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Revision as of 08:59, 31 March 2007 editWidefox (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, IP block exemptions, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers106,503 edits replace lost text due to repeated reverting and problems of Kilz← Previous edit Revision as of 11:49, 31 March 2007 edit undoKilz (talk | contribs)1,368 edits replace relavance tag and request citation that the name implies a faster browser than firefox.Next edit →
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==Speed== ==Speed==
Swiftfox has been evaluated in the context of the fastest browsers<ref name=benchswift>{{cite web | url=http://www.apcstart.com/node/3097 | title=APC Magazine: What's The Worlds Fastest Browser| accessdate = 2006-10-30}}</ref> (of pre- Firefox 2.0 versions). The name Swiftfox implies a faster browser than Firefox. No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build". Swiftfox has been evaluated in the context of the fastest browsers<ref name=benchswift>{{cite web | url=http://www.apcstart.com/node/3097 | title=APC Magazine: What's The Worlds Fastest Browser| accessdate = 2006-10-30}}</ref> (of pre- Firefox 2.0 versions). The name Swiftfox implies a faster browser than Firefox{{Fact}}. No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build".


===Firefox speed=== ===Firefox speed===
{{Content}}
Firefox has been criticised for slow startup compared with other browsers, a criticism confirmed by pre- Firefox 2.0 speed tests<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Mozilla-Firefox-Review-13677.shtml | title = Mozilla Firefox Review | work = Softpedia | accessdate = 2006-10-30}}</ref><ref name=benchgeneral>{{cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons}}</ref>. A speed comparison of various Linux (and other) browsers has been done<ref name=benchgeneral>{{cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons}}</ref>. In this 32bit, pre- Firefox 2.0 test, Firefox was slower than both ] and ]<ref name=benchgeneral><ref name=benchgeneral>{{cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons}}</ref>. Firefox has been criticised for slow startup compared with other browsers, a criticism confirmed by pre- Firefox 2.0 speed tests<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Mozilla-Firefox-Review-13677.shtml | title = Mozilla Firefox Review | work = Softpedia | accessdate = 2006-10-30}}</ref><ref name=benchgeneral>{{cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons}}</ref>. A speed comparison of various Linux (and other) browsers has been done<ref name=benchgeneral>{{cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons}}</ref>. In this 32bit, pre- Firefox 2.0 test, Firefox was slower than both ] and ]<ref name=benchgeneral><ref name=benchgeneral>{{cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons}}</ref>.


Revision as of 11:49, 31 March 2007

Swiftfox
Stable releaseBased on Firefox 2.0.0.3 / Mar 20, 2007
Preview release4.0.0 [±]
Operating systemLinux
TypeWeb browser
Licensebinaries: proprietary
source: MPL 1.1
Websitegetswiftfox.com
Related articles
Origins and lineage
Category

Swiftfox is a freely downloadable, open source graphical web browser. Swiftfox is a binary and settings optimized build of the Mozilla Firefox web browser for Linux made by Jason Halme. An optimized build is created for each of the supported microprocessor architectures. The current version of Firefox is available as well as the development versions. Firefox extensions and plugins are fully compatible with Swiftfox.

Optimization

Swiftfox is optimized using the following methods:

Binary code optimization

Increased Security

  • Better protection from buffer overflow attacks (Swiftfox 2.0 uses -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2; Firefox 2.0 uses gcc 3.x, which does not support this).

Reduced binary size

Changed default preference values

Speed

Swiftfox has been evaluated in the context of the fastest browsers (of pre- Firefox 2.0 versions). The name Swiftfox implies a faster browser than Firefox. No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build".

Firefox speed

The relevance of particular information in (or previously in) this article or section is disputed. The information may have been removed or included by an editor as a result. Please see discussion on the talk page considering whether its inclusion is warranted.

Firefox has been criticised for slow startup compared with other browsers, a criticism confirmed by pre- Firefox 2.0 speed tests. A speed comparison of various Linux (and other) browsers has been done. In this 32bit, pre- Firefox 2.0 test, Firefox was slower than both Opera and KonquerorCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page)..

Swiftfox speed

No definitive speed comparison has been reported, but an unspecified faster startup time together with a 1.7% webpage rendering speedup has been reported. The details of this test are a page rendering in 4.79 seconds for Firefox and 4.67 seconds for Swiftfox, both 32bit on 64bit system. There is a bigger speed advantage of Opera and Konqueror over Firefox, than Swiftfox over Firefox. There was no benchmarking on different processors, so builds optimized for different processors were not evaluated, nor discussed.

Additional options

Swiftfox contains the following Firefox plugins and extensions:

  • XForms extension is installed and enabled
  • libunixprintplugin.so plugin is installed

Downloads available

  • Current version of Firefox:
    • Builds for both both Intel and AMD processors - a different build is available for each processor type.
  • Development versions of Firefox:

License

Similar to Firefox, the Swiftfox source code is open source, with the source code under MPL 1.1 except for parts relating to branding. Unlike Firefox, the Swiftfox binaries have a proprietary license which does not allow redistribution. According to the author, this is to prevent the possibility of any confusion with tainted versions (see the branding argument below). The name Swiftfox is trademarked by Jason Halme, and accordingly can not be used on other 3rd party Firefox builds without his permission.

Branding of 3rd party Firefox builds

All 3rd party Mozilla Firefox builds or versions must use the MPL 1.1. Additionally, Mozilla uses trademark law to prevent 3rd party builds like Swiftfox and IceWeasel from using its name and logos. The aim of this is to reduce confusion and increase brand recognition.

Alternatives

  • Firefox source code and Swiftfox changes are freely available for download, allowing anyone to create their own build.

References

  1. "Swiftfox Forum".
  2. ^ Using url of about:buildconfig to check the details of the 2.0 builds
  3. "Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)".
  4. ^ "Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog".
  5. "Swiftfox Forum".
  6. "redhat.com". {{cite web}}: Text "Limiting buffer overflows with ExecShield" ignored (help)
  7. "Open Source Awards 2004: Pango".
  8. "Script Gallery - Pango".
  9. ^ "Swiftfox 1.5.0.7 changelog".
  10. ^ "APC Magazine: What's The Worlds Fastest Browser". Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  11. "Mozilla Firefox Review". Softpedia. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  12. ^ "Browser speed comparisons".
  13. ^ "Swiftfox license".
  14. "Mozilla trademark policy".

See also

External links

Categories: