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by hackerfromthefu 2069 days ago
I have had some problem with Firefox for many years, maybe 5 years since I've tried to use it.

The problem is whenever I start FF it hangs for 30 seconds before I can type the first url in. That duration and the fact that it's consistent means it's clearly a network timeout.

I have a locked down computer, layers of security enhancements so I kind of understand something I've done is causing it.

However, why should it lock up for 30 seconds if it can't do some background thing! On startup! It's an atrocious UI failure. And it's been this way for 5 years that I've been counting, through their Quantam speedup etc. Major flaw and unfixed for aeons of 6 week release cycles.

Btw it's not updating as it still updates ..

It's actually really bad design to have a lockup like that, and especially on the critical hot path of the first time you use it! It's a sign actually of bad user experience design, and it's one of a number of bad anti-user things I've found about it. Things that Chrome gets so right!

I want to ditch Chrome because of the many Google anti-features, but UX is also very important to me I use the browser all day every day and I'm extremely fast at the UI with advanced shortcuts etc. Firefox locking up for 30 whole seconds before I can use it not only destroys my flow but is actually an eternity - I could have about 40 chrome tabs opened with urls types and autocompleted or pasted into the url bar in that time ..

Sadly Firefox blows on a large number of design decisions. I get the impression that user experience is down the list at Mozilla, below either Google donations or SJW antics. Whatever, but they consistently fail on important points. I wish it wasn't so I truly do. I'm in the process of moving to Brave in anticipation of uBlock finally being sabotaged by Google.

2 comments

Have you actually tried looking for the issue (i.e. determining where the network request goes and if you can disable it in the settings)?
I have the opposite problem, strangely: Firefox always starts instantly, but at some point in the last two months the autoupdate feature stopped working. A minute or two after starting FF, I get an in-browser popup that the autoupdater couldn't download the latest version automatically (even if I am on the latest version as I now update it manually).