Local Firefox Builds Run Faster?

[Collins Richey]

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 08:32:55 -0500, Michael Hipp <michael at hipp.com> wrote:
> Collins Richey wrote:
> > Back during the 0.9x days, I began to encounter some little mysteries
> > with the -bin builds, so now I build from source (gentoo ebuild, of
> > course). I never noticed any big difference in speed, but the
> > "weirdities" disappeared.
> 
> Could you elaborate on the "wierdities" that disappeared?
> 

The only weirdity that I specifically remember is this. Using the
binary for the latest 0.9x (don't remember which) before the 1.0
prerelease, I was unable to edit bookmarks. Selecting the Manage
Bookmarks menu entry would result in an error
(http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=62000). When I compiled the
same release (or later?) from source, the Manage Bookmarks bug
disappeared.

As regards to other failures with firefox, I've not seen any, except
for the well documented flaws in the find toolbar in the 1.0
prerelease and the need to tinker with the profile if reusing an old
profile.

Based on my latest experience with failures in gmip 2.0
(http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=64925 ) and xscreensaver 
(http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=64925), I suspect that many
bugs related to firefox could well be gtk+ bugs in disquise. In order
to solve the two bugs reported above, I had to recompile gtk+ with the
latest unstable verion of gcc (gcc-3.4.2-r2)!!! Neither gimp nor
xscreensaver actually had a bug.

I'm certainly not a firefox power user, and there are probably bugs
lurking under the covers that I will never encounter, but it works
like a champ for me. I have the following plugins installed and
working:

Java(TM) Plug-in Blackdown-1.4.2-rc11
nppdf.so (i.e. acroread)
Default Plugin
Helix DNA Plugin: RealPlayer G2 Plug-In Compatible (0.4.0.294)
QuickTimPlugger 5.0.(700a4b) handles QuickTime Windows Media Player
Plugine Plug-in (mplayerplug-in2.66)
6.0, Windows Media Player Plugin are supported by mplayerplug-in
Shockwave Flash (6.0 r79)

I also have a few extensions installed.

So, my recommendation is: jump right in; the water is fine. With the
single caveat: I have not tried the binary distribution.

HTH,

-- 
 /\/\
(CR) Collins Richey
 \/\/        "I hear you're single again." "Spouse 2.0 had fewer bugs than
              Spouse 1.0, but the maintenance ... was too much for my OS."
                  - Glitch (tm)