are using a proxy, Firefox’s default proxy setting might not be right for you. If you know your proxy URL & port #, best to set it explicitly via the “Manual Proxy configuration” option. Firefox’s proxy auto-discovery sometimes shoots itself in the foot.

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Charlie

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Thanks for all the suggestions!  My goodness, this may take some time finding the culprit.  I really appreciate it and will let you know if/when I have any joy getting it worked out.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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The only thing that helps a bit is to leave the history alone for the slow websites.  Nothing else seems to have made any difference.  Most non-complex websites load normally.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Got true high speed Internet service.  Speed problems are gone.  Some websites still load slowly at times but most load quick, so I guess I can put up with it.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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