264248 - about:config better documented, and certain values changed to default

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox Build System :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Kris Silver]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041011 Firefox/0.10
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041011 Firefox/0.10

An increase in changing Firefox's about:config section even by basic users has
become increasingly popular, this can be seen by the forums along, and the web
as a whole.  These are done to get Firefox at the same speed and smoothness of
IE, when really this should be the result anyhow.  Unless other better ways to
get the benefits of these changes can be done, I would put to you that the
following is becoming increasingly popular, and a pain for simple users to have
to do, many when Firefox does not run as with these changes, just go back to IE:

browser.turbo.enabled  - true
general.smoothScroll  - true
network.image.imageBehavior  - 0
network.http.max-connections  - 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server  - 16
network.http.pipelining  - true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests  - 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining  - true


Now create the following (right click add new):

Boolean -- network.http.pipelining.firstrequest -- set to true
Integer -- nglayout.initialpaint.delay -- set to 0


If some or all of these can be added it would have huge benefits and people
would leave Firefox less, and instead promote it's speed and efficiency more. 
These settings really do seem to get the best out of Firefox, and the best
should come a little more by default.  I would at least request that when a user
upgrades or re-installs (keeping profiles etc), that the settings remain the
same, so you don't have to do it all over again AT LEAST.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Near as I can tell, the browser stopped using browser.turbo.enabled to determine
whether or not to use QuickLaunch in 2001, and Firefox never did use it or have
QuickLaunch. What benefit do you feel it conveys, other than the feeling that
turbo must be fast?

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

Lack of default values for the last two --> bug 241629

These settings *are* preserved when you download a new build, unless you used a
non-official build that had different defaults.

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

I'm interpreting this bug as a request to change the defaults of all these
prefs.  As such, it's invalid for covering more than one issue.  I'll try to
respond to some of the proposed defaults, though.

> browser.turbo.enabled  - true

This pref doesn't do anything.

> general.smoothScroll  - true

Bug 235353.

> network.image.imageBehavior  - 0

That is the default.

> network.http.max-connections-per-server  - 16

I'm pretty sure this violates the HTTP spec.

> network.http.pipelining  - true

I want this to happen.  Please file a separate bug, under Browser, Networking:
HTTP.  CC me and I will vote for it.  (Fixing this may require blacklisting
Apache 1.x from pipelining by default, but that seems like a silly reason not to
do it.)

> network.http.pipelining.firstrequest -- set to true

Bad idea.  Has very little benefit, and prevents Firefox from blacklisting
broken servers (e.g. old versions of almost every server) from pipelining.

> nglayout.initialpaint.delay -- set to 0

This has been discussed in other bugs and forums.  Search for them.  I think
"Paint delay" is a good search phrase.

> network.http.max-connections  - 48
> network.http.pipelining.maxrequests  - 100
> network.http.proxy.pipelining  - true

Ask [e-mail] whether these make sense as defaults (I don't know).