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Firefox 4 RC Vs. IE9 RC: the First Duel

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the there-will-be-many-more dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Firefox 4 vs. IE9 is going to be an epic battle in a reigniting browser war in which Microsoft wants its IE to be seen as a capable browser again. Mozilla struggled to keep the pace with Chrome and IE9, but is about to release the first release candidate, which is expected to be the final version of Firefox 4 as well. This first review of JavaScript, Flash and HTML5 tests seems to indicate that both browsers are about even at the bottom line, while Firefox has the JavaScript edge and IE is ahead in HTML5 performance."

8 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Quick, run the Fishtank Test by cyclocommuter · · Score: 3, Informative

    The last time somebody tested these browsers using Microsoft's Fishtank, Firefox 4 Beta won. I wonder who wins the Fishtank test this time.

    1. Re:Quick, run the Fishtank Test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The fish tank test is basically a test of "do you have HW acceleration?". Chrome releases don't actually have it turned on by default yet.

    2. Re:Quick, run the Fishtank Test by SirMasterboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Huh? Chrome runs 1000 fish at 60fps for me... Maybe you have GPU acceleration turned off?

      about:flags to enable it.

  2. One final test... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    For 100 points, does your browser run on the huge installed base of WindowsXP?

    Dang, we'll be limited to IE8 features until at least 2013...

  3. Re:What?? by jdgeorge · · Score: 3, Informative

    Poster misunderstood the changing Firefox release strategy

    The expectation is an increased number of Firefox releases after version 4, but the changes between any two releases may not be as dramatic as the current approach.

  4. Re:I don't use Firefox for performance reasons... by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 5, Informative

    I also use it mainly because I use a mix of Windows, Mac, and linux systems in both my day job and at home. I like having one common browser with plug-ins that work well on each platform.

  5. Re:What?? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Informative

    "which is expected to be the final version of Firefox as well."

    What the hell is with the summaries lately?

    Maybe it's been edited since you saw it, but right now it says "which is expected to be the final version of Firefox 4 as well." I agree that it's pretty poorly worded, but it should be obvious enough that it means that the release candidate will become the 4.0 release (i.e. they aren't planning another release candidate).

  6. Re:Anyone else slightly bored of the browser wars? by the_womble · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are a lot of stability (e.g. multiple processes for crash isolation), UI, and extension differences between browsers and advances in all those areas.

    I see performance problems with FF when scrolling very large pages, and when switching tabs with many tabs open. Will the improvements in FF4 help that.

    I use Linux so IE9 is not an alternative anyway. Chromium will be once it has an extension to match Tree Style Tabs.