Optimized Firefox builds

Neil Lee has posted a G5 optimized build of Firefox 1.0 as well as a link to one optimized for a PowerBook or iBook G4 by Kai Rune. Detailed build instructions and a build configuration file are also available.

I built the G4 optimized version on my PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz. It took two hours and is 19.5 MB. The finished product runs noticeably faster than the unoptimized build, especially when opening windows & tabs.

8 Responses to “Optimized Firefox builds”

  1. Anonymous Says:



    Nice to know we can optimize for the G4 and G5, but how about a report comparing the two? Any noticeable differences?

  2. mike Says:



    I did some testing and found that the times are generally about 1 second faster (on a 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4). When reloading a page with no changes the redraw isn’t visible. Switching between tabs is instantaneous. Here are some speed comparisons.

    Operation Optimized Official Build

    Launch1 5s 6s

    Load2 3s 4s

    Open3 1s 3s
    1. From double-clicking the application until the window appears
    2. Time it takes to load MacMegasite’s home page
    3. Opening a link from URL Manager Pro, from selecting it in the dock menu until the window appears.


  3. Anonymous Says:



    I tried to build the g4 optimized version on my iBook G4 800 and got the following error message:
    configure: error: Your compiler does not follow the C++ specification for temporary object destruction order.
    *** Fix above errors and then restart with “make -f client.mk build”
    make: *** [/Users/anh/mozilla/Makefile] Error 1
    Has anyone seen this?

  4. Anonymous Says:



    You probably don’t have the 10.2 SDK installed. Try taking this line out of the .mozconfig file:

    ac_add_options --with-macos-sdk=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.2.8.sdk


  5. Anonymous Says:



    What’s the difference between the trunk builds and the aviary builds?

  6. Anonymous Says:



    Been looking for answer to this question for a long time. :)

  7. Anonymous Says:



    Did you use GCC 4 on Tiger?

    I was getting this while building on Tiger. I did not test with GCC 3.3.

  8. Anonymous Says:



    trunk is the current development tree
    aviary is the frozen release tree

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