Mozilla fixes 14-year old Firefox bug, turbocharges Adblock Plus

[Reefa]

Last year, Mozilla published a blog post in which it noted that popular ad-on Adblock Plus could, under certain circumstances, drastically increase memory usage in Firefox. The problem was related to how Firefox handled ABP’s style sheets and could, in certain edge cases, send memory usage rocketing up to 2GB. While not necessarily a problem for relatively high-end systems, plenty of midrange computers get grumpy if a process sucks down that much RAM — and applications that use that much memory also have a tendency to bog down in general. Firefox 41, released yesterday, solves this problem, with impressive results.

Firefox doesn’t seem to have explicitly called out the improvement in its version 41 patch notes, but the team at ABP noted the difference in their own writeup of the new release. I don’t normally use AdblockPlus on Firefox, but I decided to take the new version out for a spin on this test site. If you’re still on a pre-41 version of FF and you use ADP, you’ll see RAM usage explode on that test page — my browser topped out around 1.89GB. After an update to FF41, the same page tops out around 500MB — and keep in mind, that’s a custom worst-case scenario for this style sheet bug.

Memory usage on Firefox should now be roughly similar whether you use Adblock Plus or not. There’s no word on whether or not it will impact some of the other popular adblocking clients, some of which were designed to get around ABP’s high memory use in Mozilla’s browser in the first place. According to VentureBeat, the new release contains a number of other improvements, including instant messaging as part of Firefox Hello, improved box-shadow rendering, and a range of additional developer-side improvements.

Whether this will do anything to fix Firefox’s long-term browser share decline is another question. Different tracking standards count browser share differently, but most reports agree — Firefox is long past its peak usage and has surrendered a great deal of its market position to Google Chrome. Microsoft clearly hopes that Windows 10 and its nascent Edge browser will reverse that trend. Given that Windows 10 goes to great lengths to set its new browser as the default option for end-users, we expect to see some movement in Microsoft’s direction in the long-term, though how long that persists is still an open question. End users are often comfortable installing their own browsers, and that could work against any attempt Microsoft makes to regain lost market share. Firefox, meanwhile, needs to keep working on reducing its reputation as a memory hog.

extremetech.com

[davmil]

Wanta win the browser race Mozilla? Buy ADP and incorporate it in your product to maximize speed, efficiency and compatibility. Alternatively, build the functionality (or better) into FF much like you did the pop-up blocker. You block pop-ups for the same reason, why not ads?

[dcs18]

Source:—

Now Firefox uses about the same amount of memory whether you’re running ABP or not.

• "Optimize Your Adblock Plus (ADP) Configuration"
• "Rules For A Fast, Advertisement-free Softexia Browsing"
• "Rules For A Fast, Advertisement-free 2baksa.net Browsing"

[jtmulc]

Wanta win the browser race Mozilla? Buy ADP and incorporate it in your product to maximize speed, efficiency and compatibility. Alternatively, build the functionality (or better) into FF much like you did the pop-up blocker. You block pop-ups for the same reason, why not ads?

No browser is going to incorporate an adblocker. Browsers make their money through partnerships with search engines or are published by companies that own search engines. Search engines make their money on ads. Plus, if they did incorporate an adblocker, they would have to deal with complaints (and lawsuits) from everyone else online who makes money from ads.

[davmil]

Wanta win the browser race Mozilla? Buy ADP and incorporate it in your product to maximize speed, efficiency and compatibility. Alternatively, build the functionality (or better) into FF much like you did the pop-up blocker. You block pop-ups for the same reason, why not ads?

No browser is going to incorporate an adblocker. Browsers make their money through partnerships with search engines or are published by companies that own search engines. Search engines make their money on ads. Plus, if they did incorporate an adblocker, they would have to deal with complaints (and lawsuits) from everyone else online who makes money from ads.

I know you're right.. wishful thinking (you know what they say about 'free advice.'

[mantazzo]

Don't know what was fixed or anything, but when I tried to go to that website my RAM usage instantly went up to a lot from 700 MB (it's still at ~500MB now). Maybe I need to check for updates for plugins.

And yes, I'm on FF 41.

[dcs18]

On that same page my memory consumption shoots-up, too — however, it is still under very reasonable limits . . . . . . . . thanks to Firemin:—

Click the following image for the bigger picture:

[DKT27]

Wanta win the browser race Mozilla? Buy ADP and incorporate it in your product to maximize speed, efficiency and compatibility. Alternatively, build the functionality (or better) into FF much like you did the pop-up blocker. You block pop-ups for the same reason, why not ads?

No browser is going to incorporate an adblocker. Browsers make their money through partnerships with search engines or are published by companies that own search engines. Search engines make their money on ads. Plus, if they did incorporate an adblocker, they would have to deal with complaints (and lawsuits) from everyone else online who makes money from ads.

I know you're right.. wishful thinking (you know what they say about 'free advice.'

Most of the sites on internet will have be closed if a highly used browser implements build-in adblocking.

They can probably implement tracking protection, but what some - Ghostery - count as tracking is not always tracking - Discuss plugin on sites. Also, sites need tracking to understand how and what way users use their site, not everyone on the internet is out there to sell user's data.

Don't know what was fixed or anything, but when I tried to go to that website my RAM usage instantly went up to a lot from 700 MB (it's still at ~500MB now). Maybe I need to check for updates for plugins.

And yes, I'm on FF 41.

That's still fine. Pre-41 version would mean RAM usage of Firefox itself would reach around 1.9GB as mentioned in the first post.

[Cereberus]

i'm pretty content with the status quo. not everyone bothers to learn the pc, to know they ought to use adblockers. and as such, they needn't worry about people using adblockers because most don't .....

for the few of us that do, we got reliable third party plugin options that work. hopefully they get better so that less plugins is needed to do the same job. but with my current configuration i have eliminated most of the browsing issues i've had years back, thx to gorhill.

Anyway i'm surprised they had such a bug exist for so long .... makes me wonder if they intentionally ignored it....

[steven36]

i'm pretty content with the status quo. not everyone bothers to learn the pc, to know they ought to use adblockers. and as such, they needn't worry about people using adblockers because most don't .....

for the few of us that do, we got reliable third party plugin options that work. hopefully they get better so that less plugins is needed to do the same job. but with my current configuration i have eliminated most of the browsing issues i've had years back, thx to gorhill.

Anyway i'm surprised they had such a bug exist for so long .... makes me wonder if they intentionally ignored it....

Back before it didn't matter so much as it does today about the only free add-on was out to block ads was ABP . Today there is more than one but before you didn't have much choice but accept use ABP or buy or pirate Ad muncher . I use to use both . Anyways ABP didn't even fix nothing Mozilla did. . Also this dont just improve ABP this improves all add-ons that use a lot of memory just APB has always been the very worse .

[steven36]

If you read hear that Mozilla wrote none of this its just a bunch APB propaganda wrote by .Ben Williams

While Mozilla doesn’t mention the fix in the release notes for Firefox 41, Ben Williams, Adblock Plus’ Operations and Communications Manager acknowledged the update with a post on the company’s blog Wednesday.

https://threatpost.com/mozilla-fixes-14-year-old-bug-in-firefox-41/114818/

Mozilla told them about it along time ago AdBlock Plus: Mozilla warns on massive memory leak.

http://blog.techgenie.com/news/adblock-plus-mozilla-warns-on-massive-memory-leak.html

Now Mozilla is fixing it. Ben Williams wants make he done something? Wladimir Palant had said back in 2014 that and addon that blocks ads that uses less memory could not be made because of the way Firefox was made but he was proved wrong. I been enjoying less memory ad blocking for a good while now :P

And Ben Williams Just re-posting old news from June. :rolleyes:

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/30/firefox-41-ships-with-massive-memory-improvements-for-adblock-plus/

[dcs18]

Just check out the meager resource usage and also how instantaneously your browser loads at http://ouo.io/ after using the following Adblock Plus rules:—

Post # 3593

[steven36]

If I was worried about cosmetic to a few software update sites probability would switch to back to ABP . But now days many sites are hijacking sites with malware ads and the one I use can blacklist the whole sites from loading in new tabs witch APB removed from there program . I dont just vist 1 or or 2 sites i visit 100s . As soon as Firefox does the switching to chrome add-ons thing you're going be the using the Chrome version of ABP anyways :P

[dcs18]

Only those who are uneducated and understand nothing about ad. blocking would offer the cosmetic excuse of a ridiculous theory.

[steven36]

I know whats working for me on some sites now days to bypass certain things most ads on a page I can simply block with policeman or just adblocking . But now days many ads are being cross site scripted if I was to try to block the script and just blocking ad never fully works without blocking the script the 1st party page would not function so I have to blacklist the 3rd party page for the site to still work . the main thing for me is to be able to use the sites I need and them to be able bypass without getting hijacked .

[dcs18]

It would be nice to share those exclusive God given talents with the community — there is a gaping difference between philosophical lip-service and practical community service.

[steven36]

I dont deal in cosmetic most of that have nothing to do with real ads that's making a site appear the way you think it should look . I use ad blocking more for security to keep malware campaigns from loading from 3rd parties . I dont care what the site looks like long as the real ads are gone. :lol:

[dcs18]

I don't see any demonstrations of the so called "I use ad blocking more for security to keep malware campaigns from loading from 3rd parties" — not even a single example. <_<

The people are fed-up with the "all fart — no sh!t" (bragging.) They want to see real things like rules, filters, exceptions backed-up with full-screen scrolled screenshots, instead.

[steven36]

Some of the list on adblockers if you try to use to many will mess up sites you use

So I stay with

My Adblokers own list

Fanboy+Easylist-Merged Ultimate List‎

Malvertising filter list by Disconnect‎

Malware filter list by Disconnect‎

Peter Lowe’s Ad server list

Adblock Warning Removal List‎

Anti-Adblock Killer | Reek

And the sites dont be in blacklisted thats Malvertising that's new i just blacklist in my personal filters and Im good . And this makes me happy . And I'm only worried about me Because were not a bunch of robots were we visit the same sites . I do a cosmetic block only if its very annoying are blocks off something i dont want click on. very rarely do i bother.

[dcs18]

Just check out the meager resource usage and also how instantaneously your browser loads at http://ouo.io/ after using the following Adblock Plus rules:—

Post # 3593

Only those who are uneducated and understand nothing about ad. blocking would offer the cosmetic excuse of a ridiculous theory.

In order to debunk the "cosmetic theory" offered as an excuse by uneducated Amateurs who understand nothing about ad. blocking, details of the images WRT http://ouo.io/ being blocked are being revealed for the benefit of others — please verify the same for yourselves:—

http://ouo.io/images/landing/background/bg-footer-1.jpghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/figures/figure-1.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/figures/figure-2.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/people/profile-m-1.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/people/profile-m-2.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/people/profile-m-3.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/people/profile-s-1.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/people/profile-s-2.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/press/payoneer.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/press/paypal.pnghttp://cdn.ouo.io/images/landing/press/tc.png

[steven36]

Ok go to linkshirk explain how would you bypass the malware ad hijacking site on it that was added a fewdays ago and still be able to bypass the linkshirnk link. were you can get what you're looking for i can do it in one rule. :P

Ad bypasser has been updating for over a week because these link shorten sites are using malware ad hijacking and its still not fixed. So I been having block it myself.

[dcs18]

Let's see demonstrations — I don't believe in empty words.

[steven36]

I dont need to show nothing mine bans all kinds of sites even some sites i have to whitelist I ask you how would you do to stop it with ABP another site is this happening too shorte.st.

shorte.st now diverting to spam, fishing, and malware sites.

https://github.com/adsbypasser/adsbypasser/issues/803

I have mine fixed were I can use it on linkshrink or shorte.st without adbypasser because it no longer works :lol:

[dcs18]

Yeah right — you don't need to show anything (everybody knows about that deficiency.) :tehe:

[steven36]

Yes because you can't show me or even tell me the url there using for hijacking you're the one who suppose to know all about ad blocking i dont write tuts you do . I dont care about no one but me and dont write tuts .Im just saying if you were any good you could explain how easy. :lol: