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Idea #18058: Native Firefox on Ubuntu is even slower than on Wine

bug This entry was marked as not being an idea the 7 July 11. If this is a bug report, please use the Ubuntu bug tracker.
Written by Dinth the 15 Feb 09 at 12:43. Related project: Firefox. Status: Not an idea
Rationale
This new benchmark shows that native linux version of Firefox is very slow comparing to Windows version, even when run on Wine.
Tags: (none)

1128
votes
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Solution #1: Compile Firefox with PGO by default
Written by Dinth the 15 Feb 09 at 12:43.
One of reasons why Firefox is so slow on Linux, is that Windows version is compiled with PGO - https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Building_with_Profile-Guided_Optimization . Ubuntu devs should compile firefox packages with PGO enabled to speed up Firefox on Ubuntu
125
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Solution #2: Compile Firefox with ICC (Intel compiler)
Written by Dinth the 15 Feb 09 at 12:46.
Propably compiling Firefox with ICC would greatly speed up this application.
It is a trouble when user must do compiling with so unusual compiler on his own, but Ubuntu devs can easly do it and put binary packages in repository, or at least PPA.
582
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Solution #3: Add native 64bit Java and Flash packages to PPA
Written by Dinth the 15 Feb 09 at 12:52.
There are avalible native 64bit Java and Flash versions on Suns and Adobe websites. ATM they are in beta state, but there are pretty much stable, so why dont package them to repo or at least PPA? This would greatly speed up Firefox on 64bit systems - now, sometimes nspluginwrappers takes 50% of cpu power when playing video from some sites.
944
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Solution #5: Work with Mozilla to Ensure Linux version is Perfomance Optimized
Written by lutimdale the 18 Feb 09 at 04:37.
There probably aren't as many developers testing the linux version as this isn't the biggest install base.
-272
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Solution #6: Support the development of swiftweasel
Written by JanMalte the 19 Feb 09 at 06:56.
Support the development of the swiftweasel project.
This is an pgo compiled version of firefox.
http://swiftweasel.tuxfamily.org/
-438
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Solution #7: Epiphany as default browser
Written by danielrmt the 26 Feb 09 at 20:11.
I have been using Epiphany for the last months, and I really enjoy it. I still miss some Firefox extensions, but it's ok. I think it is a good choice for Ubuntu. Maybe not now, but when it gets a stable webkit support.
-120
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Solution #8: Support the development of Google's Chrome
Written by brownbat the 14 Mar 09 at 02:20.
The "support x browser instead" options are tanking, but I wanted to give everyone an option to vote down (or up?) Google's browser too.
-96
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Solution #9: Port Firefox to Qt
Written by flammon the 14 Mar 09 at 22:18.
I love GNOME and use it every day, have been since pre 1.0 but I think that its weakest part is GTK/GDK. Qt is faster and GPL so perhaps it is time to start porting. Firefox is mostly written in C++ so using Qt shouldn't be a problem.

The project has already begun and I'm anxious to see the results.

http://browser.garage.maemo.org/news/10/
-42
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Solution #11: Option to install firefox32 on 64-bit distributions
Written by sanketmedhi the 15 Apr 09 at 09:24.
Edit: I take this back. I upgraded to Janty 9.04 and Firefox works like a charm with the Flash 10 driver!

I have been using Ubuntu 64 bit versions for several years. And what I still don't like is that my system slows down pathetically when the browser tries to load a Flash or Java applet which are used on most pages on the Internet today, not to mention ads.

Although, its not exactly Ubuntu's problem that the sources providing these plugins do not entirely support x86_64 platforms, users should have the freedom to choose whether or not to use these packages and how to use them.

There should be a meta package that installs firefox32 and removes firefox64 on 64 bit versions of Ubuntu. Also, plugins for Firefox like Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, Shockwave, etc. should be replaced with 32 bit versions without any intervention.

Propose your solution

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dael99 wrote on the 20 Feb 09 at 20:56
if our version of Firefox can't be optimized...

why not use swiftweasel???


maybe this is the same issue for Songbird, Thunderbird and others.

I hope this could be done.

Rabbid wrote on the 21 Feb 09 at 23:36
Any benchmarks on performance differences with any of the above choices? (PGO, ICC, Swiftweasel)

toki_the_collector wrote on the 22 Feb 09 at 14:24
maybe as part of the install benchmarks could be ran to determine which compile option would work better. then the proper version could be fetched. maybe make this more of a global setting that other programs could reference

Dinth wrote on the 23 Feb 09 at 10:03
I think that some packages in ubuntu repository (like fglrx drivers) already, similar to gentoo, only download package source from external url and compile it. Maybe it is posible to make same trick

nalimilan wrote on the 1 Mar 09 at 16:54
Wait for Firefox 3.1, there are many optimizations coming.

Lain_13 wrote on the 2 Mar 09 at 12:33
2nailmilan
Shouldn't help because of lack of CPU-specific optimizations. Fx become faster but slower then 3.1 on Windows.

2Wouter.de.Groot
> The downside is that this means multiple firefox packages need to be maintained.
Look, one win-version have all optimizations enabled and works properly on any Windows from XP and up to 7beta on any CPU. What's wrong with CPU-optimizations under linux? Ok, there is no x64 version for Windows but it's doesn't matter.

Dinth wrote on the 2 Mar 09 at 19:57
I dont think that slownss of ff on linux is cpu-optimization rlatd. GPO or ICC arnt cpu-spcific, mayb architctur spcific (bcaus of intl compilator) but not particular cpu spcific

(Sorry for lack of on lttr on my kyboard)

danielrmt wrote on the 4 Mar 09 at 19:09
@AndrewLuecke
"Xul is slower" makes more sense than "X11 is slower". X11 is something that touchs the whole desktop. But it looks like nobody likes Epiphany as I do...

maccam94 wrote on the 6 Mar 09 at 07:07
@ AndrewLuecke:
Javascript benchmarks show that it is slower. While X11 may contribute to slowness in some cases, these benchmarks are not affected because they don't actually draw anything on the screen while they run.

gnomefreak wrote on the 7 Mar 09 at 14:44
I can look into the 64bit flash for PPA. I have seamonkey I'm working on at this time so i should start on it after seamonkey 1.1.15 is released and i finish with it. It should be released in next few days than i need a day or 3 to finish it.
If someone wants to play with 64bit java feel free ;)

spoilerhead wrote on the 13 Mar 09 at 22:55
icc creates by far suboptimal results for non intel cpus (e.g. amd, via, ...) pgo is certainly a better solution. maybe ask swiftweasl author for hints?

danielrmt wrote on the 14 Mar 09 at 12:38
@brownbat
I personally prefer Epiphany, but if people coming from Windows want a popular browser, Chrome is a better option than Firefox, as it will use native GTK+ widgets and the WebKit engine. So voted +1 for your solution.
Chrome for Ubuntu and Konqueror for Kubuntu!

flammon wrote on the 14 Mar 09 at 22:25
Here's an old benchmark but I think that it still applies today. Qt is faster hands down.

http://zrusin.blogspot.com/2006/10/benchmarks.html


danielrmt wrote on the 15 Mar 09 at 13:39
@AndrewLuecke
It's a possibility for future releases. I'm using an alpha Chromium right now, but I still prefer Epiphany.

@flammon
Firefox does not use Gtk+! So how Gtk+ is Firefox "weakest part"? And porting it to Qt would only help KDE users.

MarcioVinicius wrote on the 15 Mar 09 at 17:09
Looking at the votes on solutions I realize that Firefox in Linux sucks, but we like it anyway. We don't know exactly what to do about it, but we know that something has to be done. We can start with anything.

Oh, and there's at least one guy who is really satisfied with the poor Firefox we have on Ubuntu (or he is really satisfied with his Windows and he shouldn't be here writing crap).

tgm4883 wrote on the 16 Mar 09 at 15:16
Deleting Solution 10 as irrelevant

brownbat wrote on the 17 Mar 09 at 11:40
"Danielrmt.. And what makes you think chrome on linux will run faster then Firefox on linux? Its not even out."

There are some intriguing aspects to the design that should make it faster in certain situations. Chrome seems to be faster on Windows than FF, so it's not outlandish to expect the same on a free OS. But you're definitely right, it is hard to tally the chicks when all you have are eggs.

Don't get me wrong, I would prefer FF were simply improved. When I originally posted the suggestion, I mostly wanted to test whether or not the love for FF over those other browsers had something to do with it being cross-platform. I think that theory can be discounted. M. Vinicius's is right, we just like it.

candrews wrote on the 23 Mar 09 at 02:20
Here's the PGO-enabling bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xulrunner-1.9/+bug/213708/ I cannot figure out why Ubuntu doesn't have PGO-enabled builds, when the official Mozilla binaries are PGO-enabled as are those from other distros.

candrews wrote on the 23 Mar 09 at 03:16
Wow, so I was wrong. Upstream's binaries are not PGO-enabled. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418866

brownbat wrote on the 27 Mar 09 at 07:28
Chrome is actually already available for Linux, but pre-alpha. Already faster than FF, though:

http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2009/03/16/pre-alpha-chromium-browser-now-availab le/

But I get the extensions thing. I really like AdBlock and Ubiquity.

dof wrote on the 1 Nov 09 at 12:34
With this 9.10 release this should be brought to life.
I have a clean install and ff is slow like hell.
Something should be done, if not by Mozilla, then by canonical. With all this cloud computing fuzz one of the most important parts (the browser) sucks, something is not right. What good that is integrated with Ubuntu One if people are starting to use Chromium because FF is crazy slow?

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 7 Jul 11 at 05:06
If you still have this issue, then please file a bug report.


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