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Web Browser Grand Prix 2: Running The Linux Circuit

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The article that I was waiting for.How the tables have turned!
Conclusion:Firefox is quite capable in both Linux and Windows.
I'm using Firefox 4 beta and I find it pretty quick.
 
[citation][nom]weirdguy99[/nom]Why not put firefox 4 into the equation?[/citation]
[citation][nom]micr0be[/nom]yes i would have loved to have seen the firefox 4 beta with the results. although great article.[/citation]
When it's final, I'll test it.
 
Opera Turbo feature, is not mentioned here, it can boost speed in real surf. And also when we open a closed tab in Opera it opens them instantly, that's why Opera holds memory for closed, tab.
 
Opera still can't render pages properly, still can't print content properly, and we waste our time with senseless tests of imperceptible speed.
 
[citation][nom]arnweb[/nom]Opera Turbo feature, is not mentioned here, it can boost speed in real surf. And also when we open a closed tab in Opera it opens them instantly, that's why Opera holds memory for closed, tab.[/citation]
Opera Turbo increases page load times on slow connections.On my 2Mbps connection the time in which Opera Turbo connects to its servers is the time in which Google loads in Firefox.
 
I still don't see a point of this test especially as hardware gets better and better. Computer which runs on SSD or Raid SSD with 20Mb/s Internet Connection don't matter what browser you're on cause you can't see a damn difference.
 
Then all browsers lie except Opera hehehe, don't blame me, or whatever, that don't change the result: The fast browser in the knowing universe.
 
I guess the tab recycle bin is responsible for high opera mem usage even after the tabs are closed. however I have not yet found a way to disable it so it gets to normal memory management. however I love the feature, to the mem issue is not that big a deal for me...

also this is a nitpick, but please do name the article the ubuntu circuit. I do not think the results will be 100% identical on other linux distros.

 
Looks like if you have a system with less ram FF is your choice browser. But overall it is stomped by Chrome.

I too am using FF4 beta. It is noticeably faster with page load times than FF3. But I agree about only testing final releases.

Thanks Adam Overa for including Linux in the Grand Prix.
 
haplo602 +1
Correct depends on GCC version installed + lots of other factors and source compile or bin and who / what did the bin on what config.

With Mozilla now using gcc 4.5.* the 3.6.6 firefox is slower than ie6 in xp.
Upgraded to 3.5.11 and 3.0.18 on 2 xp boxes I have from 3.6.6 , about to do the same in my linux boxes.

The gcc 4.5.* optimization issues is bitting hard on Mozilla.

Firefox 4 beta has same gcc 4.5.* issues = slow.

Someone at Mozilla will have to source build a complete gcc 4.5.* distro and build it about 3 times over on same code to make sure all is included / properly optimized + pray it is working correctly.

Arch linux had GCC 4.5.* integrated already so should be a good place for mozilla to start from.

Can not stand Opera appearance and layout too much vista / win7 feel. Used to love opera way back just after we lost netscape.

Nice to see Opera coming back in win + lin.
 
[citation][nom]ta152h[/nom]Does Linux even matter? Outside of hippies, does anyone use it?[/citation]

LOL good question.
With Win vista annoying so many a lot of people jumped to linux dual boot or just linux. Win7 has caused another major wave of new linux users + recession made allot of people think about $500 for Microsoft office that messes up their old word documents ect and free openoffice / koffice etc. in linux.

So free properly working office pc operating system + office apps so might as well go linux instead of $1300 to win7 replace 90% of your software and pray it works + then still loose half your data with win7 issues / bugs.

And you can do this from a live cd or dvd no need to install makes it very attractive. Can also read / write to ntfs hfs+ and other partitions even with vista / win7 locks enabled, makes getting to your data and formating your win7 much easier when vista /win7 constantly fails to works / boot.

Linux is good not great not excellent but for office use 100 times better than Vista /win7.
Gaming in linux is still bad or about the same as Vista / win7 so have to dual boot and play game in XP.
 
@lucideer
I hear ya, I hear all of ya, promise. This article HAD to match WBGP2 in order to do the comparison - any cool, do-able changes suggested in the comments of WBGP2 and WBGP2:Linux will occur for WBGP3, if humanly possible. They're not useless, I'm sure 4GB is about the average amount for TH readers. Also, we did remove the memory testing and standards testing results from the final speed-only result, we left them in for the overall results. So there are two finals, if you don't like the memory testing, ignore the overall winner and go with the speed king.
 
[citation][nom]Sihastru[/nom]Opera still can't render pages properly, still can't print content properly, and we waste our time with senseless tests of imperceptible speed.[/citation]
What pages does Opera improperly render, and are those pages properly formated HTML/CSS? I mean, I could surely generate a webpage FireFox "improperly" renders. Let me just fire-up FrontPage...

I agree that these imperceptible speed differences don't mean much, except to the companies touting themselves as the worlds fastest web browsers. When they all stop marketing themselves in that manner, I would then expect Tom's to stop testing as such.
 
[citation][nom]WarraWarra[/nom]LOL good question.With Win vista annoying so many a lot of people jumped to linux dual boot or just linux. Win7 has caused another major wave of new linux users + recession made allot of people think about $500 for Microsoft office that messes up their old word documents ect and free openoffice / koffice etc. in linux. So free properly working office pc operating system + office apps so might as well go linux instead of $1300 to win7 replace 90% of your software and pray it works + then still loose half your data with win7 issues / bugs.And you can do this from a live cd or dvd no need to install makes it very attractive. Can also read / write to ntfs hfs+ and other partitions even with vista / win7 locks enabled, makes getting to your data and formating your win7 much easier when vista /win7 constantly fails to works / boot.Linux is good not great not excellent but for office use 100 times better than Vista /win7.Gaming in linux is still bad or about the same as Vista / win7 so have to dual boot and play game in XP.[/citation]

the good thing is that most Open Office will satisfy fully most peoples home-office needs . for free . and it definitely does not suck .
 
Recently jumped to linux again for research. A lot of my peers are doing the same, they are not putting up with windows at least for their personal machines. For games, I will keep dozing for now, until choices open up, and no consoles for me please.
 

That's pretty pathetic.

On the one hand, you disqualify Opera for properly handling nonsensical JS/DOM stuff which the other engines are too stupid to handle properly. Mozilla even acknowledged the problem and fixed the test!

Then, on the other hand, you keep using the V8 benchmark even though that benchmark was designed to run better in Chrome than in other browsers! Why are you using a benchmark Google is basically cheating at, while bashing Opera and claiming that it's cheating when it clearly isn't?


How so? You aren't even comparing the memory usage properly. You are, for example, ignoring the fact that Opera caches a lot of stuff to increase performance (not just page rendering, but UI, reopening of tabs, etc.).
 
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