firefox Waterfox vs Firefox; noticeable (speed) differences

[kiddingguy]

I have installed Waterfox 18.0.1 (64bit's Firefox).

I was wondering, since FF is already at version 19/20ish... is there a real (speed) difference between Waterfox and FF on 64-bit machines? And if so, what can be noticed in daily usage of that browser?

[Marshall Veteran]

I had Waterfox for a while and saw no performance increases. If anything, it was slower.

The developer of Waterfox doesn't change any of the code, he just recompiles it for the latest stable release in x64 bit mode. The last update to Waterfox was a little over 2 months ago. Makes me wonder if the developer is abandoning the project.

[kiddingguy]

So I can use FF with the same performance? And being all the time up-to-date with the latest versions?

[Marshall Veteran]

Absolutely.

Or if you want to go to a snappier version of FF, try out the Nightly builds. They're beta/test versions but seem speedier and I haven't had any hiccups with them.

[kiddingguy]

Thx for the tip, but the stable ones will do... the nightlys will soon become stable builds :)

[Andre S. Veteran]

If you're using Windows, try PaleMoon. It's not 64-bit, but it's built to be as optimal as possible on Windows.

[f0rk_b0mb]

I saw a pretty good increase while useing waterfox.

[Marshall Veteran]

I saw a pretty good increase while useing waterfox.

You "saw," as in pretense. Can I ask why you strayed away from it, if in fact you did?

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

If you're using Windows, try PaleMoon. It's not 64-bit, but it's built to be as optimal as possible on Windows.

Palemoon does have a 64 Bit Version.

http://www.palemoon.org/palemoon-x64.shtml

I saw a pretty good increase while useing waterfox.

The trouble with waterfox is that it uses your Firefox Profile where Palemoon does not.

[Semtex]

Firefox can be so fast as forks, just google "how to speedup Firefox", there are few nice and easy tweaks for about:config, adding one or two new values,. enabling pipelining, add http://kb.mozillazine.org/Nglayout.initialpaint.delay , move Your browser cache to RAM if 2GB+ and Firefox get "new life" ;)

[f0rk_b0mb]

You "saw," as in pretense. Can I ask why you strayed away from it, if in fact you did?

I have no proof for this, but this is just what I notice. I will try out the nightlies, tho and post my verdict here.

[Boo Berry]

There's also Cyberfox, which is a x64 compile of Firefox and it updated within a day or so of Firefox updates.

[Elliot B.]

I saw a pretty good increase while useing waterfox.

How can you be sure it wasn't a placebo?

[Max Norris]

Never had much luck with x64 builds of Firefox either. They work without issue, just have yet to see one that's actually faster than the official x86 builds. At least on my system they typically come up a bit slower under the various benchmarks, both Windows and Linux.. just hasn't been optimized to take advantage of x64 I guess.

Or if you want to go to a snappier version of FF, try out the Nightly builds. They're beta/test versions but seem speedier and I haven't had any hiccups with them.

Ditto this, version 21 and 22 got quite snappy.. definitely worth a look if you're wanting to pick up the performance a bit. Just out of curiosity though, are jumplists working for you if you're using Windows? Since mid-February they've been completely non-functional for me on both 7 and 8.. not positive but might have been when they included the Metro support with it. Rolled back to 20 (beta) for the time being as I use the jumplists rather frequently.

[Marshall Veteran]

Never had much luck with x64 builds of Firefox either. They work without issue, just have yet to see one that's actually faster than the official x86 builds. At least on my system they typically come up a bit slower under the various benchmarks, both Windows and Linux.. just hasn't been optimized to take advantage of x64 I guess.

Ditto this, version 21 and 22 got quite snappy.. definitely worth a look if you're wanting to pick up the performance a bit. Just out of curiosity though, are jumplists working for you if you're using Windows? Since mid-February they've been completely non-functional for me on both 7 and 8.. not positive but might have been when they included the Metro support with it. Rolled back to 20 (beta) for the time being as I use the jumplists rather frequently.

No, jump lists aren't working since updating to v. 22. I even tried the change in configuration files suggested via google search to no avail. Win 7 x64 btw.

[Max Norris]

No, jump lists aren't working since updating to v. 22. I even tried the change in configuration files suggested via google search to no avail. Win 7 x64 btw.

Same, Win7 x64 for this particular setup. Well at least it's not something on my end then, thanks, hopefully they'll get it worked out sooner or later.

[f0rk_b0mb]

Ok just switched back to firefox from chrome not too long ago, and firefox does seem a little faster than waterfox. The last version of FF I used was v. 5. lol!