Memory Usage - IE8 beta 1 vs Firefox vs Opera

Recently, Firefox got an update to the newest version 3.0. Before, many people were complaining about how much memory firefox uses whenever you use it. It could go up to 600MB if you used it long enough!

But now, with the release of firefox version 3, Mozilla has promised to fix over 300 memory leaks. Memory leaks occur when the browser fails to dispatch memory that it has already used, (happens especially, though not always, when you go to a lot of sites in the same tab).

These are the version numbers of the browsers we used -

• Firefox 3
• Opera 9.5
• IE8 beta 1

This is how I tested -
We went to the nba channel on youtube, and played all of the videos in the playlist "There Can Only be One" in high quality (if available). After a couple seconds after they all played, we went to Windows Task manager to see which one consumed the least amount of memory.

Here are the results -

• Firefox 3 - 53092 kb
  
• Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 - 59701 kb
• Opera 9.5 - 85832 kb

So, Firefox did the best out of the bunch, but it wasn't much better than Internet Explorer, and Opera used up the most memory, a whopping 86 megabytes Unfortunately, we did not test IE7. A graph showing the results is on the right.

-22nd Century Technology

Macs are computers too!

The fastest computer you can buy, period.

With 8 cores, this is the fastest mac yet. And if your not building, this is the fastest computer on the market.
Even though the price starts at $2,799.00, if you had $20,000 laying in the bank, you could get this machine with two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 32gb of ram, a Mac pro RAID card,FOUR 300gb 15,000-rpm SAS Drives ,a NIVDIA Quadro FX 560 1.5gb video card, 2 16x superdrives, and to top it all of a airport extreme wi-fi card. But remember that is just the computer. If you had $5,000 more, you could get all the software, a protection plan, and 2 30" monitors.

Of course, you can configure it yourself, with lots of options, at http://www.apple.com/macpro/

Post a comment!
-tech-drummer

Howto: Wine with Linux

How To: Run Your Windows Applications in Linux.

So you want to run your Windows applications on Ubuntu but don't know where to start? This guide explains step-by-step instructions on how to do it in a really simple way. Just follow step-by step.

Although there are numerous programs that can do this job – the most common way to do it is to use Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator), and that is what we will use here.

To set up Wine all you need is -

• A working 32-bit Linux OS installed to your hard drive (or through a VM) *You can do 64-bit but these instructions are for 32-bit only

• An Internet Connection (or someone who does)

• A little bit of common sense and patience

First of all we have to get Wine. To do this all you have to do is run the shell script that I made which will automatically put the wine repository in your list, update apt, and install wine.

1. First of all download the script from here.

2. Go to the folder in which you downloaded the script, and right click and go to properties.

3. Go to the “Permissions” tab.

4. Check “Allow Executing file as a program”

5. After that, double click on the executable and say “Run in Terminal”

6. The script will install wine and close, once it is done wine is installed! Simple right?

Next all we have to do is install an application. We all don't have the same applications – so as an example I am going to use Notepad++. It is a text editor more advanced than notepad (for programming) and it works wonderfully in Wine. You can download it here. (If you download yourself, use version 4.8.5 , the 5.0 beta does not work). Once it is done, go to the folder in which you

downloaded it, right click it and there should be an option saying - “Open with Wine Windows Emulator”. If that doesn't show up, you will have to take some extra steps. Go to “Open With Other Application”. Use a custom command – and put in “wine” (without quotes).

When you open the notepad++ installer, the installation screen should show up asking you which language to pick (Illustration 1). Then you can just go through the installation process as you normally would as if you were in Windows.

Afterwards, you would get an icon on your desktop that says, “Notepad++” . You would also get it in the menu (after it refreshes). (If it asks you to update, say no). Double-click it and there you go. You are running notepad++ in wine!

Not all software is that easy, but then again, some are. If you need help installing a particular program, you can google it, or search the Wine Application Database. This is a database which has a list of programs which work or do not work with Wine.

Also, if you are willing to pay, there are some proprietary wine solutions out there.

• CodeWeavers CrossoverOffice This is a wine derivative and makes it very easy to install windows applications through its interface, I recommend to try the beta and see if you are willing to pay $40 for it.

• CodeWeavers CrossoverGames This is like CrossoverOffice except it is meant for games.

• Cedega – This is another application that helps you play your games on Linux. I cannot say anything about CrossoverGames vs Cedega (since I haven't tried them). The only thing I know is that Cedega is cheaper than Crossover Games.

-22nd Century Technology