Mozilla Firefox: stability issues

[Welly Wu]

I just deleted my .mozilla hidden folder from my /home partition. I made the mistake of downloading and installing a bunch of add-on extensions for increased security and it made Mozilla Firefox crash frequently. I turned on the AppArmor profile to enforcing mode and I installed LastPass. That's it.

Don't go overboard on themes, extensions, add-ons, and personas for Mozilla Firefox. You'll wind up with a severely unstable web browser that is unpredictable and it will crash frequently.

Quite frankly, I have found that the Linux version of Mozilla Firefox to be quite stable so long as you don't stray too far from the stock configuration.

Just a heads up for others.

[KiwiNZ]

Too much security can break things as can not enough. I am reminded of the idiom 'too much of a good thing'

[Jakin]

The only extentions i add, are noscript, and adblock for security. (for awhile i tried "ghostery" but seemed like noscript was accomplishing the same things)

On the bit about themes... (and they have turned out useless for me) regardless of how many i installed or tried- never caused a crash or unwanted behavior.

[lovinglinux]

Don't go overboard on themes, extensions, add-ons, and personas for Mozilla Firefox. You'll wind up with a severely unstable web browser that is unpredictable and it will crash frequently.

That is a very generalizing statement. Some extensions can cause problems and degrade performance or stability, but that doesn't mean you should stay away from all extensions. You just need to be selective.

My recommendation is to read the extensions reviews, check if they are popular and updated frequently, before installing. Avoid installing extensions that are not fully reviewed by Mozilla. Also make backups of your profile regularly and if the browser becomes unstable, disable and test the installed extensions until you find the culprit. Having a test profile to check new extensions is not a bad idea either.

I have been using about 45 to 60 extensions in my browsers for many years and I am a very pleased user. I also have been testing about 20 different extensions every month for the last 18 months, for the Mozilla's Featured Add-ons Advisory Board. Although I have seen some extensions causing minor issues or having incompatibilities with other extensions, I haven't experienced any catastrophic issue while on the board.

That being said, I have experienced some issues with extensions over the years, just like any other software. When that happens I try to find a solution in the community or file a bug report. If the problem can't be solved, I look for better alternatives, since there are many extensions with similar functionality.