Firefox 5, Opera 11.11 and Chrome 12 all equal...

[CougTek]

...in SunSpider javascript benchmark at least. On my modest main computer (Core i7 950 with Win7 64b), their scores are the following :

• Firefox 5.0 : 316.4ms ± 1.1%
• Chrome 12 : 316.4ms ± 2.1%
• Opera 11.11 : 309.5ms ± 2.2%

So considering the margin of error, we can safely say that they are all performing equally on this benchmark. Firefox 5.0 is quite an improvement over Firefox 4 in this regard. Opera and Chrome were already neck and neck.

Firefox 5.0 still fails the Acid3test (97%) while the other two have been passing it succesfully for quite a while.

 

[BingBangBop]

You left off the important one -- ie9

lol

 

[Mercutio]

I certainly can't see a subjective difference between FF4 and 5.

 

[LiamC]

...in SunSpider javascript benchmark at least. On my modest main computer (Core i7 950 with Win7 64b), their scores are the following :

• Firefox 5.0 : 316.4ms ± 1.1%
• Chrome 12 : 316.4ms ± 2.1%
• Opera 11.11 : 309.5ms ± 2.2%

So considering the margin of error, we can safely say that they are all performing equally on this benchmark. Firefox 5.0 is quite an improvement over Firefox 4 in this regard. Opera and Chrome were already neck and neck.

Firefox 5.0 still fails the Acid3test (97%) while the other two have been passing it succesfully for quite a while.

Firefox on Acid3

http://limi.net/articles/firefox-acid3/
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2010/06/not_implementin.html

 

[Stereodude]

FF5 is still a beta right?

 

[sdbardwick]

I think FF5 went gold today.
Edit: Yup; press release.

 

[Tannin]

Huh?

They have barely finished rolling out FF4?

WTF?

 

[Tannin]

Added to that, FF4 is by far the best FF version ever - so they give the best Firefox version the shortest life?

Stupid. Really stupid. There better be a damn good reason for this.

 

[Chewy509]

Yep, Mozilla have moved to a quick release schedule similar to Chrome. In reality, many see FF5 as merely FF4.1, as the number of new features added is nothing compared to FF3 -> FF4.

According to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases , FF6 will be in BETA on 5 Jul 2011.

Interestingly Thunderbird 5 will be released on less than a week... (FYI, they skipped Thunderbird 4, so the version numbers are more inline with Firefox).

 

[Tannin]

^ stupid pricks

Pure marketing bs. Why don't they just rename FF4.1 (AKA 5) "Firefox 10" so that they are one in front of Microsoft (which is obviously what they are aiming at) and stop buggerising about with people's browsers?

 

[Mercutio]

I think a more important idea for them might be to increase the visibility and importance of updating to modern versions. My coworkers, who are theoretically computer people, still won't do things like Java and Flash updates "because it might mess something up."

I use scheduled runs of the ninite.com updater to keep people's stuff up to date. No one does it on their own.

 

[Handruin]

After you update firefox, it will warn/inform you to update your flash version to a safer one if you don't have it already. I didn't see that for java, but at least it does it for flash.

 

[Bozo]

Merc, does ninite install all the tool bars and other crap that some of the utilities come with?

 

[Mercutio]

Nope. That's a big part of the point.
For commercial use, ninite has a cost that I'd probably pay if I worked for a big company.

I wish the default install of Spybot didn't include Teatimer, though.

 

[CougTek]

Yeah, TeaTimer is quite a ressource hog. Way too heavy for the protection it offers. It looks like softwares made by Symantec.

 

[Handruin]

Maybe the next release of FF 5.x will include this little change to save some more memory on websites with lots of scripting areas.

 

[ddrueding]

They say not 'til FF7 (~3mos)

 

[tazwegion]

You left off the important one -- ie9

lol

Ah... can I get that in an RPM/Tarball file? :lol:



I didn't realise FF5 had moved off Beta till I read this thread, thanks for the heads up guys I'm really enjoying the responsiveness of this new browser

 

[Chewy509]

^ stupid pricks

Pure marketing bs. Why don't they just rename FF4.1 (AKA 5) "Firefox 10" so that they are one in front of Microsoft (which is obviously what they are aiming at) and stop buggerising about with people's browsers?

Finally found it... https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar

Looks like Firefox 9 will this year's Christmas release.

 

[LiamC]

^ stupid pricks

Pure marketing bs. Why don't they just rename FF4.1 (AKA 5) "Firefox 10" so that they are one in front of Microsoft (which is obviously what they are aiming at) and stop buggerising about with people's browsers?

Why don't you ask why Chrome went 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 etc? They all do it. It doesn't make it right, but the great unwashed believe bigger is better.

 

[LunarMist]

IIRC MS did that when Word for Windows 2 was replaced with 6 in one jump to compete with WordPerfect. :monkey:

 

[Mercutio]

I think the party line at the time was that they were bringing the Word version number to parity with the Excel version number in the same version of MS Office.

 

[Bozo]

Chrome gaining on IE

 

[Mercutio]

I used IE9 for the first time over the weekend. It was decidedly Chrome-like. I'm not sure how far I'd want the browser UI minimalism to go, but that's definitely the direction the biggest browsers are taking. Google is talking about removing the URL bar from the default view in future versions of Chrome. That seems like a bad idea to me.

 

[ddrueding]

Google is talking about removing the URL bar from the default view in future versions of Chrome. That seems like a bad idea to me.

I would agree. In fact, that would probably be the last element standing for me. Elements to keep in order:

URL Bar (with search capability)
Button to menu with everything else
Back button (with drop-down history option)
Tabs
Bookmark Bar

In fact, my current config looks just like that.

 

[LunarMist]

No url bar? How do you go anywhere?

 

[ddrueding]

No url bar? How do you go anywhere?

Most of my current users, if I give them a URL, hit the home button to get to Google, and type the URL in there, then follow the first result whatever it is.

This doesn't work very well for new or unusual destinations.

 

[LiamC]

No, but it works VERY well for Google

 

[LunarMist]

But why do that? Obviously I must be dense.

 

[ddrueding]

But why do that? Obviously I must be dense.

Because they are very stupid.

 

[time]

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage

 

[Mercutio]

CoughBullshitCough

Though I'll happily admit that I'm fine with describing IE6 users as having IQs around 80 regardless.

 

[snowhiker]

Internet Explorer IQ report was a hoax

...and here...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/08/03/explorer.report.faked/index.html


I'm still running XP on my ancient system, so I must be losing IQ points by the second.

 

[Mercutio]

XP users can still move up to IE8, and then never click on it. That's probably the best IQ-retaining option.

 

[CougTek]

Looks like Firefox 9 will this year's Christmas release.

Yep, it was.

BTW, regarding the javascript benchmark from SunSpider, I fell on my ass. I ran it to compare all the major players and on my computer (Core i7 2600K/Win7 Pro 64b), I got the following ranking :

• Google Chrome 16 : ~238ms
• Opera 11.60 : ~224ms
• Mozilla Firefox 9 and SeaMonkey 2.6 : ~200ms
• Internet Explorer 9 : ~190ms

I'm still trying to put back my jaw since it felt on the floor. I ran the test twice on each browser to confirm. Just can't believe it. IE9, fucking IE 9 is beating all the others on Javascript. Unbelievable.

 

[ddrueding]

Now that Firefox has reached numerical version parody with IE will they slow their release schedule? Or are they going to race Chrome into the triple-digits?

 

[Chewy509]

Now that Firefox has reached numerical version parody with IE will they slow their release schedule? Or are they going to race Chrome into the triple-digits?

I heard at one time they wanted to increase the release schedule to every 4 weeks. But in that it'll be easier to move to a date version format instead (like the AMD gfx drivers), eg Firefox 2012.1

 

[ddrueding]

Indeed. They are almost at the point where simply using the build number would simplify matters.

 

[Mercutio]

Does anyone even know what version Chrome is on off the top of their head? Do version numbers for non-sucky browsers even matter any more?

 

[Adcadet]

IIRC, Chrome manged to push a huge chunk of their userbase from v14 to 15 within 24 hours or something crazy, actually surpassing IE v(whatever).