Web Browsers News and Reviews

Performance: Firefox vs. Safari vs. Google Chrome vs. Opera

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:52:33 +0000

It’s time to run one of the most popular JavaScript performance tools: SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark.

We will be testing Firefox 3.0.4, Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, Safari 3.2, WebKit r38794, Google Chrome 0.4.154.29, Opera 9.62 and Opera 10 Alpha 1 builds.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Final Results

Lower is better.

Tests were running on fresh Windows XP SP3 and web browsers installations. Results are quite strange though.

Lowest ms - WebKit r38794 (best?)
Highest ms - Google Chrome 0.4.154.29 (worst?)

Opera 10 Alpha 1 Released

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:40:59 +0000

This is it folks, the first official Opera 10 build is here! I can’t wait to try it. Quick changelog:

Presto 2.2 Engine
Performance boost
100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
Auto-update
Inline spelling checker
Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
Widget Improvements on Linux

For mode details, check this post.

Block Flash on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera

Vygantas Lipskas — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:11:03 +0000

If you are being annoyed by flashy and sparkling flash objects which just loads your CPU with no good reason and looking for any ways to block them, then we have a solution for you. Of course, you could just uninstall Adobe Flash Player, but this is not a good idea, unless you are not using anything flash related (YouTube.com for example).

Another solution is to install simple flash block plugin for Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera.

Flashblock for Internet Explorer
Flashblock is an extension for Internet Explorer that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash / Shockwave content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to view the Flash content.

Flashblock for Firefox 1.5 - 3.1
Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content.

Flashblock currently blocks the following content types:
* Macromedia Flash
* Macromedia Shockwave
* Macromedia Authorware

Flashblock for Opera 9
Replaces Flash objects with a button you can click to view them. Two variants: with text and graphic buttons. And simple variant, without buttons.

Opera Financials, Q3 2008

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:24:20 +0000

Opera Software has released its third quarter financial results.

Main highlights:

Mobile:
58 new phones with Opera pre-installed, including 16 new phones with Opera Mobile and 42 with Opera Mini
Opera Mobile shipments pre-installed: 8 million

Opera Desktop:
Desktop users grew by 20% in 3Q (up 40% from end 2007)

Opera Mini:
21 million monthly users of Opera Mini in October 2008 (up over 300% vs October 2007), which generated over 5 billion viewed pages (up over 400% vs October 2007)
Opera Mini now generates over 70M MB of data traffic to 500 operators in 150+ countries every month

Revenue:
NOK MILLION 124.7 (+53% vs 3Q07)
NOK MILLION 340.2 (+53% vs. 9M07)

View Third quarter presentation

Browser Head to Head: Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Flock

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:46:30 +0000

An article on 3 web browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome and Flock. Safari and Opera were left behind.

Read the article.

There were few interesting comments on that article though. For example:

“Opera hasn’t changed, there’s nothing new or exciting, nothing to talk about. People don’t ignore Opera, they just don’t really care about it.”

While this is not 100% correct, I actually find it true when viewing all the “browser war” and/or web development related articles around the web.

Firefox Grabs 20% Market Share

Vygantas Lipskas — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:23:00 +0000

For the first time in history, Firefox has reached and stayed above 20% market share mark. This is a great victory for both, developers and its fans.

Next stop is 50%

Firefox 32 bit (x86) vs. Firefox 64 bit (x64)

Vygantas Lipskas — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:08:56 +0000

If you are looking to download Firefox 64 bit, then this is the right place to start. But first, let’s check some benchmarks to see if 64bit Firefox has any performance advantages against Firefox 32bit.

3.0 (x86) vs 3.1 (x64)

Lower is better

Ubuntu 8.04 TLS on AMD Turion 64 1.8GHz

Lower is better

15% faster JPEG decoding on Windows x64 with IJG’s JPEG library

Lower is better

As you can see, 64 bit builds indeed has an advantage against 32 bit builds.

In case you would like to download older Firefox 3.1 or 3.0 64 bit releases, check this page
Otherwise, you might be interested in this: How To Build Windows x64 Build

Mozilla’s Financials; Planned Growth in 2009

Vygantas Lipskas — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:41:16 +0000

In an email to his staff on Mozilla’s Financials which was sent on October 10, 2008, John Lilly also revealed its future expectations for the year 2009.

To summarize everything:

Mozilla intends to grow by 75 in 2009.
Mozilla is break even.
Mozilla believes Google Chrome could reach 7% market share next year.

For a full email, feel free to check this post.

Opera Mini 4.2 Released

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:41:31 +0000

Opera Mini 4.2 Final was just released which features some great new features and performance improvements. With the release, new promotional video was made as well.

What’s new?

Skins - Personalize Opera Mini by choosing a new colorful skin.
Video - We are working to make video content available on more phones through Opera Mini.
Performance - Opera Mini 4.2 can use our newly established server park in the US. This means significantly faster page page downloads for users in the Americas and Asia-Pacific region.
Sync your Notes

Changes since beta:

Small font now contains Cyrillic
Some language fixes
Bugfixes based on your feedback

Unfortunately, the final version doesn’t load on my Samsung SGH 700 phone (Loading screen stucks), although beta was working fine.

Download Opera Mini 4.2

Add-on-Con

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:40:56 +0000

For the first time in history, on December 11th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the conference will be held dedicated to web browsers add-ons. People from Google, Microsoft and Mozilla will come together to discuss the future of web browsing.

Platinum Sponsors: Microsoft, Mozilla

For Agenda and Registration, please check their home page.