Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

extremetech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 124 posts

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#31

Post by jlongster »

fredoliveira wrote: post #27
nodata wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but on the other hand people will get used to it, just like they did with Chrome. The version number doesn't matter, all that matters is that it works. I like to see Mozilla responding. I don't know if development has speeded up, but it seems to have done. If they can keep this up without letting security slip I'll be impressed.

The problem with Mozilla is that they make the actual number an important part of their communication. With Chrome on the other hand, you rarely hear about version numbers - you just know they exist and that you don't need to care.

Not anymore. Mozilla is dropping the version number everywhere, except where it matters. Notice how in the blog posts that there's no version numbers mentioned, anywhere:

http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/07/07/firefoxaur... http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/05/27/firefoxaur...

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#32

Post by mikemaccana »

w1ntermute wrote: post #24
mikemaccana wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 is in beta now. Nightlies were 7.0a a few days ago, but if you update.... yep, 8.0a1 PS. Nightly has been incredibly stable on my Mac. I actually use it in production, for no other reason than I was testing it and have no reason to get an old release since it's never crashed and is incredibly fast.

> Nightly has been incredibly stable on my Mac. As stable as Chrome dev channel? I use Chrome dev channel (on Linux), but I'm still a bit hesitant about using the Firefox nightlies.

Zero crashes, zero manual restarts, zero lag.

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#33

Post by mhitza »

jlongster wrote: post #31
fredoliveira wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Mozilla is that they make the actual number an important part of their communication. With Chrome on the other hand, you rarely hear about version numbers - you just know they exist and that you don't need to care.

Not anymore. Mozilla is dropping the version number everywhere, except where it matters. Notice how in the blog posts that there's no version numbers mentioned, anywhere: http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/07/07/firefoxaur... http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/05/27/firefoxaur...

And it matters to extension makers. And those need constant repackaging especially for addons that are no more under active development.

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#34

Post by noibl »

nextparadigms wrote: post #2

So then Firefox will still be behind Chrome? Firefox 7 will be the one launched in the same time with Chrome 14. Chrome 14 should be stable in about 8-10 weeks. Firefox 8 won't be stable until 14-16 weeks from now. That's around the time Chrome 15 will be out.

> Chrome 14 should be stable in about 8-10 weeks. Firefox 8 won't be stable until 14-16 weeks from now.

This almost-gripe is such a beautiful illustration of how far we've come in upping the pace of browser tech innovation. Thank you Mozilla (for this round).

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#35

Post by andrewl-hn »

w1ntermute wrote: post #24
mikemaccana wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 is in beta now. Nightlies were 7.0a a few days ago, but if you update.... yep, 8.0a1 PS. Nightly has been incredibly stable on my Mac. I actually use it in production, for no other reason than I was testing it and have no reason to get an old release since it's never crashed and is incredibly fast.

> Nightly has been incredibly stable on my Mac. As stable as Chrome dev channel? I use Chrome dev channel (on Linux), but I'm still a bit hesitant about using the Firefox nightlies.

Actually most browsers' alphas are very stable these days. At home I run Opera Next, Chrome Canary and Firefox Nightly and I haven't had any problems for months.

Sometimes some websites are not shown properly in one of those but all it takes is to switch to another browser.

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#36

Post by bryanlarsen »

mhitza wrote: post #33
jlongster wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anymore. Mozilla is dropping the version number everywhere, except where it matters. Notice how in the blog posts that there's no version numbers mentioned, anywhere: http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/07/07/firefoxaur... http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/05/27/firefoxaur...

And it matters to extension makers. And those need constant repackaging especially for addons that are no more under active development.

That's no longer true.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387399,00.asp

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#37

Post by melling »

nextparadigms wrote: post #2

So then Firefox will still be behind Chrome? Firefox 7 will be the one launched in the same time with Chrome 14. Chrome 14 should be stable in about 8-10 weeks. Firefox 8 won't be stable until 14-16 weeks from now. That's around the time Chrome 15 will be out.

The release number should just be the date. That way geeks can stop worrying about the number, and get back to work.

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#38

Post by saurik »

jlongster wrote: post #15
saurik wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, "will"? We are talking about Firefox 8 in the present tense (with "is"), and yet talking about 6 and 7 in the future (with "will")?!

Are you seriously going to over-analyze specific tenses of words? Each major version will include different features. Stop just trying to distract the conversation.

The "conversation" of this thread started with someone commenting on the fact, seemingly surprised and even bothered, that we are already talking about Firefox 8 when seemingly Firefox 6 and 7 went by so quickly we didn't notice it happening. In this context, it is incredibly relevant that Firefox 6 and 7 are still being described in the future tense, as that would imply that they haven't actually been released yet.

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#39

Post by drats »

melling wrote: post #37
nextparadigms wrote: post #2

So then Firefox will still be behind Chrome? Firefox 7 will be the one launched in the same time with Chrome 14. Chrome 14 should be stable in about 8-10 weeks. Firefox 8 won't be stable until 14-16 weeks from now. That's around the time Chrome 15 will be out.

The release number should just be the date. That way geeks can stop worrying about the number, and get back to work.

It's incredible the sound and fury generated by version numbers. Ubuntu is almost there if they would just drop the rather silly animal names and stick with 10.04, 10.10, 11.4, 11.10 et cetera. Also having such a easy to remember and unique string makes searching for support and technical questions nice.

Re: Firefox 8 is 20% faster than Firefox 5, matches Chrome 14

#40

Post by nextparadigms »

jlongster wrote: post #5
nextparadigms wrote: post #2

So then Firefox will still be behind Chrome? Firefox 7 will be the one launched in the same time with Chrome 14. Chrome 14 should be stable in about 8-10 weeks. Firefox 8 won't be stable until 14-16 weeks from now. That's around the time Chrome 15 will be out.

The article said the "dev" channel of Chrome, which is equivalent to Firefox's nightly build, so they are about equal. It just happens that the current nightly channel of Chrome might be released earlier.

It's not the same thing. How is Firefox 7 version called then? What about 6? Does Firefox have 4 modes instead of 3, like Chrome (dev, beta, stable)? Firefox's "dev" mode might be equivalent to "Chromium" mode for Chrome, in which case I suppose Chrome also has 4 modes, but their dev modes are still not equal to each other.

The point was that Chrome 13 will become stable in 2-3 weeks from now (an Chrome 14 - beta), and then in another 6 weeks Chrome 14 will become stable. While Firefox 6 will become stable in 3-4 weeks, then another 6 weeks for FF 7, and then another 6 weeks for FF8, before it becomes stable. You do the math.

Post reply on HN