Wow, Firefox became speedy in a post-1.1 alpha!


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I just made a complete uninstall and deletion of all old Firefox folders (but kept my profile directory) and downloaded and installed a Firefox 1.1 trunk build, dated 2005-07-03. Nowadays, since a few days back, fastback/forward is enabled by default and WOW, it's very fast, almost to the point of Opera back/forward speeds! :o And what surprised me more is that clicking on the tabs switched back and forth between pages much faster than before, or at least it seems so, and I don't use to feel placebo effects of the kind "1.0.3 feels faster than 1.0.2". I wonder if it's a side effect from the new fastback/forward system. Another nice thing is that tabs are now draggable too. :)

Just a heads up if anyone is willing to try out something far faster than 1.0.x, and even recent 1.1 trunk builds that didn't have this on by default and in case you haven't tried it. Firefox 1.1 is shaping up to be a pretty huge upgrade, but functionality and speed-wise. What 1.5 and 2.0 may bring is mind boggling. :D

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Deer Park Alpha 1, though old, was pretty stable for me. I tested a little and came to the conclusion that it was faster than IE starting up and loading several uncached pages.

1.1 will be a big improvment over 1.0.x (Y)

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Deer Park Alpha 1, though old, was pretty stable for me. I tested a little and came to the conclusion that it was faster than IE starting up and loading several uncached pages.

1.1 will be a big improvment over 1.0.x (Y)

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Good to hear :yes:

When's the planned release?

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you should post numbers otherwise it's all subjective.

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My testing was not extensive, so I have no reason to publish results which may vary depending on your system.

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I thought so too. I use the bangbang nightlys. The only problem is it still freezes momentarily when it draws the page.

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Deer Park Alpha 1, though old, was pretty stable for me. I tested a little and came to the conclusion that it was faster than IE starting up and loading several uncached pages.

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However to clarify I was talking about a build after that public alpha. One that has the fastback feature enabled by default since just days ago. Believe me, at tab switching via mouse or ctrl+tab, or going back/forward in pages with thumb buttons or keys/toolbar, Deer Park Alpha 1 will look sluggish compared to this build.

I think the public "Alpha 1" also had this feature, but it was more bugged and only possible to enable via about:config hacks.

Deer Park Alpha 2 is this week.

Thanks for that info, I was looking for it but couldn't find it before. :) I knew it was close though.

you should post numbers otherwise it's all subjective.

Prepare to get amazed when downloading Alpha 2 then, if you just used the default settings in Alpha 1 before, or had only used 1.0.x before. Believe me, you don't need numbers this time to tell it's not subjective. ;) E.g. back/forward is basically instantaneous as opposed to before, and this time it's an official new feature with a fixed bugzilla bug for it and all. These kind of changes are more doubtful when going from say 1.0.2 -> 1.0.3, because it's security fix releases and there should not possibly be speed increases there.

Besides, I know of no way of getting "numbers" for how quickly Firefox switch between tabs and go back/forward in page histories. I'd be delighted to post them though if there was.

The only problem is it still freezes momentarily when it draws the page.

Hmm, not for me... No freezes at all. :huh:

Edited by Jugalator
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Deer Park Alpha 2 is this week.

Firefox v1.1 final is planed for september.

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Thanks for the info. I can't wait. :D

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i am happy you said "ALMOST" because if it were as fast or faster than opera id have to change :p

opera forever

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I'm happy you're satisfied with your browser choice, although I don't see why you should go in this thread just to say you like Opera. Anyway, with the latest updates, I'm pretty sure Firefox 1.1 can fight with Opera speed wise better than ever before and I wouldn't be surprised if it's even ending up faster in some cases, and others not. If it goes that far, and it seems pretty darn close if not there already, the obvious choice for me would be Firefox; I sure ain't paying for no special speed difference and less features through lack of extensions. :)

How are your extentions working?

Not many at all. ;)

It's expected though, and common for pre-release software before many extension developers have bothered updating them.

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For me, it takes an extremely long time to load Firefox compared to IE. (Around 20 secs) Has this been fixed in the trunk builds?

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You must have a very slow computer then

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For me, it takes an extremely long time to load Firefox compared to IE. (Around 20 secs) Has this been fixed in the trunk builds?

20 seconds seems a bit ludicrous. My old PII 400mhz Gateway machine, bogged down with Windows98 as it is, starts Firefox (1.0, haven't been updating) up in about 5 seconds.

A nice list (of two dozen or so) updated extensions for Deer Park builds:

http://www.projects1.com/firefox/exthacks/...extensions.html

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Gave deep dark also a test run and was very impressed, looking forward to it.

Don't run it now because of the extensions...

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