“Tom’s Hardware has been running its meticulously detailed Browser Grand Prix since early 2010, and today it has crowned two new winners: Firefox 9 won in the latest Windows 7 Ultimate tests, while Safari 5 was the top browser for OS X Lion,” Nathan Ingraham reports for The Verge.
“These two winners were pitted against Internet Explorer 9 (on Windows 7 only), Opera 11, and Chrome 16 in a battery of 53 different benchmarks,” Ingraham reports. “Tests include simple boot up and load times; javascript, flash, HTML5, and Silverlight benchmarks; hardware acceleration performance; memory management and usage; and much more.”
“After previously using a custom-built PC running Windows and a hacked version of OS X, Tom’s Hardware switched things up and used an 11-inch MacBook Air with a Core i7 processor and 4GB RAM,” Ingraham reports. “Despite testing on Apple-built hardware, OS X generally trailed Windows 7 browser performance, with a Mac browser beating all Windows 7 challengers only four times out of 35 eligible tests.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’d be nice if Tom’s used a big bad Mac Pro against their custom-built Windows PC instead of an 11-inch MacBook Air, however nicely appointed it may be.
Safari 5.1.2 is better than previous versions, but Camino still runs faster than anything on my MacBook. Maybe its lack of bells and whistles keeps it cleaner. I use it for half my Internet use.
Meanwhile, Chrome is good for watching videos, and Safari gives me the richest experience -page renderings, appearance, bells and whistles. I use Firefox less than before because of Chrome and Safari improvements.
Re MDN take: it would have been “nice” but unrealistic. The majority of computer buyers are buying laptops, not desktops. Even among Mac users, Mac Pros make up the minority now, to the point there’s rumours the Pro line will be discontinued entirely.
Then why use a custom-built PC to do the Windows-side tests?
Yeah. If they used a windows based ultra book, then the comparison would be okay…
But seriously, a custom built windows desktop, but no mac pro? 😛
MDN – there was no pitting of a custom-build PC against a MacBook Air. They ran all of their tests, under both Windows 7 and Mac OS X, on the MacBook Air.
The custom built PC testing was a previous round – and they didn’t pit that against a Mac – it was a Hackintosh so they ran OS X on it.
Maybe I missed something, but weren’t all the tests run on a MBA?
When I was using Windows I hated IE with a vengeance. It sucked. In fact Windows sucked, but that’s another story. To me, XP was the pinnacle of Windows good design. I even compared it to Leopard and found that I preferred XP.
Then MS introduced Vista which was like shoving a fist up Ballmer’s ass, it was that painful to use. Then they brought out Windows 7 which was like a laxative to a fist up Ballmer’s ass as it was only marginally more enjoyable to use than Vista. But all this while when MS transitioned the browser from IE6 to 7 and then to 9 there was no improvement to the user interface.
Using IE9 is like being punched in the face – it made you groggy looking at the screen – the UI elements were all over the place. MS’s philosophy and I think this reflects Bill Gates’ thinking is that as long as it works, consumers won’t care. Well the large majority won’t but a select few who arguably put taste first before everything else will. I think Steve Jobs is right when he said that Microsoft had no taste – they absolutely suck at designing elegant interfaces.
And so the first opportunity I got I moved away from IE and made Firefox my default browser on Windows. All seemed good. I tried Safari for Windows but that sucked so I didn’t give Safari a second thought. When I bought my first Mac, I tried Safari again and the difference was like night and day. I’ve come to love Safari now as there is a sense of consistency between Safari on the Mac and Safari on the iPhone and iPad. I first learned how to browse on Safari on my iPhone before getting the Mac and found that the transition to the Mac seamless due to applying what I had learned on the iPhone to the Mac. I think Safari’s great. And the ability to sync your bookmarks,across iCloud is priceless.
“In fact Windows sucked, but that’s another story. To me, XP was the pinnacle of Windows good design. I even compared it to Leopard and found that I preferred XP.”
Your comments have rarely held any credibility for me, but this one just reinforces my feeling that you are just a wee bit mental.
I couldn’t care less what you thought of my comments. I mean who the f*** are you? As for preferring XP over Leopard, yes, I thought Leopard lacked apps and wasn’t as feature rich as XP. Also the hardware that Leopard came in was pathetically slow and expensive so that tainted my view of it.
Welcome to the BLN critics group. The guy seems to have to type every thought he ever has on any subject. I too try to disregard anything the nutjob posts. Always hate to see his silly icon, knowing there surely is bullshit to follow.
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Your opinion means shit to me.
Firefox 9 (and 8) bites on Mac. It’s still my primary browser for all the Add-ons that I’ve come to rely on. For YouTube, I’m forced to use Safari (camouflaged as iPad user agent via the Developer menu). Resisting Chrome, maybe I ought to give Opera a try after so many years.
Firefox? I don’t believe it. Firefox has become an incredible resource hog on Wkndows and routinely brought my laptop to its knees. I would be amazed if they have fixed the issues with that bloated App.
They have, you just need a few more Add-ons to make it run better.