Since I use web/email quite intensively, I decided to make pure Intel binaries for my Intel MacBook. You can also use them:
Firefox-2.0.0.2.en-US
Thunderbird-1.5.0.10.en-US
Quick F.A.Q.:
Q. What is all this about?
A. Intel binary builds are optimized for running on Intel cpus so they’re a few percent faster than the regular ones (and almost twice smaller 
)
Q. Why my “Firefox” became “BonEcho” and “Thunderbird” – “Mail/News”?
A. I cannot distribute binaries with Official mozilla.org Branding so these are so called development releases.
Q. Can I build these on my own?
A. Yes, build instructions are here (they are for both- universal and individual builds):
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Mac_OS_X_Universal_Binaries
Q. Is it hard to build them?
A. It’s really easy. It’s just that for the first time it takes quite a lot to download and install.
Q. Do you have your own builds with –enable-official-branding?
A. Yes
Q. Can you share them?
A. No
4 comments ↓
Well done, now why could’t they have done this?? If you have a mailing list to let people know when you have updated the updates please ad me.
Going to give Firefox a try and give you a Digg…
http://www.switchingtomac.com/
Good question. I’m not sure yet if the result’s worth the effort that is if Intel binaries are actually significantly faster that the universal ones. One question comes to my mind: if they really are faster then why the hell all the apps in os x are universal binaries? I doubt if apple is just too lazy to make separate binaries for ppc and for the intel or that it just lacks some free space in datastore for separate binaries.
I’ll make some benchmarks as soon as I will find time for that and share my results here so keep subscribed
. Oh, and about the list – I will not manage one so if you want to stay tuned, just subscribe to the category feed.
I downloaded both BonEcho and Thunderbird a couple of hours ago. Those are really fast apps. I have spread the news here i Denmark.
Thanks for the good work.
Greetings from Per
[...] Unofficial OS X Intel binaries: Firefox 2.0.0.2 and Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 Apr 25 [...]
Leave a Comment