User Feedback :: Speed DSL vs Windows



Hi,

Damn small question ;)

How fast (snappy) is Firefox - DSL vs speed of Windows - Internet Explorer?
PC - 800 Mhz - 256 MB

Regards,
Ted
For the majority of applications, DSL is typically always faster on the same hardware.  But when it comes to Firefox you might find that Internet Explorer is faster, at least faster to start up.  I'm not looking to argue (i don't use windows at all, so that should say something about my personal opinion), just stating fact.  IE in windows already has the majority of its required files loaded at windows startup, so loading it on demand is probably the fastest for a gui browser i've seen. You can see the same type of difference with other browsers just within Linux.  For example, when running KDE the Konqueror browser starts up pretty quick, but try to start it from Fluxbox and you can go get yourself a cup of coffee while waiting.

Once the apps are loaded it's a different story....the Firefox 1.x browser is faster and more stable than IE in my experience.
Also, those system specs should be good for running DSL toram, (type "dsl toram" without quotes at boot), this loads and runs the entire operating system and applications purely from RAM, making it extremely snappy.  As mikshaw says, IE is an integral part of windows (hence the court cases...), so starts very quickly, but running firefox from RAM will give it a run for it's money.  Maybe a bit slower out of the gate, but after that, BAM! :D
Also,

If you use the Opera myDSL extension, runtime performance should be faster than either Windows' IE or DSL's firefox

FYI, you might get faster performance with the GTK2 version of firefox instead of the builtin DSL firefox.

GTK2 firefox is probably optimized for speed, while DSL firefox is optimized for minimum disk space used.
Check out some browser speed tests:

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html
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