Safari 3.1 to Bring Performance Boosts ("Snappier")

I like using the nightlies have been doing so for quite a long time now.

I use NightShift to download and install it automatically everynight. I use Lingon to launch Nightshift at a specified time.

There are nightlies of FF which apparently are fast also.

I saw the article on 9to5mac and decided to check it out. It's extremely fast! If you want to see some real specs on how fast it is, open up the new WebKit and Safari 3, and run the Slickspeed tests. Firefox comes in at 344, Safari at 155, and Webkit at 118. Pretty fast.

Running it right now, and yeah, it cooks!

Khurram said:

So would you recommend Nightshift?
also are you using the FF version or the safari version right now..any comparisons in the two browswers that you could share?

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Well yes I would recommend it as it means I have an up to date nightly served up to me everynight.

Firefox - (Minefield) 3.0b4pre

It looks so much nicer than previous versions of Firefox and is definitely quicker however it doesn't play nice with Little Snitch so it annoys me. As such I haven't done much playing/using. It is a good update to firefox as far as I can see and does have more features than Safari. However these features aren't that compelling for me and I just love Safari (webkit).

The font that Firefox uses in this version doesn't seem to work well and I can't seem to get it to change, but then again it is a beta release so oddities are expected.

Khurram said:

So being new to nightlies -
do they basically update the software on a nightly basis?
It seems that the firefox version is called firefix?

Aside from the amazing load times the other thing that I love is how fast the scrolling on webpages is! On firefox it was quite slow but on this webkit it flows like butter!

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As the name suggests the are the nightly builds of the program and represent the work carried out that day on the project. Some times there is no update in a day or two but we can't expect them to work 7 days a week.

Khurram said:

Thanks for the info..
just installed nightshift

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With one of the releases of Nightshift there was an error with the location of the nightly that stopped it working correctly. The correct address is Preferences - Nightly Build URL - http://nightly.webkit.org/builds/latest/mac

You have to remember to run it every night by default. As I previously stated I use Lingon to schedule Nightshift to run everynight at a specific time. While a useful tool just be careful that you don't mess with anything else.

javascript speed improvement is indeed very significant, which has been documented in webkit's blog for a while.

again, webkit probably moved lot of stuff to OSX native, which makes me wonder if the same javascript performance enhancement will be seen in konqueror.

two points.
1. reading from cache in safari/webkit still slow, why?
2. all above mentioned are javscript speeds, javascript, altho become more important recently, is only part of the webpage.

clevin said:

two points.
1. reading from cache in safari/webkit still slow, why?
2. all above mentioned are javscript speeds, javascript, altho become more important recently, is only part of the webpage.

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1. It is not slow for me, actually just testing it some more it is silly fast.

where do i get this file?

Can someone explain exactly what the webkit is?

Does installing webkit also update safari itself, or do i have to use webkit itself to see the changes. Cause I sort of feel safari is a bit faster now.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but oh well..

Eric Lewis said:

where do i get this file?

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I posted the link above but you can get them from here and read about it here

edit:

benlee said:

Can someone explain exactly what the webkit is?

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webkit is basically Safari but it is the name that is given to the development project.

Safari 3.1 to Bring Performance Boosts ("Snappier")



Computerworld notes that the latest Webkit nightly builds offer considerable performance boosts over the current public Safari build (3.0.4) -- with Javascript benchmarks over 2.5x faster in some instances.

While these performace boosts in Webkit date to at least November 2007, Weintraub speculates that the optimizations will find its way into the just-beta'd Safari 3.1.

Indeed, we've managed to track down Sunspider Javascript benchmark results from the same build that Weintraub used (r30090) vs Safari 3.1 (Beta) on a Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz. The results:

Shorter times are faster.

Webkit Build r30090: 3495.8ms
Safari 3.1 Beta: 3408.0ms
Safari 3.0.4: 9302.3ms (extrapolated)

Webkit is an open source project that serves as the basis for Apple's Safari browser. Webkit's nightly builds offer end-users access to the latest (potentially unstable) Webkit updates. A number of other browsers also use Webkit and will also benefit from these improvements.



Article Link

Definitely snappier!! Thanks Steve!

I've always thought it was a heavy browser compared to Firefox and Opera. Syncing iPhone bookmarks through Safari made me switch back.

I don't care about speed. I only care that they could make Safari more reliable. I ain't using it, because it keeps crashin'.

I suppose we'll need to temporarily suspend our rule against "Safari seems snappier" quotes post-update for this one.

All I care about is snappiness!!!

xUKHCx said:

I posted the link above but you can get them from here and read about it here

edit:

webkit is basically Safari but it is the name that is given to the development project.

Click to expand...

So, does each WebKit build eventually evolve into the next version/update of Safari?

In the voice of our good friend Homer..

Ggrrrllll AHhhh, Snnnnnaaaappppiiiieerrr ahhhhhggggggrrrll.

i thought webkit was just the rendering engine for W3C standard formats, and safari would extend the functionality into a UI. Maybe im wrong...

I thought there were other browsers built on top of WebKit.

Safari beta IS much snappier

Never thought there would be a real reason to type that..

Is there a "New Tab" button yet ?