Advocating Linux, Java and Mac » Firefox

GetFirefox!

rom — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 23:01:30 +0000

Need I say more?

Technorati Tags: firefox

Shiira, Opera and Flock 0.7.7 benchmarked

rom — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 07:48:57 +0000

I have been using Safari and Camino after the benchmark I did. Today, I figured that it might be more interesting to add another WebKit-based web browser, Shiira and one of the fastest free web browsers in the market today, Opera. Flock 0.7.7 was just released so I added it to complete the table. I wish that OmniWeb is free so I can add it to my possible candidate for every day web browsing (maybe Omnigroup will give me a free license, who knows?).

*Javascript Benchmark (in seconds)*
Browser	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Test 4	Test 5	Test 6	Test 7
Safari	0.703	0.415	0.375	0.516	0.138	1.428	0.155
Firefox 2.0	1.337	2.476	2.924	0.631	0.178	1.936	0.553
Camino 1.1a1	1.661	0.313	0.706	0.902	0.154	1.772	0.565
Flock 0.7.7Nightly	1.282	5.537	0.602	0.658	0.183	2.131	0.711
Opera 9.02(90.2)	2.03	1.076	0.561	0.393	0.1	2.045	0.263
Flock 0.7.7	1.311	5.231	0.536	0.562	0.178	2.039	0.687
Shiira 1.2.2	0.86	0.362	0.358	0.487	0.125	1.355	0.142

So, maybe I’ll give Shiira a spin for a couple of days.

Technorati Tags: camino, firefox, flock, omniweb, opera, safari, shiira

Another Javascript Speed Test for Web browsers

rom — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:24:49 +0000

With new web browsers available, I figured that it may be a good idea to see how they perform using a common benchmark.

*Javascript Benchmark (in seconds)*
Browser	Test 1	Test 2	Test 3	Test 4	Test 5	Test 6	Test 7
Safari	0.703	0.415	0.375	0.516	0.138	1.428	0.155
Firefox 2.0	1.337	2.476	2.924	0.631	0.178	1.936	0.553
Camino 1.1a1	1.661	0.313	0.706	0.902	0.154	1.772	0.565
Flock 0.7.7Nightly	1.282	5.537	0.602	0.658	0.183	2.131	0.711

I intentionally did not include Internet Exploder 7 because [1] it is not available on the Mac and [2] even if it is, I refuse to use it.

I have Safari set as default but I also use Firefox 2.0 and Camino 1.1a1 because Safari does not support the online editor used by WordPress. It is a good thing that my online banks such as Citibank and BPI Express Online are now supported by all four browsers (including Flock) unlike PNB’s Internet Banking, which, like the rest of the “bureaucrazy“, only supports IE.

I like Flock, if only it is as fast and as stable as Safari and Camino with the flexibility of Firefox 2.0!

Technorati Tags: camino, firefox, flock, safari

Back to basics

rom — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:16:21 +0000

Now that there is an intel-build of ecto 2 (cannot wait for ecto 3), I have decided to go back to basics – using ecto and safari as my main browser. I have flock, firefox and camino waiting on the side, of course.

Safari is blazingly fast and can compete against the speed of camino, firefox and flock. I am hoping that camino releases its firefox 2.0-based version and/or flock releases version 1.0, which is based on firefox 2.0 as well. Safari, otoh, will be updated along with Leopard and mind you, Safari 3.0 is almost twice as fast as Safari 2.

How about you? What is your browser of choice today?

Technorati Tags: ecto, camino, flock, firefox, safari

Flock goes back to 0.7.0.x branch

rom — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 04:38:06 +0000

If you notice the version above and you see that their website says 0.7.4.1, you will wonder why the nightly build above reverted back to 0.7.0.x branch. Well, this nightly build is based on Firefox 2.0 beta 1. Interesting, isn’t it? The FF features such as anti-phishing are now included along with some new UI.

Even the services were improved – notice Webshots and YouTube? Also, the blog editor looks different.

I am writing this not on Flock 0.7.0.99 but on the last posted 0.7.4.1 build (based on FF 1.5.0.6) since the FF 2.0-based version still has a lot of bugs. I am sure that it will not take that long for the Flock team to improve it. I cannot wait to download the next FF 2.0-based Flock.

technorati tags:flock, firefox, browser

Blogged with Flock

Firefox eats up on IE marketshare

rom — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:31:59 +0000

In the U.S., Firefox’s claim is even larger, with 15.8% in July up from 14.1% at the end of last year, according to Web analytics firm OneStat.
Mozilla Gains On Microsoft – Forbes.com

This is only on the PC. IE has long been kicked out of the Mac OS X realm after Apple released Safari and Firefox and Camino started getting its share.

I am excited to see how IE7 and Firefox 2 (and 3) performs head-to-head. What the heck, who cares about IE anyway?! Hahaha

technorati tags:firefox

Blogged with Flock

Another browser test

rom — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:28:01 +0000

Well, the conclusion is quite clear: Opera beat the shit out of everything else. It’s more than 3.5 times faster than all of the other competing browsers. Your mileage may vary based on your machine and version of browser. Although the conditions of the test are not typical of the average webpage, there are webpages, like Digg, that are extremely Javascript-intensive, and the difference in Javascript speeds would be very noticeable. Perhaps a test like this will convince someone to switch to Opera for performance reasons. I cannot explain why Opera’s Javascript is so much quicker than the other two browsers — perhaps someone would like to contact me with an answer. For now, I believe I’ll still stick to my Firefox because of its extensions and interface — but this test will certainly give me reason to look further into converting to Opera.
Celtic Kane Online – Javascript Speed Tests

I have tried running the test using Flock 0.7.4.1 and I average between 1300 and 1450, which is still very fast compared to Firefox 1.5 and IE6. Camino does 800-900, which is really amazing compared to Firefox. However, Safari is close to Opera on this test, averaging 520. Amazing, huh? I wonder how IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 2 and Flock 1.0 will perform.

technorati tags:flock, camino, safari, opera

Blogged with Flock

Flock 0.7.4.1

rom — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:06:59 +0000

Hi Folks,

We’ve deployed the 0.7.4 incremental release for download. Notable fixes/enhancements are incorporating Mozilla’s FireFox 1.5.0.5 security patch and enabling Internationalization. The localization teams are working very hard to have localized version of Flock available over the next several days/weeks.

From the release notes:

Based on FireFox 1.5.0.5

Internationalization Support

Fixed drag and drop issue with dragging URLs or XPI files to the browser window

Handle HTTP authentication properly in feed discovery

Display top 4 results from Yahoo! instead of 5

Added EULA to Mac distribution

We plan on turning on the automatic updates for 0.7.x users in a day or so.

Thx,

Mike

I just upgraded Flock to this release so keep up with the bug fixes introduced by Firefox 1.5.0.5. Hope to see the automated updating feature soon.

technorati tags:flock

Blogged with Flock

Flock 0.7.3

rom — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:34:44 +0000

I am test driving Flock again with the latest version 0.7.3 (beta 1?). Anyway, I think it is almost “there”, if you know what I mean.

Click on the image, it is hosted by Zoomr, another photo-sharing site that I am testing.

technorati tags:flock, zooomr

Blogged with Flock

Firefox Usage Passes 15 Percent in US

rom — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:22:51 +0000

BetaNews | Firefox Usage Passes 15 Percent in US:

Apple’s Safari retained its number three position behind IE and Firefox, accounting for 1.84 percent of the browser market around the world. In the United States, where Apple primarily focuses, Safari holds a usage share of 3.28 percent. AOL’s Netscape, which is now based on Firefox, is the fifth top browser with a 0.16 percent share.

This is really great news! Firefox is eating up on MS IE’s share and I am sure that version 2.0 will run circles around IE 7! It is also a good thing that Apple’s Safari is gaining market share. Unfortunately, Safari 3 (with Mac OS X 10.5 to announced next month) should catch up and improve on the features available on Firefox… or better yet, dump KHTML in favor of a Firefox Gecko-engine.

Technorati Tags: Firefox