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Bon Echo: Firefox that doesn\’t keep quitting on me

Bonecho
Bon Echo, currently in alpha testing mode, is a developer preview release of the next-generation Firefox browser.

As I’ve said many times, I adore my new Intel-based Macbook laptop. I also adore the Firefox web browser. But one recent annoyance for me has been that Firefox hasn’t been completely comfortable running on my Macbook. It kept quitting on me several times daily.

Well, not anymore. Today I learned about Bon Echo — a G5 and Intel optimized version of Firefox. You can download it here. (I chose the Intel version with aqua form widgets.)

BonEcho imported all my Firefox settings and plugins perfectly. I’ve been running it for about six hours now and it hasn’t crapped out on me once. What a relief!

More about BonEcho.

(Thanks to Tom Vilot for the tip.)

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9 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. Amy, I have an Intel Imac and FF2.0 is my default browser. It hasn’t quit on my, but more frequently is going out to longer lunches. I moving to the newest version of Camino, but will give Bon Echo a spin.

    Ed

    Reply

    1. Ed Sutherland on June 9th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
  2. Just noticed this post is a few months old, are you still using it and loving it?

    Reply

    2. Aaron@wondermill.com on April 6th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
  3. Hey Amy,

    I’ve had the same problems with FF and it’s driven me right into the arms of Safari, which is nice but isn’t as sophisticated. I look forward to trying it out. Do extensions work with it as well?

    Reply

    3. Aaron@wondermill.com on April 6th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
  4. Alan, my macbook is fairly new. I’ve only had it for a couple of months. I never had this problem on the ibook, and it only started after I installed release 1.5.0.8. (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/releases/1.5.0.8.html). The quitting problem started gradually and then got worse. I haven’t had this problem with any other software on this computer, and the problem has stopped entirely with Bon Echo.

    Yes, I do run Mac cleanup programs. I haven’t tried the repair permissions, I’ll do that as well if it’s a regular maintenance thing. But seriously, in this case I do think the problem was that the regular firefox was not happy with my intel-powered macbook. (not a pro, just a regular macbook).

    - Amy Gahran

    Reply

    4. Amy Gahran on December 31st, 2006 at 10:09 am
  5. I like using BonEcho on my MacBook Pro simply because I get the pretty widgets (form boxes and buttons). You would think that after all this time Mac Firefox would at least look a little better than it does.

    Reply

    5. Judi Sohn on December 31st, 2006 at 7:54 am
  6. For what it’s worth, I’ve been using Firefox 2.x on my MacBookPro and it has never “quit” on me; and my MBP runs continuously. I cannot reliably guess what your problems are- some things to try are repairing permissions (Disk Utility), running some other Mac clean up utilities (look for MacJanitor or Onyx), perhaps disable any Firefox extensions, then consider deleting Firefox preferences (user/library/application support folder, though you will want to save your bookmarks file).

    Reply

    6. Alan Levine on December 30th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
  7. BD asked: “BonEcho is the development version of Firefox 2.0 What advantages would it have for you over the recently released 2.0.1? Just curious.”

    OK, bear in mind that I’m not an actual geek, merely a pseudo geek. My experience of running Firefox 2.0.1 on my Intel-based macbook was that it kept quitting on me, several times daily.

    My husband the uber-geek tells me that Bon Echo is an optimized compile for Intel processors. Also, it doesn’t include several minor bug fixes in the latest full release of Firefox. So it is a tradeoff, but so far I haven’t encountered any negative effects.

    And it still hasn’t quit on me. Not once.

    Thanks,

    - Amy Gahran

    Reply

    7. Amy Gahran on December 30th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
  8. This is an old version of Firefox. I believe Bon Echo was just an alpha version of their version 2.0 browser which has been out for a couple of months now. Just go to Mozilla.org or getfirefox.com to get the latest. (What version of Firefox where you having trouble with? Was it 1.5.x? If so, then yes, upgrade to the 2.0 proper, not the Bon Echo alpha. I have a Mac, but it is not on Intel, and it works fine with 2.0, but admittedly my main computer is a windows pc, so maybe I am not the best person for detailed experience on a mac.)

    Reply

    8. Anup on December 30th, 2006 at 11:46 am
  9. BonEcho is the development version of Firefox 2.0 What advantages would it have for you over the recently released 2.0.1? Just curious.

    Reply

    9. B.D. on December 30th, 2006 at 11:08 am

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