Pale Moon Browser

[Corrine]

The Pale Moon browser is built on Firefox source code. After installation, I launched Pale Moon and it opened with my Firefox customized menu bar, bookmarks, add-ons, extensions, start pages. I've only been using it a few hours. Other than it loading much faster than Firefox, I haven't noticed any differences.

The Pale Moon Project homepage

Main features:

* Highly optimized for current processors
* 100% Firefox sourced: As safe as the browser that has seen years of development.
* Uses slightly less memory because of disabled redundant and optional code
* Significant speed increases for page drawing and script processing
* Support for SVG and Canvas
* Support for Firefox extensions, themes and personas



System Requirements:

* Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Seven, 32-bit or 64-bit (64-bit O.S.es are not natively supported, but the browser will run fine on them)
* A 7th generation or later processor with SSE2 support like a Pentium IV or Athlon 64 or later (see list of supported processors) Standard Pale Moon will NOT run on Athlon XP processors! Please GO HERE if you are running on an Athlon XP or Athlon MP processor machine.
* 64 MB of RAM (128 MB or more recommended)
* At least 35 MB of free (uncompressed) disk space

Pale Moon - Technical Details

The following features have been disabled by design:

* ActiveX and ActiveX scripting. ActiveX is specific to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and is not natively supported by (any) Firefox builds. There are some extensions that enable ActiveX components and scripts to run in Firefox on Windows, which will, therefore, not run in Pale Moon. This is a security consideration more than a speed consideration.
* Accessibility features. Most people, and certainly the people looking for speed optimized browsers, don't have a need for accessibility features. This cuts down some on the input complexity, and increases speed, but will, obviously, not be suitable for people who need these features.
* Parental controls. Pale Moon aims to be a fast browser for general use, not a "secured family browser". The design impact of parental controls as introduced in Firefox 3.0 and later is significant, and has had serious implications for building the browser. As such, parental controls have been disabled.
* A few miscellaneous things like the crashreporter and automatic updater, since they require server-side components that are not in place at palemoon.org. You will have to check manually if you have the latest version and update accordingly.

It also doesn't support all AMD processors.

 

[Phone Man]

Thanks Corrine. I downloaded it and will use it for a while. Its seams faster but not sure. Will give it a good spin, but so far its looks good. The only negative is no Update button. Need to go to their site to check.

Jim

 

[not so gray matter]

I can't tell the difference between it and firefox. It doesn't have it's own title, it looks exactly the same ...

Oh yeah, if I change any setting in Pale Moon, it changes them in FIrefox as well and vice versa. I guess I'll use it for now since it seems a bit faster.

 

[hubris]

Palemoon

Thanks Corrine.

try troubleshooting tab under help! wow.

much faster (on my sys) at loading and rendering pages.

happy camper, for now

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

I have to say, a LOT faster then Firefox 3.6.3. Hell, could someone please post a Peacekeeper comparison of this VS the latest dev build of Chrome? (Me and Dev Chrome aren't getting along so well right now)

 

[Airbot]

Hey, thanks. This is noticeably more responsive to me.

I will try it out for a while and see how it fairs...me likes.

 

[swarfega]

Testing it out now. All my addons and theme are working with it.

 

[Corrine]

Thanks Corrine. I downloaded it and will use it for a while. Its seams faster but not sure. Will give it a good spin, but so far its looks good. The only negative is no Update button. Need to go to their site to check.

Jim

Since security is my primary "interest", that was the main reason I hesitated posting about the browser. I pay close attention to updates of programs installed on my computer but know from experience that too many people don't. My plan is when FF updates, check for a Pale Moon update.

 

[noobvious]

I am intrigued.....site bookmarked for a closer look later when I have more time. Thanks for sharing Corrine.

 

[Snowdog]

I tried it a couple of days ago when I saw it on life-hacker. I saw ZERO difference in speed and about the same score on peacekeeper benchmark. So I uninstalled it.

Note that the very first time I launched it, I thought it launched really fast, but since I already had Firefox running, when I clicked the PaleMoon link, it just gave me another Firefox window, so it wasn't launching at all.

Once I closed all my browser windows, It launched at the same speed as firefox.

 

[firefox2010]

I tested this browser on peacekeeper and found that it's only faster than firefox about 10%. However, there is a problem with Java which I had the latest Java 6 build 20 version but when I use this browser to check on Java website, it said my Java version is 6....... anyone got the same problem??

 

[Phone Man]

I tested this browser on peacekeeper and found that it's only faster than firefox about 10%. However, there is a problem with Java which I had the latest Java 6 build 20 version but when I use this browser to check on Java website, it said my Java version is 6....... anyone got the same problem??

I get the same thing with Java. However FF is giving the same message. If you do their online test they both work and show the correct information. I also found out on Blue Moon web site that they will be a delay on updates after FF release. He needs to recompile and then test his version and he also won't be keeping up with minor updates. Pale Moon is a one man operation so I can see the reason for a delay on updates. Will just have to see how that works out.

Jim

 

[Airbot]

Shows OK for me..:huh:

 

[Corrine]

Shows OK for me..:huh:

I got the same results.

 

[antharr]

Definitely more responsive. Thanks for that link!

 

[hackerman1]

hi !

Pale Moon feels faster than FF, it starts a lot quicker than FF & i also noticed that it seems to use less memory.

i ran some tests on peacekeaper:
FF 3.63 = 629,
PM = 673, 7%
FF 3.7pre-alpha5 = 743, 18%
Opera 10.51 = 820, 30%

faster, all compared to FF 3.63

manual updating is no problem, that´s what i´ve always do with FF anyway...

 

[Phone Man]

Shows OK for me..:huh:

View attachment 67687

I found the reason mine was giving that error. Due to a security bug prior to 1.6.0_20 it was recommended to disable Java Deployment Toolkit in plugins. With it disabled the verify gives the wrong information. When it is enabled it verified correctly. Since PM and FF share the same profile, what you set in PM also affects FF and that plugin was affecting both browsers.

Jim

 

[hackerman1]

firefox2010: "I tested this browser on peacekeeper and found that it's only faster than firefox about 10%"

"ONLY 10%" ?

is that not a good improvement ?

 

[not so gray matter]

It should be noted that when I uninstalled PM and switched back to FF, FF had issues reclaiming default browser status. No matter how many times I checked it, it wouldn't take. It required uninstalling the program and then reinstalling. Thankfully it didn't require deleting preferences and add-ons.

 

[hackerman1]

an update with testresults from peacekeeper: FF 3.7pre-alpha5 = 743, 18% & Opera 10.51 = 820, 30% faster
compared to FF 3.63