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Screaming fast Mozilla browser Minefield gives a glimpse of Firefox's future

by Jason Clarke Oct 26th 2008 at 1:30PM

MinefieldI was really disappointed when Google released their Chrome web browser for Windows only. When it comes to browsers, I've tried them all. Right now I regularly switch between Firefox and the latest nightly build from Webkit (essentially Safari). Firefox has the extensibility I rely on, while Webkit has the performance I crave. I had hoped that Chrome would magically combine those two crucial traits and become my new go-to browser. Unfortunately, Chrome is not yet nearly as extensible as Firefox, and isn't available for Mac (yet).

So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the latest experimental Firefox build from Mozilla, called Minefield. This Minefield should not be confused with the unofficial optimized builds of Firefox that Brett wrote about, which are also referred to as Minefield. Minefield is Mozilla's code-name for this generation of Firefox, and the code name is used for unofficial builds to avoid infringing upon the Firefox name.

So, what's so special about the Mozilla Minefield build? It's fast... smokin' fast. This is essentially a version of Firefox with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine under the hood, and as Ars Technica reports, it tests even faster than Google's V8 JavaScript engine.

As most Mac users have noted, Firefox is kind of pokey on the Mac platform, particularly compared with WebKit or even Safari, and even when compared with Firefox on a similarly spec'd Windows machine. Version 3 of Firefox was supposed to fix the performance problem, and while it's somewhat better, it's still not great.

Well, Minefield is great. Using Gmail or even a complex content management system is a breath of fresh air. I feel like my web apps are finally keeping up with me.

There's one caveat, and it's a big one: though the current version number is 3.1b2pre (the "b" denoting beta status), this is really alpha software. That means there will be bugs, and you will experience problems. Surprisingly, though, Minefield has been very stable in my testing -- not yet crashing in a full day of testing. I have restarted it a couple of times due to suspicion that something strange was going on, but I can't say for sure if it was.

If you use it with your regular Firefox profile rather than creating a new one, Minefield will complain that most of your extensions are not compatible. Using Nightly Tester Tools, I re-enabled all of the extensions that it disabled, and every single one of them appears to be working normally, even the complicated ones like Better Gmail 2 and TabMixPlus.

I've only had a problem with one site so far, but unfortunately it's a big one: Google Docs. The page simply won't load. But for now, I'm willing to open WebKit or Camino to edit my Google Docs, because I'm just too smitten with the raw speed that Minefield offers.

One last note: being a nightly build, you will likely find that new versions are available, well, nightly. Mozilla makes the process of upgrading to the latest version virtually painless by using the built-in version monitoring process that Firefox uses.

[via Ubuntu Unleashed]

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I was really disappointed when Google released their Chrome web browser for Windows only. When it comes to browsers, I've tried them all....
 

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Z Bernardo

Firefox crashed after downloading and installing NIGHTLY TESTER TOOLS (mentioned on this article) Now both MINEFIELD and FIREFOX are unusable , deleted and reinstall but still crashes :) .. good thing i still have Safari and Opera.

October 28 2008 at 1:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Catt

This is pretty fast on my PPC Mini, faster than the optimize version of FF and Camino. It really loads pages with JavaScript quickly. This is better than Google Chrome on my PC which I couldn't even get to render half the sites I went to.

October 27 2008 at 4:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
413x4nd3r

why is opera always forgotten???
has anybody of you at least given it a try? trust me it's worth it. opera has always been ahead of firefox and all the other browsers. look at the programs histories. many functions of firefox are just copies of similar ones in opera that have been there versions before.
i've been using opera since 5.xx and i can truely say that it is simply the best browser! and yes i've got firefox too and of course it's good. but everybody of you who hasnt used opera before should give it a try ;)

October 27 2008 at 7:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kelmon

I believe this is also the first version of Firefox that resolves one of my long running gripes with the browser - it can finally get its network settings from System Preferences rather than needing to be set in the browser itself. For people with a direct internet connection this will make no impact but for those who move between home and corporate networks that use a proxy server, this is kinda a big deal. The only issue is that Mozilla haven't enabled this option by default so if you want to use it then you need to use Firefox's Preferences and select the following:

Preferences > Advanced > Network > Settings > Use System Proxy Settings

Now I can move onto other complaints, like not using the system dictionary...

October 27 2008 at 4:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael

hm.. opera 9 still faster...

October 27 2008 at 3:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
philasan

does it work with MobileMe?

October 26 2008 at 8:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeroen Clemens

you said " Using Nightly Tester Tools, I re-enabled all of the extensions that it disabled, and every single one of them appears to be working normally, even the complicated ones like Better Gmail 2 and TabMixPlus."
how did you do that? don't understand Nightly Tester tool very well.

October 26 2008 at 7:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jeroen Clemens's comment
Zyber

install the ad-on go to the ad-on window in the bottom right there should be a button that says "override all compatibly" click it and restart minefeild and ur set

October 26 2008 at 8:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike Stanton

I've just got it running, and, through Nightly Tester Tools, got all my addons back too. All of my web-pages load in half the time it took on regular Firefox, which, on my machine, is pretty freaking fast! The only complaint I have at this point is that scrolling seems to be a bit stupid. I hope that gets fixed.

So is this like an alpha for Firefox 4, or 3.1, or what?

October 26 2008 at 6:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tobogan

Performance is really quick, but as the GUI goes - as long as Mozilla doesn't make the Green "Zoom" Button working like it should in Aqua (ie. resizing the browser window to the optimal size), its products won't do for me. It can't be that hard now, can it?

October 26 2008 at 5:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to tobogan's comment
.Trashes

It's not just that button that drives me away. The use of a toolbar button in every window is irritating, and not being able to modifier-click on them is a little annoying. Then there's the complete lack of any animation or polish. The new toolbar buttons are ugly, not to mention that back button. No command-drag. That gradient on the toolbar is wrong. Flat title bar. Square corners on menus, default buttons always in their "clicked" state. Close button on the right of tabs. Scrolling is ridiculously slow. I could go on for ages.

October 26 2008 at 6:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Arley

ATTENTION PEOPLE IF YOU HAVE THE CURRENT VERSION OF MOZILLA MINEFIELD AND YOU WANT THE SPEED YOU HAVE TO ENABLE IT GO TO about:config IN THE ADRESS BAR THEN TYPE javascript.options.jit AND DOUBLE CLICK BOTH OF THEM TO SET IT TO TRUE RESTART MINEFIELD AND YOU WILL SEE A SPEED BUP I HOPE THIS HELPS.

October 26 2008 at 5:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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