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| Swiftfox is ], with source code under ]. The binaries are proprietary, under its own license <ref name=license>{{cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/source.htm | title=Swiftfox source}}</ref> which does not allow redistribution. Swiftfox is trademark Jason Halme, and can not be used on any other 3rd party Firefox or Swiftfox build or version. | Swiftfox is ], with source code under ]. The binaries are proprietary, under its own license <ref name=license>{{cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/source.htm | title=Swiftfox source}}</ref> which does not allow redistribution. According to the author, this is to prevent the possibility of any confusion with tainted versions<ref name=license>{cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/source.htm | title=swiftfox source}}</ref>. Swiftfox is trademark Jason Halme, and can not be used on any other 3rd party Firefox or Swiftfox build or version. | ||
| == Alternatives == | == Alternatives == | ||
Revision as of 23:00, 2 November 2006
 | |
| Developer(s) | Jason Halme |
|---|---|
| Stable release | Based on Firefox 2.0 / Oct 24, 2006 |
| Preview release | 4.0.0 [±] |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | binaries, Proprietary source, MPL 1.1 |
| Website | getswiftfox.com |
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| Related articles |
|---|
| Origins and lineage |
| Category |
Swiftfox is a freely downloadable open source graphical web browser that is a binary optimized build of the Mozilla Firefox web browser for Linux created by Jason Halme. To optimize for each of the supported microprocessor architectures, separate specific builds are created. The current version of Firefox is available as well as the development versions, each having specific builds. Firefox extensions and plugins are fully compatible with Swiftfox.
Optimization
Swiftfox is optimized using the following methods:
Binary code optimization
- compiled with the highest level of compiler optimization, rather than optimized for binary size
- Swiftfox is compiled -O3,
- Firefox is compiled -Os. This is less than -O2 .
- binaries incorporate additional instruction sets .
- optimization specific to the build microprocessor architecture
- compiled with newer gcc (Firefox 2.0 uses 3.3.2, Swiftfox 2.0 uses 4.0.4).
Increased Security
- better protection from buffer overflow attacks (Firefox 2.0 uses gcc 3.x which does not support this, Swiftfox 2.0 uses -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2).
Removed or disabled features
- by removing the pango framework for rendering international fonts. This means that Unicode fonts remain supported (see Unicode and HTML), but without the extra features provided by pango - see example.
- Disabled IPv6 DNS lookups
Changed default preference values
- default enabling of http pipelining . Note that Fasterfox provides a GUI to adjust these settings
- Full details of all the preference changes are listed
Speed
Swiftfox has been evaluated in the context of the fastest browsers . It is central to evaluate the claim of Swiftfox being faster than Firefox, as implied by its name. No explicit claim of speed or speedup is made at the Swiftfox site, but simply that it is an "optimized build".
Firefox speed
 | The relevance of particular information in (or previously in) this article or section is disputed. The information may have been removed or included by an editor as a result. Please see discussion on the talk page considering whether its inclusion is warranted. |
A speed comparison of various Linux (and other) browsers has been done. In this 32bit only test, Firefox was slower than both Opera and KonquerorCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).. Firefox has been criticised for slow startup compared with other browsers Performance and browser speed tests confirm this to be the case.
Swiftfox speed
No definitive speed comparison has been reported, but an unspecified faster startup time together with a 1.7% webpage rendering speedup has been reported. The details of this test are a page rendering in 4.79 seconds for Firefox and 4.67 seconds for Swiftfox, both 32bit on 64bit system. There is a bigger speed advantage of Opera and Konqueror over Firefox, than Swiftfox over Firefox. There was no benchmarking on different processors, so builds optimized for different processors were not evaluated, nor discussed.
Additional options
Swiftfox contains the following items not in Firefox:
- XForms extension is installed and enabled
- libunixprintplugin.so plugin is installed
Downloads available
Swiftfox can be freely downloaded for:
- The current version of Firefox is available.
- Development versions are available.
License
Also see Firefox#LicensingSwiftfox is open source, with source code under MPL 1.1. The binaries are proprietary, under its own license which does not allow redistribution. According to the author, this is to prevent the possibility of any confusion with tainted versions. Swiftfox is trademark Jason Halme, and can not be used on any other 3rd party Firefox or Swiftfox build or version.
Alternatives
- Firefox source code is freely available for download, as are the Swiftfox changes.
- Fasterfox allows the same settings used in Swiftfox to be used with Firefox, but not the other aspects (ie. compiler optimizations)
References
- "Swiftfox Forum".
- ^ Using url of about:buildconfig to check the details of the 2.0 builds
- "Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)".
- ^ "Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog".
- "Swiftfox Forum".
- "redhat.com".
{{cite web}}: Text "Limiting buffer overflows with ExecShield" ignored (help) - "What is Pango? - a definition from Whatis.com".
- "Open Source Awards 2004: Pango".
- "Script Gallery - Pango".
- ^ "Swiftfox 1.5.0.7 changelog".
- "Swiftfox 2.0pre patch file".
- ^ "APC Magazine: What's The Worlds Fastest Browser". Retrieved 2006-10-30.
- ^ "Browser speed comparisons".
- "Mozilla Firefox Review". Softpedia. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
- ^ "Swiftfox source". Cite error: The named reference "license" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
Also see
External links
- Swiftfox site
- APC Magazine: "Fastest browser in the world"
- Ubuntu site
- madpenguin.org
- linuxextremist