

Google Chrome 4.0: Fastest OS X browser by 34 per cent - davecardwell
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49303325,00.htm

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arthurk
The author compares the JavaScript performance of a Chromium nightly build
with Safari 4.0 based solely on the SunSpider benchmark.

Lousy article behind a sensationalist title.

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truebosko
I love Chrome. I now use it exclusively on Windows at work because Firefox is
just so much slower compared to it. At home on Ubuntu, I use the Chromium
daily builds which are now very stable and using --enable-plugins for Flash is
becoming more stable every week.

This is just so great for browsers in general. As we all know, competition
just makes everything better. I'm glad how Chromium has grown and I look
forward to see how the other browsers begin innovating.

~~~
windsurfer
I love chrome, but it just can't manage tabs the way the Tree Style Tabs
extension can.

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mbreese
I've used the Tree Style Tabs on Firefox, and I can say that I actually prefer
the way Chrome does it. With Chrome, it looks like a standard list of tabs,
but behind the scenes, it's a tree.

To each their own...

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lucraft
If it's ok with you, I'm going to go ahead and mentally refer to it as Google
Chrome 0.4.

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rms
After using Firefox 3 on Linux since the alpha, Chromium has reminded me what
it is like to use a browser where all local operations are instantaneous. I
just wonder how low the hardware requirements for Chrome OS will be.

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herf
Scrolling on Chrome is still really slow compared to Safari (uses 100% cpu!)
Guess this test doesn't do any of that.

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davecardwell
Because I’ve used Firefox and various add-ons at work for so frequently and
for so long I think Chrome is going to take some getting used to, but from
what I’ve seen so far it’s well worth the effort.

Firefox has served me well over the last few years but seems to grow ever-
slower on my Macbook while playing with Chromium is like a breath of fresh
air.

Next week I’m going to try using the built-in Developer Tools to see how they
stack up against Firebug, but what I’ve seen thus far has been pretty
encouraging.

~~~
blasdel
Safari's Web Inspector (used verbatim in Chrome) is still missing a few
features vs. Firebug (mostly with editing, and integration with webapp
frameworks), but it's _STABLE_ , and fully integrated.

Firebug crashes constantly, is unusable with many sites, and is never quite in
sync with Mozilla's development plans. Mozilla blew it big time promoting
their completely useless "Web Developer" extension for years (even shipping it
in the installer), and completely ignoring Firebug.

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chrischen
I did a sunspider benchmark of safari and firefox (forgot which version, but I
did it recently with the latest versions of both) and their speeds were almost
identical.

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petsos
So?

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chrischen
Well safari kept saying how it was the fastest browser around.

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krying_krab
Faster than Opera too?

Edit: Yes, at least the Javascript engine is significantly faster on this
benchmark.

On Chrome 2.0.172.39 on Windows I scored 1051.2 ms, on Firefox I scored 4633.8
ms, and on Opera I scored 6230.2 ms.

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chrischen
Safari should just take the V8 engine.

~~~
calambrac
Why? The two projects have been swapping the performance lead back and forth
since the start of this current period of insane browser development, and it
would be an enormous undertaking to make the switch.

~~~
chrischen
Ok, then understandably they shouldn't. But I wandered off and argued another
point: why open source should take the best and incorporate it.

~~~
evgen
The problem with this approach is that there are large switching costs
involved (due to the previously mentioned tight coupling between javascript
engine and rendering engine) and the "whose JS engine is the fastest" crown
gets passed back and forth between Mountain View and Cupertino so frequently
they should just plant it somewhere around southwest Los Altos and be done
with it...

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electronslave
Read the Update: at the bottom, and you'll get a feel for the technical /
journalistic aptitude of the writer.

It really smacks of Mike Angelo's noisemaking at the early part of the decade:
<http://everything2.com/title/MozillaQuest>

Edit: I really miss the tech-meets-timecube aspect of that site.

