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masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2025
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Location: Concord, NH
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 Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2025 8:03 pm Post subject: Browsers are actually getting better for a change |
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Check out the PC World article on the speed of the various browsers. The differences are not exactly what you would expect, but all of them, even Internet Explorer, are getting better in their most current versions. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are close in some areas. Firefox is actually pretty good when it comes to memory usage, but its cousin, Seamonkey, does even better - I've been studying it for months on my own, and Seamonkey wins that battle every time.
Chrome can be REALLY fast as long as you run only a few browser instances or tabs, but since it uses threading it explodes almost exponentially in size, getting twice as big as Firefox when you get up over 5-10 tabs, so things are not always what they seem to be here.
I can confirm that newer versions of IE are MUCH better than the TERRIBLE IE 6.
Check out PCWorld for a discussion about some of this. |
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Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn
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Joined: 18 Jul 2025
Posts: 607
Location: South Portland, Maine, USA, Earth, Sol System
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2025 1:18 am Post subject: |
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I actually like that Chrome threads tabs. It means that while memory use is higher (i have 8GB why not use it? and I've never been above 5GB without using several VMs simutaniously) it is actually more responsive since the unviewed tabs are basically "sleeping" unless they have flash or Javascript playing.
But then, that's just me
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masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2025
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Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2025 1:26 am Post subject: I've been using several of them, each where they are useful |
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| Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn wrote: | I actually like that Chrome threads tabs. It means that while memory use is higher (i have 8GB why not use it? and I've never been above 5GB without using several VMs simutaniously) it is actually more responsive since the unviewed tabs are basically "sleeping" unless they have flash or Javascript playing.
But then, that's just me |
That's certainly right. Chrome is effective in performance, initially efficient in memory, though it does scale up sharply in memory usage. Google feels that this is an effective trade-off, and a lot of people agree with them, and Chrome is firmly established now as the third most popular Web browser.
The others are not standing still, however, and all of them, even Internet Explorer, have significantly improved in at least one or more respects. Firefox has really stepped up and has been doing some effective things, greatly improving effective memory use, measurably improving Javascript performance (they don't lead in that regard, but they do compete). Seamonkey has also been quietly improving, and we can thank Google for bringing some competition into this space after a long lag by the veteran contributors. It's about time, but at least things are improving in many areas.
I am really liking Mozilla Prism to supplement Firefox, Seamonkey, and Chrome in browsing, using Prism to access Web pages that are really more "applications" than mere pages. Using all of them in a complementary fashion has been useful personally for me. |
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VHockey86
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Joined: 12 Dec 2025
Posts: 988
Location: Rochester
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2025 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| they're not just separate threads - they're separate processes.
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masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2025
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Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2025 2:29 pm Post subject: Thanks! |
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| VHockey86 wrote: | | they're not just separate threads - they're separate processes. |
Thanks for that clarification. That's right, and the following post discusses the trade-offs involved in this, all of which do seem to be reasonable, though there certainly are consequences and costs, as this article fairly and reasonably discusses:
http://blog.chromium.org/2008/09/google-chrome-memory-usage-good-and-bad.html |
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masinick
Linux Guru
Joined: 03 Apr 2025
Posts: 8615
Location: Concord, NH
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2025 3:24 pm Post subject: Is anyone here beside me experimenting with Mozilla Prism? |
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Is anyone here beside me experimenting with Mozilla Prism?
I'm finding it pretty handy when the Web page I'm intending to use is more of a Web-centric application than it is a classical Web page. Stuff like Webmail, "document" pages, including Google Docs, but also forums like this one are handy to set up as an application in Mozilla Prism. Like any other application, they can be minimized when not in active use, and they can be invoked with either a toolbar entry or a desktop icon, whatever approach best suits your style. Perhaps not for everyone, but since Prism uses the same rendering engine used by Firefox, Seamonkey, and Thunderbird, it renders and runs well too. |
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