My environment: Windows-XP in a public library. PAC on a USB stick.
I previously installed Firefox Developer Edition and tried to run with it. It appeared to totally overwhelm the computer.
Nothing moved! I wound up frequently terminating my session to clean everything up, then logging in again.
I don't expect much running off a stick, but a preliminary analysis suggests the likely culprit here is the cache structure.
If there is a setting that allows moving the cache into the %TEMP% ($TMP) directory, I expect the program would pick up
lots of speed.
If that requires getting into the upstream source, well I had a decent name in the Mozilla community when I was younger and
sharper. But really, the hit is so much worse because of the slowness of the USB, so it possibly only affects PAC.
The Firefox disk cache is disabled by default and should not be used on slower flash drives (especially USB 2.0 with Windows XP). There is presently no way to automatically point it locally. It's generally unnecessary as the point of disk cache is for use between runs and if we stored it locally while running we'd wipe it out on exit anyway.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Noted, thanks