I've [predicted previously](no-internet-plugin.html) that Javascript perfomance will be a decisive criterion for the acceptance of browsers in the near future. I erred in the time frame for the future, however. [Javascript](http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider-driver.html ) performance is of relevance here and now. Yesterday, I went shopping for my new gaming rig. Most online shops heavily rely on Javascript for their PC configurators -- as an example, see the configurator of [Alternate](http://www.alternate.de/html/pcbuilder/circleView.html?cn=1&tn=BUILDERS). When configuring a system, I often switch between the actual configurator, the product overview and the users ratings. Using Opera 10.01 on my Core 2 Duo E6600 with 8 GB of RAM, the resulting browsing experience was unbearably slow. I then switched to Midori and could hardly believe my eyes ... with or without Javascript seems to make no difference for this browser. See, that's how it's done! [Yippie-ka-yay, Opera 😄 ](http://www.premiere.com/List/The-100-Greatest-Movie-Lines/96.-Yippie-kay-yay-mother-!-er.)

Midori 0.2.0	native	586.4 ms +/- 17.2%
Safari 4.0.4 531.21.10	Windows 7, VirtualBox 3.0.12	613.0 ms +/- 57.7%
Iron 3.0.197.0	Windows XP SP3, VirtualBox 3.0.12	819.4 ms +/- 16.3%
Midori 0.2.1	ArchLinux 2.6.31 x86_64, VirtualBox 3.0.12	880.8 ms +/- 4.5%
FF 3.7 alpha	native	1580.4ms +/- 3.5%
Konqueror 4.3	native	2214.2 ms +/- 2.8%
FF 3.5.5	native	2274.8ms +/- 2.9%
FF 3.7 alpha	ArchLinux 2.6.31 x86_64, VirtualBox 3.0.12	3579.2 +/- 5.9%
Opera 10.10 1893	native	4428.8ms +/- 4.3%
Opera 10.01 1844	Windows 7, VirtualBox 3.0.12	4761.4 ms +/- 9.6%
Opera 10.01 1844	Windows NT 4 SP 6, VMWare Player 2.5.3	5015.0 ms +/- 1.4%
FF 3.5.5 (Arch build)	ArchLinux 2.6.31 x86_64, VirtualBox 3.0.12	5828.0 ms +/- 16.1%
FF 3.5.4 (Suse build)	OpenSuse 11.2, VirtualBox 3.0.12	5872.0 ms +/- 7.4%
Opera 10.01 4682	native	6229.8ms +/- 4.7%
FF 3.5.5 (Mandriva build)	native	6238.4ms +/- 1.1%
IE 8.0 6001.18702	Windows XP SP3, VirtualBox 3.0.12	6418.4 ms +/- 6.9%
IE 8.0 7100	Windows 7, VirtualBox 3.0.12	6999.8 ms +/- 14.4%
Seamonkey 1.1.17	native	11945.2 ms +/- 12.0%
IE 6.0	Windows NT 4 SP6, VMWare Player 2.5.3	62990.4 ms +/- 1.8%

Native means: Mandriva 2010.0 x86\_64 on a Core 2 Duo E6600 and 8 GB RAM. For comparison: Chromium 4.0.252 on my Mini (Ubuntu Karmic on an Atom N270) needs 2216.8 ms to complete the test. Faster than all non-Webkit browsers on my main machine ... Webkit-based browsers are by far the fastest, beating Gecko by a factor of three and Presto almost by an order of magnitude. This performance difference is quite perceptible in everyday applications as outlined above. What's more: in comparison to my [last browser snapshot](browser-snapshot.html), both Webkit and Gecko improved their Javascript performance. Opera, instead, is getting worse. For years Opera talked about a [JIT](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_compilation) for Javascript in the 'next' version. Now, Opera is the only browser (besides IE) to _not_ have this feature. "The fastest browser on earth" is a long time ago ... On a sidenote: Mandriva seems to provide particularly slow builds (see FF 3.5.5, Mandriva build). That, of course, makes me particularly happy. 😞 **Update**: I forgot to switch off adsweep (wich costs a lot of perfomance, since it is a Javascript 😉 ) in the native Opera test. The new values are consistent with those obtained in the virtual machine, but don't change any of the statements above.