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Firefox 44 is faster with hal

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HarborView
Posts: 41
Joined: 2014-02-01 02:21
Location: The Space Coast of the USA

Firefox 44 is faster with hal

#1 Post by HarborView »

hal, the hardware abstraction layer, is obsolescent and Debian does not install it by default. It is, however, in the repostiory.

I have an old laptop. I am using Wheezy.

I always manually install Firefox. I have been doing that since I started with Firefox 0.9. I am a fanboy.

I test each new version against the Acid tests. I have a profile called Empty so it is not bogged down on Acid 3 which is a speed test.

Given these facts, after installing Firefox 44 a few days ago I dawdled at looking at the system requirements. I saw that Mozilla recommends installation of hal.

I installed hal and tested Acid 3 and got a 40% improvement in speed, that is, the test ran in 60% as much time. (Yes, I tried multiple runs and I did not cherry pick the best one.)

On my regular profile, loaded up with my favorite add-ons, I got a 15% improvement.

Sure, Mozilla ought to optimize for udev one of these days. They probably will. That's why I said "Firefox 44" over and over again.

"Your mileage may vary."

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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Firefox 44 is faster with hal

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Firefox is just ridiculous when it comes to GNU/Linux development.

Hardware-accelerated video playback is still not supported :roll:

See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210729 & https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1210727

Why does it have a tickbox then?
:x
deadbang

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