Swiftfox

Infobox Software
name = Swiftfox



caption =
developer = Jason Halme
released =
frequently_updated = yes
programming language =
operating system = Linux
language =
genre = Web browser
license = binaries: [http://getswiftfox.com/source.htm proprietary] source: MPL 1.1
website = [http://getswiftfox.com/ getswiftfox.com ]

Swiftfox is a modification of Mozilla Firefox for Linux-based platforms, with builds optimized for different Intel and AMD processors, made by Jason Halme. Swiftfox is freely downloadable, with open source code and proprietary binaries. Several versions of Swiftfox are available, each with a separate download for a specific type of microprocessor architecture. Firefox extensions and plugins are compatible with Swiftfox, with notable exceptions. The name Swiftfox comes from the animal Swift Fox. Swiftfox differs from Firefox by a limited number of changes, and builds for different processors. As these differences are technical, for general information on the browser see Firefox.

Optimization

The Swiftfox build is optimized using the following methods:

Binary code optimization
*Compiled with the highest level of compiler optimization, rather than optimization for binary size.
** Swiftfox is compiled -O3, [cite web | url=http://forums.getswiftfox.com/viewtopic.php?t=44 | title=Swiftfox Forum] Using url of "about:buildconfig" to check the details of the 2.0 builds] (the highest level)
***The resulting Swiftfox binary is larger than Firefox. (It should be noted that -O3 is not necessarily faster than -O2, or -Os. -O3 introduces two more options on top of -O2: -finline-functions and -frename-registers. The latter is good for CPUs with many registers but may actually be slower on other CPUs.cite web | url=http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.1.1/gcc/Optimize-Options.html#Optimize-Options | title=Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)] )
**Firefox is compiled -OsUsing url of "about:buildconfig" to check the details of the 2.0 builds] . (-Os is the same as -O2 but removes optimizations which would increase the binary size .)
*Binaries incorporate additional instruction sets.cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/builds/mozilla_1_8_branch/changelog | title=Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog]
** Intel and AMD: MMX, SSE, SSE2, (not generally SSE3 [cite web | url=http://forums.getswiftfox.com/viewtopic.php?t=11&highlight=sse3 | title=Swiftfox Forum] ).
** AMD only: 3DNow!
*Optimization specific to the build microprocessor architecture.cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/builds/mozilla_1_8_branch/changelog | title=Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog]
** Intel: Pentium 4, Pentium 3, Pentium M, Pentium 3M, Pentium 2, Prescott.
** AMD64: Athlon64 (32bit binary).
** AMD: Athlon XP, Athlon, K6-2.
*Compiled with newer version of GCC (Firefox 2.0 uses 3.3.2, Swiftfox 2.0 uses 4.0.4).Using url of "about:buildconfig" to check the details of the 2.0 builds] Increased Security
*Better protection from Buffer overflow attackscite web | url=http://www.redhat.com/magazine/009jul05/features/execshield/#checks | title=redhat.com | Limiting buffer overflows with ExecShield] (Swiftfox 2.0 uses -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2; Firefox 2.0 uses gcc 3.x, which does not support this).Using url of "about:buildconfig" to check the details of the 2.0 builds] Simplify
*Pango is not included in the build Fact|date=April 2007. This means that Unicode fonts remain supported (see Unicode and HTML), but without certain extra featurescite web | url=http://www.pango.org/ScriptGallery | title=Script Gallery - Pango ] provided by Pango. This simplification reduces the binary size, and reduces rendering.Changed default preference values
*IPv6 DNS lookups are disabled.cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/builds/releases/changelog | title=Swiftfox 1.5.0.7 changelog] cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/builds/mozilla_1_8_branch/changelog | title=Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog] preventing slowdowns experiencedcite web | url=http://forums.getswiftfox.com/viewtopic.php?p=12&sid=f37125f87effd7be076c6c748cdde960 | title=Swiftfox Forum]
*HTTP pipelining is enabled by default.cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/builds/releases/changelog | title=Swiftfox 1.5.0.7 changelog] cite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/builds/mozilla_1_8_branch/changelog | title=Swiftfox 2.0pre changelog] Note that Fasterfox provides a GUI to adjust these settings.
*For full details, see [http://getswiftfox.com/source/swiftfox-1.8branch.patch] .

Speed

Firefox speed

Firefox has been criticised for slow startup compared with other browsers [cite web | url = http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Mozilla-Firefox-Review-13677.shtml | title = Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Final Review | accessdate = 2007-01-24 | date = November 30, 2005 | last = Muradin | first = Alex | publisher = Softpedia | accessdate = 2006-09-22] , a criticism confirmed by pre-Firefox 2.0 speed tests. [cite web | url = http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/windows/Mozilla-Firefox-Review-13677.shtml | title = Mozilla Firefox Review | work = Softpedia | accessdate = 2006-10-30] cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons] A speed comparison of various Linux (and other) browsers has been done.cite web | url=http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html | title=Browser speed comparisons]

Swiftfox speed

No definitive benchmarking has been reported, but a quicker startup time and a 1.7% webpage rendering speedup has been reported on the 1.5.0.6 version.cite web | url=http://www.apcstart.com/node/3097 | title=APC Magazine: What's The Worlds Fastest Browser| accessdate = 2006-10-30] . There are no benchmarks for the different processors builds.

Additional options

Swiftfox is bundled with the following freely available Firefox plugins and extensions:
*XForms extension is installed and enabled
*libunixprintplugin.so plugin is installed

Downloads available

*The latest released version of Firefox 2.0 - separate builds are available for each processor type covering Intel and AMD processors:
** packaged as a tar file
** packaged for Debian installs
*Recent snapshots of development versions of Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 (trunk) - separate builds for AMD Athlon XP processors and Intel Pentium 4 (and compatible).

License

The same as Firefox, the Swiftfox source code is open source, with the source code under MPL 1.1 except for parts relating to branding.Unlike Firefox, the Swiftfox binaries have a proprietary licensecite web | url=http://getswiftfox.com/LICENSE | title=Swiftfox license] which does not allow redistribution. According to the author, this is to prevent the possibility of any confusion with tainted versions (see the Firefox branding argument Mozilla Firefox#Trademark and logo issues). The name Swiftfox is trademarked by Jason Halme, and accordingly cannot be used on other third party Firefox builds without his permission.

Debian

Swiftfox binaries are available as Debian packages from [http://getswiftfox.com/debian.htm official site] . Note that the proprietary binary license prevents Debian and other Linux distributions from having Swiftfox available as part of a distribution.

Alternatives

* Firefox source code and Swiftfox changes are freely available for download, allowing anyone to create their own build.
* Swiftweasel is an optimized build of the Mozilla Firefox code that is licensed under the MPL 1.1.

References

See also

*Fasterfox - An extension for Firefox
*Mozilla Firefox
*Swiftweasel - A 100% free optimized build of the Mozilla Firefox code.

External links

* [http://getswiftfox.com/ Swiftfox site]
* [http://www.apcstart.com/node/3097 APC Magazine: "Fastest browser in the world" ]
* [http://pykeylogger.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu:Chronicles#Install_Swiftfox Ubuntu site]
* [http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php/?m=show&id=7505 madpenguin.org ]
* [http://www.linuxextremist.com/?p=100 linuxextremist]