New subject: Firefox Browser Performance via X2Go - and a call for helpon behalf of X2Go and Pale Moon

28 Oct 2017

      [crossposting this to x2go-dev/x2go-user; please reply to x2go-dev only]
Hi $LIST,
there have been numerous complaints in the past about Firefox' lack of
performance when used in an X2Go session, especially over WAN connections.
During some extensive testing and comparison of browser engines, we
discovered that setting the following three values in about:config bring
some improvement to current Firefox versions:
gfx.xrender.enabled (boolean) true
gfx.canvas.azure.backends (string) cairo
gfx.content.azure.backends (string) cairo
Note that xrender support is going away soon.
What we also discovered is that the KDE3-fork Trinity
<https://www.trinitydesktop.org/> brings a Konqueror browser version
that performs way better than Firefox, even with the above three
parameters enabled.
Next, we discovered an actively maintained fork of Firefox 28 - named
Pale Moon <https://www.palemoon.org/>. This gives comparable performance
to Trinity-Konqueror, with the advantage of being way closer to Firefox
in both UI design and codebase, so pages that work fine in Firefox
should work fine in Pale Moon as well - something I wouldn't want to
take for granted with Trinity-Konqueror.
I have uploaded two demo videos showing the performance of Firefox (with
XRENDER only, not cairo) vs. Trinity-Konqueror and vs. Pale Moon:
Firefox (left) vs. TDE-Konqueror (right): https://youtu.be/GfTVhX0UT8M
Firefox (left) vs. Pale Moon (right): https://youtu.be/kilDivhvMZw
I decided to talk to the Pale Moon developers on IRC and it turns out
they plan to revamp their core component
<http://personal.mattatobin.com/image/capture/c4d873f0-9048-4523-8abf-ba5763067c9a.jpg>
some time next year ("port Pale Moon to the up and coming Unified XUL
Platform from the
current platform code we have now").
The one person I talked to in particular, Matt A. Tobin, suggested that
the drop in performance came with the drop of support for GTK2.
The Pale Moon developers would be interested in keeping GTK2 support
even in their new core component, but would need some cash and
especially some additional manpower in the form of skilled coders.
So this is a call for help:

If you're a company that uses X2Go and is interested in supporting
Pale Moon development, either financially or by assigning your own
coders to the project, please let me know.
If you're a professional coder interested in working on Pale Moon
as long as you get paid for it, please let me know.
If you're a volunteer coder that wants to work on Pale Moon just for
the greater good of all, please let me know too.

-> I will be coordinating all efforts from the X2Go side of things.
Any questions, suggestions, comments, etc. please follow up either in
X2Go-Dev or via PM.
Kind Regards,
Stefan Baur
--
BAUR-ITCS UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Geschäftsführer: Stefan Baur
Eichenäckerweg 10, 89081 Ulm | Registergericht Ulm, HRB 724364
Fon/Fax 0731 40 34 66-36/-35 | USt-IdNr.: DE268653243

Firefox Browser Performance via X2Go - and a call for help on behalf of X2Go and Pale Moon