8 ms·

Firefox 3.6 Released

47 points by johns 17y ago

boundlessdreamz 17y ago
My javascript performance comparison between Firefox 3.6 and Chrome and Safari http://www.manu-j.com/blog/firefox-3-6-vs-chrome-vs-safari-javascript-performance/432/ http://www.manu-j.com/blog/firefox-3-6-vs-chrome-vs-safari-j...
- invisible 17y ago
  You really should use a test that focuses both on pure JavaScript and also DOM/JavaScript interaction. The fact that Chrome processes JavaScript faster doesn't necessarily mean that Firefox is slower in a real application that interacts with the DOM (although it may be, I'm not sure). Edit: See http://dromaeo.com/ http://dromaeo.com/
  - boundlessdreamz 17y ago
    Sunspider and V8 are standard javascript benchmarks. I have found that the test results compare favourably to real world usage. For example Google wave is sluggish on firefox while chrome has no problems with it.
  - boundlessdreamz 17y ago
    https://wiki.mozilla.org/Dromaeo https://wiki.mozilla.org/Dromaeo It looks like it is not ready for wide usage.
moe 17y ago
The slowness eventually drove me to chrome. And so far, not looking back...
- dragonquest 17y ago
  If it wasn't for the checkbox bug, I'd be pretty happy with Chrome. However for now, Firefox it is. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0551a15ebb64a498&hl=en http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0551...
- 9oliYQjP 17y ago
  The startup time of FireFox 3.0 through 3.5 on my MacBook Pro was horrendous... measured in tens of seconds. I just installed 3.6 and it is much better. It doesn't feel like I'm opening up Photoshop anymore, geez.
  - Perceval 17y ago
    An ongoing project was started after Fx3.5 to improve startup time: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Startup_Time_Improvements https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Startup_Time_Impro... You can also read the blog of the lead engineer working on startup time improvement: http://autonome.wordpress.com/ http://autonome.wordpress.com/
- Dauntless 17y ago
  Why do chrome users have the need to keep telling us how they switched on every firefox story... please, we get it... good luck with chrome already.
- cscotta 17y ago
  It strikes me as a bit disingenuous to criticize the performance of a browser while openly admitting that you haven't tried it. I've been an avid Safari user for years, but switched back to Firefox at 3.6b5. The performance improvements they've made are incredible, and with the GrApple theme applied, it looks just like Safari. Plus, I get back some sorely-missed keyboard shortcuts, Firebug's awesome profiling support, and the "snappiness" that I'm used to in Safari. But until you've actually tried the latest release (genuinely - not 10 minutes working from a disk image), please consider refraining from commenting. An aspect of the software you used to hate might have been improved.
  - moe 17y ago
    You are right, I should have tried it before. Now I did. It's still so slow as to make me wonder how I ever put up with it. No Idea what's up with the "hate" terminology. The only browser that can even invoke strong feelings in me would be IE. My comment was simply my spontaneous reaction to the headline, no reason to get all hot & bothered.
mpakes 17y ago
After using Chrome for 6-8 weeks, I can't go back. Firefox has so many things going for it (history, extensions, compatibility, etc, etc).. but I can't handle the slowness. The JavaScript performance deficit is bad enough, but the outrageous startup time puts it over the top. I'll keep it around for occasional compatibility testing, but it's no longer the go-to browser.
- pdubroy 17y ago
  Startup time is MUCH improved in Firefox 3.6. Chrome still feels slightly quicker, but we're talking on the order of 100s of milliseconds. For something that I do once a day, at most, the difference is negligible.
  - mpakes 17y ago
    It does seem to be improved, but on my system (new-ish MBP running OS X), Chrome and Safari startup is nearly instantaneous, and Firefox still lags. I don't know how it compares on Windows. Still.. bravo to the Firefox team for making a big improvement in this department. My ire is now refocused on the (lack of) JavaScript performance. :-)
    - pdubroy 17y ago
      Do you have a lot of plugins installed? I tested on a 6-month-old MacBook Pro 13", on both OS X and Win7, and Firefox starts up pretty much instantly (less than 500msecs). Agreed, Chrome and Safari seem marginally faster, but I don't close my browser very often, so it really doesn't matter.
  - slyn 17y ago
    "Startup time is MUCH improved in Firefox 3.6. Chrome still feels slightly quicker, but we're talking on the order of 100s of milliseconds. For something that I do once a day, at most, the difference is negligible." http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/psychology-web-performance/ http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/psychology-we... Read the "The Effects of Slow Download Times" section. Those miniscule effects add up big over time, and lead to better overall satisfaction of the service. The link specifically refers to various web services, but I would be extremely surprised if there was not a similar effect in relation between satisfaction and general speediness (UI snappiness, JS/HTML/etc rendering speed) of various browsers. Thats not to say that speed is the only reason to choose a browser, but it likely has more of an effect on how you use your browser (and therefore how you use the internet) than you would be able to consciously discern.
toisanji 17y ago
I remember when I used to get excited when a new version of firefox came out, but now I just don't care. The performance is abysmal and frustrating. I am on mac and even though chrome doesn't have an official release yet and no plugins, I have already switched 100% to it. I do hope that we will eventually see competition between the browsers again, but at this state, I don't see that much coming out from mozilla.
- wvenable 17y ago
  So far, I'm impressed with the performance of 3.6 -- it's noticeably faster.
- bhousel 17y ago
  The one thing that has me hooked on Firefox on mac is their multitouch gesture support. 3 finger swipe up/down - go to top/bottom of page 3 finger swipe left/right - go forward/back rotate - switch between open tabs Even safari doesn't support all of those..
  - freddier 17y ago
    rotate? That doesn't seem to work for me. An special extension?
    - bhousel 17y ago
      hmm, this might be the answer: http://gizmodo.com/5305394/activate-multitouch-gestures-in-firefox-35 http://gizmodo.com/5305394/activate-multitouch-gestures-in-f... Maybe I needed to re-enable it a while ago and forgot.
- MikeCapone 17y ago
  My main browser on the Mac is now Chromium 35449 (very stable, and extensions work on it). Firefox has become what is was created to fight (at least on the Mac). Sad..
  - 17y ago
grandalf 17y ago
I wish Firefox would adopt the single location/search field.
- xiaoma 17y ago
  Firefox lets you customize that. Here's what I do: 1) First, get rid of the search box. Go to View, then Toolbars, then Customize. That will pop up a box with all of the possible wigits you can select. Click on the search box in the upper right portion of your Firefox window and drag it into that box. 2) Now with the search box gone, the next step is to make the location bar act as one. To do this, type “about: config” into the location bar. Then select “keyword.url” and enter “http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=” http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=”. Now whatever you type into the location bar that’s not a URL will do a Google search. You have to exit and re-start Firefox for this to take effect.
  - grandalf 17y ago
    thanks!
  - diN0bot 17y ago
    furthermore, with the search box gone, apple-k (or ctrl-k or wahtever) will automatically load google search. (whereas before it would focus on the search box)
  - daleharvey 17y ago
    I have been having a lot of problems with that recently, firefox or my dns have suddenly decided to try and go to keyword.com, without forwarding me, and sending http://keyword/ http://keyword/ as the header, which breaks most sites around
  - ttam 17y ago
    That's pretty cool. How about using the keyboard to organize a tab, does anyone know if there's some config setting to re-enable this? Also, 3.6 seems to open new tabs exactly to the right of the current tab. Argh. I liked them at the end!
- 17y ago
imurray 17y ago
I was suffering horrible hangs will some sites updated, notably Facebook. On upgrading Firefox to 3.6 I had to edit the install.rdf of the "It's all text" extension to allow it to work. I noticed a comment on the Mozilla add-ons site saying that this extension could be the cause of the slowdowns. Anyway (with the hacked install.rdf) "It's all text" still works in Firefox 3.6 and my slow-downs have gone. Happy! I didn't want to swap to Chrome without "It's all text", noscript and adblock plus.
- docwhat 17y ago
  Hi! I'm working on making It's All Text! work with Firefox 3.6. If you have troubles (such as right clicking on gumdrops) then turning on "Remove all bugs" actually does what it says, for a change. o_O I looked at doing a chrome version of "It's all text!" but chrome doesn't have a way to launch an external application short of creating an NSPlugin. Which I'm not sure I want to have to support across all the chrome platforms.
Raphael 17y ago
Would it be possible for sites to impose a persona onto visitors, like http://www.getpersonas.com/ http://www.getpersonas.com/ does when you mouseover certain areas?
clofresh 17y ago
It's disappointing that Firefox 3.6 only supports Ogg for their <video> tag, especially since Youtube and Vimeo have started beta testing their html5 players.

47 points by johns 17y ago

My javascript performance comparison between Firefox 3.6 and Chrome and Safari http://www.manu-j.com/blog/firefox-3-6-vs-chrome-vs-safari-javascript-performance/432/ http://www.manu-j.com/blog/firefox-3-6-vs-chrome-vs-safari-j...

invisible 17y ago
You really should use a test that focuses both on pure JavaScript and also DOM/JavaScript interaction. The fact that Chrome processes JavaScript faster doesn't necessarily mean that Firefox is slower in a real application that interacts with the DOM (although it may be, I'm not sure). Edit: See http://dromaeo.com/ http://dromaeo.com/
- boundlessdreamz 17y ago
  Sunspider and V8 are standard javascript benchmarks. I have found that the test results compare favourably to real world usage. For example Google wave is sluggish on firefox while chrome has no problems with it.
- boundlessdreamz 17y ago
  https://wiki.mozilla.org/Dromaeo https://wiki.mozilla.org/Dromaeo It looks like it is not ready for wide usage.

moe 17y ago

The slowness eventually drove me to chrome. And so far, not looking back...

dragonquest 17y ago
If it wasn't for the checkbox bug, I'd be pretty happy with Chrome. However for now, Firefox it is. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0551a15ebb64a498&hl=en http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0551...
9oliYQjP 17y ago
The startup time of FireFox 3.0 through 3.5 on my MacBook Pro was horrendous... measured in tens of seconds. I just installed 3.6 and it is much better. It doesn't feel like I'm opening up Photoshop anymore, geez.
- Perceval 17y ago
  An ongoing project was started after Fx3.5 to improve startup time: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Startup_Time_Improvements https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Startup_Time_Impro... You can also read the blog of the lead engineer working on startup time improvement: http://autonome.wordpress.com/ http://autonome.wordpress.com/
Dauntless 17y ago
Why do chrome users have the need to keep telling us how they switched on every firefox story... please, we get it... good luck with chrome already.
cscotta 17y ago
It strikes me as a bit disingenuous to criticize the performance of a browser while openly admitting that you haven't tried it. I've been an avid Safari user for years, but switched back to Firefox at 3.6b5. The performance improvements they've made are incredible, and with the GrApple theme applied, it looks just like Safari. Plus, I get back some sorely-missed keyboard shortcuts, Firebug's awesome profiling support, and the "snappiness" that I'm used to in Safari. But until you've actually tried the latest release (genuinely - not 10 minutes working from a disk image), please consider refraining from commenting. An aspect of the software you used to hate might have been improved.
- moe 17y ago
  You are right, I should have tried it before. Now I did. It's still so slow as to make me wonder how I ever put up with it. No Idea what's up with the "hate" terminology. The only browser that can even invoke strong feelings in me would be IE. My comment was simply my spontaneous reaction to the headline, no reason to get all hot & bothered.

mpakes 17y ago

After using Chrome for 6-8 weeks, I can't go back. Firefox has so many things going for it (history, extensions, compatibility, etc, etc).. but I can't handle the slowness. The JavaScript performance deficit is bad enough, but the outrageous startup time puts it over the top. I'll keep it around for occasional compatibility testing, but it's no longer the go-to browser.

pdubroy 17y ago
Startup time is MUCH improved in Firefox 3.6. Chrome still feels slightly quicker, but we're talking on the order of 100s of milliseconds. For something that I do once a day, at most, the difference is negligible.
- mpakes 17y ago
  It does seem to be improved, but on my system (new-ish MBP running OS X), Chrome and Safari startup is nearly instantaneous, and Firefox still lags. I don't know how it compares on Windows. Still.. bravo to the Firefox team for making a big improvement in this department. My ire is now refocused on the (lack of) JavaScript performance. :-)
  - pdubroy 17y ago
    Do you have a lot of plugins installed? I tested on a 6-month-old MacBook Pro 13", on both OS X and Win7, and Firefox starts up pretty much instantly (less than 500msecs). Agreed, Chrome and Safari seem marginally faster, but I don't close my browser very often, so it really doesn't matter.
- slyn 17y ago
  "Startup time is MUCH improved in Firefox 3.6. Chrome still feels slightly quicker, but we're talking on the order of 100s of milliseconds. For something that I do once a day, at most, the difference is negligible." http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/psychology-web-performance/ http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/psychology-we... Read the "The Effects of Slow Download Times" section. Those miniscule effects add up big over time, and lead to better overall satisfaction of the service. The link specifically refers to various web services, but I would be extremely surprised if there was not a similar effect in relation between satisfaction and general speediness (UI snappiness, JS/HTML/etc rendering speed) of various browsers. Thats not to say that speed is the only reason to choose a browser, but it likely has more of an effect on how you use your browser (and therefore how you use the internet) than you would be able to consciously discern.

toisanji 17y ago

I remember when I used to get excited when a new version of firefox came out, but now I just don't care. The performance is abysmal and frustrating. I am on mac and even though chrome doesn't have an official release yet and no plugins, I have already switched 100% to it. I do hope that we will eventually see competition between the browsers again, but at this state, I don't see that much coming out from mozilla.

wvenable 17y ago
So far, I'm impressed with the performance of 3.6 -- it's noticeably faster.
bhousel 17y ago
The one thing that has me hooked on Firefox on mac is their multitouch gesture support. 3 finger swipe up/down - go to top/bottom of page 3 finger swipe left/right - go forward/back rotate - switch between open tabs Even safari doesn't support all of those..
- freddier 17y ago
  rotate? That doesn't seem to work for me. An special extension?
  - bhousel 17y ago
    hmm, this might be the answer: http://gizmodo.com/5305394/activate-multitouch-gestures-in-firefox-35 http://gizmodo.com/5305394/activate-multitouch-gestures-in-f... Maybe I needed to re-enable it a while ago and forgot.
MikeCapone 17y ago
My main browser on the Mac is now Chromium 35449 (very stable, and extensions work on it). Firefox has become what is was created to fight (at least on the Mac). Sad..
- 17y ago

grandalf 17y ago

I wish Firefox would adopt the single location/search field.

xiaoma 17y ago
Firefox lets you customize that. Here's what I do: 1) First, get rid of the search box. Go to View, then Toolbars, then Customize. That will pop up a box with all of the possible wigits you can select. Click on the search box in the upper right portion of your Firefox window and drag it into that box. 2) Now with the search box gone, the next step is to make the location bar act as one. To do this, type “about: config” into the location bar. Then select “keyword.url” and enter “http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=” http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=”. Now whatever you type into the location bar that’s not a URL will do a Google search. You have to exit and re-start Firefox for this to take effect.
- grandalf 17y ago
  thanks!
- diN0bot 17y ago
  furthermore, with the search box gone, apple-k (or ctrl-k or wahtever) will automatically load google search. (whereas before it would focus on the search box)
- daleharvey 17y ago
  I have been having a lot of problems with that recently, firefox or my dns have suddenly decided to try and go to keyword.com, without forwarding me, and sending http://keyword/ http://keyword/ as the header, which breaks most sites around
- ttam 17y ago
  That's pretty cool. How about using the keyboard to organize a tab, does anyone know if there's some config setting to re-enable this? Also, 3.6 seems to open new tabs exactly to the right of the current tab. Argh. I liked them at the end!
17y ago

imurray 17y ago

I was suffering horrible hangs will some sites updated, notably Facebook. On upgrading Firefox to 3.6 I had to edit the install.rdf of the "It's all text" extension to allow it to work. I noticed a comment on the Mozilla add-ons site saying that this extension could be the cause of the slowdowns. Anyway (with the hacked install.rdf) "It's all text" still works in Firefox 3.6 and my slow-downs have gone. Happy! I didn't want to swap to Chrome without "It's all text", noscript and adblock plus.

docwhat 17y ago
Hi! I'm working on making It's All Text! work with Firefox 3.6. If you have troubles (such as right clicking on gumdrops) then turning on "Remove all bugs" actually does what it says, for a change. o_O I looked at doing a chrome version of "It's all text!" but chrome doesn't have a way to launch an external application short of creating an NSPlugin. Which I'm not sure I want to have to support across all the chrome platforms.

Raphael 17y ago

Would it be possible for sites to impose a persona onto visitors, like http://www.getpersonas.com/ http://www.getpersonas.com/ does when you mouseover certain areas?

clofresh 17y ago

It's disappointing that Firefox 3.6 only supports Ogg for their <video> tag, especially since Youtube and Vimeo have started beta testing their html5 players.