UXPEP - For A Better UXP

[z970]

The Unified XUL Partitioned Engine Patch, otherwise abbreviated as UXPEP, is a finely tuned all-in-one configuration patch designed exclusively for UXP-based browsers that automatically applies a carefully curated collection of advanced browser parameters to achieve a faster, smoother, and more secure web browsing experience on both legacy and modern computer systems alike.

As such, the following improvements should be experienced after installing the patch:

• Faster website loading
• Accelerated image rendering
• Smoother video playback
• Easier page scrolling
• Optimized CPU, GPU, and RAM utilization

​

Compatible Browser Families​

• Pale Moon
• Basilisk
• PowerFox
• Any other Mozilla browser built on the UXP codebase; non-UXP Mozilla browsers are not officially supported (inc. Firefox, Waterfox, etc.)

​

Links​

UXPEP

Pale Moon for OS X 10.7+

Basilisk for OS X 10.7+

PowerFox for OS X 10.5+

 

[Hughmac]

Oh wow! Even faster than IceWeaselPPC now - thanks for this 🙂

I went into the link and downloaded the files - user.js I put into /Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles etc., and UOC_Patch_Mac.js into /Applications/TenFourFox/Contents/Resources/Defaults/Pref
That way my prefs.js was untouched.

I did a launch comparison between IceWeaselPPC and TenFourFox7450 on my PowerBook DLSD, each loading 3 heavyweight tabs, and TFF was 30 seconds faster to finish loading everything.

Now to try it out on my Pismo 😉

Cheers 🙂

Hugh

 

[looking4awayout]

I'm glad you have tried my implementation of the UOC Patch for Macintosh, which was created on a Mac Mini 1.1 (Macintel!) and mostly aimed to Arctic Fox, and I'm even more glad there's been a major speedup on your machine.

You should also check out the PowerUOC, developed jointly by me and @z970mp exclusively to be used for PowerPC based Macintoshes, and see if there's a difference. There should be, considering the PowerUOC is focused only on PPC Macintoshes, while my Macintosh version of the UOC Patch + Enforcer is aimed mostly to Macintels.

Don't forget the installation of the PowerUOC Patch is different, requiring you to replace your prefs.js file entirely, so make a backup copy of your old one. In case you have custom entries in your file, just copy and paste them into the PowerUOC's prefs.js file and you'll be ready to go. Of course, to use the PowerUOC you will have to remove the UOC Patch from the Prefs folder and the Enforcer from your profile folder. But you can experiment, to see if the Enforcer with the PowerUOC patch brings even more improvements.

I'd be interested to find out if that combination (PowerUOC + Enforcer) works and how good it works. 🙂

 

[vddrnnr]

Hi z970mp and looking4awayout,

Just tried this with TenFourFOX PPC and its way better.
Also tried it with arcticfox PPC it's stellar 😀

I just wish @wicknix could keep building arctic PPC for the newer versions he's putting out
for linux and mac intel ;-)

Great work.

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[z970]

I'd be interested to find out if that combination (PowerUOC + Enforcer) works and how good it works. 🙂

PowerUOC is the Patch + Enforcer (+ Additional Adjustments) in one file, so there wouldn't be any difference, especially as a new prefs.js file must be created with the user.js file present for the Enforcer to take any effect.

 

[z970]

PowerUOC has been updated to version 2.

This update improves speed, fixes bugs, and hardens privacy + security. More details can be found in the Changelog.

Get it while it's hot!

 

[skinniezinho]

Thanks for this, never seen Tenfourfox so responsive! A whole new life!

 

[swamprock]

Works well with IceWeaselPPC too, which is no surprise considering the codebase...
[automerge]1573423425[/automerge]

Also tried it with arcticfox PPC it's stellar 😀

Yeah it's even decent on my 450mhz Cube. Good stuff 🙂

 

[z970]

Version 3 is out!

Buckle your seatbelts; further speed improvements have been made to page loading, page scrolling, and UI responsiveness. 🙂

 

[Appleuser201]

Oh wow! Even faster than IceWeaselPPC now - thanks for this 🙂

I went into the link and downloaded the files - user.js I put into /Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles etc., and UOC_Patch_Mac.js into /Applications/TenFourFox/Contents/Resources/Defaults/Pref
That way my prefs.js was untouched.

I did a launch comparison between IceWeaselPPC and TenFourFox7450 on my PowerBook DLSD, each loading 3 heavyweight tabs, and TFF was 30 seconds faster to finish loading everything.

Now to try it out on my Pismo 😉

Cheers 🙂

Hugh

How does it run on your pismo? Very excited about PowerUOC, the next gen TenFourFox.

 

[z970]

How does it run on your pismo? Very excited about PowerUOC, the next gen TenFourFox.

I know this isn't the answer, but it makes a G5 feel like a Core 2 Duo, especially when paired with the MVPS Hosts file (also available from AquaSuite / AuroraSuite). When those two are combined, it really does feel like it just strips the modern Web of all its bloat, on the spot.

And its sheer POWER really goes to show when you consider TenFourFox is compiled with GPU-accelerated windows off, multiprocess windows off, and WebGL off (those are good starting points for PowerFox), putting a disproportionate amount on the CPU. And we wonder why TFF has the performance stigma it does...

Hey, maybe we ought to rename it to PowerhouseUOC. 😉

 

[Appleuser201]

I know this isn't the answer, but it makes a G5 feel like a Core 2 Duo, especially when paired with the MVPS Hosts file (also available from AquaSuite / AuroraSuite). When those two are combined, it really does feel like it just strips the modern Web of all its bloat, on the spot.

And its sheer POWER really goes to show when you consider TenFourFox is compiled with GPU-accelerated windows off, multiprocess windows off, and WebGL off (those are good starting points for PowerFox), putting a disproportionate amount on the CPU. And we wonder why TFF has the performance stigma it does...

Hey, maybe we ought to rename it to PowerhouseUOC. 😉

Since a core 2 duo is almost twice as fast as today's low end net books and chrome books, that means for the first time in years I can Recommend, that people go and buy a used iMac G5 or power Mac for $50 and install powerfox on it. They will actually get a BETTER web experience on a PowerPC G5 over an Intel netbook with Chrome. Plus no one is stealing and selling their data and you get rock solid os x leopard, or tiger.

I'm starting to notice how cheap people are selling their PMG5s on Kijiji. Working dual processor 2gjz for $45? Really?

 

[z970]

Version 4 is almost ready. 🙂

In response to Dr. Kaiser, streaming HD in-browser video on anything less than a Quad is no longer "LOL".

And they said it couldn't be done...

(A G5 is still recommended.)

 

[z970]

Since a core 2 duo is almost twice as fast as today's low end net books and chrome books, that means for the first time in years I can Recommend, that people go and buy a used iMac G5 or power Mac for $50 and install powerfox on it. They will actually get a BETTER web experience on a PowerPC G5 over an Intel netbook with Chrome. Plus no one is stealing and selling their data and you get rock solid os x leopard, or tiger.

If people are willing to get their hands dirty for a couple hours, a $35 Raspberry Pi 4 or Rock64 2GB will do the job even better and more securely. My Pi 3 is doing great as my DD, especially after I picked this up, overclocked the SoC to 1.4GHz / RAM to 600MHz, increased the swap file from 100 to 1024 MB, etc., etc. I could make a whole list of this stuff.

Just make sure you're booting from an SSD (not a microSD). That's the game changer. 😉

 

[Hughmac]

How does it run on your pismo? Very excited about PowerUOC, the next gen TenFourFox.

Unfortunately slower than without in my case 🙁

Cheers 🙂

Hugh

 

[Project Alice]

And its sheer POWER really goes to show when you consider TenFourFox is compiled with GPU-accelerated windows off, multiprocess windows off, and WebGL off (those are good starting points for PowerFox), putting a disproportionate amount on the CPU. And we wonder why TFF has the performance stigma it does...

Well that explains a lot. This should be fixed. All these TFF based browsers popping up; are any of them being complied to not go ape-sh*t on the CPU?

 

[Hughmac]

Unfortunately slower than without in my case 🙁

Cheers 🙂

Hugh

Apologies - I lied, TFF is much faster in Leopard on the Pismo, and I can't see much difference in Tiger, but bear in mind that anything runs slow on a Pismo using 10.4 or 10.5 😉

Cheers 🙂

Hugh

 

[Dronecatcher]

This is getting silly now. WebGL is not supported in Tiger and as far as I know, not supported in Mozilla on PPC Leopard.
Go to a benchmark site here and try it yourself.

These are the results I get on my 1.33 Powerbook for Tiger and 1.33 iBook for Leopard:

TFF Tiger Standard Test 1: 10 Test 2: 8 Score: 18
TFF Tiger Mine Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23
TFF Tiger UOC Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23
TFF Leopard Standard Test 1: 10 Test 2: 8 Score: 18
TFF Leopard Mine Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23
TFF Leopard UOC Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23

Yes, there is a difference between the standard TFF prefs and any tweaked ones - my own behave just the same as UOC prefs and score the same despite not having any WebGL options engaged.
UOC prefs are probably great for those who didn't know about the prefs file but for the rest of us who either tweaked their own or followed the ones by @eyoungren for the last 4 years, there is no difference.

However, I haven't tested on a multi G5 system, if any body cares to test standard, their own (or @eyoungren 's) and UOC prefs on one that might be interesting.

 

[bobesch]

Thanks guys, good fun on my litte G4-PB - really instant karma out of the box!

 

[z970]

Well that explains a lot. This should be fixed. All these TFF based browsers popping up; are any of them being complied to not go ape-sh*t on the CPU?

No idea. If Iceweasel or Arctic Fox is available, do about:support in the address bar. That will show you everything.

@wicknix will probably be more helpful here than me.

 

[z970]

Yes, there is a difference between the standard TFF prefs and any tweaked ones - my own behave just the same as UOC prefs and score the same despite not having any WebGL options engaged.
UOC prefs are probably great for those who didn't know about the prefs file but for the rest of us who either tweaked their own or followed the ones by @eyoungren for the last 4 years, there is no difference.

Have you compared resource usage between the three?

WebGL, supported or not, is part of PowerUOC's local implementation, and if anything at all is only there for easier porting. That said, regardless of OS support, I still don't think TFF should be compiled with WebGL disabled.

I've been using eyoungren's always excellent prefs for the last two+ years on multiple machines on multiple platforms, and in all of my tests and experiences, I would most certainly not refer to the two carrying "no difference", even on non-G5 systems. For at least 70% of use cases, there is in fact a lot of difference, and that's because there's a lot more at play here with a lot more built inside (I'm willing to bet thanks to a lot more cumulative research) than anything else I'm aware of.

But that's just my take.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I would most certainly not refer to the two carrying "no difference", even on non-G5 systems.

You misunderstood - no difference between tweaked prefs and UOC prefs - both have a huge difference to the standard prefs.
So to be clear, you're saying the UOC prefs offer huge gains over either mine or @eyoungren 's prefs?
I've conducted my own site launching tests and done the webGL benchmarks above - where can I find a definitive example of the superiority?

 

[sparty411]

This is getting silly now. WebGL is not supported in Tiger and as far as I know, not supported in Mozilla on PPC Leopard.
Go to a benchmark site here and try it yourself.

These are the results I get on my 1.33 Powerbook for Tiger and 1.33 iBook for Leopard:

TFF Tiger Standard Test 1: 10 Test 2: 8 Score: 18
TFF Tiger Mine Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23
TFF Tiger UOC Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23
TFF Leopard Standard Test 1: 10 Test 2: 8 Score: 18
TFF Leopard Mine Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23
TFF Leopard UOC Test 1: 10 Test 2: 13 Score: 23

Yes, there is a difference between the standard TFF prefs and any tweaked ones - my own behave just the same as UOC prefs and score the same despite not having any WebGL options engaged.
UOC prefs are probably great for those who didn't know about the prefs file but for the rest of us who either tweaked their own or followed the ones by @eyoungren for the last 4 years, there is no difference.

However, I haven't tested on a multi G5 system, if any body cares to test standard, their own (or @eyoungren 's) and UOC prefs on one that might be interesting.

View attachment 877688

Nah, unsupported GPU's still function just fine with WebGL, irregardless of what about:support might say. Scrolling, alone, is enormously smoother with WebGL enabled, as opposed to leaving it turned off. I'm sure @z970mp and @looking4awayout can confirm this.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Nah, unsupported GPU's still function just fine with WebGL, irregardless of what about:support might say.

So why do benchmarks say different? What machine are you running on and are you talking the difference between standard prefs or eyoungren/tweaked prefs?

 

[sparty411]

So why do benchmarks say different? What machine are you running on and are you talking the difference between standard prefs or eyoungren/tweaked prefs?

Benchmarks ≠ trends observed in real world use cases. I've tested the PowerUOC patch on an iBook G4 1.42 GHz, and a G5 2.3 GHz DC. I'm speaking relative to the tweaked prefs.