Operatic
Most of you that read this blog know that my operating system of choice is Linux, and for the most part, that means that I use the Firefox web browser. However, over the past few weeks, I have been toying with the Opera web browser. My biggest complaint with Firefox has become its poor implementation with “Web 2.0″ style websites. (I can’t speak for how it runs on Windows.)
In any event, Opera deals with these websites flawlessly. Also, Opera widgets are some of the best candies I’ve seen in a program. While I’m not ready to declare myself a switch, I’m not going to stick with Firefox for the sake of loyalty and nothing more. I feel more compelled to make the switch because of the overall sluggishness that comes with, what I believe is, Firefox’s dealings with Javascript.
The only thing I know for sure is that I’m not unhappy with Opera. I would like to see Firefox be rewritten in this area because I really like the “feel” of it. Nonetheless, should I need to switch to Opera either temporarily or permanently, I can’t say I’d hate it.
March 6th, 2007 at 18:38
You may get your wish. Firefox 3 is supposedly getting a rewrite of some sort to better support “web applications” and all their JavaScript-y goodness.
March 6th, 2007 at 18:57
That’s good to hear. Going to some websites, like Digg, reminds me of watching ANSI screens draw on a 2400-baud dial-up modem.
March 6th, 2007 at 20:39
I just happened to think when I saw your reply come into Akregator…
If it’s sites like Digg which are very link-heavy, you might be the victim of the aggressive pre-fetching in Firefox 2.x, where it goes out and begins caching the links on the page so that if you click them, they load faster. There’s a setting in about:config to turn it off.
I’m not arguing against Opera - I haven’t looked at it in a long time actually, but merely trying to assist in troubleshooting your Firefox issue. I know for a fact I’m way too comfy in Firefox with all my extensions.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:08
This seems to have sped things up on the main page of Digg where all of the links are; however, the real bulk of the slowdown is in the individual links where all of the comments are. The reason I think it is Firefox’s dealings with Javascript is because of Digg’s implementation of how it does comments. Each comment can be modded up and down and the story itself can be modded up and down.
In any event, prefetch didn’t help with the individual stories (although I didn’t know I could turn this feature off so thanks for other reasons). The same problem can be seen in Wordpress, e.g., when deleting an individual comment as it fades away.
March 16th, 2007 at 2:30
I thought the slowdown could have been due to the barrage of components. Of course I have to install nearly all of them to “see what they will do.” FF also loads unusually slow.