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Firefox 3.5RC2 Performance In Windows Vs. Linux

Posted by timothy on from the tradeoffs-and-tradeoffs dept.

pizzutz writes "Andy Lawrence has posted a Javascript speed comparison for the recently released Firefox 3.5RC2 between Linux (Ubuntu 9.04) and Windows(XP SP3) using the SunSpider benchmark test. Firefox 3.5 will include the new Tracemonkey Javascript engine. The Windows build edges out Linux by just under 15%, though the Linux build is still twice as fast as the current 3.0.11 version which ships with Jaunty."

7 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Don't benchmark it on Ubuntu by petrus4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ubuntu typically has everything but the kitchen sink running in the background; it's even worse than XP for frivolous defaults.

    Get Slackware, or something else minimalistic, where you're likely to have a marginal amount of memory left after the operating system and residents are loaded in. ;)

  2. Re:But why? by moon3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The problem is that GCC is pretty much the only compiler on Linux used these days and while the code is very nice C++ compilers on Windows produce a bit better code still.

    But when I mention Watcom C++ or other aspiring open source compiler here, a compiler that could possibly interest Linux community and spawn some competition for GCC then I get modded down often by people citing GCC is good enough for everybody and everything.

  3. Re:My problem with Firefox is this by pablomme · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But on Linux, it is inherently ugly. The beast looks ancient and the fonts and dialogs make matters worse.

    Widgets and dialogs, ok, that's your aesthetic preference. But fonts? After a couple of years using Ubuntu I hate how Windows fonts look pixelated even with Cleartype on. Freetype is much better at its job than Cleartype. If only because of that, I prefer the looks of Firefox on linux than on Windows.

    --
    The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
  4. Re:Where's the proof that GCC is solely to blame? by characterZer0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why can't they just use Intel's compiler?

    --
    Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
  5. Re:But why? by guyniraxn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What if we threw SwiftFox in to the comparison?

  6. Re:Where's the proof that GCC is solely to blame? by mR.bRiGhTsId3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Its my understanding that a bunch of the firefox core is written in C++. ICC uses a different name mangling scheme that GCC, so you can't link C++ code compiled with ICC with code compiled by GCC.

  7. Re:But why? by electrosoccertux · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It feels just as slow. It's not just Gnome, it's slow in KDE and XFCE, too.
    It is currently faster to run Firefox.exe under Wine than it is to run it native in Linux. (Yes I have tried this, the difference is night and day; it's just as fast in Wine as it is in windows).