How Firefox Got Fast Again • Hacker News Board

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#41

Post by robin_reala » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #38

Am I the only one that is confused by Firefox's "fast again" narrative? I remember that they launched the https://arewefastyet.com/ site a few years ago to fight the idea that FF was slow. It feels like there's a new blog post that essentially says the same thing "we're fast now" every couple of months. So I find this all confusing. Am I just remembering incorrectly, or haven't they already declared "we're as fast as…

That wasn’t a marketing site, it was a tracker to measure the increase in performance over time due to the ongoing work the newly-spun-up performance team was doing.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#42

Post by JohnTHaller » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:01 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #38

Am I the only one that is confused by Firefox's "fast again" narrative? I remember that they launched the https://arewefastyet.com/ site a few years ago to fight the idea that FF was slow. It feels like there's a new blog post that essentially says the same thing "we're fast now" every couple of months. So I find this all confusing. Am I just remembering incorrectly, or haven't they already declared "we're as fast as…

There have been multiple separate initiatives over the years to speed up various aspects of Firefox. The largest one is culminating in the release of Firefox Quantum, which is launching as Firefox 57 tomorrow. You've heard this more lately as the Quantum version of Firefox was released to Nightly and then Beta/Developer channels over the past couple months.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#43

Post by ihaveahadron » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

browsers are too important to have one even two choices

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#44

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #38

Am I the only one that is confused by Firefox's "fast again" narrative? I remember that they launched the https://arewefastyet.com/ site a few years ago to fight the idea that FF was slow. It feels like there's a new blog post that essentially says the same thing "we're fast now" every couple of months. So I find this all confusing. Am I just remembering incorrectly, or haven't they already declared "we're as fast as…

[deleted]

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#45

Post by mda » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

mariusmg wrote: post #5

theduality wrote: post #2

I have been using 57 in beta, and I have to say, I'm impressed. It is a huge improvement. Whether it keeps me off Chrome in the future remains to be seen though!

Why shouldn't it keep you away from Chrome ? It's faster, uses less memory, and the "maker", Mozilla is more trustworthy compared with Google. What's missing ?

It is probably sometimes marginally faster and sometimes slower, same with memory use. Its security is still lacking compared to Chrome. Personally I don't see any pressing incentive to switch.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#46

Post by EGreg » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

mariusmg wrote: post #5

theduality wrote: post #2

I have been using 57 in beta, and I have to say, I'm impressed. It is a huge improvement. Whether it keeps me off Chrome in the future remains to be seen though!

Why shouldn't it keep you away from Chrome ? It's faster, uses less memory, and the "maker", Mozilla is more trustworthy compared with Google. What's missing ?

Developer Tools needs to have better UI

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#47

Post by robin_reala » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:03 PM UTC

okneil wrote: post #35

robin_reala wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m using Firefox on iOS fulltime now, as in the last couple of releases ad blockers and 1Password have gained support.

Firefox on iOS supports content blockers? I thought that was Safari only.

Public APIs landed in March: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=150479

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#48

Post by johansch » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:03 PM UTC

At a high level my main question is:

Why has Mozilla generally been so slow to react to market trends and taken so insanely long to deliver products that are competitive in other ways than fuzzy aspects like openness, freedom etc?

This goes back back all the way to like 1998. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I remember it feeling like they were in rebuilding mode until like 2005-2006. And then Chrome launched in 2008...

The first time around I guess it was massive amounts of technical debt and some questionable architectural choices (e.g. XPCOM), but how about the past decade?

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#49

Post by daveFNbuck » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:03 PM UTC

mariusmg wrote: post #5

theduality wrote: post #2

I have been using 57 in beta, and I have to say, I'm impressed. It is a huge improvement. Whether it keeps me off Chrome in the future remains to be seen though!

Why shouldn't it keep you away from Chrome ? It's faster, uses less memory, and the "maker", Mozilla is more trustworthy compared with Google. What's missing ?

For me, it's missing Chromecast and my MacBook Pro heats up enough that the keys become warm to the touch when using Firefox.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#50

Post by frostwhale » Mon, Nov 13, 2017, 4:03 PM UTC

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #31

frostwhale wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is about more than market share. A state of the art free non for profit browser makes the market much more competitive and better for the consumer. They are there to keep chrome/ other browsers honest. If chrome / google does something too corporate you don't like, there's an alternative.

That seems a dangerous line of thinking, like arguing that startups are about more than growth. Firefox is looking like Apple circa 1997. They can still recover, but they have to focus on what people want.

They are not like apple because their goal is not the same as a for profit company. While you could still argue they're failing, i was just saying market share isn't the only indicator for a corporation in their position.