RSSNow you can expect that 250% speed blast from Firefox 3.5 RC1
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published June 17, 2009, 5:40 PM
Last week, we reported that the first public users of the first Mozilla Firefox 3.5 release candidate could expect two-and-one-half times the speed of Firefox 3.0.10 right after installation. But we also thought that the RC was coming within mere hours. As it turned out, the organization released a stand-in called "Beta 99" instead, with a warning that it may not have received the full array of testing a release candidate should require.
Since that time, Firefox 3.0 has had one update of its own. But yesterday, Mozilla made the final build of 3.5 RC1 publicly available (the numbering indicating that there may yet be an "RC2"). So after a fresh round of tests, we can report the following: RC1 will provide Windows XP SP3 users with 251.5% the speed of version 3.0.11, will give Vista SP2 users 244.7% the speed, and will give Windows 7 RC users 239.6% the speed of the current stable edition.
Now, let me be clear (or rather, clearer than I was last time) as to what that means: This means that users will notice JavaScript processing and CSS rendering that users will see will be two-and-one-half times faster in the new Firefox Release Candidate than they would experience with the same content rendered in Firefox 3.0.11.
When you take standards adherence into account, Firefox 3.5 RC1 scores a 7.57 on our current physical performance index in Windows Vista SP2 -- meaning, we estimate RC1 to be 757% the browser that Internet Explorer 7 used to be on that platform (not IE8, which has more than double IE7's performance). This compared to a 3.80 score for Firefox 3.0.11 in Vista. In Windows 7, RC1 turned in an 8.81 on our index versus 4.37 for 3.0.11, although later daily private builds of 3.5 and 3.6 turned in slightly better performance scores -- typically, they decline a bit. And on XP SP3, RC1 turns in a 9.86 on our index versus 3.0.11's score of 4.65.
Yesterday was also the day Opera Software updated its beta of the Opera 10 browser, this time to include the new Opera Unite server-in-a-browser feature. How much of a performance hit did Opera 10 Beta build 1589 suffer on account of that new feature?
Almost none at all in Windows XP, with an updated performance score there of 5.22 versus 5.26 for the previous build. Windows 7 RC performance actually improved by a tick-and-a-half, with an updated score of 5.49 versus 5.33 for the prior build. But Vista performance actually suffered slightly, with a new score of 4.99 supplanting the older build's 5.09. And you read those numbers correctly: Opera 10 Beta currently runs faster in Windows 7 RC than in Windows XP SP3.
For those of you who've been wondering...How well did IE7 (the earlier edition of Microsoft's browser) score in XP SP3, versus Vista? We can't run IE7 (reliably) in Windows 7, so we haven't been able to use that as a benchmark for how much faster applications can run in Win7 than Vista. But in XP, IE7 turned in an index score of 1.09, and was typically 12% faster than in Vista. On average, browsers we've tested run 27% faster on XP SP3 than Vista SP1.
from now on , show points of all OSes , i was shocked that last post gave 9 points in Xp and now i saw 8 , lol then i realized it was of Win 7
Please make a simpler Graph
...
Glad to see Firefox is going gr8 , just needs a new skin , not an icon ;)
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|super happy about this for end users of my web apps, though i wont be adopting it as my daily driver.
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|I think the time has come to drop IE7 as a baseline.
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|I am sorry I cannot download from the link. Below message is given to fix the cause "You don't have permission to access /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.5rc1/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 3.5 RC 1.exe on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.gtlib.gatech.edu Port 80"
Where can I download?
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|Wunnerful. Thrilling. Exciting. How about the ZillaLand team work on something REALLY worthwhile like a TRUE sustainable architecture that doesn't break plugins with each point release.
The juvenility of the project continues to shine through, even after three major revisions.
For the record, I AM a FF user but I'm tired of project-management-by-thirteen-year-olds.
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|Very easy to 'fix' the pugins if a release breaks them. I have some FF1.x ones working fine under 3.0.xx.
Full details via Google, natch.
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|Too much data for one graph IMO. I would honestly suggest three different graphs, one for each of the three OS' in question. I presume the black numbers next to the bars is an average across the three OS'?
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|I'd like your graphs even more if you made them flatter instead of this weird 3D angle.
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|I like the graph myself.
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|Me too, I really love your graphs! Thanks for making them, Betanews! :D
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|Don't listen to the moaners who post here, I like your graphs, and your conclusions. However have to say having used this Firefox since you made it available to me yesterday ( incidentally thanks for that) it does not appear any faster than the last version, or the version before that, but it's a nice browser and as of today it will be my default browser of the week.
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|This story was posted yesterday, but I see on the Mozilla forums that the RC1 even now still hasn't been released and everyone's jumped the gun.
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|I return to ask ... Why at the bar graphic the browser "Google Chrome 3" is not referenced as beta version? or is "Google Chrome 3" a stable version?
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|seems pretty fast in my opinion and is bit faster than chrome and much much faster than ie.
however i do like chrome's graphical interface. seems cleaner, leaner and lighter. i also like the startup page with the little web page pre-views.
i think firefox needs to do some redesigning as it looks too much like an older version of i.e. with yahoo tattoo'd all over it.
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|I beg Mozilla not to add anything of the sort, at least in a default state of the browser.
When I start my browser, I want my tabs, and nothing but my tabs. I don't want a "preview" or an animation showing me virtual space, or what it thinks are my favorite sites. This is not productive to me. I know exactly where and what I want when I open that browser. 9 illegible screens is definitely not part of that.
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|Your graphs need work. Vertical spacing? clarity?
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|not to mention accuracy and relevance
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