Well, to clarify the first post, I've updated all my packages to the
latest.  GIMP is quick on this PWS 600, even text manipulation, as is
Galeon; and I run a Gnome desktop where every app is quick and responsive.

But Mozilla RC1 is still unusable (I'll try AbiWord soon).  It's definitely
a monster, and takes a good four minutes to start up; once it does, typing
into textfields will lag by a half-second per keystroke.

I definitely get the sense that Mozilla is slow on other platforms because
of its interface (try running it on an early Mac or K6-2!).  Please correct
me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point of XUL / XPToolkit such that an
interpreted language (XML) provides the interface elements?  This would
explain why Galeon (which uses Mozilla RC1 / Gecko within a "pure" non-XUL
gtk interface) runs quite well.  I don't think the XPToolkit developers
particularly had the Alpha in mind when it came to optimizing the codebase,
per se.

dhop

jarkko.teppo@er-grp.com wrote:
> 
> On Sun, May 05, 2002 at 09:11:43AM -0700, David Hopper wrote:
> > It's the XML-based interface that drags it down (XUL?).  Running Galeon,
> > Skipjack, or other Gecko-based browsers is snappy (when stable) on the
> > Alpha.
> >
> 
> Better late than never but I think one of the problems is with gtk.
> On my system painting (selecting) text on mozilla and with AbiWord is
> painfully slow. Painting a 10-letter word on Abiword might take approx.
> seven seconds. The cursor is invisible with abiword as well. Painting
> an url in mozilla is even slower.
> 
> I'll try to update gtk, glib and everything I can find and see what happens.
> 
> --
> jht