Warrior^WTenFourFox 4.0.1pre needs food^Wtesters badly

[ClassicHasClass]

4.0.1pre has lots of good new stuff in it, including a G5-optimized JavaScript nanojit, AltiVec acceleration for WebM (VP8) decoding, AltiVec accelerated pixel compositing, tuned media buffering, a mitigation for Flash applet graphical abnormalities and of course all the fixes so far to be released in Firefox 4.0.1 "Macaw."

This is a lot of new stuff for us, so I need testers. G3 testers especially needed since my PDQ is on my workbench -- I need to make sure the modified scroll for Flash doesn't slow down G3s too badly, and that WebM video doesn't crash (if it does, this implies AltiVec code leaked in) even if it plays abysmally badly. Similarly, G4 and G5 testers needed to make sure the new features work well on their systems.

http://tenfourfox.blogspot.com/2011/04/401pre-is-now-available.html

We'll be releasing 4.0.1 final on 4/26, same as Mozilla, Fnord willing.

 

[bbraun]

I'm not a very heavy web user, but I do still regularly use my G4 mini 1.25GHz, and I've switched over to 4.0.1pre on it. It seems to be working fine for me for my normal use.

Thanks!

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Ah, good. I'm interested in what G5 users have to say. My quad can now play WebM just fine even in hamstrung Reduced power mode, but someone with a 2.3GHz G5 dualie said it still stutters a lot on their system.

 

[PackingTape]

I just finished trying out the version you linked to on my 12" Powerbook G4 (1.5 GHz, 1.25 GB ram, Tiger). It runs great overall; I think it about the same overall speed or a little faster than Safari 4. Like you mentioned in the blog, the HTML5 youtube is pretty choppy. A 1.5 GHz G4 isn't that fast anymore.

My only gripe, that really can't be called a bug, is the following. I use tinkertool to remove anti-aliasing from my display. It works for Safari, but not on TenFourFox (nor any other Firefox). Any idea why? Just curious.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I don't know why it didn't work in Firefox 3.6 and before, but in TenFourFox, font rendering doesn't touch the system libraries TinkerTool would adjust much at all (except for a few calls to the secret CoreText in Tiger to get font properties). Instead, it uses a totally alien font shaper called HarfBuzz, which is out of the operating system's purview. I suspect the previous versions were to do with Cairo (if so, Mozilla 1.7 would have obeyed the setting, maybe 1.8 and 1.8.1 (Firefox 1.5 and 2.0), but definitely not 1.9 (3.0+ and Camino 2.0.x)).

 

[mac2geezer]

I haven't tried the videos but Sunspider 0.9.1 results on a 2.3GHz dual core G5, 6MB Ram are:

V. 4.0.1 = 1812 ms

V. 4.0 = 3960 ms

 

[ClassicHasClass]

That's in line with my quad, which got 1760 versus 3710. Let me know if you get a chance to play with any of the WebM videos.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

4.0.1 final is out. Eat hearty.