Mozilla is hard at work getting ready for the launch of Firefox 3, and another Release Candidate is scheduled to be available tomorrow. They are still planning for a June launch of the next major milestone, and there is a lot of hype and anticipation surrounding the release. One thing you don't want to forget about is the Flock browser that is based upon Firefox!
Win; Mac; Linux Flock 1.2 Beta is now available, and as hard as it is to believe this version is even more social. This Beta makes it possible to keep up with your friends' activity on Digg or Pownce, and get AOL email notifications instantly as new messages come crawling in.
Win; Mac; Linux Opera is obviously not content with sitting on the sidelines when it comes to being the fastest browser out there. Back in February Mozilla decided that it was time to optimize it's JavaScript performance, and used a technique called Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO) that gave it a nice boost.
Windows only It seems as though Apple's Expose feature has really struck a chord with Windows users. There have been Expose clones for what seems like forever, but it wasn't until Switcher that I became really impressed with what a feature like Expose could offer to a Windows user. Unfortunately to use Switcher you have to be running Vista with Aero enabled.
One of the really nice things that Microsoft added to Vista was three different power plans, and also provided the ability to create your own if you so desire. By default the operating system ships with a power saver, balanced, and high performance plan.
It has taken a little while to get to this point, but WordPress 2.5 was released earlier this weekend. The biggest thing about the new version is the completely revamped administration area (). It not only has a new color scheme, but has also been reworked to make you even more productive.
We've been asked for quite awhile to provide a performance comparison of the different mainstream browsers out there, and so today we are going to show you the stats from several different areas that users generally find to be the most important. Things like memory usage, page load time, and JavaScript performance will all be covered below.
Sony has begun to do what we have all been asking begging of computer manufacturers: deliver a bloat-free computer. There is a catch are several catches though. At this point the option is only available for a custom-configured Sony VGN-TZ2000, and Vista Business must be your operating system of choice.
I don't think anyone was really expecting to see a new release of Apple's Safari browser today, but it has dropped down the tubes for all to enjoy. Apple is once again boasting the performance of the browser when stacked up against the other mainstream alternatives, and according to them Safari comes out well on top in terms of HTML performance and JavaScript performance.
Now that Firefox 3 is approaching the home stretch it is important that Mozilla starts to throw in performance improvements to really make the browser purr. Over in our forum xpgeek pointed out that a Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO) build of Firefox 3 had been created which greatly improved the performance of JavaScript in the browser.
One thing that has always left me puzzled is why Firefox takes so long to startup. Both Opera and Internet Explorer take just seconds to get up and running, but on all four of my computers Firefox takes between 10 and 20 seconds to start (even with no extensions installed).
One user over at the Futuremark forum decided to do an unofficial speed comparison of Vista SP1 vs. XP SP2, and in the end he was pleasantly surprised by Vista's performance. Here's a rundown on some of the results:
One of the main issues that I've always had with Firefox is the extraordinarily large amounts of memory it eats up. If I'm running Firefox 2 it normally only takes a few hours of heavy use to see the browser sky rocket to more than 750MB of memory usage, and it begins eating up 40% to 60% of my processor.
I've always been pretty big on the Foxit Reader because it's not only free, but it takes under 3 seconds to open up. When you're trying to read a PDF the last thing you want to do is wait forever for it to load, and that's why Adobe Acrobat is the last thing that I recommend for people to use.
Microsoft has decided that they want to limit the Vista SP1 Beta download to a select group of testers while they work out some of the kinks. I'm sure as the development cycle progresses they will make a pre-release download freely available to the public, but there is a hack floating around now that will let you "join" in the Beta program.
When Microsoft created Vista they realized that they had to do a better job with conserving batteries and energy. Laptops are getting to the point where they last as little as an hour when they are brand new, and that not only reduces productivity but it also means they consume more electricity.
As it stands right now there are not many Vista-compatible firewalls available.
Microsoft has quietly released four new updates for Vista that improve on performance and reliability. As of right now it's unclear as to which of these updates, if any, will be made available on October 9th's Patch Tuesday, but they are currently all available for individual download.
Stardock just launched WindowBlinds 6, and there is no doubt that this is what the next generation of skinning is all about! It completely supports the blurring of window borders and menus...for both Vista and XP. I guess you could say that it helps blur the line between the two operating systems.
Yesterday in the forum Pieter posted information on a sweet calendar application called MonoCalendar. It is completely free, and its primary reason for existing is to offer a Windows alternative to Apple's popular iCal calendar app. I have to admit that it is definitely on its way!
