Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[playdayz]

Iron has just been surpassed on the Javascript benchmark by Firefox/Minefield 3.1bpre with the "tracemonkey" javascript engine enabled. Details are in the last message of this thread.

This is a build of the open source Google Chrome browser with the spyware removed and renamed Iron. It is running in Puppy (in wine) thanks to Codeweaver's work on Google Chrome. This replaces the previous Google Chrome version.

http://www.diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy400/Iron.pet

To install Iron, download the pet and click to install. When it complains about the missing dependencies, just click OK. After the pet installs, there will be a Iron.desktop file in your /root directory. Please click that desktop file to run Chromium.

There will also be an icon named install_flash_player.desktop. Please click that if you would like to install flash player. If the install of flash is successful you will see the installer and have to close it.

These are both modifications of the original Codeweavers version--it appears to me that the Crossover infrastructure programs are not running correctly in Puppy but I *think* Iron is running as best it can. It has terrible trouble editing text and scrolling is unbelievably slow on my machine (a 900 MHz P3). Recently I have noted that a number of advanced browsers, Gecko 1.9-based browsers and webkit-based browsers, have this scrolling problem. I think maybe only gecko 1.8 and opera don't have the problem, so I am wondering if it is puppy related possibly or related to my particular isntallation. Maybe some one knows a fix. The editing is so bad I had to switch to Opera to finish this post. If anyone gets different results I would appreciate knowing.

On other tasks the browser is extremely fast. On the Sunspider Javascript test, Iron is significantly faster than any other browser I have tested on Puppy--and remember, Iron is running in wine! (That test was written by webkit developers though.) The tests are relative of course to the particular machine they are run on, and mine is a 900MHz Pentium 3. Obviously, javascript perfrormance is not the only thing that makes a fast browser. Arora, for isntance, which has slow javascript, has scrolling that works reasonably well and a nice feel to it. I wouldn't be surrpised if it didn't make a great browser for puppy as soon as it can support Netscape plugins (with Qt 4.5)

52616.2ms +/- 0.7% Arora 0.4 (linux, webkit)
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1410414400&t=33277

24940.4ms +/- 0.9% Opera 9.52 (linux, opera)

16791.4ms +/- 1.4% Firefox 3.0.3 (linux, gecko 1.9)

9767.4ms +/- 2.4% Iron (wine, webkit)

8551.4ms +/- 6.9% Firefox/Minefield 3.1b1pre (New Speed Champ)

http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html

Background
Codeweavers sells Crossover Linux and Crossover Mac and they have used their wine expertise to prepare the Linux version of Chrome. It is complete in the pet, which is 35 MB, expanding to 107MB! When the pet installs, it will probably complain about some missing dependencies--these are the same dependencies wine complains about missing when the wine pet is installed. If you are missing libGlu, then Chromium *might* run faster if you install xorg+gl and dri. But otherwise, they don't seem to matter. You can get further information and download the original versions at www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium

I have tested Iron on 4.00 and 4.1 beta.

Do you know the old story about the talking dog--it is not so much that the dog speaks well, but that the dog speaks at all!

[Lobster]

I am using Crossover Chromium now in
Beta 4.1 retro - problem with
entering text - editing slow or crashing or waiting to catch up . . . or just weird - better just post this

[Volsung]

From what I have read, this is just a proof of concept to prove that it can be done and that Google is just lazy.

http://lifehacker.com/5050317/crossover-chromium-ports-chrome-to-mac-and-linux

I don't believe they were intending to make it work perfectly...

[playdayz]

I have updated the first message in this forum to refer only to Iron, a spyware-free (supposedly) version of the open source Google Chrome browser. In preparing the orignal pet of Google Chrome I learned so much about Google that I didn't want to use their browser at all As Iron, I can admit that the browser does have some nice features and I hope maybe someone can see why it has such terrible scrolling speed and text editing, at least for me, and what could be done about it..

[Lobster]

playdayz thanks for your experiments with iron

I also feel Google is now working on the 'whoever controls the data stream' is of most use to spook central

It is the browser that is key to the new computing across devices and operating systems

Interestingly there is sufficient talent at Google that is aware of the agenda of mis-government operatives.

Iron exists because Chrome is open source
I am looking forward to Linux Chrome / Iron

[cb88]

text entry is often messed up on windows too

[playdayz]

I found this tweak somehow and tried it. It did what it says. The top three times on my 900MHz t22 on the Sunspider Javascript benchmark are now

16791.4ms +/- 1.4% Firefox 3.0.3 (linux, gecko 1.9)
9767.4ms +/- 2.4% Iron (wine, webkit)
8551.4ms +/- 6.9% Firefox/Minefield 3.1b1pre

Tweak. http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/09/28/firefox-minefield-faster-than-chrome/

Quick tip.

If you are not happy that you can’t get to try a native chrome, arguably the fastest browser out there (chromium is not so stable); give Firefox Minefield a shot. Even though it’s an early Alpha build, under the hood, it has the fastest javascript engine out there. There are faster javascript engines, but none of them are released bundled with any browsers yet. (not that I know of).

- Download and install the latest nightly build.

- Start tracemonkey javascript engine by going to about:config and enabling the option javascript.options.jit.content.

- Browse websites blazingly fast!

According to some tests it is 10% faster than Google Chrome.

[stevoomba]

Thanks Playdayz. I've installed java for windows/webkit in wine, and your version of Iron runs my java Tetris (from timberfrog.com) better than Firefox. In all the mozilla-based browsers it freezes after a few games, I think it just leaks a lot into memory, But I've been playing it for hours in Iron no prob so far.

Apart from that, I can't see myself using Iron/Chrome until they've got a lot more add-ons - I can't get by without my Firefox extensions...

cheers,
Steve

[playdayz]

That's cool that it works stevoomba. We can thank Codeweavers for that. It sounds like you have found one of the things that Iron does really well. Unfortunately there are some things it doesn't do so well (text entry for one) that I don't think it is suitable for full time use. There should be a linux version soon though (or so I understand).

[AlbertJohn]

Is it advisable to use google chrome now? For me I am still using Firefox. Firefox works great.

Pret immobilier

[playdayz]

Hey albertjohn, this is an old version of iron--not really anything to bother with. this was pre-version 1 and they are on version 3 now so this is antique. if firefox is working nicely no reason to try this i would say.