Filed under: Software, Internet, Internet Tools
Minefield offers custom builds of Firefox 3
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]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rick said 11:31AM on 7-04-2008
how much faster?
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Brassen said 11:53AM on 7-04-2008
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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Big Dave said 12:00PM on 7-04-2008
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/06/22/optimized-firefox-3-builds-available/
Repost!
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Josh said 12:01PM on 7-04-2008
Yeah... this is like the third time they've done it in the last few months too. Odd.
Big John said 12:09PM on 7-04-2008
I agree, TUAW should never post helpful tips for folks that may not have seen them before. Damn them!
Tom said 12:10PM on 7-04-2008
Yes, Minefield was the name of Firefox 3 nightlies pre release, now they are called GranParadiso.
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Steve said 8:08PM on 7-04-2008
@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/
Radu Dutzan said 8:55PM on 7-05-2008
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.
CJV said 12:57PM on 7-04-2008
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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CJV said 12:59PM on 7-04-2008
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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tim said 1:22PM on 7-04-2008
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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Mathew Duggan said 1:26PM on 7-04-2008
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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nxiv said 1:36PM on 7-04-2008
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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legend said 1:46PM on 7-04-2008
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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tim said 2:41PM on 7-04-2008
@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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(01) said 3:48PM on 7-04-2008
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.
tim said 3:52PM on 7-04-2008
@(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.
Neil said 2:59PM on 7-04-2008
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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Greg said 8:34PM on 7-04-2008
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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Olivier Refalo said 12:40AM on 7-05-2008
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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