Why IE Is So Fast ... Sometimes

safrit writes "Finally the scoop on how IE "cheats" a little to up its performance! Do RFCs mean nothing anymore? What's next, Riots in the streets, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! From the blog story: 'Internet Explorer on Windows always seems either to run impossibly fast (page requests are fulfilled almost before the mouse button has returned to its original unclicked position), or ridiculously slow...' Now read to see why..."

I wish I could...

[crashnbur]

...but the site has already been slashdotted! I suppose I'll just read it late tonight after the "mass hysteria" has settled.

down before first post?

[stephenisu]

The same powers that make IE impossibly fast also made this site crash impossibly fast. :)

Umm..

[fluxrad]

kind of like how that blog link is coming up incredibly slow?

;-)

/.'d already

[Anonymous Coward]

oh well, wait till tomorrow, after they rebuild their smoking pile of a webserver

Mozilla is quick too...

[nother_nix_hacker]

...but I think thats because during the build process it caches the entire web, hence the build time!

I always see slow

[BLiP2]

Seeing as I'm stuck using dialup for the next few weeks, all I ever see with IE is slow. What is this 'fast' of which you speak?

First Post...

[Groganz]

Ah, damn Mozilla.

Re:Cut n Paste

[Afrosheen]

One thing looked familiar to me:

" Client Server
1. SYN ->
2.
4. Request ->"

That's very similar to the working of the infamous underpants gnomes.

1. Collect underpants
2. ?
3. Profit!

Re:Cut n Paste

[StarTux]

What RFC means to MSFT:

Rules For Cowards.

Maybe this is what they mean by innovation? We all what they really mean by innovation:

"Screw the Open Standards, we will create our own Standard, but make it secret!".

Re:Cut n Paste

[Randolpho]

So that would be:

1) Rewrite TCP
2) ???
3) Speed boost!

They gave up

[Rui del-Negro]

They couldn't determine the ? for the underpants, so now they're trying it with socks.

RMN
~~~

More Browser speed ups!!

[sweede]

i've ran Netscape 4.1 on my pentium 133 with a 28.8 kps modem, but web pages load instantly on my box. whats my secret??

Well i'll tell you !!

i upgraded to IE 6.0* and the web pages popped up instantly !! even the pop-ups where there just as quickly

using IE increased the speed of web browsing on the internet for me, it can for you too !

*Note: to run IE 6.0 i also had to upgrade to a more recent AMD XP system running Windows XP and a 1.5mbs Cable Modem service which had a 98% impact on page load and rendering times.

IE Fast? What are you kidding me?

[tim0thy]

Go figure... my IE isn't coming with anything when I hit the above link.

Re:slashdotted

[scottj]

In other words, slashdot editors are no better than spammers. They both effectively steal bandwidth. When will this change? Taco needs to act now!

Meanwhile...

[The Bungi]

...in an alternate universe...

-----------

Posted by timothy [mailto] on Sunday January 05, @ 11:11PM
from the who-cares-if-its-fast dept.
zupah^x0r [mailto] writes "Good news guyz!!1! While looking through the Mozila source I spoted the reason behind the browsers' supercallifagilistick speed; it seems the good folx at Mozilla are "cheating" when crating the HTTP requestor to the web server or something. Heres teh skoop [my486.8mbram.288kdialup]. Please be sure to donation to the Mosila org, k?" Yes, they're cheating as far as the RFC is concenred, but this is a good thing as far as I'm concerned becuase the browser is fastest. Yay open source!

(Read More... | 4621 "comments" [slashdot.org] )

-----------
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Re:Sounds pretty decent...

[nmg]

What's wrong with that? Mozilla didn't think of it first.

Re:I wish I could...

[Sayjack]

Hmm...wierd, IE displayed the site before I even thought to click on the link.

Re:Cut n Paste

[FurryFeet]

Of course, the real Grail would be to solve:
1. Karma
2. ???
3. Profit!

Re:MSIE is to blame!

[Ponty]

So what you're saying is that MSIE is responsible for a lot of the /. effect? It seems that all of those windows-using /. readers might think once or twice about their OR or browser if they know that they're ruining the Internet for everyone else.

Re:slashdotted

[WiPEOUT]

3. Waiting for a mirror to appear would make news show up incredibly slow.

... and /. is renowned for getting news to it's readers in a timely fashion, so this would be intolerable.

Re:Cut n Paste

[KarMannJRO]

A different take on it than the usual "Profit!!!"...

Client Server
1. SYN ->
2.
4. Request ->

Three, sir.
Three!

Sacrifice security, compatibility for performance?

[Glytch]

Of course not. Microsoft would never do such a thing. I scoff at your ridiculous suggestion, good sir.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please rank the following inevitables in chronological order:

1) IE fuxors the Web because one standard wins out.
2) You find out the hard way that no one here gets out alive.
3) Linux rules the desktop because 69 different standards generate free sex and nickle beer.
4) ESR and RMS shut up and get out of the way.
5) Linus Torvalds walks out of the Total Perpective Vortex with a big frown on his face.

Oops, that's the scoring key. Give me a minute to randomize those and we'll try again.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good dog. That is exactly what MS wants you to think.

You forgot one..

[warpSpeed]

6. By the time the story is repeated/reposted on /. the site should be prepared with more bandwidth for a second /.-ing :-)

Re:Cut n Paste

[damiam]

Steps:

2.1. Invent time machine 2.2. Go back to before the time of the Karma Cap 2.3. Whore madly for karma 2.4. Leave the account dormant until now 2.5. Sell 300-karma account on eBay to an infamous troll 3. Profit!!!

Re:slashdotted

[Shotgun Willy]

And sometimes they get the news to us more than once in a timely fashion! It's great, like having instant replay on the news...

Aiyee - !

[handy_vandal]

It's spelled "IE" ... but it's pronounced "aiyee!" (the sound one makes upon seeing a nightmarish monster).

Re:slashdotted

[jkeyes]

and /. is renowned for getting news to it's readers in a timely fashion, so this would be intolerable.

So timely infact that they have to post it again and again sometimes twice on the same day!

Double Standard

[Effugas]

Whatever. Y'all seem to like it when *I* screw with TCP :-)

Yours Truly,

Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com

Hey, this is Microsoft

[Alien Being]

Is there anyone out there who really expected their *handshake* to mean something?

Re:No, it's not.

[decade_null]

That's why I use Mozilla, which is able to display pages without storing them in RAM at all.

Re:IE and IIS probably coded with MFC

[markbthomas]

Ahhh, I get it now: "we can't remove IE from Windows, because then it wouldn't get all of its naughty speed hacks..."

Re:Cut n Paste

[ceejayoz]

I dunno, knowing the SW fanbase, I'd say it's more like:

1. Natalie Portman
2. Profit!

Re:Sounds pretty decent...

[p00py]

Well then, I guess we may as well just stop scientific experimentation and curiosity in general, because nothing is left to be discovered.

"Oh, a sarcasm meter, -that's- a useful invention..."

Re:If you don't like it, don't use their products.

[yerricde]

And another thing: don't use Internet Explorer even if it is built into Windows.

No other web browser supports the ActiveX controls required to download security patches from Windows Update.

Re:closer look at the TCP teardown procedure

[Anonymous Coward]

It's polite to say goodbye before you hang up the phone, but you don't have to keep saying goodbye until the other guy hangs up (unless you're in love)

This MAY be the first time a FP got a score of 5!

[gatesh8r]

Mark this down on the calanders everyone...