firefox seems way slower than IE

[darw_n]

I am doing a side by side comparison of IE and firefox, and to me, firefox seems dramatically slower, what do you guys think?

I was expecting alot more

 

[PikachuMan]

Firefox with a few tweaks, is noticeably faster for me.

Your dramatic difference is probably because IE already had the pages cached (as in, you went there before, so IE has them already downloaded, while Firefox has to download them again). It's very rare that anyone actually reports one browser as being extemely faster than the other.

You should also try turning on pipelining, which makes multiple requests at once, so if you have a high bandwidth connection, it downloads much faster.
To turn it on, type about:config in the address bar, and filter for "pipe", and turn on all the results, and set max connections to a higher number, like 20 or 30.

 

[takuma]

hmm Thats funny Firefox was always faster for me.

 

[That_Sound_Guy]

I am doing a side by side comparison of IE and firefox, and to me, firefox seems dramatically slower, what do you guys think?

I was expecting alot more

Same here, thats why Im still on IE. Page loads arent the problem. Starting the actual browser and keeping it runing is the mosr painful part. i click IE and bam its right there. click FF 1.0 and 12 seconds later its starting to load. Ill stick with IE. Nothing wrong with it as long you dont browse like an idiot and click on anything and everything.

 

[arkamw]

10-12 seconds is a long wait. Mine is usually about 5-6. Maybe something is going on there.

IE loads so quickly because it's integrated into the Explorer shell. Explorer is IE and vice-versa. I suppose you could say that it's already loaded.

However, I'll take a few extra seconds load time to have extra fast page load time. Just like the "windows boots slowly now" argument, if the payoff is faster web browsing, isn't it worth it? I would suppose that if all you are doing is opening and closing the browser all day, it might make a difference, bur opening and closing a browser isn't what web surfing is about.

I'll also take the comfort of knowing that Firefox is a little more secure out of the box, though you are correct in saying that a great deal of it is the user. SP2 makes things a little better as well.

 

[GJSNeptune]

There's some about:config tweaking you can do to help with speed. Have a look at this:

http://www.uniquehardware.ca/guides/guide06/guide6.1.php

Also, many people say prefetching your Firefox shortcuts will have it open much quicker. Example:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /prefetch:1

 

[mosin]

Firefox loads pages on my machine about twice as fast as IE, not to mention the fact that is one Hell of a lot safer than IE. Internet Explorer is a dangerous proposition at best. I lock Internet Explorer off of every machine that I touch, and people thank me.

Sins Against God...in order.

1) Internet Explorer
2) Incredimail
3) Outlook Express
4) America Online
5) Real Player
6) Norton Systemworks

 

[GJSNeptune]

Sins Against God...in order.

1) Internet Explorer
2) Incredimail
3) Outlook Express
4) America Online
5) Real Player
6) Norton Systemworks

Why is Real and AOL so low on the list?

I've never used SystemWorks. Why is it bad?

 

[mosin]

They are lower because regardless of how bad they suck, the programs above them are worse.

Norton Systemworks is listed because it may be the world's most difficult to remove program. It spreads registry keys everywhere, is a resource hog, and it's the epitome of bloat. Now that I think about it, it should be in a class by itself. AOL is child's play by comparison. I truly despise the program. It's competitor, McAfee should have also been listed because having it on your machine is worse than any virus it is supposed to stop. They should have a test at checkout to see if the buyer is stupid enough to own it.

Meanwhile, back at the thread....

Firefox works best, but configuration is an extremely important consideration. Keep working with it, and you will have it tweaked to a point where you will never think of going back to anything else.

 

[x__dark]

I am doing a side by side comparison of IE and firefox, and to me, firefox seems dramatically slower, what do you guys think?

I was expecting alot more

I somewhat agree, some pages load faster in IE than in FireFox, but I have become attached to the tab browsing feature. Try turning on pipelining and you'll see a little boost in performance.

The only downside to using FireFox that I have come across is that some pages aren't as compatible with FF as they are with IE

 

[arkamw]

The only downside to using FireFox that I have come across is that some pages aren't as compatible with FF as they are with IE

Not that that's any real fault of FF. When you own the market in web browsing, you can set pretty much any spec that you want for coding. Pages that are coded to work with IE that don't meet the W3C standards are going to have problems in FF (or any alternative browser). It's why I keep IE around... kind of a necessary evil (at least for me, mosin might disagree).

Somewhere out there, there is a tiny little program that will set all the speed enhancements for FF. I d/l'd from somewhere, but damned if I remember the name of it. I'll have to look for it. Really, though, it doesn't do anything but change a few settings that are easily found on websites. And FF hauled ass after I applied them.

 

[Qwertyman]

goto Extensions then search for tweak network settings and if you set the program to go into power mode it will pretty much do the same as the tip without all the dirty work.

 

[RandysWay]

Wow. Loads in UNDER one second here.

 

[mosin]

Not that that's any real fault of FF. When you own the market in web browsing, you can set pretty much any spec that you want for coding. Pages that are coded to work with IE that don't meet the W3C standards are going to have problems in FF (or any alternative browser). It's why I keep IE around... kind of a necessary evil (at least for me, mosin might disagree).

Somewhere out there, there is a tiny little program that will set all the speed enhancements for FF. I d/l'd from somewhere, but damned if I remember the name of it. I'll have to look for it. Really, though, it doesn't do anything but change a few settings that are easily found on websites. And FF hauled ass after I applied them.

Yes, I might.

Nothing is important enough to warrant the evil Internet Explorer. It's like keeping maggots around in your groceries just in case you get an infection on your ass that needs to be eaten away. Besides, there is an online campaign to get webmasters to comply by sending e-mails to the companies who pay them. It's working, and fewer, and fewer, sites aren't Firefox friendly. The world is beginning to see the light.

This is one battle that opensource will win.​

 

[arkamw]

Nothing is important enough to warrant the evil Internet Explorer. It's like keeping maggots around in your groceries just in case you get an infection on your ass that needs to be eaten away.

Sigged.

Oh and the program that I was talking about was mozilla optimizer. Google if you want to know.

 

[mosin]

Sigged.

Thanks.
You just made my "A" list.

 

[Rocket_Magnet]

Firefox takes longer to load because it's not already loaded at the time when your computer boots. Firefox does seem a little slower at loading some images, however, the tradeoff is worth it.

 

[PikachuMan]

10-12 seconds is a long wait. Mine is usually about 5-6. Maybe something is going on there.

Extensions and themes and other configuration changes do make an impact on how fast it loads. I''ve done alot of customizations, and it's around the 10 second mark here.
This isn't much of a problem though, since I spend considerable time actaully using my browser.

 

[mosin]

Extensions and themes and other configuration changes do make an impact on how fast it loads. I''ve done alot of customizations, and it's around the 10 second mark here.
This isn't much of a problem though, since I spend considerable time actaully using my browser.

I just timed my extension filled version of Firefox, and it takes three seconds. This is most likely a bit longer than IE would take, except that I no longer have IE, so I don't know for sure. Anyway, I believe that it has a lot to do with the machine, and how it is set up, not simply how Firefox is configured. I have installed the program on a lot of machines, and the load speed tends to vary a lot. I do know that my machine is loaded with programs, but each one has been stripped to its bare minimum, for what that's worth. They are installed on various partitions according to category. Also, I have very little running at startup, the machine stays perfectly defragmented, and all temp files are cleared each day. My passion is tracking down, and removing bloat, so maybe that has something to do with my load time. By the way, I have seen a couple of machines load Firefox faster than mine, but I set them up, and with fewer programs and features. Maybe it takes an obsessive compulsive geek to make it load quick.

 

[CBR]

When I built my A64 rig the other day, one of the first programs I installed was Firefox. With almost nothing else installed it came up almost instantly. Then I progressed with my usual installation routine installing programs, updates, extentions, and a theme. After defragging and eliminating as much bloat as possible, FF loads in 5-6 seconds.

I guess the load time is based off of many factors, many of which I'm not to sure of.

Interesting article, found here.

 

[CRXican]

OMG I don't have 10 seconds for my superior to IE browser to load WAAAH. I need it to load faster so I can start wasting time online even faster!!!!

 

[Deadlierchair]

Interesting article, found here.

I was waiting for someone to post this, since it was up on slashdot so recently. Even if Firefox is slower, I think for many it goes way beyond the 5-10% difference in speed. The extensions and themes are simply wonderful and there are many other reasons to like it too (pick one! hehe). Reading the article made me try out Opera since it's so fast.

 

[darw_n]

couple things....

Yeah, I am staring to like FF's safgety and extension ability to outway the speed issue..

But, on speed...

I have ff tweaked out, my connection is a 4MB down and 500kb up connection on a very clean pipe.

I have ff open all day, and I *still* have speed issues with cnn.com

www.cnn.com is alway a very fast page for me in IE, but if ff, each picture and section loads at the slowest pace, about 7-10 seconds to get everything, and that even if no story at all has changed on cnn. In other words, ff doesn't seem to cache as well as IE.

meanwhile, IE is nearly instant.

also, I notice that my entire internet soeeds (not my network though) is slowed when ff is standing open an idle. Is there something going on that I do not notice?

 

[elm669]

Yes, I might.

Nothing is important enough to warrant the evil Internet Explorer. It's like keeping maggots around in your groceries just in case you get an infection on your ass that needs to be eaten away. Besides, there is an online campaign to get webmasters to comply by sending e-mails to the companies who pay them. It's working, and fewer, and fewer, sites aren't Firefox friendly. The world is beginning to see the light.

This is one battle that opensource will win.​

QFT

 

[oppewalj]

Somewhere out there, there is a tiny little program that will set all the speed enhancements for FF. I d/l'd from somewhere, but damned if I remember the name of it. I'll have to look for it. Really, though, it doesn't do anything but change a few settings that are easily found on websites. And FF hauled ass after I applied them.

Here is the link for the FF optimizer prog. It seems to really improve performance.

 

[ebmusicman84]

I personally love firefox, or firefix as I like to call it.