Mozilla to Users: Are You As Fast as Firefox 3.5?

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 03 Jun 2009

When Microsoft put the finishing touches on its Internet Explorer 8, it touted the fact that this version is the fastest in the Redmond-based company’s line of browsers (it even boasted about being faster than the competition, but that was an in-house test that many objected to). Now that Firefox 3.5 RC (Release Candidate) is preparing to make an appearance online, the Mozilla team is not drawing attention to the browser’s features, but to its speed (just like Microsoft did).

The Mozilla Foundation called on its community last week to put the development of Firefox 3.5 to the test; then again at the start of this week when it asked people who write code as well as people who do not write code to give a helping hand with Ubiquity 0.5 ; now the Mozilla Foundation wants you to spread the word and let everyone know just how fast Firefox 3.5 is.

“Firefox 3.5 will be here soon, and it’s shaping up to be by far the fastest Firefox yet: more than twice as fast as Firefox 3 and 10 times as fast as Firefox 2. That’s a fact worth celebrating, and to spread the word we’ve reached out to some of our fellow Guinness World Record holders, each of whom knows a few things about speed. Our first record holder is Kent “Toast” French, whose ability to clap his hands 721 times in a minute (averaging 12x/second!) officially earns him the title of the world’s fastest clapper,” explains Mozilla’s John Slater.

If you have a talent for speed and you want to tell the world how fast Firefox 3.5 is, then here is what you have to do:
- Come up with a 30 seconds video of you performing your speediest skill, no matter what that skill is. As long as you are doing it fast and you don’t exceed the 30 seconds time limit, then it’s OK.
- Go to the Fastest Firefox web page and upload your video (instructions provided on the web page).

“We’ll be editing the best submissions into a compilation video that really shows off what our community is capable of, so check back about a week after the 3.5 release,” added Slater. “If we use your clip, you’ll get a Firefox 3.5 t-shirt plus, of course, worldwide fame and the satisfaction of helping the open web. We’re prepared to be dazzled, so send in those videos!”

In related news, it seems that Windows 7 RC gives every browser out there a 10% to 15% performance boost; all browsers except for Apple’s Safari 4 Beta (details here).




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