Thursday, February 26th 2009
Safari 4 Beta Tested, Gives IE7 a Sound Thrashing at JavaScript Performance
There is a valid reason behind why Safari is growing in browser market-share, apart from the fact that iPhone carries it: it is arguably the fastest browser there is. The fourth beta version that surfaced earlier this week went a few notches ahead of Firefox (Minefield) 3.2a1 and Google Chrome in a review conducted by CNet, to take the top-sport for the fastest web-browser. Internet Explorer (IE) versions 7 and 8, Opera 9.6, Firefox 3, Chrome, Firefox(Minefield) 3.1 Alpha 1 and Safari 4 were put through JavaScript tests using the SunSpider suite. The PC was equipped with a Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.10 GHz. Safari 4 beta gave IE 7 a sound thrashing at the test, emerging 42 times faster. The performance difference between the two were so vast that the reviewers had to prepare a seperate graph without IE 7 so there could be more resolution in the charts showing the differences between the rest of the contendors. Then again, one must take into account the fact that Chrome and Firefox (Minefield) 3.2 weren't all that behind Safari 4 beta, only a few notches. The scores are denoted by render time in terms of milliseconds. Lesser the better. The scores stand at:
Source:
CNET
- Safari 4 (Total time: 910 ms)
- Mozilla Minefield 3.2a1 (1,136 ms)
- Google Chrome (1,177 ms)
- Firefox 3 (3,250 ms)
- Opera 9.6 (4,076 ms)
- Internet Explorer 8 (5,839 ms)
- Internet Explorer 7 (39,026 ms)
36 Comments on Safari 4 Beta Tested, Gives IE7 a Sound Thrashing at JavaScript Performance
The latest safari is better in javascript performance. Is that all ?
Apple is trying to stick it to Palm for copying iphone finger gestures on the palm pre, all the meanwhile they are copying google chrome to a T.
They keep raving about Safari's JS speed, but noone mentions the fact that it's very limited and that it installs more crapware than most users care for. I, for one, swore to never touch any software that secretly installs updaters and shit without giving me the choice to opt out of it. I'm afraid Chrome and Safari fall into that category.
If you want crazy JS speed + full functinality, give FF 3.1 b2 a try. It's rock solid and with 4 or 5 vital addons it's still the best web experience around.
My 2 cents...
I'm pretty sure all of these stats are pretty damn relevant in one way or another. At this point I doubt you even read the article.
You took your preconceived bias and posted what you thought the article said. Now go read it and tell me that you already read it!
Javascript load times mean a lot, more than a lot actually. JS load times determine how fast just about any general webpage is going to load.
It doesn't secretly install updates either, every update released is shown to you, and then asks if you want to download it.
What's more, I can find 150 features, none of which would be categorized as "little features" or "primitive functionalities".
www.apple.com/safari/features.html
Yes, Apple is a really trustworthy company, especially after pushing unrequested "updates". You know the old Safari story...That Mozilla quote pretty much sums it up.
And your second point... Safari lacks so many features, it's not even funny. No mouse gestures, no super drag and drop, no ad blocker (easily fixed with resident proxies though, but they eat up memory). The font rendering is all wrong. No download manager (multithreaded one at least).
It's fast, I'll give you that, but feature-wise it's still Stone Age material.