Optimizations...

Was looking around last nite (doing anything except studying) and ran across this article.
Run a G4 or G5 Optimized version of Firefox

I had to use Xbench to actually figure out what G4 I had in my powerbook (7455). I looked around the precompiled binaries provided in that link and downloaded the one for my processor family (7450). I've been running that version ever since. Using my completely informal and unscientific trials (does it FEEL faster?) I have concluded that yes the optimized versions are a touch peppier than the generic Firefox 1.0

This got me thinking, I'm sure the same thing could be done for the windows and linux versions (if they haven't been already). To that effect I'm looking forward to trying to compile an athlon optimized version of firefox for my desktop. Those of you with spanking new P4's and A64's might want to consider doing the same. But then again, if you have a computer that new, it's probably already plenty fast.

Another thing I thought of, I wonder how much faster would the OS be if it was optimized in the same way? Gentoo Linux came to mind. I've had some people swear to me that by doing full optimizations, they've got Gentoo linux to literally scream on old hardware (old being 300mhz and lower). I never really believed them, but after this first hand experience, I might give it a go. Of course that requires that I have a spare computer lying around, and due to space contraints (my room is tiny) I left all those in Fresno. \