Speed up FireFox

[GT98]

Works pretty good

http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_faster.php

[mmp121]

Giving it a try now, I'll see what if anything changes

[Wombat]

A nice improvement here.

[Helevitia]

works fairly well. I noticed some small glitches where certain graphics will not load every once in a while. Other than that, it is fast.

[gangster]

nice here too

[isochar]

What you can do is create a blank text file in your Firefox profile and rename it user.js - that way you can take your customizations with you. Just add these lines of code:
user_pref("config.trim_on_minimize", false);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 100);

[SitFlyer]

Definitely a nice improvement

[dbdg]

You could just use Opera

Go on Az, tell em!

[az]

You mean I should ridicule them for having to turn some hidden screws in order to make their browser as fast as another, smaller, faster, more feature-rich browser? Why?

AZ

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by SitFlyer
Definitely a nice improvement

Another two from me.

[James_D]

yup def. faster.

Thumbs up from me too...

JD

[The PIT]

Tried it not much differance to be honest.

[mmp121]

seemed to make things slower for me. Go figure, oh well...

[Paddy]

Great little tips, but only one problem, and that's that you're breaking servers by doing this. 3-5 requests is fine, but trying to do 30 requests at once puts some strain on the server. If two people try to access the same page at once with this set, that's 60 connections. Most httpd's are set to cut off after there are 100 connections made. So, 4 people with this set could not access the same site. I urge you to think things through before setting something like this and killing the websites you browse.

[Paddy]

AZ, is that you?

To further add info: as #23 states (somewhat incorrectly), pipelining DOES NOT add more connections - the original post is utterly wrong, but is a way of streaming data on single connection.

There is AFAIK an in-built limit of 10 to network.http.pipelining.maxrequests - so setting it as 30 is ignored by Firefox anyway! That is for a GOOD reason - higher values are not better - they can cause complete page-loading failure and thus a longer loading time! Leave it at 4-6.

The above comment #23 is neither fully correct - pipelining is different from persistent connections he describes. Connections are persistent (don't close between each request) on a HTTP/1.1 compliant server irrespective of pipelining. Pipelining allows that single persistent connection to work more efficiently:

http://www.w3.org/Talks/9704WWW6-WebPerf/slide7.htm

NOTE: Opera has had this "tweak" for years, partly responsible for its reputation of being the fastest browser around.

ALSO: setting nglayout.initialpaint.delay to 0 will increase page-loading time - especially on older machines or slow connections. It causes the page to be redrawn earlier (so perceptually seems quicker), but the extra CPU load will slow the rendering down (potentially increasing total load time). Set it to 750 or 1000 on older computers or slow connections. The default of 250 is just fine IMO as a fair average.