After seeing Vens post about FireFox and knowing how he realizes the importance of a good browser i thought that this was both relevant and full of lols.

Fish

Slashdot made mention that the testing of the next update to Firefox has turned up and promises lightening fast javascript performance.  But what does that mean to the average folk?   In short it means Facebook will work quicker.  As will gmail, google docs, the new version of Amie Street and pretty much anything else that falls under the web-app type thing (you know, those website that do stuff without reloading the whole page and generally work smoother).

I had a play with Minefield, as the preview version of Firefox 3.1 is called, and was astonished at the speed it loaded pages.  Bear in mind that it can’t make your downloads any quicker, that’s dependant on the speed of yourinternet connection and the reliability of your service provider (*shakes fist at Virgin Media*) but is processes what’s come down crazy fast.  I’m used toFacebook being a little sluggish to get going and sluggish to reload when you move between pages (like going from the homepage to a profile page).  With Minefield the page loaded nearly instantly.  Gmail (despite the usual short delay for the code to run gmail to download) ran fast and very smooth.  The Google Docs performance is outstanding.

This really puts the heat on Google’s Chrome browser which currently beats Firefox 3 hands down in javascript / web-app performance.  Downloading Minefield doesn’t ruin or touch your current installation of Firefox so you can try it at no risk, no commitment and absolutely no salespeople will call.  It’s far from ready for release though (not that it claims to be).  I’ve had Minefield crash on me several times when I have several web-app type sites open.  I’m trying to work out the combo that’s causing the crash so I can be a good little beta-tester and report it ^_^  None the less it’s a great sign of things to come.

If you want to have a play, download Minefield here.