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Comment by tdees40 | Hacker News Reader

Keep in mind though that a 20-50% slowdown is pretty big in the browser world, especially given that those numbers represent a lower-bound for how much slower a GC browser would be. Would you trade your Chrome/Firefox browser for something 20-50% slower? I wouldn't, and I don't think anyone else would.

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In the context of a browser, I doubt that the standard 20-50% difference applies. That difference is what you see when measuring JVM code against optimized C++. In the browser world, that kind of pure speed doesn't happen because achieving security means layering all of the bounds checking and such back into the code, erasing one of the major reasons why the JVM code is slower.

In C/C++ you have the option of not performing those kinds of checks to get speed. In a secure browser, you don't want to take that risk unless it's absolutely necessary.

"Would you trade your Chrome/Firefox browser for something 20-50% slower?" IE?

I'm just kidding. I found after I upgraded from IE 7/8 (only had for testing) that 9 was pretty usable (haven't used past that).

Just out of curiosity though...depending on where it slowed down would people notice? If it still displayed as quickly but was slower to startup (or other examples).

I admit I don't know much about how browsers actually work (I am assuming it is more than just displaying html).

Keep in mind that using a less hostile language boosts the performance returns you get from optimization work per work-hour spent. And reduces risks of breaking stuff while doing so.

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