Shiretoko
Update: Shiretoko 3.1b4pre is now available, some new numbers and a slightly updated FAQ.
BeatnikPad has been offering G4/G5/Intel optimized builds of Firefox 3.0.x and earlier for a number of years now and I’ve grown somewhat reliant on them. This has been a great service to the Mac community and I really appreciate all of Neil’s efforts. He is not only timely with the builds, but is very good with user support as you can see in his comments.
I’ve been using WebKit, Minefield, and increasingly Opera as my main browsers for a while now (and Bon Echo (Firefox 2)) and have recently been running Shiretoko (Firefox 3.1) to take advantage of TraceMonkey. But I’ve been longing for an Intel optimized build and haven’t found one, so I’ve made one.
Shiretoko 3.1b3pre had a SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark of 1333 and Shiretoko 3.1b4pre clocks in at 1449. The regex engine is vastly improved, while 3d/access/math took a hit. I think I can optimize further with the browser config, but don’t have time at the moment.
I’ve also made a few adjustments to the default config, namely turning on TraceMonkey and other minor tweaks to eek some additional speed out.
Mini FAQ
What’s the deal with all these weird names?
Non-official builds cannot use Firefox branding. I guess I could call it something else, but everyone in the dev community knows this particular version as Shiretoko.
Is Shiretoko Japanese for something?
Yes. Since dev builds are named after parks and this one is named after the Shiretoko National Park in northern Japan. (thanks Mike).
Is this going to break my existing Firefox?
No. You just cannot run them simultaneously.
Will my add-ons work?
Maybe. Firebug works and that’s all that matters to me.
Will you be doing nightly builds?
Yes. Since there is the demand for it, I will start nightlies once my current data crunching project is finished (I cannot interrupt this project every night). I expect to have this done by the end of March.
Will you build for different architectures?
No. Intel is where it’s at.
Popularity: unranked [?]
I updated the portable version. Now as DMG image and only one single app bundle included and necessary.
http://blog.jbbr.net/download/4/
Okay, sorry, I’m confused. Is Tracemonkey part of Shiretoko now or do I need to go add it on myself?
@WHITSON
TraceMonkey has almost always been a part of 3.1, it just is not enabled by default. If you want to enable it on a regular FF download, search for “jit” in the about:config and set both options to true. Restart.
Hey, I love your optimized builds. They would wonderful on my computer and are super fast. I just wanted to let you know that the official 3.5 beta 4 was released recently. I tried to do a little research to figure out how to build it myself with your mozconfig file but it looked like it was going to take a lot more work than I thought or maybe I just read wrong lol
how about beta4?
Hi, just got the shiretoko-3.5b5pre build. Thanks.
Two issues I’ve noticed – sometimes you can’t click to change a tab. You click on a tab that’s not in front but nothing happens. Also, in the search field at the top right, I can enter text but the return key doesn’t do anything.
Is this a result of the optimized build? Or something wrong with Shiretoko?
Thanks!
@david – the 5pre is the beta 4 build.
@josh – Honestly, I’m not sure. I used the same build steps I’ve used in all previous releases available on this site. So I’m pretty sure it is not the optimization. You can also check the .mozconfig file on the downloads page.
I know it’s not the fault of the optimizations but wow it’s this build is buggy.
im using osx tiger 10.4.11 and it’s not working good, firefox also want to start up when i click the icon
A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.
Just FYI, your mozconfig contains a lot of cruft. For example:
ac_add_options –enable-reorder
This isn’t a valid option to configure.
ac_add_options –disable-debug
ac_add_options –disable-shared
ac_add_options –enable-strip
ac_add_options –enable-pthreads
ac_add_options –enable-svg
ac_add_options –enable-canvas
ac_add_options –enable-extensions=default,spellcheck
ac_add_options –without-system-png
ac_add_options –without-system-mng
ac_add_options –without-system-nspr
ac_add_options –without-system-zlib
ac_add_options –without-system-jpeg
These are all the default settings.
ac_add_options –enable-prebinding
I’m told this option hasn’t done anything useful since OS X 10.3 or so. (See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=407399)
@ted thanks for the tip. Will update shortly…
Shiretoko-optimized Firefox 3.5 build for OSX really is worth the download. Much faster and I’ve had no stability issues http://bit.ly/lovrH
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Been using your 3.5b5pre for a few weeks, and it's been fantastically stable and flawless for me. Honestly, I haven't experienced a single crash, whereas with with the last Firefox 3.x stable build I'd have a crash a day or so. Pleasantly surprised, stable, and fast. Thank you!!!
Oh, I'm running OSX 10.4.11, MBP w/ 2GB RAM & 120GB HDD.