I just run the Sunspider Javascript test on Firefox 3.5.5 (latest stable version), 3.6 Beta 4 and 3.7 pre-Alpha.
The results will vary depending on your PC specifications and Operating System.
Mine was a Pentium Dual-Core 3.2 GHz with 2Gb Ram, running Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 1 "Lucid Lynx" from a Live-USB.
So, the results were:
Firefox 3.5.5: 2306.4ms
Firefox 3.6b4: 2052.8ms
Firefox 3.7pre-a1: 1609.8ms
Well done Mozilla. That represents about 40% increase in Javascript speed. And what about competitive browsers?
Chrome 4.0.249.30 (beta): 812.0 ms
Opera 10.10: 7249.2ms
Well, not so well done I guess...But until Chrome gets 1/10th of Firefox's add-ons, I can't consider it as my first choice. Opera was inexplicably slow, maybe it has something to do with the Alpha version of Ubuntu... But Opera was the amazing feature of being a web server at the same time, which means you can stream your music from it, host your chat room or show your photos to your friends. Firefox is still my browser of choice because of the add-ons and I use Opera when I need this functionality. I hope Firefox and Chrome will release an edition with a built-in server in the feature.
