Swiftweasel

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Swiftweasel
Swiftweasel-3.png
Developer(s)SticKK
Final release
3.5.5 / November 23, 2009 (2009-11-23)
Operating systemLinux
TypeWeb browser
LicenseMozilla Public License 1.1
WebsiteSwiftweasel Project

Swiftweasel was a fork of Mozilla Firefox available for the Linux platform only.

Optimization[]

Swiftweasel is optimized using the following methods:

P.G.O.[]

As of the 3.0.3 release, Swiftweasel has shifted its primary optimization from processor specific to profile-guided optimization (PGO).[1] It is a two step building process. The application is compiled one time and then run to produce a profile. The profile is then used to guide a second compilation of the application. Some of the older optimizations are still used, but there are now only Intel and AMD versions of each build. It is released compiled in a tar.gz package. There are also separate installers for Ubuntu and Arch linux available through their communities.

Binary code optimization[]

  • Swiftweasel is compiled with options that optimize for speed rather than binary size.
    • Compiled with the -O3 compile flag[2] (the highest level),
      with the resulting Swiftweasel binary being larger than that of Firefox.
    • Firefox is compiled with the -Os compile flag,[3] which is for binary size.[4]
  • Binaries incorporate additional instruction sets:[5]
  • Optimization specific to the build microprocessor architecture.[5]
    • Intel 32bit: Pentium 4 (Prescott), Pentium 4, Pentium M, Pentium III, Pentium II;
    • Intel 64bit: Nocona;
    • AMD: Athlon XP, Athlon, K6-2, Athlon;
    • AMD64: Athlon64, Opteron.
  • Compiled with newer versions of GCC (Firefox 2.0 uses 3.3.2, Swiftweasel 2.0 uses 4.0.3, and Swiftweasel 3.0.3 uses 4.2.3).[5]

Increased Security

  • Better protection from Buffer overflow attacks[6] (Swiftweasel 2.0 uses -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2; Firefox 2.0 uses gcc 3.x, which does not support this).[5]

Simplify

Installed extensions[]

Swiftweasel has several extensions installed by default.[7]

  • XForms
  • AdBlock Plus
  • User Agent Switcher[8]
  • Quick Locale Switcher[9]

Swiftweasel-specific changes[]

Changes made to Swiftweasel include:

  • The default icon set has been replaced with the Kempelton[10] icon set.
  • Swiftweasel uses its own settings directory. The settings, including bookmarks, history, and extensions are imported from Mozilla Firefox the first time Swiftweasel runs.
  • Plugins stored in /lib/mozilla/plugins and /lib/Firefox/plugins are detected and used by Swiftweasel.

Swiftdove[]

Swiftdove
Developer(s)SticKK
Stable release
2.0.0.22 / July 30, 2009 (2009-07-30)
Operating systemLinux
TypeEmail client
LicenseMozilla Public License 1.1
WebsiteSwiftweasel Project

The Swiftweasel project also builds optimized 32 and 64bit builds of the Thunderbird email client known as Swiftdove.

Optimizations[]

As of the current version 2.0.0.21, Swiftdove is also PGO optimized.

Plugins[]

The 2.0.0.21 builds of Swiftdove include the 0.9 Lightning calendar plugin installed by default.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "PGO".[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Use the in-browser about:buildconfig URL to check the details of all builds
  3. ^ Use the in-browser about:buildconfig URL to check the details of 2.0 builds
  4. ^ "Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)".
  5. ^ a b c d e f "About Swiftweasel". Archived from the original on 2012-12-25.
  6. ^ "Limiting buffer overflows with ExecShield". Red Hat. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08.
  7. ^ "Extensions Added". Archived from the original on 2012-12-25.
  8. ^ User Agent Switcher
  9. ^ Quick Locale Switcher Archived 2008-01-17 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Kempelton

External links[]

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