482215 - Clicked link content downloaded instead of opened if current page loses focus

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[tg]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009030422 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.7 (Linux Mint)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009030422 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.7 (Linux Mint)

Have this problem on my laptop: sometimes when I click a link, firefox downloads the page I am trying to access (to default download directory) instead of opening it.
This happens when I switch tabs immediately after clicking the link AND if the link has not yet started loading by the time I have left that tab. The second condition seems to relate to hard drive activity - when opening links sometimes, firefox pauses briefly while the drive spins up. When this coincides with tab switching, it appears that the content fetch doesn't start until another tab has focus, and it is then treated as a file download.

I've only seen this on my laptop, probably because of the power saving/disk spin down. I've also only seen this when switching between existing tabs rather than lost focus due to creating a new one.


Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. With multiple tabs open, click a link and immediately switch to another tab

Actual Results:  
If firefox pauses before fetching content, linked page is downloaded instead of opened, leaving multiple html files in default download directory over the course of a browsing session

Expected Results:  
Link should open in that tab

Comment 1

[Matthew Cline]

I've had this happen to me on a slow desktop machine when switching between different browser windows, rather than switching between different tabs.  And it only happens when I click the link to display in the current tab, rather than opening up a new tab.

Confirming bug, plus updating the summary and changing the component to reflect the new info.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090320 Minefield/3.6a1pre ID:20090320030704