Netscape problem

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 21 Apr 2004 3:06 pm

I am using Netscape 7.1 & it seems to have a memory leak. Anyone else experiencing this? Anyone found a fix for it?
I looked on the Netscape website for browser patches, but couldn't find any. Apparently they don't post patches on their website. Thanks for any help.

Gary

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 21 Apr 2004 10:04 pm

Netscape isn't really cutting edge these days. A lot of folks are using one of the browsers from www.mozilla.org. I use Mozilla on my PC and it works great.

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Cal's Corral

John Fabian · Post by **John Fabian** » 23 Apr 2004 4:41 pm

If you really want to fly, try FireFox from www.mozilla.org . Awesomely fast with some neat features like tabs.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 23 Apr 2004 10:29 pm

Memory leaks are pretty rare in modern operating systems. Each application gets its own heap, and they don't share resources like they used to. Any memory used by an application when it's running is returned to the system when you close the app.

What makes you think it has a memory leak, and why are you worried about it?

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
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Buck Reid · Post by **Buck Reid** » 24 Apr 2004 6:26 am

I've been using Netscape 7.1 and it just seems slugish. My system has a 600 MHz processor with a front side bus speed of 66MHz,128 Mb Ram and a 20 GB hard drive. Is this just characteristic of the browser or is my system not quite enough to handle it? Thanks in advance.[This message was edited by Buck Reid on 24 April 2004 at 10:03 AM.]

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 24 Apr 2004 6:17 pm

Bob - The reason I think Netscape has a memory leak is that the longer I use it, the lower my systems resources go. I eventually end up having to reboot because my pc locks up. What I try to do is check my resources every now & then & if see they have gone down around 15% - 25% At this point I'll shut down Netscape & then restart it. This will restore resources to about 65%. If I continue using Netscape after restarting it, the above cycle will repeat itself.

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 24 Apr 2004 6:18 pm

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 24 Apr 2004 7:04 pm

What operating system are you using, Gary? I think that Windows 2000 and Windows XP solve that shared resource problem.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 25 Apr 2004 4:39 pm

Bob, I'm using Windows ME. I've been using it for over 3 yrs & have been happy with it. My previous version of Netscape was 4.79. I didn't have this problem with it.

Post by **b0b** » 25 Apr 2004 5:43 pm

Windows ME was the last OS based on Windows 95. The limited resource pool and the fact that it was shared among applications was one of the biggest flaws in that system.

It's not surprising to me that a new version of Netscape doesn't work well under Windows ME. They probably never even tested it with that OS. Programmers today aren't paying close attention to resource leaks because it's a non-issue in Windows NT, 2000 and XP.

I use Windows ME on the Forum's business computer. It runs QuickBooks and a few other utilities I need. I hope to keep it running for a long time, but I'm not going to try to upgrade anything on it. It ain't broke, so why fix it?

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<img align=left src="http://picturehost.net/b0b/ManzBob2.jpg" border="0"> Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
System Administrator

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 26 Apr 2004 4:50 pm

I don't understand XP's architecture, but I would have though that the main difference between having this problem under ME & XP would be that when Netscape runs out of resources in XP only Netscape would crash, as opposed to locking up the entire machine. Perhaps under XP you wouldn't run out of resouces because of swapping? If thats true, then it seems like Netscape would run slower & slower, depending on the amount of swapping taking place.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 26 Apr 2004 6:08 pm

After loading XP on this old computer I have seen the problem a lot with netscape. If I stick to my mainstay sites, like the forum, there seems to be no problem. It's when I go hunting for other resources and other sites that the problems come. It starts with popups from netscape, other popups, notices from Microsoft etc. untill there are more boxes at the bottom of my screen than I can count, and the hard drive runs and runs and runs and no amount of clicking the red X boxes help. The only solution is punch power off and start again.

Now to be fair I have started switching to IE with a google tool bar on this and on my new computer, but old habits die hard and I really like the netscape home page. There IS something wrong with netscape that hasn't existed for the 6 years I have had it. My inverted U personality demands that I spend and waste more time than it is worth to understand what is wrong or what has changed.

I spend lots of my work hours trying to understand why the best laid plans for an automatic machine didn't work as predicted and how it the hell am I going to fix it.

I live just south of the babbling brook. I hope no one notices.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 26 Apr 2004 7:30 pm

Mozilla really is the true living version of a much more lethargic Netscape. It's support is much more active. The conversion to Mozilla is trivially easy (at least it was on my OS-X based Mac G4) because Netscape is based (I believe) on Mozilla code. Honestly, as look and feel go, you won't be able to tell the difference, except that Mozilla is more solid. http://www.mozilla.com

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 26 Apr 2004 7:32 pm

OK. I'm back and on the new computer. Bada boom, bada bang no problem. The old ones just too slow I guess. Dang me. Tommorrow I'm moving North of the babbling brook.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 27 Apr 2004 3:55 pm

You can set IE to start at the Netscape home page. Just go to Tools/Internet Options... in IE and set the home page to http://netscape.com.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9),
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 27 Apr 2004 6:20 pm

Done deal. Thanks b0b.