Firefox Optimised Build Runs Faster, Uses Less Memory

Fells very fast. I'm writing this on that FF 3.5.
Right now using 92 MB that's pretty low for what i normally use that is 145 MB.

USING WINDOWS 7

William Enrique Aleman Hernandez

which version would I use for a AMD Turion X2 RM-70?

qwer777

is there a 3.6a1 optimized build?

qwer777

I just installed it. instantly:
1. when I was prompted for my workplace proxy server user/logon the "remember password" bar popped up.. I click remember but, it never went away until I x'ed it out.
2. I went to yahoo, 47MB footprint already.

with 4GB of RAM I'm not /really/ concerned but, it sure seems like Firefox has always taken a big bite.

Denver80203

I prefer Tete's builds :D [www1.plala.or.jp]

Astrophizz

Isn't Firefox user-contributed in the first place?

Joshua L Lewis

I've used Pigfoot's builds in the past and they were always great.

jonny6pak

this could be good. I'm usually running anywhere from 10-30 tabs most of the day and they're often media-heavy. I saw the FF process hit over 1 GB in RAM the other week, that was definitely a first. Flash and memory leaks FTW!

Anyone from Mozilla out there who can shed some light on why, if these builds are so popular and fast, the changes aren't getting upstreamed into the mainline Firefox?

Performance is the main reason I'm running Chrome. I tried switching back to the Firefox 3.5 beta for a couple hours this morning and couldn't play a streaming Vimeo piece without it stuttering every time my other Firefox window did anything.

I opened up the same set of tabs & windows in Chrome and it played without a hitch.

Call me when Firefox has tabs in their own processes.

dotyoureyes

I wish someone would make one of these for Mac, of course maybe the crashy problems should be solved first.

For some reason I couldn't find Tete's builds on the links posted above, even with translating the page I still couldn't find anything. I did find this though [www1.plala.or.jp] not sure if this is the same build by the same person or not.

sickstick

For Mac Users (specifically Intel based) there is an optimized build here: [www.latko.org]

zwilliams07

@quadrantsix: Not for me, it took just as long.

jscarpetta

@spcomputing: Optimize builds may not work properly across all systems which is why Mozilla cannot implement them. It's the best to have something that works for everyone.

thexile

@Astrophizz: Seconded. These are a lot faster than the stock builds.

LethAL

@Joshua L Lewis: Good point, maybe he will commit his code into the next official firefox release, but is handing out the improvement early.

spcomputing

Any particular reason people like this aren't working for Mozilla? Seems odd that a freelancer can make better improvements than a large organization.

spcomputing

@William Enrique Aleman Hernandez: I've experienced the same. With 3-4 tabs up (gmail, gawker sites, etc.) I'm never under 100 MB. Also, I use the "vanilla" build downloaded from the Firefox main page.

Since I know nothing about writing code, I can't say if this is wrong or not, but it seems like an awfully large bite out of my memory

tazm0n

Anyone find that this decreases FF startup time as well?

quadrantsix

I've tried this version and was very disappointed with the results, size of folder, speed, memory, and ease of installation. After words I came across Tete's builds www1.plala.or.jp
And haven't regretted it since, I suggest that Lifehacker adds his link to the post, as although Pigfoots is more poplar (I believe because the author speaks English and advertises {which I do not condone} Tete's build I have found is stabler, and faster.

Oshayr De Zwirek

Ran this for a little while on 4 machines.
Windows 7: Ran Fine
Windows XP: Ran Fine
Windows Vista: Ran Fine
Windows 7 (Virtual Machine): Ran fine for 20 minutes then crashed. Memory Allocation Errors (Not a windows thing but a build thing from what I've been able to determine).

Virtual Machine Running on a seperate Vista Machine x64 running 16gb of Giel Black Dragon - Quad Core Processor.

All machines minus the VM ran fine but I did notice on XP a huge jump in memory usage when opening 3 or more tabs.

All machines had a steady increase of memory and would top out around 180mb after 45 or so minutes.

Closing the tabs on the XP machine did not reduce the memory footprint. Had to close it down and restart it.

DarqAnshin

Anyone else notice the Internet Explorer Processes running totaling to like 23MB vs Firefox's 28MB? Not saying that IE doesn't get bloated at some point, but that's kind of funny when you' tout low memory usage, and the other competition is in the same picture with lower.

"couldn't play a streaming Vimeo piece without it stuttering every time my other Firefox window did anything."

You're kidding right? I have firefox "portable" open with 20+ extensions
and 3 rows of tabs including vimeo vids and youtube vids. I can play multiple videos at a time. No hitches.

debu

@yonyz: I looks like the default to me....

@treq: On a related note...Adobe Flash is problematic (regardless of browser of platform). It's quite buggy.

@qwer777: Wouldn't make much sense, since it basically updates every day -- you never know which one you will get.

Domthedude001

@Astrophizz: If only I knew Japanese...

Is the screenshot on the article taken on Windows Vista's default theme, or another?

The Tete's builds link is at http://www1.plala.or.jp/tete009/en-US/software.html#FX35_VC8PGO The link is in english

DorianPraeconinus

@debu: Yeah same here, must be his computer lol.

lbrtdy

@yochanan_marqos: Are there even 5 (popular) optimized Firefox builds?

radiantchains

Why don't we have a Hive 5 for optimized Firefox builds?

yochanan_marqos

@spcomputing:

Not that I'm specifically accusing Mozilla to be an example of this, but many open source development groups have a certain amount of internal politics. Some folks simply don't want to be a part of that sort of scene and would rather publish a "take-it-or-leave-it" patch than contribute in a way that would require peer review.

In a way, it's like iPhone developers who release code through the official channel, Apple's App Store, versus those who distribute their unapproved software through Cydia to jailbroken devices.

Deprong Mori

Pretty great so far - I was in the process of ditching firefox for Chromium today, because FF memory use was out of control (into the 700,000s after a few hours - and yes, I tried disabling extensions one by one, and disabling plugins, etc. - even in safemode, with gmail open, memory goes crazy). After a few hours with this build, memory has barely crept past 200k.

RPR

Any reason why optimizations aren't being built right into firefox if theres no down side to these changes, considering firefox is open source and community-driven anyways?!!

skorned

I did not find any major difference in speed or memory usage, on a p4 3.0g machine. This could be because I only checked with about 7 tabs open. I'll stick to Mozilla's official builds for now.

@DorianPraeconinus:

this one is much better, I opened 10 tabs and the memory usage went from about 180,000 K and it got up to and hovered around 215,000 to 220,000. adn then after closing the all but 1 the memory usage it droped back down to 193,000, so I will play with this one for a bit more, I might just switch permanently.

tekjock

@Kevin Vesga: Dammit, I meant to reply to skorned.

Kevin Vesga

Well theres separate optimizations for Intel and AMD cpus and then you have separate x86 and x64 optimizations too. Mozilla would either have to make different installers for each one or make one big AIO installer.

Kevin Vesga

Where's the source code? They should provide it.

MillicentMarstuno

Found it here: http://www1.plala.or.jp/tete009/en-US/software.html#FX3_VC8PGO

YvetteChicken

I'm using it right now, has made me switch from Google Chrome (still want to use FF extensions)

lab3003

This seems like an awesome idea. after reading the website I have a few questions. 1) This is a 32 bit not 64 bit browser correct ? (i believe there is a 64 bit Firefox version somewhere on the interwebz) 2) Is there a extra argument needed for 64 bit version of Windows 7? (Ala Chrome?)

WilliamMnemosyne

sorry, but I just tried it... and if I can see any improvement at all its not more than 5%... I think someone has to much time to compile...

xrmb

@yonyz: Looks like windows 7. :P plus that's what everyone else is using it seems.

@radiantchains:
a toast to Ibrahim and his builds back when Firefox was called Phoenix. I only know of Pigfoot, Tete and Binary Turf as the 3rd party builders. There might be a couple more.

cmotdibbler

I tried both this and Tete's build and saw no difference on my XP computer. Back to the official releases for me.

LLane

@Check a few comments up.

wow 30MB, my FF is using 150MB right now and often hits the 600MB area!

ThaMofo

I downloaded the P2 build, and it doesn't seem to take up less memory than my standard FF installation. I also seem to have downloaded a portable version that didn't require an install process. Maybe I just clicked wrong, or does this build really just run out of the folder?

Downloading the P3 build now.

Rig specs:
Samsung NC10
1 GB RAM
Win XP Home SP3

It would be so nice if there were a tool that would take a firefox exe, any FF extensions, about:config, and user settings you wanted, and slipstreamed it all together into an exe again so you could have a pre customized exe ready to go any time you needed it.

brodie7838

Linux users can use swiftweasel or swiftfox. Although the prior is more frequently updated and uses open source optimizations while the latter uses closed source, binary only distribution

syko21

FF has always been fast when run without the _heavy_ addons like xmarks, greasemonkey and what not. I dont see the point of comparing your installed FF (with addons) with a basic portable FF.

I downloaded and installed this build, installed adblockplus + weave + xmarks + sxipper + fission (a small subset of my fav plugins). The memory consumption quickly reached a figure equivalent of my installed version approx. 220 megs. Not to mention that at this stage the behavior is jerky - which my installed FF does not do despite having atleast 4-5 more add-ons (greasemonkey being the heaviest).

So i really question this being a better build.

mskadu

I blame Yahoo...

SurakshaDaimon

I'm not buyin' it. I have 7 windows open right now and it's sucking down 156mb.

PhebeAethalides