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Revision as of 23:52, 1 April 2007 editWidefox (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, IP block exemptions, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers106,655 edits rewrite to solve all known controvers -upd section, new info, provide verifiable link - followed the tag instruction to remove after updating. remove double ref, removed generic Firefox branding issue← Previous edit Revision as of 00:50, 2 April 2007 edit undoIDontBelieveYou (talk | contribs)8 edits →Name: remove implication since Swiftfox site states it makes no speed claimNext edit →
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== Name == == Name ==
The name Swiftfox comes from the animal ] which coincidently implies speed <ref name=naming>{{cite web | url=http://forums.getswiftfox.com/viewtopic.php?t=194 | title=Swiftfox Forum| accessdate = 2007-4-01}}</ref>. No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build". The name Swiftfox comes from the animal ] <ref name=naming>{{cite web | url=http://forums.getswiftfox.com/viewtopic.php?t=194 | title=Swiftfox Forum| accessdate = 2007-4-01}}</ref>. No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build".


== Optimization == == Optimization ==

Revision as of 00:50, 2 April 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 latest release version of Firefox is available as well as development versions. Firefox extensions and plugins are fully compatible with Swiftfox.

Name

The name Swiftfox comes from the animal Swift Fox . No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build".

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

Firefox speed

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 is bundled with the following freely available 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). But the name Swiftfox is trademarked by Jason Halme, and accordingly can not be used on other 3rd party Firefox builds without his permission.

Alternatives

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

References

  1. "Swiftfox Forum". Retrieved 2007-4-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. "Swiftfox Forum".
  3. ^ Using url of about:buildconfig to check the details of the 2.0 builds
  4. "Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)".
  5. ^ "Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog".
  6. "Swiftfox Forum".
  7. "redhat.com". {{cite web}}: Text "Limiting buffer overflows with ExecShield" ignored (help)
  8. "Script Gallery - Pango".
  9. ^ "Swiftfox 1.5.0.7 changelog".
  10. "Mozilla Firefox Review". Softpedia. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  11. ^ "Browser speed comparisons".
  12. ^ "APC Magazine: What's The Worlds Fastest Browser". Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  13. ^ "Swiftfox license".

See also

External links

Categories: