Firefox 3.6 & 3.7 speed

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.

How to speedup Firefox and Ice Weasel

This small How to is for those that wish to speed up their Browser, (Firefox or Iceweasel)

To start Off Open A New Tab in Browser to get a blank address bar.

Type in:

about.config

Hit enter

When you get the warning, say yes you will be careful you promise.

This will open a script page. Where it says filter and next to it is a blank address bar Type In:

pipe




Now, what you are going to do is change all these setting below to true.

network.http.pipelining;false
network.http.pipelining.ssl;false
network.http.proxy.pipelining;false

This setting below you are going to change to 30

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests;4

To do these changes, Right click network.http.pipelining line and left click on boolean.




In the preference name. Type in the line that you selected in the window.Then hit OK.



Change all the other lines with "type boolean " the same way your config file should now look like the screenshot below.




Now to change the last line, you do the same as the other lines, but this time you will select integer instead of boolean.



Now add the line like you did the others. then hit OK



Then in next window change the value from 4 to 30. Then hit OK. Your config file should look like this screenshot below now.



Now go ahead and close Firefox so changes can take effect. Then restart you faster browser. There is a noticeable speed improvement. I have also done this in Iceweasel and it works for it also. Happy Trails.

Chrome V8 just become V12!

In my older post Broswer Wars Reloaded: Javascript speed, Acid tests I presented the javascript speed of the most popoular broswers. Firefox 3.1 beta2 was the fastest with Chrome a very close second (and IE 7 like 20 times slower!!). The results were :

• Firefox 3.1 beta 2: 1997.6ms 
  
• Chrome beta :2240.8ms
  

Now the final version of Chrome does it in the blinding speed of 1551.0ms!!

So stay tuned to see if the final version of Firefox 3.1 will beat Chrome to Javascript speed. Although we can expect that the 1st place will switch sides with each new version..