New Firefox: 3 Times Faster Than IE
Users say Mozilla's newest version of Firefox browser works twice as fast as Safari, three times faster than IE
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Larger-scale modifications included new graphics- and text-rendering architectures in Gecko, Firefox's engine, and a completely revamped JavaScript engine.
Boosting Firefox's performance is also important for the mobile market, which Mozilla has begun exploring, Schroepfer said. "The performance gains carry over into mobile, where underpowered devices are the rule," he said. "It should really help us there."
Mozilla is at the end of the line in the mobile market. There, Opera Software ASA leads all others in popularity on handsets. IE, which is found on Windows Mobile-powered smart phones, and Safari on the iPhone trail Opera in installations, but they are ahead of Firefox by miles.
"I think better performance goes back to the mission of Mozilla," said Schroepfer. "That mission is to move the Web as a platform forward." That's happening, he argued, with Firefox leading the way.
"I'm happy to see that other browsers are working on performance now, too," Schroepfer said.
Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 36 languages from Mozilla's site.
