will help download malware faster to OS X?
How is that a good thing?
Safari dominates browser benchmarks
Summary
Proving itself a staggering 42 times faster at rendering JavaScript than IE 7, benchmarks confirm Apple's Safari 4 is the fastest browser on the planet.
Topics
Proving itself a staggering 42 times faster at rendering JavaScript than IE 7, our benchmarks confirm Apple's Safari 4 browser, released in beta Tuesday, is the fastest browser on the planet. In fact, it beat Google's Chrome, Firefox 3, Opera 9.6 and even Mozilla's developmental Minefield browser.
We used the SunSpider suite of JavaScript tests to determine which browser was the quickest, and the Safari 4 beat every browser in terms of speed, on both a PC running Windows XP SP2, and a Mac running OS X 10.6 with all updates applied.
Below are the actual figures if you want to see how all seven browsers scored against each other, but for quick reference we determined on a PC that Safari was a whopping 42 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, just over six times faster than Internet Explorer 8, 3.5 times faster than Firefox 3, and 1.2 times faster than Google Chrome. Here's Safari versus the rest, excluding IE 7:
Add IE 7's results to the PC graph and witness the shocking truth. These are results from a PC with a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo:
1) Safari 4 (Total time: 910ms)
2) Mozilla Minefield 3.2a1 (1,136ms)
3) Google Chrome (1,177ms)
4) Firefox 3 (3,250ms)
5) Opera 9.6 (4,076ms)
6) Internet Explorer 8 (5,839ms)
7) Internet Explorer 7 (39,026ms)
On Mac OS X, Safari was four times faster than Firefox 3 and a depressing (for Opera) 7.5 times faster than Opera 9.6.
Results (fastest at the top) on Mac OS X (2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo):
1) Safari 4 (Total time 967ms)
2) Minefield 3.2a1 (969ms)
3) Firefox 3 (3803ms)
4) Opera 9.6 (7322ms)
You can download Safari yourself here.
This article was originally published on CNET UK Crave.
Talkback Most Recent of 68 Talkback(s)
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GuidingLight25th Feb 2009 -
Look at it this way so far that vast majority of
malware is PC/Windows only it will not effect Mac's at least. On the PC
side you should have a wealth of experience and Anti Malware
applications to help with the increased speed of delivery of said that
Safari might afford you...:P
Now what Malware there is for OSX does not require speed for there is so
very little of it and what I've read about it the OSX malware I can not for
the life of me determine what actual harm it does.
Pagan jim
James Quinn25th Feb 2009 -
Eh yo Quinn?
I just discovered the Safari toolbar can be customized. Under Mac OS X,
while Safari is running , go to the top menu & click on View, then look for
Customize Toolbar ...
"In a world without walls & fences, who needs windows & gates?"
Intellihence25th Feb 2009 -
So when did the world ever become free of walls and fences?
Probably when hell freezes over...
transposeIT25th Feb 2009 -
OMG
The article is all about browser rendering speed, not download speed,
which is dependent on your ISP pan.
Fanboys are as tiresome as religious fundamentalists, and often
indistinguishable.
rahbm25th Feb 2009 -
How is that [faster] a good thing . . .?
Well, I'm getting impatient. After all, it's been years I've been waiting . . .
Oh, that's right. It's OS X. Guess I'll keep on waiting.
brian ansorge27th Feb 2009 -
And this is a good thing? (seriously)
I confess I honestly don't know if Javascript render speed is an important issue these days. I'm still stuck back here with Firefox 2, and aside from the slight delay upon first opening, I've never once watched a web page opening and muttered under my breath, "Damn--I wish this page loaded faster."
It's like going to an auto showroom and the dealer saying, "On this new Belchfire 3000 the engine will start in 0.3 seconds when you turn the key, not the 2 seconds your old car needs." Big whoop.
But maybe it's a factor.
Dorkyman25th Feb 2009 -
Depends on whether you use JavaScript based pages...
...if not then, no, it won't help. But a lot (sorry no proof to back this up) of web sites these days use JavaScript.
I personally use FF3 w/ NoScript which stops JavaScript from running by default. More or less any page I visit has NoScript blocking something which tells me there is a lot about (most are Google Analytics scripts) on a page.
So I would say using a browser that can render it faster (if you don't use NoScript) will speed up your web experience...
-- EDIT --
Takalok just kind of made my point a lot more compact!
DevJonny25th Feb 2009 -
For quite sometime, Safari has the ability to have javascript disabled.
Go to preferences in Safari, go to security next, and you will see, not only
can you disable javascript, but also java, plugins, etc,,,
"In a world without walls & fences, who needs windows & gates?"Intellihence25th Feb 2009 -
Well any browser can do that!
But NoScript lets you turn JavaScript on and off without leaving the page and going into options, and can be set on a site by site basis and on an individual page basis if you want. It's fantastic for killng off those annoying and often unwanted adverts etc that tend to pop up all over the page on some sites, and NoScript greatly increases the chances of you not downloading any potentially harmful script.
GOTBO25th Feb 2009 -
So?
That's nothing special. That's supposed to be a mandatory feature of any browser. But when you do use that method, javascript is universally unavailable for all sites until you re-enable it.
What NoScript does is allow the user to turn off javascript elements on a site by site basis. Javascript can be on for YouTube.com while being off for ZDNet.com. That's a whole different level of javascript control.
eMJayy25th Feb 2009 -
FF 2.0..do you realize how many exploited vulnerabilities you are open to?
update your damn browser! people like you are a
virus writer's wet dream.
doctorSpoc25th Feb 2009 -
Nice to know...
...that I'm someone's wet dream, I guess. Wrong gender, though.Dorkyman25th Feb 2009 -
Good thing for AJAX
For those of us trying to avoid java applets, Flash, and Silverlight, this is extremely important.
davidr6925th Feb 2009 -
Yes, it is (Seriously)
What you may not understand is that there are many new Javascript
libraries coming on line. JQuery, MootTools and a host of other new
interactive libraries offer us designers many new ways to develop
advanced web pages. With these abilities, the complexities in code can
start to choke older web browsers from rendering. What speeds you
think you are happy with now will start to bother you in the years to
come as the web jumps to 3.0.
As an example, go run your Vista program on a 3-4 year old computer
and feel the effects of why faster computers are needed to make you
happy.
carter0225th Feb 2009
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