maemo.org - Talk - Firefox 4 Beta 5

I've been downloading and testing Fennec nightlies for the last 9-12 months (possibly longer, so hard to remember!) and I think I'm about to give up on it, as Fennec is just so slow to be considered usable - it's basically impossible to use the browser in anger when sites load so slowly. My typical test is news.bbc.co.uk which loads in 10 seconds or less on MicroB over WiFi but I'm lucky if it loads in 30-45 seconds on Fennec, sometimes much longer.

The Fennec UI is also annoyingly non-standard and doesn't integrate well with the rest of the Maemo UI, and due to the sluggishness and lack of response you get from the application, sliding the side panels into view from the left and right can be a very hit and miss and thus frustrating process, meaning it's not very pleasant to use either when instead keeping the button in view or providing an on-screen button (a la MicroB/Opera) would be preferable. Trying to close or minimise the application when you're at the bottom of the page is just annoying - you either scroll the page left or right to expose the Minimise/X button, or all the way back to the top (whoever thought this was user friendly needs their head examining).

In short, Fennec really has little going for it right now - I wanted it to be insanely great but after all this time and no obvious improvements it's time to call it quits (for me that is!) While I appreciate the efforts of the Mozilla guys/gals and thank them for believing in Maemo I can't help thinking they're polishing a turd here - I noticed the package sizes for Fennec 4.1a1pre (13MB) and Opera Mobile 11 (7.3MB) today, and the latter is just an absolute triumph when running on Maemo. The former, not so much.

If Fennec can match (preferably exceed) Opera Mobile 11 in terms of performance and usability then maybe I would be willing to overlook the UI quirks but not while it performs so achingly bad - it even manages to fall far, far short of MicroB which hasn't seen any love for a good 18 months+.

Are the Fennec developers able to comment on why their browser performs so badly on Maemo (and this is testing on a freshly booted stock device with barely any other apps running - just X-terminal, Conversations and Modest), and if we can expect any dramatic improvements in future, or if this is as good as it gets? If the performance can't be significantly improved on Maemo (maybe it runs on MeeGo, where it may have more memory to play with) then I can't see any point developing it further. However Opera have shown it can be done, and obviously MicroB too.

I also noticed that Fennec 4.1a1pre continues to burn CPU cycles (15-20%) even when it's on the opening Home page and the app is minimized - this is Rule #1 in the "What not to do" Mobile Application Design handbook...