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nik1982
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:49 am    Post subject: Swiftfox - faster Firefox :-) Reply with quote

Hi there,

how about trying Swiftfox? I noticed realy great speed improvements compared to Firefox.
http://getswiftfox.com/

Nik
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mark_alec
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 1:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Moved from Networking & Security to Off the Wall.
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PaulBredbury
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 1:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's a working ebuild for swiftfox. Don't forget to tailor the CPU line for your hardware.

/usr/local/portage/www-client/swiftfox-bin/swiftfox-bin-2.0.0.2.ebuild

Code:
# Copyright 1999-2007 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $

# Ebuild from http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-472065.html

inherit eutils

# *CHANGE* *THIS* for your hardware - http://getswiftfox.com/releases.htm
CPU="pentium3"

MY_PN="swiftfox"
MY_PV=${PV/_/}

DESCRIPTION="Optimized binary build of the Mozilla Firefox web browser"
HOMEPAGE="http://getswiftfox.com/"
SRC_URI="http://getswiftfox.com/builds/releases/${PV}/${MY_PN}-${MY_PV}-${CPU}.tar.bz2"

KEYWORDS="~x86"
SLOT="0"
LICENSE="MPL-1.1 NPL-1.1"
IUSE=""
RESTRICT="mirror strip"

RDEPEND="virtual/jre
   >=www-client/mozilla-launcher-1.39
   >=sys-devel/binutils-2.16.1
   >=dev-libs/nss-3.10
   >=dev-libs/nspr-4.6.1
   ~sys-devel/autoconf-2.13
   !www-client/swiftfox"
DEPEND="${RDEPEND}
   >=dev-java/java-config-0.2.0"

S=${WORKDIR}/${MY_PN}
dir=/opt/${MY_PN}

pkg_setup() {
   elog "Using CPU:  ${CPU}"
}

src_install() {
   insinto "${dir}"
   exeinto "${dir}"

   doins -r * || die "doins -r failed"

   rm -f "${D}/${dir}"/{${MY_PN}{,-bin},updater,run-mozilla.sh} || die
   doexe {${MY_PN}{,-bin},updater,run-mozilla.sh} || die

   local i
   for i in "" "-bin" ; do
      if [[ -e "firefox${i}" ]] ; then
         if $(diff -q {swiftfox,firefox}${i}) ; then
            # Files are identical, so symlink them.
            einfo "Symlinking firefox${i} to swiftfox${i}"
            # Link is necessary because setting Swiftfox as the default
            # browser using Swiftfox's preferences, sets the command
            # in Gnome's "Preferred Applications" to:
            # /opt/swiftfox/firefox "%s"
            dosym /opt/${MY_PN}/{${MY_PN},firefox}${i} || die
         else
            rm -f "${D}/${dir}/firefox${i}" || die
            doexe "firefox${i}" || die
         fi
      fi
   done

   dodir /opt/bin
   dosym /opt/${MY_PN}/firefox /opt/bin/${MY_PN} || die

   newicon icons/icon48.png ${MY_PN}.xpm || die "newicon failed"
   make_desktop_entry ${MY_PN} "Swiftfox" ${MY_PN}.xpm "Application;Network"
}

pkg_postinst() {
   elog "Test Java at:"
   elog "   http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml"
   elog "If it does not work after following the Gentoo Java upgrade guide:"
   elog "   http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/java/java-upgrade.xml"
   elog "Then run as your normal user e.g.:"
   elog "   mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins"
   elog "   ln -sfn /usr/lib/nsbrowser/plugins/javaplugin.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/"
   echo
}


Edit: Bumped version to 2.0.0.2


Last edited by PaulBredbury on Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:57 am; edited 13 times in total
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bunder
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

what makes this any better than firefox with the fasterfox extension?
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PaulBredbury
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fasterfox has nothing to do with how the app was compiled. Here's some good info.
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bunder
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

firefox is slow?

the only sluggishness i see using it is the inital startup time, but that can be fixed by prelinking and ram drives... both of which i could care less to implement myself.
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PaulBredbury
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

bunder wrote:
firefox is slow?

Yes. Swiftfox feels faster to me.
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zenlunatic
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wtf is a ram drive?
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bunder
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

zenlunatic wrote:
wtf is a ram drive?


mounting filesystems dynamically in ram... of course you wouldn't be able to write permanent changes to the directory, but its faster than reading it all from disk.
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codergeek42
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So these are binaries built specifically for a certain processor...Would someone please explain to me how that's different than emerging firefox with proper CFLAGS set?
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PaulBredbury
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

codergeek42 wrote:
Would someone please explain to me how that's different than emerging firefox with proper CFLAGS set?

Well, of course it can be done in an ebuild.

The point is, these particular compiler and Firefox configurations result in a noticeably faster browser than the current mozilla-firefox-1.5.0.4 ebuild in Portage compiled with the current stable Gentoo compiler and safe CFLAGS.
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Zepp
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

codergeek42 wrote:
So these are binaries built specifically for a certain processor...Would someone please explain to me how that's different than emerging firefox with proper CFLAGS set?

I was wondering the same thing...
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nik1982
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://getswiftfox.com/builds/releases/buildconfig-athlon-xp.html

nice to see what they're using... but that's not so different from my personal choice of cflags. So i'm wondering why there is such a speed difference between firefox-ebuild and swiftfox...

Nik
PS: Ubuntu Folks also seem to like it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=142798&highlight=swiftfox
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greasy_grasshopper
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zepp wrote:
codergeek42 wrote:
So these are binaries built specifically for a certain processor...Would someone please explain to me how that's different than emerging firefox with proper CFLAGS set?

I was wondering the same thing...


It seems from what I read, that the obvious difference is that it's an already compiled binary. You might get the the same results by compiling it yourself (which would take a lot of time). And people using binary distros can also benefit from it.

Overall it seems like an interesting idea, but I'm not convinced that I'll see any noticable improvement in speed.

EDIT: OK, I'm not sure if it's a binary or not. Can anyone confirm that it is? I'm at work and using Windows now.
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PaulBredbury
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, it's a binary. No, I'm not exactly sure myself why it's noticeably faster. However, I'm using it now, and I believe my own eyes. This is what they look like: 8O
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jmbsvicetto
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Moved from Off the Wall to Unsupported Software.
Since PaulBredbury has contributed with an ebuild, I think it belongs here.
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nxsty
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some of those CFLAGS are bad for firefox. If it's faster it's probably because gentoo enables cairo by default and swiftfox don't.
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Gergan Penkov
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 3:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

it is faster, because of
1. using static build probably against older gtk+,
2. does not enable pango, which causes major headaches for many people - on gentoo this could be disabled only at run-time, but could not be omitted in the build, as mozilla has not patched this issue for a very long time although they knew that it slows seriously down the browser for some of the users (and in fact the original source could not be built at all without patches with newer gtk+ versions and the most used patch is to link against pango, which in turn makes the browser slower for some)
3. does not enable cairo (which was required for the enable-official-branding on gentoo)
and uses insane cxx-flags
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whitesouls
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Me too. I tried a cold boot of swiftfox on my dual proc pentium3 and my eyes went like this 8O
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akb
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gergan Penkov wrote:
it is faster, because of
1. using static build probably against older gtk+,
2. does not enable pango, which causes major headaches for many people - on gentoo this could be disabled only at run-time, but could not be omitted in the build, as mozilla has not patched this issue for a very long time although they knew that it slows seriously down the browser for some of the users (and in fact the original source could not be built at all without patches with newer gtk+ versions and the most used patch is to link against pango, which in turn makes the browser slower for some)
3. does not enable cairo (which was required for the enable-official-branding on gentoo)
and uses insane cxx-flags

any way to easily avoid all this when building it from source (ebuild preferred)? :D
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Gergan Penkov
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Probably downgrading the dependancies (to gtk-2.6 and pango - to version before gnome-2.10) and building it static disabling the pango and and the cairo with the used c/cpp flags, after that upgrading :) if you want
I personally use epiphany on xulrunner it is times faster than the firefox bloat
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bob_111
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think this is good because even on a source bassed distro like gentoo we can be a little slacker and dload a "Optomised" binary!. And its qute handy for us dialupians
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, swiftfox is fast.
But when I execute my self compiled (C[XX]FLAGS="-march=i686 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe") firefox 1.5 with pango disabled there isn't a speed difference for me.

Quote:
MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1 firefox

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circus-killer
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

honestly, i dont see the speed difference being all that drastic. maybe im wrong. just seems to me like here are the people that want that 0.00002% speed increase. if firefox is slow....UPGRADE TO A PENTIUM II. :wink:
seriously guys, you're worried over the speed of your browser. if firefox is slow, you need a new machine. :P
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PaulBredbury
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

circus-killer wrote:
honestly, i dont see the speed difference being all that drastic.

Well, I do. It's noticeable, so the difference is not some tiny percentage, and I like speed increases which have no apparent drawback. It's been rock-solid for me for the past few days.

And this is with a reasonable PC: AMD Athlon XP 2.8 x86, 2.5gb RAM.
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