Minefield PPC 7450 Optimized Test Result

On my previous post I told you my quest in searching for optimized web browser for my PowerBook 12" 867MHz. I've just try Minefield 3.2a1. It launches a lot faster than Firefox. But.. several add-ons that are vital to me are not compatible with it. Add-ons that are not compatible:

Adblock and it's companion: Adblock Filterset.G Updater --> enable Firefox to block images, frames, which is mostly ads you don't want to see that will slowdown Firefox's page rendering

Back to Top --> let you quickly go to top of a web page when you're somewhere in the middle or in the end of a web page

Boost for Facebook --> enhances Facebook browsing

BugMeNot --> bypass compulsory web registration, mostly news sites

CLEO --> with FEBE add-on, let you to create multiple add-on in one package

Custom Download Manager --> let you to open Firefox download process in a tab

CuteMenus2 --> revamp Firefox's menu (Thunderbird too), into more beautiful appearance

DownThemAll --> download manager for Firefox

Facebook Toolbar --> add easier access to Facebook's features

FEBE --> let you to backup Firefox's data

FfChrome --> add more support for modern webs that utilized advanced web programming

Firefox PDF Plugin for Mac OS X --> enable Firefox to display PDF document within the browser without the need of Adobe Acrobat browser plugin installation

Google Gears --> same as FfChrome

Greasemonkey --> add support for scripts provided by userscripts.org, again, to enhance your browsing experience

Operator --> shortened and groups Firefox's contextual menu items

PDF Download --> allows you to choose what to do with PDF document: download it, view it with external viewer, or view it as html

QuickRestart --> let you to quick restart Firefox

Stealther --> let you surf the web without leaving a trace in Firefox

Tab Mix Plus --> adds customization to Firefox's tabs behavior

Torrent Finder Toolbar --> let you find torrent easier

Without those add-ons, using Mindfield is meaningless. Perhaps I should go back to OmniWeb, a web browser dedicated for Mac user, which I haven't used for a long time. I stop using it when Safari 1.0 debuted on June 23, 2003 as separate download initially and included with Mac OS X 10.3 a.k.a Panther.

I think, recent announcement from OmniGroup, a company who creates OmniWeb, is pushing me to run OmniWeb again as my second web browser.

Or.. there is another alternative: Flock. Flock is a variant of Firefox which concentrates in social network browsing experience.

What do you think? Which web browser is more suited with my needs?

Firefox build optimized for my PowerBook 12" 867 MHz

I haven't used Firefox for so long. As far I remember, last time I used it was when I used a hackintosh on September 2008 (it's a ordinary PC, installed with a hacked version of Mac OS X 10.5.5). I love Firefox because of it's extensible. You could add various features & capabilities to it which is basically it can't. By installing/adding add-ons to it, Firefox could have more features and capabilities. For instance, what if you'd like to download a video you like from YouTube? You could utilize an add-on called Video DownloadHelper. What if you'd like to read news from various websites/sources that support RSS/Atom? You could utilize Sage or Wizz RSS News Reader to make Firefox behave more beautifully handling those news feeds, even though Firefox 3 has better capability handling RSS. What if you want to download files from links that appear in a web page and you want a resume download capability? Let FlashGot or DownThemAll come to the rescue. You could do many things inside Firefox without have to open & run separate application. That's great right?

Until several days since I have to use again Firefox on my PowerBook 12" 867 GHz, with 1.12 GB RAM. I have to admit that those luxuries capabilities of Firefox with its add-ons is a waste. I can't stand with its slowness in responding my basic browsing activity. It's far too slow compare to Safari 3 which I usually use (fyi, there is Safari 4 beta available, both for Mac & Windows). Believe me, I've tried Camino, but it's suffering the same problem with Firefox 3. Why I don't use Safari instead? Well, because my wife is opening her Facebook, and at the same time I want to open my Facebook too. Don't ask me to buy another Mac, this solution is definitely cheaper.

Why Firefox 3 is slower compare to Safari 3? Well it's because Mozilla's team build a generalized version of Firefox 3. Apparently, different CPU requires different way of building such an application to. Fyi, there's different CPUs Apple had used before they use Intel's CPU: G3, G4 7400, G4 7450, and G5. They all RISC's CPU types.

Is there an optimized Firefox 3 for my PowerBook? After googling a while, I finally found a great link: Firefox Mac Community Builds. This page lists all Firefox's builds for G3 to Intel Mac based systems. For you who would like to try an optimized version for Intel machine beside Firefox Mac Community Builds' offering, you could try Neil Lee's build.
Mind one thing, optimized Firefox doesn't named Firefox. Instead, they are named Minefield, considering Firefox's trademark.

And for you who'd like to try an optimized version for Camino, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey, you could find it here.

I'm still waiting for Google Chrome release for Mac OS X. It's still the fastest browser base on recent benchmark compare to Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer.