Firefox that works?

Try Camino. It's a mod of Firefox built strictly for the Mac. It, also, has some nice advertising blocking features built into it. The only really bad thing I can say about it is, with multiple windows, each with multiple tabs, that after a couple of weeks, it will start to get non-responsive. I try to restart it once a week. Seems to take care of the problem.

My Firefox loads Newsweek.com without a hitch. It's very possible that there is some other aspect of your operating environment that is to blame.
(I use a G4 w/dual processors and OSX 10.4.10)

I had no problems with Newsweek, but then I'm running FF on top of Kubuntu Linux. Also I ruthlessly adblock sites that display "waiting for xxx.com" too long. That takes care of delays caused by ads and trackers.

FF slows down, if the history of downloaded files in Download Manager grows long. Therefore I regularly clear it. A speedier algorithm is on the wishlist of FF3.0.

Before you jump to conclusions always consult your local geek...

The problem you had was a bug in Firefox that only affected some users and not everyone. Just upgrade to 2.0.0.9, it's supposed to fix the issues.

Here is the link on the issue.

It basically shouldn't freeze. One possible culprit might be some plugin; have you added or updated a plugin lately? If so, try disabling it and see if the problem disappears.

Janne, please read the link I posted. I'm positive the problem is part of the 2.0.0.8 bugs.

Razib, I thought you were a geek. Can I still trust you?

it is 2.0.0.9. i always update to the newest version. i'm sure it is a plugin, but honestly i don't have that many plugins and am not in the mood to always check plugins. one of the main reasons i prefer firefox are all the plugins, but now i am thinking it isn't worth it. this has happened many times before and i modulate the plugins and it temporarily fixes it, but i'm not inclined toward this sort of evolutionary race anymore. and like i said, it isn't just newsweek.com, and the fact that it affects gmail is the last straw (it isn't just gmail search, it seems to choke on its AJAXy functions a lot).

p.s. and i wouldn't mind checking out which plugins are causing problems if the problems didn't shift from update to update. as it is, i've started dreading new firefox releases because my suite of add-ons tend to flare up with new problems each round.

Not only do I not have a problem with newsweek.com, but contrary to what Webs says, it worked fine in 2.0.0.8, so Webs pulled that out of his/her butt. Also, most of the time when somebody narrows down a problem like this to a plugin, I often have the same plugin and don't have the problem.

And razib, if every update causes problems with your plugins, you need to narrow down what plugins you really want b/c plugins that aren't compatible with versions to the 4th decimal are just pathetically built.

are 13 plugins really that many???

and yes, i know that it depends and what plugins i have. but see, that's my main gripe at this point, one of the beauties of firefox was seamless integrations with plugins. now i've got to vet them and tweak them around.

I used to feel sorry for people with Firefox problems until a few months ago. Now my Firefox simply shuts down when I try to open certain websites. This is less of a problem with IE, but there is one website that shuts down automatically in both browser applications.

No, 13 isn't that many. Which is why I say it's your particular selection plugins that are crappifying your situation and not the build of Firefox.

Anyhoo, about Gmail's search freezing up.. I think Gmail just "went 2.0", and for me it just seems to be working faster and snappier. And I use an extension just for it called better gmail, which you'd think would slow it down, but doesn't. So I don't know what your particular deal is, except perhaps your have lots of filters and the search function may have changed that makes it freeze for you but not for me.

try

www.flock.com

sounds like a buggy add-on

Firefox 3 is very streamlined as compared to Firefox 2. I've been using the latest alpha with no problem... and a beta's due out soon. I'd suggest trying that.

The real problem here is the fact the kids we're letting run the show have a pathological fear of correcting their errors. If they did we wouldn't have 90% of the problems we do.

W3C Validation Service. Not perfect, but it can be a big help.

Maybe I'm reading the wrong things into your comments, but it seems worth pointing out that if you're willing to try non-firefox, you should be willing to try firefox w/o extensions, or firefox with 4 extensions.

I've got 25-30 add-ons, and both gmail and newsweek.com work fine for me. I've never had a problem with ajaxy sites. I don't think it's a problem with firefox itself, rather a problem with some aspect of your local configuration. The firefox team can't control who contributes plugins and how well they write them, but generally if the plugin has thousands of comments with few negative remarks, it's OK. There are some notable exceptions, but generally the simpler plug-ins are less likely to cause conflict.

You just gotta avoid the dodgy ones, that's all

I put on faster fox, tried to change all the settings and some sites such as yahoo.mail slow to a crawl! Can I blame Vista?