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When I first boot my MacBook Pro with Core i7, 8 GB ram, and 7200 rpm hard drive running Mac OS X 10.6.7, it still takes a long time (10 or so dock icon bounces) for latest Firefox 4.0.1 to open.

Why is it so slow? Is it something on my part? Or is Firefox just that slow to open? Thanks!

P.S. As a comparison, it doesn't take long a all (a few seconds) for Firefox to open on my Windoze machine.

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    Depending on your extensions it might just take a while. 10 seconds is a bit much, but I've seen long startup times as-well.
    – XQYZ
    Commented May 29, 2011 at 18:13
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    Agree w/ above. Do you have the same extensions on your Windows machine? If so, that might not be the cause, but the more extensions I add to FF, the slower it has always become for me. (Which is why I use another browser for daily work.)
    – Kerri Shotts
    Commented May 31, 2011 at 4:14
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    Is there a reason you're running such an old build of FF? The most recent builds (versions 17.0.x through today's 19.0.2) have opened just fine on all my workstations, many of which have slower components than what you list.
    – da4
    Commented Mar 8, 2013 at 17:28
  • Well it's a 3.5 year old thread…
    – samh
    Commented Dec 12, 2014 at 17:53

2 Answers 2

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If you have installed many fonts (font packages), you should disable the ones that you don't use. Also try running Firefox in safe mode (without addons). FF4 should start for about 2-3 seconds.

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Simply because it is a Mac. It takes longer to open an application than other operating systems, but once it is open it remains open so the program will load faster afterwards. This is because on a Mac, the X button on top doesn't close the application but rather hides it (unlike a Windows which closes it with the X). Short term this can be a pain in the ass, like I always see it. It might be helpful if you do not shut down your Mac so that all the applications are still running in the background, hence opening a picture, word file or browser might be faster. But many apps running will make a Mac slower.

Mac and Windows user

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  • Do you have actual facts to prove what you're saying about the speed? The X button on the windows is there to close the window, not to quit an application. And yes, leaving all applications open will eat all your RAM and makes your computer use the disk as virtual memory, hence slowing it down.
    – Lætitia
    Commented Mar 8, 2013 at 16:37

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