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Google Docs performance

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Daniel Stocker

26 May, 2012 01:22 PM

Recently I've started using the collaborative writing-feature of Google Documents. However, TenFourFox performs very poorly and the editing process is pretty much unusable. Safari on the other hand shows to issues and input-lag at all.

Are other users experiencing similar problems with docs.google.com?

My system is a Powerbook G4 1.5GHz running 10.5.8 on 1GB RAM. Latest version of TFF 10.0.4, no plugins or extensions. Safari is on version 5.0.6 with disabled extensions.

Thanks for your work on TFF. <3

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 26 May, 2012 03:36 PM

   

   If you are experiencing that large of a performance disparity (and you are using the 7450 version), there is probably little that can be done to improve it. You may be happier with another browser such as OmniWeb, or you could try the unstable branches to see if they perform better (13 will be released in a few days).

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2. 2 Posted by Daniel Stocker on 26 May, 2012 04:02 PM

   

   Thanks for your reply, Cameron.

   I'm overall very satisfied with the browser's performance (7450 indeed). Hence, I was even more surprised about the GoogleDocs-issue and found it odd.

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by theos911 on 27 May, 2012 11:05 AM

   

   Cameron, we may wish to look into this. I personally do not use Google Docs, but we may be the only Tiger browser that is still functional with it. (Back in Oct/Nov, my English instructor's Intel iMac died and the school replaced it with a Tiger G4 iBook. Safari 4.1.3 was completely unable to access any google docs features at all. Luckily, I had TFF 6 on my thumb drive. A quick copy to the desktop and she was up and running just fine for the remainder of the time that her iMac was in for repair.)

   I'll do some basic testing in some other browsers and see if we are the only functional one.

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4. Support Staff 4 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 27 May, 2012 11:38 AM

   

   It's not the functionality question, it's the performance disparity. On this 1GHz iMac I'm typing into, Google Docs is poky, but it's not unusable; I am able to enter docs and save them, albeit slowly. This system is slower and has about half the L3 cache of the OP's machine, so it's either a difference in expectation or a legitimate performance failure on that machine limited to a single site. Neither is something I can rectify other than the usual steps of removing unnecessary add-ons, etc.

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5. Support Staff 5 Posted by theos911 on 27 May, 2012 12:39 PM

   

   It seems that google has undone the offending changes from several months ago. I tested the following broswers:
   Safari 4.1.3
   TFF 10.0.4
   Camino 2.1.2
   Omniweb 5.11.1
   Opera 10.63
   Sunrise 1.8.5

   My basic testing (opening a few docs linked to my accounts and checking for input lag or freezing while editing a doc) passed in all except Opera, which is apparently no longer compatible with Google Docs.

   Safari and TFF were both fully functional, albeit annoyingly slow and exhibited a good deal of text input lag. Camino and Omniweb were marginally better. Google doesn't appear to consider Camino an up to date browser and continually throws up unsupported browser messages. (The messages are irritating, but do not inhibit function.) Opera, as mentioned, did not function at all. Sunrise was very quick, fully functional, and received no warning messages from google.

   Why the slowness? The pages are very javascript heavy. More specifically though, the input lag is caused by the editor's continuous auto saving. I searched, but there does not appear to be a way to disable this.

   My recommendation:
   If you must continue to use google docs within a browser Sunrise both functioned and performed best in my testing.
   You may also wish to look into the these solutions.

   System:
   Mac OS X 10.4.11
   Powermac G3 B&W 500

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6. theos911 closed this discussion on 27 May, 2012 12:39 PM.