Suspected PayPal Hackers Seek Deal To Stay Out Of Prison
2 Men Arrested After Teen Was Run Over For His iPad
20-line Firefox fix will half start-up time, hopefully coming to nightly builds tonight
A 20-line patch looks set to cut Firefox's start-up time in half. The fix, which works by preloading Firefox's XUL library, could land in nightly builds as early as tonight. Unfortunately, the speed-up will only affect Windows users.To be honest, it's a little odd that preloading DLLs hadn't been tried before. Prior to this fix, the XUL DLL was slowly loaded in 32KB bits, which really ground on slower-seeking hard drives. With a little trickery, the patch submitter managed to get Windows to load the DLL in juicier, faster 2MB chunks. The fix should improve load times on every computer, but it will definitely benefit slower computers more.
As far as we can tell, the fix hasn't landed in nightly builds yet. It should be soon, though: Mozilla's VP of Engineering, Mike Shaver, wants to "land this bad boy for Monday's nightlies" -- so keep an eye on Mozilla's public FTP dump tonight.
Incidentally, if you're not using the beta 10 nightly build yet, you should give it a go!
Comments
25
Subscribe to commentsBazJan 24th 2011 9:25AM
Not hobbyist-user enough to play with 'nightly builds' or early Betas, but "about time" is my response to a significantly faster start-up time on FF.
Unfortunately, I guess this means that regular folk like me will have to wait for the (eventual) release of FF4 - and all the bugs that may entail - to see this improvement, rather than Mozilla actually pushing it to current users.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 24th 2011 9:27AM
@Baz I'm not actually sure which build of FF it affects -- it's part of 'Core', which usually means all of Mozilla's products (FF, Thunderbird). But yeah, end-users will only get access to it via a nightly build (or the next beta!)
Or it may end up in Firefox 3.6.14 or .15
FF4 is due out in February btw! If we're lucky...
SilverWaveJan 24th 2011 4:57PM
@Baz
Wow yeah I can see how you were so hard done by... it shocking.
Those Mozilla gits... spending all that time and energy to give you a fantastic free browser.
How spiteful and and uncaring of them.
:-/
SilverWaveJan 24th 2011 5:28PM
@Baz
>Not hobbyist-user enough
The work is "Geek", use it.
SilverWaveJan 24th 2011 5:43PM
@Baz
>Not hobbyist-user enough to play with 'nightly builds' or early Betas, but "about time" is my response to a significantly faster start-up time on FF.
So you don't give any time or effort to helping improve the new firefox but still have the nerve to complain! UNBELIEVABLE
>Unfortunately, I guess this means that regular folk like me will have to wait for the (eventual) release of FF4
Well yes if this speed up is in FF4... then you have to use FF4!!! What exactly where you expecting?!
> - and all the bugs that may entail
What? I mean you are condemning it sight unseen! Shares in MS? or just unreasonable by nature?
> - to see this improvement, rather than Mozilla actually pushing it to current users.
Its just going in the new product and you are whining about it not being but in the old one yet?
There are only a certain amount of resources available in any project.... and you cant do everything at the same time.
Or else someone like you will be back whinging about how the FF4 development is taking too long... sheesh!
Nakul SharmaJan 24th 2011 10:44AM
or it'll come in palemoon :)
Sebastian AnthonyJan 24th 2011 10:47AM
@Nakul Sharma Yeah! Good point :)
AvenJan 24th 2011 10:54AM
I'm currently waiting for Mozilla to change Ctrl + E back from Tab Groups to Search Bar. This stupid change annoys me every time I'm gonna do a Google Search, and that is quite often ^^
JoshJan 24th 2011 11:38AM
@Aven
There's other options, you know. Firefox 3 had, I believe, 3 shortcuts for the search bar (I personally use CTRL/CMD+K)
jfjbJan 24th 2011 1:55PM
@ Sebastian
"To be honest, it's a little odd that preloading DLLs hadn't been tried before."
This statement sounds awfully generic, and not quite exact -- unless you were talking exclusively about FireFox.
Specifically, OpenOffice has had a QuickStarter for years; it may not preload a DLL but its implementation is not any different.
As a general idea, firewalls, anti virus, anti spy-ware (whatever) and any Operating System are preload-based, for they cannot operate nor be launched before drivers or services are in memory.
"It" has been tried before.
FezJan 24th 2011 2:32PM
@jfjb
He is speaking about Firefox specifically and it can be very easily understood if you read the whole paragraph.
Seriously this is probably the worst grammar troll post I have seen to date.
KualaBeeJan 24th 2011 3:22PM
Good for them, however for anybody with Windows 7 and direct x 10 card, the main culprit for FF4's slow startup is DirectWrite fonts. It says resolved, but it isn't if you look at the last few comments. I would like to just disable DirectWrite and keep Direct2D, but supposedly you have to have both or none at all.....
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=602792
Bird of GrammarJan 24th 2011 3:42PM
Halve?
BazJan 24th 2011 5:17PM
@SilverWave
????
Hey, its Mozilla offering to fix their browser - and I'm sure our 'free' use of it gives them (and their advertising partners) all sorts of info about us and our browsing habits - but I'm not beyond appreciating their work. And I do.
That said, promises of fixes and features for FF are legion - and oft delayed.
I'm just sayin'...
SilverWaveJan 24th 2011 5:26PM
@Baz
>(and their advertising partners) all sorts of info about us and our browsing habits -
Well if you don't like Google don't use Google.
(It's not like Mozilla are putting a gun to your head).
There solved you problem for you.
Or would you rather use Google's service and just bitch?
AnonymousJan 25th 2011 12:27AM
@Baz
No they don't. The Google deal is only in reference to when you click on an advertisement in Google's results, Google gets paid and Mozilla gets a percentage of the payment to Google.
So if you want to support Mozilla, you should donate or buy a t-shirt instead of clicking on one of these, as you're only helping Google to compete against Mozilla and work against privacy pragmatists. Not to mention Google funds SEO spam websites, after all, they make money from them don't they?
SilverWaveJan 24th 2011 5:29PM
@SilverWave
d'oh!
/work/word/
BazJan 24th 2011 5:36PM
@SilverWave
Jeez. Angry much? Or just lost all people skills and civility in favor of online commentary?
That, BTW, is a rhetorical question.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 24th 2011 5:46PM
@Baz (He's a troll, Baz. Don't rise to it! That's how he gets his kicks.)
SilverWaveJan 25th 2011 1:43PM
@Baz
Being passionate about a subject does not equal angry necessarily.
Yeah I may have been a little harsh but I was also highlighting your hypocrisy... so no way was that going to be a pleasant experience for you.