403030 - Browser Hangs/Crashes/Glitches On Plugins

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 156493

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris Zubak-Skees]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9

The browser stability seems far too linked with plugin stability. The interface should never lock up because a PDF takes too long to load. The browser should never crash because of somebody's poorly written Java app. And the process should never remain alive after closing the application because of a fudged Quicktime install. Yet I've had all three of these happen and many more.

90% of the stability issues I have had with Firefox, and I've had far too many, are directly related to plugin behavior. To reproduce try to open any PDF larger than 5MB. The interface locks up until the PDF is downloaded. Sometimes for several minutes. This is indistinguishable from a crash for many users. It's still really painful for the rest of us that know better.

This should be fixed. This is an inherent architectural flaw of how Firefox does plugins. Problems with them should almost never lock up the rest of the browser.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a large PDF.
2. Try to close the tab.
Actual Results:  
Watch Firefox go into a coma.

Expected Results:  
Firefox closes the tab.