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Waterfox – A fast browser

waterfoxproject.org

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Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#101

Post by agumonkey »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #62
blinkingled wrote: post #38

I paused when I read Intel compiler - that thing is a steaming pile of crap, or at least was for godawful number of releases for a long time and I don't expect it to ever work in the real world with a non-trivial amount of C++ code base. And then I read about a Mozilla header causing it to ICE! Years ago, I was forced to make a company's product faster by "simply" recompiling it with ICC. It was losing in the benchma…

For a number of years it also produced code that ran much slower on AMD processors. The Intel compiler is used to compile a bunch of benchmark tools that tech sites use in their reviews, so this (in conjunction with certain other brutal strategies on Intel's part to pressure and bribe vendors into selling Intel only) basically contributed to the destruction of AMD's market share in the early-to-mid 2000s.

I remember the dread I felt when I read that news, but it went away real quick .. I'm not even sure it was the whole story. I expected more backlash against intel for rigging a whole market that way.

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#102

Post by joe563323 »

tospgogww wrote: post #34
atombender wrote: post #25

Before we give this the traditional Hacker News baptism by fire, keep in mind that this is apparently just one guy's project, and he's very junior: Waterfox was started back in March 2011 by Alex Kontos, a then 16 year old student. He had a fascination for the web and wanted to help expand on the ideals of what Mozilla had for a free and open web. Be constructive, not snarky.

Well, he's 20 now. And he's stuck with it for four years? That's pretty impressive.

Yes. That really impressive. That's really a rare trait. The more impressive thing is the following from https://www.waterfoxproject.org/#about

> wanted to help expand on the ideals of what Mozilla had for a free and open web

At 16(or even at 20) understanding free and open web and the importance of it and take action for consecutive 4 years is really awesome. We need more clones of you. Thanks Alex Kontos.

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#103

Post by restalis »

I remember Waterfox a few years ago. It made sense to me as I saw it to be an unofficial 64 bit version when Mozilla was offering 32 bit Firefox only. Things changed in the meantime and the current Waterfox offering is not that compelling anymore.

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#104

Post by gsnedders »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #84
RussianCow wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But none of those things will ever really bottleneck the browser except for maybe the PDF viewer. The performance of bookmarks, tab management, search, and basically all your other examples doesn't matter. The parts of the browser that benefit from speed are written in C++. Not that I'm convinced simply compiling with ICC will actually have a noticeable impact on the day-to-day performance of the browser, but it migh…

Explains why it barely handles my hundreds of bookmarks, though. Maybe I need to rewrite that part in native code haha.

It sounds very much like a quality of implementation issue. There's no good reason why you can't deal with ten of thousands of bookmarks in JS with good performance.

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#105

Post by sireat »

How does Waterfox compare to something lean and mean such as: K-Meleon ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Meleon

K-Meleon has been around for a while and does subjectively feel much faster than Firefox and Chrome and passes most tests(Acid etc) out of all the alternative browsers.

Unfortunately, I've grown too used to some Chrome and Mozilla plugins so I haven't switched full time.

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#106

Post by lobster_johnson »

agumonkey wrote: post #101
lobster_johnson wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a number of years it also produced code that ran much slower on AMD processors. The Intel compiler is used to compile a bunch of benchmark tools that tech sites use in their reviews, so this (in conjunction with certain other brutal strategies on Intel's part to pressure and bribe vendors into selling Intel only) basically contributed to the destruction of AMD's market share in the early-to-mid 2000s.

I remember the dread I felt when I read that news, but it went away real quick .. I'm not even sure it was the whole story. I expected more backlash against intel for rigging a whole market that way.

There's an excellent summary on Reddit [1].

Apparently there's a court order, as part of a settlement with the FTC [2], intended to stop the cheating, but apparently as of 2010, Intel still wasn't honouring it.

[1] https://np.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3s5r4d/is_nvid...

[2] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2010/08/ftc-s...

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#107

Post by nickpsecurity »

gsnedders wrote: post #104
nickpsecurity wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explains why it barely handles my hundreds of bookmarks, though. Maybe I need to rewrite that part in native code haha.

It sounds very much like a quality of implementation issue. There's no good reason why you can't deal with ten of thousands of bookmarks in JS with good performance.

Possibly but why would you want to in an app mostly written in efficient, native code? The typical reason for scripting engines is easier configuration by users or less skilled programmers. So, the user interface made a bit of sense being JS. All this other stuff that mostly stays the same? Not so much.

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#108

Post by nickpsecurity »

agumonkey wrote: post #100
fungos wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems a joke but is also, sadly, a fact. Chrome bookmarks manager is lightspeed if compared to Firefox, to not mention total lack of usability on Firefox's part, so 1995.

Chrome bookmark manager stores a lot less though.

Is there a limit on it or something?

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#109

Post by anonbanker »

atombender wrote: post #25

Before we give this the traditional Hacker News baptism by fire, keep in mind that this is apparently just one guy's project, and he's very junior: Waterfox was started back in March 2011 by Alex Kontos, a then 16 year old student. He had a fascination for the web and wanted to help expand on the ideals of what Mozilla had for a free and open web. Be constructive, not snarky.

Wasn't Blake Ross 16 when he wrote Phoenix/Firefox?

Re: Waterfox – A fast browser

#110

Post by greggarious »

anonbanker wrote: post #109
atombender wrote: post #25

Before we give this the traditional Hacker News baptism by fire, keep in mind that this is apparently just one guy's project, and he's very junior: Waterfox was started back in March 2011 by Alex Kontos, a then 16 year old student. He had a fascination for the web and wanted to help expand on the ideals of what Mozilla had for a free and open web. Be constructive, not snarky.

Wasn't Blake Ross 16 when he wrote Phoenix/Firefox?

Wrote is a strong word, given he had the Netscape code.
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