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Browser Wars

MacBH928

MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
9,125
4,172
Hello,

There was a long discussion about the new Opera 10.5 and how Opera is a good browser, which lead me to this website:
http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/

it measures the speed of your browser.
I use all of Safari(main), Firefox, Camino, and sometime Chrome for no reason.

I was surprised by the results it was as follows:
Chrome: 2972
Safari: 2871
FireFox: 2053
and Camino : 818!!!

Now we all know Camino is based on Firefox, so how come it scored so low? and how come its behind with 2000 points! Specially when I find it quite quick. It scored lowest on DOM operations which i have no idea what it is.
Is this peacekeeper unfair in measuring browser speeds?

Or is a 1000 point is equal to 0.1 seconds where it just doesn't really matter?
 
The Browser War = pointless dick waggling

just use whatever works best for you and move on. But if IE6 works best for you then you should use something different lol
 
Camino most likely uses an older version of the Gecko rendering engine. It has always been behind Firefox in the technology department.
 
At this point, there's really very little in terms of "browser" wars.

Safari is the main and major browser, Firefox is second and the various other browsers like camino, and opera vie for the left over scraps.
 
kingmohd84 said:
...

Now we all know Camino is based on Firefox, ...
Click to expand...
We don't all know it and it is not true. Camino and Firefox are both Gecko-based browsers and are both supported by the Mozilla Foundation. However, Firefox is an cross-platform XUL-based application that requires a runtime interpreter for execution. Camino is a binary [standalone] Mac application.
 
Cromulent said:
Actually it uses the most recent version.
Click to expand...

It seems to use 1.9 whereas FF 3.6 uses 1.9.2. Don't know what the changes to that are though. Considering FF 4.0 will have 1.9.4 I suppose the changes are significant enough despite the small version number bump.
 
IMO a browser should be:

  1. Standards Compliment - Does it pass the ACID test
  2. Unobtrusive - I want to view content not the browser
  3. Light weight - lets start browsing already

There are probably only really 3 good choices for Mac:

  • Safari - though if one tab crashes the whole browser tends to die
  • Firefox - just go easy on the plugins
  • Chrome - pretty stable, unless your a dev channel junkie

Of course there's opera too, but opera's always been a bit of a strange beast, a bit like an Olympus.
 
Did you use Camino 1.6 or Camino 2? There's a serious difference in JS handling (which is what I'm assuming that test measures), although FF is still faster.

Where Camino beats FF (at least for me) is page rendering speed (on pages that aren't super JS-heavy) and GUI responsiveness. Also, FF slows down a lot once you install enough plugins to make it worth using over Camino (or even match Camino's features.)
 
For some reason, I just can't get used to Safari. I am currently using Camino for MacRumors and Gmail, and Firefox for school, Facebook, another Gmail account, and anything else. I was using Flock, but it was hogging my system after a while. Camino seems to be very happy and my temp is down and my fans are slower.

I wanted to use Crome more, but it doesn't have 1Password integration yet, so I'll wait on that one.

Edit: I have 22 active plugins in FF with 5 tabs open, but will go way up on that, and my speed is excellent. I keep Flash turned off.
 
Opera fits in even worse than Firefox on the Mac. Same on linux. It just feels like a windows app no matter where you run it.
 
splitpea said:
Did you use Camino 1.6 or Camino 2? There's a serious difference in JS handling (which is what I'm assuming that test measures), although FF is still faster.

Where Camino beats FF (at least for me) is page rendering speed (on pages that aren't super JS-heavy) and GUI responsiveness. Also, FF slows down a lot once you install enough plugins to make it worth using over Camino (or even match Camino's features.)
Click to expand...

all of my browsers are up to date
 
Right now I have 3 browser on my mac: Safari, Firefox, and Chrome.

I use Safari as my primary browser, its fastest and the most consistent for me. It doesnt like flash but I can live with that.

I use Firefox for anything Safari gives me crap with.

Chrome I dont use but I have it because it can be useful for its lightweight and snappiness but as of now the expose bug is driving my OCD crazy to the point I just cant use it. I am an expose addict so it gives me a lot of problems.
 
enberg said:
Opera fits in even worse than Firefox on the Mac. Same on linux. It just feels like a windows app no matter where you run it.
Click to expand...

Perhaps true from a UI standpoint in the older versions of Opera however the soon to be released 10.50 fixes this in my opinion.

Browser choice is down to personal preference and what works for you. Opera works for me so I use Opera.
 
kingmohd84 said:
Hello,

There was a long discussion about the new Opera 10.5 and how Opera is a good browser, which lead me to this website:
http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/

it measures the speed of your browser.
I use all of Safari(main), Firefox, Camino, and sometime Chrome for no reason.

I was surprised by the results it was as follows:
Chrome: 2972
Safari: 2871
FireFox: 2053
and Camino : 818!!!

Now we all know Camino is based on Firefox, so how come it scored so low? and how come its behind with 2000 points! Specially when I find it quite quick. It scored lowest on DOM operations which i have no idea what it is.
Is this peacekeeper unfair in measuring browser speeds?

Or is a 1000 point is equal to 0.1 seconds where it just doesn't really matter?
Click to expand...

Peacekeeper is primary only a JavaScript benchmark.

The current Camino versions use Gecko 1.9.0 and it has not TraceMonkey - this is the reason.
TraceMonkey adds native‐code compilation to Mozilla’s JavaScript engine.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/JavaScript:TraceMonkey

You can use for example Camino 2.1a1pre builds with Gecko 1.9.2 - with TraceMonkey
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1754775
and Camino is then again much faster on these JavaScript benchmarks.
---
Up to date Firefox developer builds (with Gecko 1.9.3) have then as well JaegerMonkey.
http://www.bailopan.net/blog/?p=683
---
Or is a 1000 point is equal to 0.1 seconds where it just doesn't really matter?
Click to expand...

It has most of the time nothing to do with web site loading (display) speed.

A fast JavaScript Engine is for example necessary for stuff like this: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

Cheers
 
I've just started to use OminiWeb and I love it, don't know why ig gets no love. Built in adblocking, its fast, its cocoa, nice innovative tab feature, uses less resources than firefox etc...I totally recommend as a primary or alternative browser.
 
bobbytomorow said:
I've just started to use OminiWeb and I love it, don't know why ig gets no love. Built in adblocking, its fast, its cocoa, nice innovative tab feature, uses less resources than firefox etc...I totally recommend as a primary or alternative browser.
Click to expand...

OmniWeb is great , but...

Why do I need one more good browser?
The current selection is great, and I rather use the common ones because it will make my browser compatible with most sites
 
kingmohd84 said:
OmniWeb is great , but...

Why do I need one more good browser?
The current selection is great, and I rather use the common ones because it will make my browser compatible with most sites
Click to expand...

Omniweb uses webkit the rendering engine also used in safari and chrome so apart from browser sniffing it should be just as compatible.
 
Because Camino is lagging behind in Gecko version compared to Firefox.
The latest release version (2.0.1) use Gecko 1.9.0, while the latest Firefox (3.6) use Gecko 1.9.2. Major speed improvements have been put into Gecko between them...

There are builds out there running Gecko 1.9.2 though, although highly experimental.
 
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