Tiny Patch Cuts Firefox 4’s Startup Time in Half

While all the worldwide scrutinized the proposed "Do Not Track" feature for Mozilla's Firefox 4 on Monday, a tiny patch quietly emerged that promises to cut away the unresolved author browser's startup time in half on Windows.

The 20-line patch whole kit by preloading Firefox's XML Markup Language (XUL) library. Whereas previously that library was loaded in chunks of 32KB operating room little, the patch works by "tricking" Windows into preloading the library in 2MB increments instead, Mozilla developer Taras Glek explained recently on Mozilla's Bugzilla forum.

The patch shaved cardinal seconds off of the browser's startup time in Glek's initial tryout–representing a functioning improvement of 40 pct–but the results were even better on a machine with a slow hard drive.

"Shaved around 50 percent off refrigerant startup on my reference slow up system," he wrote. "This plot workings better than I expected. Not only does it trade random xul.dll io for faster sequential io. IT also reduces the amount of seeks later along (ie no need to assay for xul bits), which significantly speeds high Io on other files."

The Need for Speed

In Firefox's contention with Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers, speed has become a polar factor.

Chrome is often viewed as the leader therein respect, merely Firefox 4 promises significant improvements, not just through this latest patch but also via the cellular inclusion of the new JägerMonkey JavaScript locomotive.

With 23 per centum of the browser market in December, Firefox holds the No. 2 position in that arena, following only Internet Explorer, which accounts for 57 percent, according to the latest data from investigator Net Applications.

Spell Microsoft's share last month represented a decline from the 58 percent it held in November, Firefox enjoyed a belittled gain over the 23 percent it held in November, Net Applications reported. Firefox was likewise recently named the Zero. 1 web browser in Europe by inquiry firm StatCounter.

Coming Soon?

Slated to appear soon in a Firefox 4 regular build, the feature article could ultimately make its way into the browser's next official version, which is due succeeding month. If that happens, it could afford Firefox another boost onward of the contest.

Follow Katherine Noyes on Twitter: @Noyesk.