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Experimental Minefield browser from Mozilla is crazy fast
I'm in love. With a browser. Nope, it's not Firefox, and not Safari, though I've had flings with both in the past. Not Camino, not even Chrome.
My new thing is with Minefield, from Mozilla. Okay, so Minefield is essentially an early build of the next version of Firefox. But the latest version has a drastically improved Javascript engine under the hood. Is it fast? Let me tell you - it's crazy fast. In fact, Ars Technica is reporting that Minefield is 10% faster than Google Chrome.
Faster than Chrome, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and oh - it supports your Firefox add-ins, as long as you're willing to force compatibility using Nightly Tester Tools. Minefield is an alpha release, so it's likely to still be buggy. So far I've been lucky though; all of the add-ins that I've activated have worked fine right out of the gate.
Let me guess, you're in love now too, eh? Well, there's more than enough Minefield to go around. Go get some. Minefield, that is.
[via Ubuntu Unleashed]
Comments
21
Subscribe to commentsBrianOct 25th 2008 10:10AM
How do you force compatibility using Nightly Tester Tools?
BrianOct 25th 2008 10:22AM
Never mind, Found out how to.
EthanOct 25th 2008 10:12AM
It'll presumably get slower though.
Ted MielczarekOct 28th 2008 3:10PM
I don't see why you would assume that at all. We have performance tests and we are very strict about regressions. In general, javascript performance has only been getting better.
DeoWulfOct 25th 2008 10:44AM
To force compatibility, install Nightly Tester Tools, right click the extension you want to force, and select the "Override Compatibility" option. There's also an "Override All Compatibility" option on the add-ons list.
This is a great browser. Thanks, Jason.
Tomer CohenOct 25th 2008 10:56AM
In case you are a bit less adventurous you may like to use the latest beta release and not the nightly. The last stable Firefox 3.1 is 3.1b1, while the nightly are currently a bit more newer, tagged as pre-b2.
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.1b1/
MollyOct 25th 2008 11:48AM
don't hold your breath. how often have minefield releases and nightly builds been touted as the best thing since the bread slicer, yet the final releases failed to deliver.
EvenioOct 25th 2008 11:59AM
If the SunSpider Javascript test is to be believed, the latest nightly build of WebKit on OS X 10.5.5 is still 1.17x as fast as this build of Minefield (for Javascript performance, at least). The Minefield build is, however, 1.77x as fast as the current release version of Safari.
macboy14Oct 25th 2008 12:23PM
This pre-release is a lot faster on a Mac than previous Firefox builds. Firefox has always been painfully slow on a Mac. Woo!
Jash SayaniOct 25th 2008 12:53PM
I love Chrome but it gets stuck when many flash-based sites are opened together... Is there going to be a 0.3 or a newer version anytime soon....?
LooisOct 25th 2008 1:29PM
I decided to download minefield last night, and am really impressed.
-Pages finally load as fast if not faster than Opera, and browsing is smooth.
-Adblock plus works without issues (only plugin I care about)
- No crashes or freezes so far!
mgthantzinOct 25th 2008 1:38PM
any portable version? :D
Jason ClarkeOct 25th 2008 3:19PM
While not exactly the version I'm referring to here, there is a portable version of beta Firefox builds available:
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test
I don't think that version has the same Javascript engine, but it might still be worth trying.
emellaichOct 26th 2008 1:32AM
The beta has a similar javascript engine, but its deactivated by default. An article on Lifehacker explains how to activate it:
http://lifehacker.com/5063202/firefox-31-beta-1-now-available-for-download-first-look
I said similar, I'm not sure but AFAIK I think the minefield version has even more improvements than the beta version. I can report much faster js on the beta version. It seems 'fairly' stable. There are a few crashes, but I'm running a lot of extensions (27) and most of them aren't compatible with 3.1 yet so I'm not so sure whether the crashes are a fault of the beta or the extensions. The speed difference is enough that it is not that big a deal to reopen the browser when a crash occurs.
mgthantzinOct 28th 2008 10:15AM
thx for the replies but i wanna test minefield js engine. but, you all know.. i have 3.0.3 installed and 3.1 beta in portable mode.
so, i also want minefield to be portable... i don't wanna mess up the installed (stable) firefox by all means.
Brice BeachOct 26th 2008 11:25AM
have searched this site and mozilla's and can't find out where to download-like chrome, but faster is better-where can I get it???
DeoWulfOct 26th 2008 1:59PM
Click the link that says "Minefield from Mozilla" in the article text. It will take you to a list of files. If you are running windows, click the file second from last (it's a .exe). Download and run it.
Glenn TobeyOct 26th 2008 11:36AM
Hey it scores a 92/100 on the acid 3 test
LennieOct 29th 2008 2:47AM
It scores 93/100 in the acid3 on the one I downloaded yesterday.
nivektrioOct 26th 2008 9:50PM
I dont think so that its more faster than V8. I just tested it using the ExtJS Framework with 6 Ext.Window overlapping each other, in Minefield; when i drag the 6th Ext.Window, its not smooth at all. In Google Chrome, its still smooth at 15th Ext.Window.