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Will each update to Firefox continue to make my 2009 iMac Firefox browsing experience slower?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 30 views
  • Last reply by WestEnd

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I love my iMac and it works perfectly well for everything I need. I have El Capitan installed as OS, but each version update to Firefox makes my browsing experience slower, slower, slower. And I love Firefox - have been using it for years. I was especially disappointed with the 57 update because it was touted as blazingly fast. Maybe that message was silently intended for new machines. It has made loading a simple web page "critically" slow. I expect a fizzle soon.

So here is the quandary: Is there not a way to make security updates without compromising speed for older machines? Those who say, "get over it, get a new machine" may not be as sensitive to the harshness of assumed obsolescence.

I love my iMac and it works perfectly well for everything I need. I have El Capitan installed as OS, but each version update to Firefox makes my browsing experience slower, slower, slower. And I love Firefox - have been using it for years. I was especially disappointed with the 57 update because it was touted as blazingly fast. Maybe that message was silently intended for new machines. It has made loading a simple web page "critically" slow. I expect a fizzle soon. So here is the quandary: Is there not a way to make security updates without compromising speed for older machines? Those who say, "get over it, get a new machine" may not be as sensitive to the harshness of assumed obsolescence.

All Replies (3)

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Well, you could do a refresh :

Or the current version of Firefox is 59.0.3 and install it from here with a full version installer:

fyi: Add-ons take about 20megs each give or take.

Reading info :

Scan in case something is slowing you down.

Move to the Extended Release Version 52,7,4esr for old machines ++

Note : Legacy Extensions will be deleted or removed in any version update after June 2018 The way forward : Firefox 52.9.0esr out on June 26 (same time as 60.1.0esr) will be the last major update for Firefox 52 ESR apart from any 52.9.x esr updates for security or allowed stability fixes.

Based on Quantum : Firefox 60.2.0esr will be out Aug 21 and Firefox 52 ESR will be EOL then. So people will have to upgrade to 60.2.0esr to keep getting security updates if they have not manually upgraded to 60.x.o ESR already.

If you do move to esr or refresh do this before please :

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

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Pkshadow thanks for the info. Been there done that on some of this, and I will check out the rest and update if I find a solution in your suggestions, or otherwise.

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Coming from a Windows PC but did you delete and remove all folder of previous FF before reinstalling latest FF59 to prevent any problems? I know if you left anything before FF56 that will cause issues since now the new version is O/S bit version detected so if you got x64 it will install a update x64 FF and same for x86 in the Windows O/S. I found this out back in FF57.