Let's get this out of the way--I work on the internet and I consider myself a power user. I make no claims as to the efficiency of my methods, they are just what works for me. A problem that has been plaguing me for some time now is running Firefox with multiple tabs open. Given my workload and the number of ideas floating around in my head this may range anywhere from 20-90 tabs... it's not something I'm proud of but it's just how things turn out.

To me tabs are a staging area for work, a To Do list, a To Read list, and an account of what I'm interested in on a given day. I don't really like bookmarks--I've basically given up on Del.icio.us and while I do still drag bookmarks to my desktop they tend to accumulate into a huge mess, finding their way into folders which are dropped in other folders as the pile grows. This shouldn't be a problem since I am good about taking the time to manage and cull my tabs. It's just that when I get too busy to address them the number grows.

My problem is that Firefox crashes, something that has been occurring more and more lately. I used to think it was my old computer, but about a year ago I upgraded to a quad-core system with 4GB of RAM. It runs Windows Vista, but is otherwise a very capable machine. Quad-core, 4GB, 10K RPM hard drive, P45 chipset... should be able to handle a few webpages right? Not exactly. For me crashes happen every day, multiple times a day, but only in Firefox (3.5.3), my main browser. I also run Google Chrome, which practically never crashes and is also open all the time (though rarely with more than 8 tabs).

The problem with crashing with 80 tabs open, aside from the frustration, is that it takes at least 5 minutes to get everything loaded again, sometimes more, during which all my system's network bandwidth is being consumed by the browser. Sessions are logged out and occasionally work is lost.

The question I have is why? It's not the computer, even if Firefox is eating up 25% of the processor and 1GB of RAM, it's not that bad. It could be my OS, it could be Firefox. Or maybe a combination of the two. It's very hard to say.

I have examined my browser extensions, which can be a major source of instability. The active ones include: FireFTP, MenuEditor, Session Manager, and Tabs Mix Plus, all of which are up-to-date. I've removed a few that I found to impact stability (including Google Gears), but the crashes have continued. And they are rarely violent, surprising crashes, instead Firefox just seems to slow down, blip in and out, and then die. I get the crash manager, and then I can restore my session, and in a few minutes I'm back.

So far I have just figured that Firefox is the issue. The browser has had memory leakage issues in the past and it seems like they continue in one form or another. Running all those pages, include most of which have some sort of Flash and rich media on them, just takes a toll, the performance degrades, then a restart is needed, just like with a Windows computer after a week or two. This isn't exactly scientific but it seems to sums things up.

I need to investigate running my workload on Ubuntu and OS X, so I can see if the OS is the issue. If not, then I'll know it's Firefox. Or maybe today's computer just can't run 80 tabs at once consistently and I need to wait for some sort of future technology, a neural net processor or something like that. Got any fixes or ideas? Post them below.

I finally made the jump to Firefox 3 (actually 3.0.1) this morning after holding on to 2.0.1.16 for a long time. I started getting pretty frequent notices telling me to move to version 3, but I spent so much time in the browser that I didn't want to rock the boat. So far the upgrade has been working well. I have had 3.0 for weeks on my other systems, just not my main work computer, so there was no adjustment needed. The biggest thing was making sure that my plugins work. The one plugin that required a little bit of finesse to get to work on 3.0.1 was Tab Mix Plus, which I consider essential to Firefox. With a little searching I found this link which got me here. Grab the newest xpi and you are all set. It seems to be a prerelease, but it's been great so far. Past that 3.0.1 has been pretty solid. It's definitely faster than 2.0.0.16, but we'll see how it does with some of the things that has given Firefox trouble in the past (memory handling/leakage, dealing with a lot of tabs, new versions of Flash, etc.)

If you are running Flash v 9.0.115.0 with Firefox 2.0.0.1.2 on Windows XP there is a chance that Flash is not working properly. You will know this because Flash videos (youtube, etc) will play for about two seconds, with no sound, and then just stop. Flash will function normally in Internet Explorer though. This is a problem with Flash. The word is that it should be updated with the next version. If you want the full explanation, read this thread. I just did, and I don't recommend doing so. If you want the fast and dirty way to fix it, here goes: 1) uninstall flash 2) install flash 9.0.47.0. Here is the page if you want it... 2a) you'll have to reinstall Flash again for IE (but now that Firefox works properly again, you won't really need IE will you?) That's it. Flash should work, but you will have an old version. When the next version comes out you might want to muster up the courage to upgrade, but bookmark this page just in case. 10/10/09 - UPDATE- If you are still having this problem, especially if you are using Firefox 3, then upgrade to Flash 10. This should solve almost all problems and it seems to have fixed my Flash issues.