[wataru]

ArsTechnica has the full writeup, but here's a quick summary: RC1 has showed up on the Mozilla FTP site. It contains about 250 bug fixes since the preview release. The biggest change since the PR seems to be the addition of controls that allow you to force links that open in a new window to open in a new tab instead. RC1 is also available in over 20 languages. Get it here.

If you've been holding out on recommending Firefox to your non-English-speaking friends, this might be a good time to start.

And as always, if you don't like Firefox's ugly widgets, try Firefoxy.

[wataru]

There are also G4-optimized builds.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by wataru:
There are also G4-optimized builds.

Hehe I would like to try that just for fun. How would I compile it for my machine ?(PowerBook with 867mhz PowerPC 7455) I never compiled an app.. I do have the latest dev tools and latest GCC.

[wataru]

I don't know. You should probably ask the guy who compiled them for the 7450.

I'd also be interested in a 7455-optimized build, by the way. I wonder if it makes much of a difference whether you optimize for one G4 versus another.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by wataru:
I don't know. You should probably ask the guy who compiled them for the 7450.

I'd also be interested in a 7455-optimized build, by the way. I wonder if it makes much of a difference whether you optimize for one G4 versus another.

I don't think it would make a lot of difference between the different G4's. They all have the same amount of AltiVec funtions I think ?

I read something about needing Fink to compile Mozilla, I don't really want to install Fink again just for this little gimmick. Not suer if it's needed to compile Firefox tough.

BTW: does your name "wataru" mean anything in Japanese, is it a verb ? I'm studying japanese at university right now so I'm somewhat interested .

[wataru]

As a verb it means "to cross" (渡る), but it's also just a name. As a name it can be written a number of ways, including 渡, 渉, 航, and 亘, although 渡 is probably the most common.

[Powaqqatsi]

Cool Kanji are hard really hard. Remebering the On an Kun readings.. I only know 75 kanji right now and hirigana and something like 300 words . Katakana is for next week.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
Kanji are hard really hard.

The best thing you can do is to learn the radicals. Once you start seeing the patterns, things really click and remembering the characters themselves is much easier. Readings are a different matter, though.

[Powaqqatsi]

Yeah, the characters themselves aren't that hard to remember for me (kinda photographic memory I got there) but associating them with the on and kun readings is hard. Learning Japanese in an environment where you barely speak it is quite hard.

EDIT: this is getting waaay of topic tough

[albook]

Originally posted by wataru:
There are also G4-optimized builds.

Compiled by.... Me!

@Powaqqatsi.
I dont know for sure, but I think my optimization for PPC 7450 is good for the following PPC chips:
7440, 7441, 7445, 7447A, 7450, 7455 and 7457.

If you still want to build firefox yourself, take a look at these links:
http://www.mozilla.org/build/mac.html
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/build.html

[wataru]

Originally posted by albook:
Compiled by.... Me!

Thanks for your contribution! I've been using your builds for a couple days. I can't really tell a difference in speed, though.

[albook]

Your welcome!
When it comes to speed its hard to test this, but it should be faster if you have the right hardware.
Optimized code should be running faster than the general one...

[Agent69]

albook,

Your compile for Firefox runs faster for me, on my PM G4, which has the 7455 I believe.

Out of curiousity, how long does it take to run to compile Firefox? Also, how did you determine the optimization switches to use?


Thanks!

[albook]

Agent69,
Nice to hear that you enjoy my builds, specially that they run faster!

Regarding compile times.
The first time using a clean source folder it takes ~1h 30 min, but the nightly build time varies a lot. Today they obviously have added a lot, so it took about 1h 20min. But if they have not changed/added much its less than 20 min.
The compiler only build the modules where the source code have changed since last build!

My computer specs in signature.

Optimization switches found on http://forums.mozillazine.org and from Google searches.
http://www.opensource.apple.com/darw...easeNotes.html

[SubGeniux]

On G3's, it's still way too slow and buggy. I love FF on Windows, but on my Mac, it just seems to incomplete compared to the Windows one. Still, looks good though, and using sage for RSS i nit is just the best.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by albook:
Compiled by.... Me!

@Powaqqatsi.
I dont know for sure, but I think my optimization for PPC 7450 is good for the following PPC chips:
7440, 7441, 7445, 7447A, 7450, 7455 and 7457.

If you still want to build firefox yourself, take a look at these links:
http://www.mozilla.org/build/mac.html
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/build.html

Dude... this should not be possible.

It just plain should not be possible to get any appreciable performance boost just by changing a couple of compiler flags. But I'm running these builds on the G5, and I can't deny what I'm seeing; it flies.

Are you using the Tiger builds of gcc, or something? The ones rumored to be doing auto-vectorization? I can see where that might help, particularly with the JavaScript interpreter.

[albook]

@Millennium.
So it flies on your G5, even if its not optimized for your processor.

I am using "gcc (GCC) 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1666)"
Dont know if its possible to use the GCC from Tiger.


Maybe you could build a G5 optimized version? Hint hint

[Millennium]

Originally posted by albook:
@Millennium.
So it flies on your G5, even if its not optimized for your processor.

Indeed. I don't claim to know how or why, and it only seems to affect the GUI rather than rendering (though this makes sense; I'd imagine the JavaScript interpreter gets the biggest boost from this kind of recompile), but it seems to work much better than the official builds.

I am using "gcc (GCC) 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1666)"
Dont know if its possible to use the GCC from Tiger.

That's definitely not a Tiger thing. However, it's strange; I have the latest Developer Tools, but gcc -v outputs "gcc version 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1640)"; same day, but different build. Where did you get your build from?

Maybe you could build a G5 optimized version? Hint hint

Theoretically possible, but I've never built Mozilla, and I haven't tried mucking with compiler flags since I last used my old G3 Desktop, so I don't know the proper ones to use for this machine. If someone could help me out on this, though, I'd be happy to give it a try.

[albook]

Lets see...
I downloaded latest Xcode from Apple Developer Connection.

If you want to try follow the guide I have created:

Code:
Installing required software:

1. Install Apple Developer Tools. (http://developer.apple.com/tools/macosxtools.html)
2. Install Fink. (http://fink.sourceforge.net)
3. Set up your Fink environment.
     Edit your ~/.bashrc, adding the following line:
     source /sw/bin/init.sh
     Then update your environment (or restart Terminal):
    $ source ~/.bashrc
4. Install Orbit (Contains required libIDL headers), enter password when prompted.
    $ sudo apt-get update
    $ sudo apt-get upgrade
    $ sudo apt-get install orbit
    $ sudo apt-get install orbit-dev
    $ sudo apt-get install glib
    $ sudo apt-get install zip unzip
5. Install the Shared Menus Framework.
(ftp://ftp.url-manager.com/pub/SharedMenusCocoa.dmg.bin),
 and copy the SharedMenusCocoa.framework folder from inside the
SharedMenusCocoa/build folder to /Library/Frameworks.

Code:
Build Mozilla Firefox:

1. cd into your home directory in Terminal.
2. Set the CVSROOT environment variable:
   $ export CVSROOT=:pserver:[email protected]:/cvsroot
3. Log into CVS:
   $ cvs login (use empty password)
4. Run the CVS checkout command:
   $ cvs co -r AVIARY_1_0_20040515_BRANCH mozilla/client.mk mozilla/browser/config
5. Now cd into the mozilla directory:
   $ cd mozilla/
6. Create or copy a .mozconfig file into the mozilla/ directory 
alongside client.mk and fill it with the following:
$topsrcdir/browser/config/mozconfig
7. Run the build process:
   $ make -f client.mk
8. Package it for distribution:
   $ cd xpinstall/packager/
   $ make

Use a .mozconfig file, something like this:

Code:
. $topsrcdir/browser/config/mozconfig

export MOZILLA_OFFICIAL=1
export BUILD_OFFICIAL=1

mk_add_options MOZILLA_OFFICIAL=1
mk_add_options BUILD_OFFICIAL=1

# Make it faster on two processors
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS=-j2

ac_add_options --enable-pthreads
ac_add_options --enable-prebinding
ac_add_options --enable-static
ac_add_options --enable-strip
ac_add_options --enable-strip-libs

# Optimization configurations
ac_add_options --enable-optimize="-O3 -faltivec -mcpu=970 -mtune=970 -mpowerpc -mpowerpc-gfxopt"

ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-shared
ac_add_options --disable-debug

ac_add_options --without-system-nspr
ac_add_options --without-system-zlib
ac_add_options --without-system-jpeg
ac_add_options --without-system-png
ac_add_options --without-system-mng

Just ask if you need more help! :D

[yukon]

Is it just me, or does turning off javascript make sites load within a second, where leaving it on can make firefox unresponsive for10 seconds for many sites? Timed the same pages in other browsers, Omniweb was the fastest, followed by Safari/Shiira, Camino was a couple seconds ahead of Firefox (extensions off). Firefox on Windows took less than half the time of Firefox on OS X....

I always called Firefox slow on OS X, apparently it's the javascript....

[Millennium]

Originally posted by albook:
Just ask if you need more help!

Thanks very much. I had a lot of trouble with fink (I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd last upgraded; I'll have to be more vigilant about that one in the future) but I found a set of compiler flags, and I'm at the build stage.

Unfortunately, it's still not working. The last set of errors I get is as follows:

Code:
ld: ./prvrsion.o/usr/bin/libtool: internal link edit command failed
 has local relocation entries in non-writable section (__TEXT,__text)

Tinderbox is showing green, so it doesn't seem likely that this is on Mozilla's end of things. Any ideas?

[albook]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Unfortunately, it's still not working. The last set of errors I get is as follows:

Code:
ld: ./prvrsion.o/usr/bin/libtool: internal link edit command failed
 has local relocation entries in non-writable section (__TEXT,__text)

Tinderbox is showing green, so it doesn't seem likely that this is on Mozilla's end of things. Any ideas?

I am not sure whats the cause.
Have you installed all the required software (as described in my previous post)?
I will take a deeper look at it when I get home from work!

By the way: If you dont use the .mozconfig I posted, please attach the one your using.

Edit: 11/01 build fine here, so its nothing wrong on the Mozilla site.
How far did it go in the process? Was it downloading files, checking your environment or compiling?

[Kenneth]

Thank you!

It flies on my dual G4 (7455A) 1.25