If you think Firefox could run a little faster on your Mac, then you might want to download one of BeatnikPad's custom builds of Firefox 3. "Minefield" (previously known as BonEcho for pre-3.0 releases) is Neil Lee's custom build of Firefox. He is currently offering custom builds for:- Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for Intel
- Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for PowerPC G5
- Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for PowerPC G4
[via IGM]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-04-2008 @ 11:31AM
Rick said...
how much faster?
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7-04-2008 @ 11:53AM
Brassen said...
You should also consider Elfurbe's Firefox Mac Community Builds at http://firefoxmac.furbism.com/
There is optimized versions for: G3, G4 7400, G4 7450, G5 and Intel.
cheers
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7-04-2008 @ 12:00PM
Big Dave said...
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/06/22/optimized-firefox-3-builds-available/
Repost!
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7-04-2008 @ 12:01PM
Josh said...
Yeah... this is like the third time they've done it in the last few months too. Odd.
7-04-2008 @ 12:09PM
Big John said...
I agree, TUAW should never post helpful tips for folks that may not have seen them before. Damn them!
7-04-2008 @ 12:10PM
Tom said...
Yes, Minefield was the name of Firefox 3 nightlies pre release, now they are called GranParadiso.
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7-04-2008 @ 8:08PM
Steve said...
@Tom
I'm not sure.. Gran Paradiso seems to be the codename for the nightly build of 3.0 but opening the link below (which has always given me the latest build) and unpacking it identifies it as Minefield 3.1a1pre
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/
7-05-2008 @ 8:55PM
Radu Dutzan said...
Actually, Mozilla claims both GranParadiso and Minefield are Firefox 3 codenames. They use both quite inconsistently.
Nightlies and unbranded stable builds (any build not provided by Mozilla, such as architecture-optimized builds) both use the Minefield name, while internal documentation can use any of them.
BonEcho was the only official codename for Firefox 2. TUAW people: these names are not assigned by the people who make these optimized builds, but by Mozilla devs. Please stop saying otherwise.
7-04-2008 @ 12:57PM
CJV said...
Speaking of Firefox 3...its poor compatibility with the TUAW Web site is evident in the seriously choppy scrolling that makes TUAW difficult to read on this new version of Firefox. I have an Intel iMac running 10.4.11, and never had a problem reading TUAW when I was using Firefox 3.
I emailed TUAW a few days ago about this after I updated to FF 3.
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7-04-2008 @ 12:59PM
CJV said...
Sorry, that should have read:
"I have an Intel iMac running 10.4.11, and never had a problem reading TUAW when I was using Firefox 2."
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7-04-2008 @ 1:22PM
tim said...
Anyone else think that 'Minefield' isn't the best name for a browser, what with security being the top priority and all?
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7-04-2008 @ 1:26PM
Mathew Duggan said...
Honestly I have been running it side by side with the original build Firefox 3 and while Minefield is a bit faster stability seems to have taken a hit on my Macbook.
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7-04-2008 @ 1:36PM
nxiv said...
According to Asa Dotzler, Mozilla already "optimizes" all its releases, so these custom builds are meaningless. If you notice an improvement in performance when using one of these custom builds, it's probably the placebo effect. Nothing has really changed, just how you perceive it.
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7-04-2008 @ 1:46PM
legend said...
Tim
'Minefield' was a carefully chosen moniker for Firefox test builds to dissuade casual users from upgrading to potentially unstable versions that would make them think poorly of Firefox's quality. The name (and logo of a stylized bomb) was intended to be 'scary'.
FYI, 'Shredder' is intended to be the name of Thunderbird test builds.
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7-04-2008 @ 2:41PM
tim said...
@legend -
That's cool and all, but now that it's for the final release (correct?), it seems that it might persuade people from using it. I suppose the type of person who would look for this would know the real deal anyway, but still, it seems similar to naming your OS 'error prone' and expecting people to use it.
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7-04-2008 @ 3:48PM
(01) said...
I think you mean "dissuade people from using it." I don't know that the average person is going to come into contact with pre-release builds that often, and clearly they didn't have a problem hitting 26 Million downloads for FF 3.
@nxiv: Neil Lee's builds have always ran better for me on my MBP than the official builds, and yes, I've compared the memory. It may not always be apparent, but the optimization does increase the speed of FF.
7-04-2008 @ 3:52PM
tim said...
@(01) -
Thank you, I did mean 'dissuade.' But we aren't talking about pre-release here, the final release has been named 'Minefield.' And what does the 26 million for Firefox have to do with anything? We aren't talking about Firefox either.
7-04-2008 @ 2:59PM
Neil said...
I can't honestly say I feel or see any difference for the regular Firefox 3....seems 100% the same, from performance to rendering.
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7-04-2008 @ 8:34PM
Greg said...
I don't understand why he's calling them Minefield. Minefield is the name of the nightly builds you get out of the code repository; the proper codename for Firefox 3 derivatives is Gran Paradiso.
This is all from Wikipedia, btw.
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7-05-2008 @ 12:40AM
Olivier Refalo said...
I don't understand why custom build shall be any faster that universal binaries. Right they may take less space on the disk, that because UB hold both PPC and Intel versions, now in memory... the OS picks the right exe at runtime... So I don't get the point with these special versions...
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