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riviera74
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Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 7:20 am

Q1: What is superior (and inferior) about Google Chrome vs. Firefox 6?
Q2: Should I switch to Chrome and why?
Q3: All my existing bookmarks are on Firefox. How do I transfer them to Chrome?
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steelcity_ballin
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 7:41 am

1) Chrome is faster. Chrome consumes less memory and one of my favorite features is each tab runs as a separate process. So if a particular website crashes, your entire browser doesn't go with it. Firefox may do this but since I switched a while back, I haven't used it much outside of web development / testing. Firefox is a better web development tool IMO largely because of addons like firebug. That tool is a godsend.

2) Nothing wrong with trying it out. I find it loads from a cold start browser session much faster than anything else, and generally feels snappier all around. It's my preferred browser at work and at home. Do they have chrome for smart phones? ;)

3)Tools->Bookmarks->import
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 8:46 am

I have to admit that I have not used recent versions of Firefox. That said... the reason I switched to Chrome in the first place was that Firefox had simply gotten too bloated and slow. The fact that they were still struggling to plug all of the memory leaks -- which have existed all the way back to the days of the Mozilla Application Suite a decade ago -- also annoyed me.

Newer versions of Firefox may fix these deficiencies, but at this point there don't seem to be any compelling reasons for me to switch back.

Mozilla Thunderbird is still my preferred e-mail client though. (I really don't get why Novell Evolution is installed by default on many Linux distros; I suppose it could be an attempt to woo Outlook users by providing something that looks like Outlook. Unfortunately it is horribly buggy... oh wait, I guess that's part of Outlook's "look and feel". :lol:)
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 8:54 am

I don't know how justified claims about chrome using less memory than firefox are. Adding up all the chrome processes at the end of a day's use gives a pretty big number just like FF's single process does.

Chrome does run a lot faster on my gen 2 netbook with it's painfully slow ssd. Page rendering isn't that different but startup certainly is and, for me, FF has lots of random freezes while using it (I'm guessing it's writing files to it's cache which is super slow on my hardware, I've never noticed this on normal hardware)

If you already have a google account then you can use that to sync your browser across multiple machines just by entering your username and password. FF can sync too and I believe it's more secure but it is a bit more complex to setup. This said, if you have an android phone I personally think firefox mobile is better than the built in browser so if you want to sync your mobile with your desktop I'd suggest sticking with FF. FF sync isn't "a lot" more complex to setup, just "a bit".

Chrome comes with adobe flash and reader built in so you get updates to these a bit more quickly. A bit of a double edged sword this one... on the one hand I like these things being auto updated as often as possible but on the other it makes the chrome updates a bit bloated and it does cement adobe's position on the web.

I really like the way you can drag and drop tabs either between chrome windows or creating new windows. Firefox can do some of this too and has that tab preview/grouping thing but I'd say chome is better in this regard.

I tend to notice more page rendering problems with Chrome than FF. This is probably more to do with web designers testing their sites with IE and FF only rather than anything actually being wrong with chrome and given how many people are using chrome now it's a problem that's likely to go away.
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Ryhadar
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:31 am

I don't think there's really one true reason that Chrome is better than Firefox (or vice versa). Try em both out, and see which one you like best. I think the speed of chrome versus Firefox is a bit exaggerated, but that's my subjective take on it. The memory leaks I guess are kind of an issue, but they don't affect me at all. I would constitute myself as a heavy user as I've got multiple firefox windows opened each with a dozen tabs usually running 24/7. I never have any crashes.

Personally I like Firefox better due to its familiarity, ease of UI updating, that it separates the search bar and address bar and basically how much control I have over the browser. To be fair to chrome, my time with it has been limited. However, there have been some things I do like about it. For example, it's built in translator is great for translating dynamic web content (like javascript), and I like that hardware acceleration doesn't mess up the text like Firefox (which I feel I need to turn off in Firefox).

I can't stand the auto-update crap that chrome spawns everywhere though. It checks to make sure chrome is up to date when the browser starts, when windows starts (via google update), and even makes a scheduled task to run google-update. All things that can be undone, certainly, but annoys me to no end. Also, the fact that it's google and the company lives and dies on targeted advertising makes me queasy as far as what browsing habits it's collecting on me.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:39 am

My biggest gripe over chrome is the adress bar vs. firefox's awesome bar. The awesome bar really is awesome - it does realtime searching on bookmarks and browser history based on address or title, based on number of visits and last time visited. It also searches the whole string, not just the beginning.

I tried using chrome for a while, because it was faster on my work's P4 2.8 Ghz machine, but even though the browser was faster I worked slower because I kept typing in things that would work in FF, but not chrome.

Quick example of the awesome bar: For the longest time I though the webcomic "Least I could do" was at theleasticoulddo.com, because Firefox was matching the title, which is "Least I Could Do: the Comic" When I typed in "the", that was the first result. Chrome was not smart enough to figure that out.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:40 am

cheesyking wrote:
I don't know how justified claims about chrome using less memory than firefox are. Adding up all the chrome processes at the end of a day's use gives a pretty big number just like FF's single process does.

Yeah, Chrome does use quite a bit of RAM. But unlike Firefox (at least up thru FF 3.x), it doesn't tend to *leak* RAM long term, since the OS process behind each browser window gets killed when the window closes.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:53 am

Besides the speed, I LOVE the fact that Chrome starts out as a simple, no frills browser with all but the most essential buttons and toolbars removed from the window. From there you can customize it with buttons, toolbars, and even apps as you see fit.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:26 am

Does Chrome have the equivalent of: No Script & Adblock Plus?
I think that is the biggest thing keeping me from trying Chrome.
If it's got those add-ons, I'd give it a spin.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:31 am

riviera74 wrote:
Q1: What is superior (and inferior) about Google Chrome vs. Firefox 6?


In my opinion, Firefox's greatest advantage is that it allows a larger degree of customization, and has more capable addons.
Chrome on the other hand is less of a hassle to maintain, and probably looks/feels a bit better without doing any customization (though this is obviously subjective).

Basically, I feel that if you're willing to customize things, Firefox gives you greater room to do this, but if you'd prefer for your browser to just work out-of-the-box with the minimum amount of fuss, Chrome is good.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:37 am

Stargazer wrote:
... if you'd prefer for your browser to just work out-of-the-box with the minimum amount of fuss, Chrome is good.

That describes my attitude towards browsers perfectly, and probably explains why I prefer Chrome!
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:42 am

sircharles32 wrote:
Does Chrome have the equivalent of: No Script & Adblock Plus?
I think that is the biggest thing keeping me from trying Chrome.
If it's got those add-ons, I'd give it a spin.


Yes and No.
It has addons that "block" ads, but they don't *block* them (there's a window of time when they can load, but then they're hidden).
So, while the Chrome addons work well if you just don't want to *see* the ads (which is basically what most people want), they can't actually perform the *blocking* (which some prefer for various reasons).
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:57 am

steelcity_ballin wrote:
Chrome consumes less memory ...


I haven't personally had any issues with Firefox's memory usage (I also haven't had any speed issues compared to Chrome), but if memory usage is something the OP considers to be a factor for switching, I'd suggest waiting a while. Reduced memory usage is one of the main goals for Firefox 7, so it might be a good idea to wait and see how that works out before switching (it's "only" a few weeks off).


... one of my favorite features is each tab runs as a separate process. So if a particular website crashes, your entire browser doesn't go with it.


Chrome doesn't actually run each tab as a separate process. It has a multiple process model (which in some cases results in each tab being assigned to a separate process), but you usually (well, depending on usage patterns) end up with several tabs being handled by the same process. This means that while a crashing tab doesn't bring down the entire browser, it can bring down a number of tabs that are assigned to the same process. (Chrome does a much better job of this now than when it was initially released)

Firefox may do this but since I switched a while back, I haven't used it much outside of web development / testing.


Firefox doesn't have a multiple process model for tabs yet (but they're supposedly working on it), but they do separate running plugins (such as Flash) into a separate process. That means that if *Flash* crashes, it doesn't bring the rest of the browser (and tabs) with it. Plugins are often what's causing crashes (though it feels like they've gotten a bit more reliable over time), so this goes a long way. Chrome does have the edge in "robustness" of this kind due to the ability to isolate (groups of) tabs though.


I find it loads from a cold start browser session much faster than anything else, and generally feels snappier all around.

For me at least, the startup times very *vastly* improved with Firefox 4. I haven't really run any startup comparisons with Chrome since then, but Firefox's startup time is pretty good now.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 11:09 am

Ryhadar wrote:
I can't stand the auto-update crap that chrome spawns everywhere though. It checks to make sure chrome is up to date when the browser starts, when windows starts (via google update), and even makes a scheduled task to run google-update. All things that can be undone, certainly, but annoys me to no end.


On a philosophical level, this annoys me too, especially the scheduled task part ("Oh, you killed my updater process, did you? Not on my watch!"). I'm actually surprised that this part hasn't gotten more attention. Imagine if all crapware updaters added their own scheduled tasks to restart their processes if they're closed. The horror...

However, I've decided that it's probably a good behavior to have when it comes to keeping the browser on my parents' computer up to date without any user intervention.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 11:14 am

One of the things from Firefox that I tend to miss when using Chrome is Find As You Type. Sure, pressing Ctrl+F isn't really all that much work, but it feels so much nicer to just be able to start typing... (there's a Chrome addon that can do this too, but it doesn't work as smoothly, and isn't really integrated as well with the browser).

I also prefer an UI with less chrome (visible UI elements) than what Chrome has, so a customized Firefox UI feels much better to me. That's very subjective though.


edit: Oh. One more thing that's worth keeping in mind is that if you often end up having a lot of tabs open, Chrome doesn't handle large amounts of tabs gracefully (the tabs keep on shrinking until you can't see the text on them, or even the icons when you have lots of tabs open). This obviously isn't an issue if you never use that many tabs though.
 
riviera74
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:10 pm

These are all good points I am reading here.

I ask those questions because I upgraded from FF 3.6.x to 5.x to 6.x yesterday. My computer is currently running 6.x and I am surprised because I thought that FF stopped supporting its browser on Windows XP and shifted everything to Vista and Win7. I will certainly wait for FF7 since memory leaks are still commonplace in 6.x; it is not quite as bad as 3.6.x though.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:27 pm

I would be very surprised if Firefox stops providing builds for XP before Microsoft officially takes XP SP3 off of life support (which is not supposed to happen until April 2014).
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:17 pm

riviera74 wrote:
I thought that FF stopped supporting its browser on Windows XP and shifted everything to Vista and Win7.



They still support XP, and I don't think that'll change for quite some time.
However, Firefox's current hardware acceleration of graphics uses Direct2D, and since this requires DirectX 10, this hardware acceleration is only available on Vista and 7.

They're currently in the process of developing a new graphics API (Azure), and the goal is that it will eventually have Direct3D/OpenGL backends, and thus support hardware acceleration on other platforms (including XP) too. Last I heard, they were hoping to have Azure ready in time for FF7.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:28 pm

Honestly, I just hate the UI of Chrome. That's why I don't use it. Same reason I do not use IE9. Terrible, horrible UIs.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:50 am

I.S.T. wrote:
Honestly, I just hate the UI of Chrome. That's why I don't use it. Same reason I do not use IE9. Terrible, horrible UIs.

^ this. The UI sucks for Chrome. I never liked Opera. Don't prefer any version of IE. And hands down, the best browser is Firefox.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:07 am

thegleek wrote:
And hands down, the best browser is Firefox.

Feature-wise, possibly. But 1-2 years ago, the Linux version was dog slow; this is what prompted my switch to Chrome. I guess the performance and load times of Firefox have improved since then, but I'm not sure if/when I'll switch back. Chrome still loads faster, and subjectively feels snappier...
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Aug 27, 2011 4:54 am

Main issues why I don't use Chrome:

All your data are belong to us (Google) [Nothing personal against them, but thy are everywhere]

With many tabs Firefox becomes less memory hungry than Chrome, where process overhead starts to play a role [Although not that it matters with 4+GB of RAM]

I just like FF, I have had no issues with it
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:17 am

just brew it! wrote:
But 1-2 years ago, the Linux version was dog slow; this is what prompted my switch to Chrome. I guess the performance and load times of Firefox have improved since then, but I'm not sure if/when I'll switch back. Chrome still loads faster, and subjectively feels snappier...


Firefox has gotten significant general speedups, but in the specific case of the Linux version, the increase in speed is supposedly even greater due to using a newer version (4.5) of GCC in Firefox 6 and later.

According to this blog entry: http://glandium.org/blog/?p=1975
This also means we are now producing a faster Firefox, now much closer to the Windows builds on the same hardware on various performance tests.



There are also improvements in initial startup times (part of it due to a reordering of the IOs involved) coming, supposedly in Firefox 7.


So, if you feel like re-evaluating Firefox based on its speed, Firefox 7 might be a good time to do this.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Aug 27, 2011 7:16 am

Chrome user here,much faster on slower hardware like my 1.5ghz x2 3250e dell zino hds and a original hp mini netbook,So used to it now that i havent tried firefox or opera in over 6 months,Besides everything looks better in chrome :)
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:40 pm

I.S.T. wrote:
Honestly, I just hate the UI of Chrome. That's why I don't use it. Same reason I do not use IE9. Terrible, horrible UIs.


It took me a little while getting used to it, coming off Firefox, but I much prefer it. I tried out FF 4, and it looked horrible and bulky and ugly compared to how nice and clean and sleek Chrome is.

And I for one really like the auto-updating of Chrome, same with Steam. Hunting for new patches is so 2004.
 
riviera74
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:50 pm

Nutmeg wrote:
I.S.T. wrote:
Honestly, I just hate the UI of Chrome. That's why I don't use it. Same reason I do not use IE9. Terrible, horrible UIs.


It took me a little while getting used to it, coming off Firefox, but I much prefer it. I tried out FF 4, and it looked horrible and bulky and ugly compared to how nice and clean and sleek Chrome is.

And I for one really like the auto-updating of Chrome, same with Steam. Hunting for new patches is so 2004.


FF6 is a lot cleaner than FF4. At least try that before you completely disregard it for Chrome.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Fri Sep 09, 2011 6:25 pm

Even FF4 can have all the, menu, toolbars and stuff collapsed together (or turned off). The power of Firefox is how you can easily change things to the way you want.

There are users (my parents for example) who don't appreciate the slimness of Chrome and want their buttons and whistles back too so that's probably why Firefox isn't completely collapsed by default.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:26 am

highlandr wrote:
My biggest gripe over chrome is the adress bar vs. firefox's awesome bar. The awesome bar really is awesome - it does realtime searching on bookmarks and browser history based on address or title, based on number of visits and last time visited. It also searches the whole string, not just the beginning.


+1 for this.
 
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Sat Nov 05, 2011 9:39 am

automoblog wrote:
It might be possible that I am the only one but I am big fan of Firefox. It has so many useful addons for my business purpose which help me a lot.


Same here, except for me it is for personal use. I have to admit that FF7 is a bit of a pig, so I had to upgrade from 1GB to 2GB of RAM and it runs perfectly.
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Re: Why Chrome over Firefox?

Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:01 pm

I switched to chrome a few days ago, because Firefox constant freezes. Is it just my browser? or are there more people out there with the same problem? I like Chrom, but still think Mozilla is the best.

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