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The More Popular the Browser, the Slower It Is
demishade writes "Peacekeeper, the browser benchmark from the makers of 3DMark, comes out of beta and shows an interesting (though perhaps not surprising) tidbit — the more popular a browser, the worse its performance. While it should not be surprising to anyone that IE slugs at the last place, the gap between Firefox and Chrome, is. Once IE's market share goes the way of the Dodo will web developers start cursing Firefox? How long until Google comes out with a JavaScript intensive application that will practically require Chrome to function?"
How long until Google comes out with a JavaScript intensive application that will practically require Chrome to function? It already exists, in the form of http://www.chromeexperiments.com/
Do the words "TraceMonkey" mean anything to the authors? It's the core Javascript engine of the upcoming revision of Firefox. And it is fast. Some benchmarks suggest that it is highly competitive with V8 (Chrome) and SquirrelFish (Safari).
(Speaking of which, isn't it a bit disingenous to compare Safari 4 BETA to the current version of Firefox? Why not compare the Firefox beta then? Smells of yeller-bellied journalism to me.)
Javascript is currently a hugely competitive area. Every browser revision is trying to boost performance. (Including Microsoft.) It only makes sense that the older and cruftier engines would have a harder time competing with the newer and more nimble engines created by these upstart competitors. However, with the exception of Microsoft who's stuck updating JScript (haha, bundle FAIL!), all the other competitors can and are swapping out engines for faster and faster performance.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Features create popularity, and popularity pushes for more features as users cry that the next browser over has something it doesn't. This create bloat.
Then again, over time, isn't this what happens with almost all software? They get more and more features as time goes by, and get bigger and consume more resources. Look at the size/requirements of any linux distro with a graphical system over the past 10 years.
No one wants to lose features, and users complain too much, so the only way to get a faster thing with less features is to fork it, or start anew (which is what the lesser popular browsers have often done).
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Either:
1) up and coming browser makers see speed as an easy differentiating factor and target their browser for it; or
2) Newer products tend to be faster since they have the older ones to compare to. And newer products also are "up and coming" and thus have lower uptake than "old and entrenched" ones. or;
3) the public puts very little value on browser speed. Those spending their resources optimizing for it rather than other features get few users as a result.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
You know when you try to use Google Reader and Google Mail and Google Anything on your browser with a poor Javascript engine (even the good ones occasionally fail), it sometimes blows up?
Yeah, the Google Web Toolkit (which I believe they are all using for a front end) basically produces code that produces one metric ton of Javascript and HTML that gets dumped on the client's browser. It's not just an application, it's a whole library of Java APIs that produces a ton of Javascript that could become the de facto standard one day. I'm betting it won't but I've asked why more sites aren't using it on Slashdot before.
At least Google eats their own dog food on a large scale.
My work here is dung.
I installed SRWare Iron the other day. According to the publishers, it's basically a Chrome de-Googlified with a few other downstream tweaks (eg using a slightly newer version of WebKit). It seems to run all right, but I'm still typing this on Firefox because Adblock trumps Chrome/Iron's performance & user interface design advantages.
I *like* Chrome/Iron, and when it gets a decent extensibility model I think it'll tear a huge hole in Firefox's market share - but until then, it's going to be not much more than a cool tech demo.
Sadly, half of the firefox plug-ins I now consider indispensable are the ones that disable functionality or return the user interface to an older style and functionality. Firefox was destined for bloat once they committed to building-in features that would have been more useful as pre-bundled, official extensions (like the anti-phishing technology).
Don't use plug-ins unless absolutely necessary. I just uninstalled a bunch of bloatware. One of those was NoScript because I felt it created more hassle than the advertising it blocked. Yes popups are annoying, but not as annoying as NoScript constantly disabling websites and me being forced to select "trusted site". It got to the point I was spending more time futzing-around with Noscript than with actually browsing the net.
Also I suspected NoScript of slowing down my computer as it gobbled more-and-more memory. Now the only plugins I use are a flash downloader for Youtube, and ImageZoom so I can see pics on Ebay more easily. That's it. And my broswer runs much better.
As for the article:
The conclusion is ridiculous because the sample size is too small. It's also ridiculous because those of use who remember the early 90s recall that Mosaic and Netscape Navigator were not only #1, but also extremely fast. QED the conclusion that a number one browser is slow.... is false.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I'm really surprised at the number of people who use noscript. Adblock is not surprising, since sites often fail to follow the common sense rules of advertising. But what is up with noscript? I've pretty much never had javascript freeze the page or anything of the sort. (On the other hand I don't use dialup). The security implications of letting javascript run are actually pretty minimal.
Now, as for flash adverts, I've never had an issue with the download size, although sound is an issue.
As for advertisements, if they fellow the following rules I don't mind them.
Rule 1: The advertisment must be on the relevant page.
Rule 2: The advertisement must remain entirely within a rectangle on the page that does not overlap the page content.
Rule 3: The advertisements must be reasonably sized.
Rule 4: While animation is permissible, rapid flickering of any sort is not permissible, nor is automatically playing video. Playing video as a result of clicking on the advertisement is acceptable, as is a limited amount of automatic pre-buffering.
Rule 5: Sound is not permissible.
Rule 6: If a user chooses to interact with the advertisement by clicking on it. (Simply moving the mouse over it is not sufficient), the advertisement may do any of the above.
Rule 7: Automatic video playing and audio are permissible despite rules 4 and 5 if the advertisements are part of video playback.
Rule 1 explanation: It must not be a popup or pop-under.
Rule 2 explanation: None of those flash adds that project an appendage over the page, that can only be closed after the animation is finished, and usually by explicitly clicking on some part of the advertisement. Further, no pseudo-popups (utiling CSS to create what looks like a popup, but is actually part of the page), unless they do not cover the page content.
Rule 3 explanation: Non of those double height horizontal advertisements.
Rule 4 explanation: Those flicking adverts are obnoxious. Actual video can be processor intensive. However reasonable vector based animation is fine.
Rule 5 explanation: Obvious.
Rule 6 explanation: Once a user clicks on the advertisement, it may play video, play audio, overlap the page, etc.
Rule 7 explanation: That is to say, that advertisements like Hulu's and ABC.com's Full episode player are permissible.
However, there are all too many advertisements that violate those rules, which is why I do run adblock.
Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
I keep thinking that we need a forum to discuss slashdot, but I've never seen one.
When I created Seen on Slash a few years ago I thought the forum might become a place for slashdotters to discuss slashdot. We get some decent traffic to the rest of the site, but the forums never caught on.
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