I Switched To Firefox From Chrome

Post by **Entity** » January 28th, 2014, 10:39 am

And I'm happy I did.

Now I know there's a huge debate about browsers, and I'm not trying to start one here. I'm just simply stating my reasons for switching to Firefox and maybe we can have a discussion.

Oops, did I say "reasons"? I meant "reason". Yep, there's just one. Responsiveness.

When I click on my web browser icon, I expect it to open within seconds and be ready to navigate to whatever website I want. When I click on Chrome, it lags for about 5 seconds, and then the window finally opens. That's not too bad, and I was tolerating it for a while, and it actually works pretty decent about 50% of the time. But the other 50% convinced me to switch. Half the time, when I enter a search query or a url in the address bar and click enter, IT LOADS FOR THREE MINUTES. It can't possibly be loading the page for three minutes because it's almost always google (the site I visit most often). It's consistently laggy and slow.

Also, in Chrome each tab is a separate process. This means when I'm browsing the OMB forums...

You get the idea. The pages take forever to load, and it's incredibly painful.

So I downloaded firefox. The install was quick, and when I opened it it immediately asked if I wanted to import my bookmarks, browsing history, cookies etc... from Chrome. I skeptically clicked yes (not expecting it to work) but it did, even down to my bookmarks bar. The browser opens within two seconds, and navigates to pages immediately. It's a huge step up from Chrome.

Featurewise, everything I ever used in Chrome is also in Firefox. Chrome used to be an amazing lightweight browser, but it's been getting clunkier and clunkier. I'm not saying Firefox is definitively better than Chrome, just that I like it better, and it works infinitely better for me.

/rant

Miniike · Post by **Miniike** » January 28th, 2014, 10:41 am

*clapclapclap*

Post by **Phantomboy** » January 28th, 2014, 10:58 am

I've been using FireFox for quite a while now, it hasn't had too too many issues. It has been a long time since I've used Chrome, I never faced any issues with it either. So, I am fairly natural - in fact I bet it is likely just habit keeping me from switching

Post by **Entity** » January 28th, 2014, 11:00 am

Yeah, I mean most browsers can do the same things anyway, I'm not a browser fangirl at all, I just want to visit my websites

Post by **bionicnacho** » January 28th, 2014, 1:11 pm

On my Mac I used to use Chrome, but it got to a point where it would just take forever to open and a really long time to open a webpage. I switched back to Safari some time ago but that's been having lots of problems and even slows down my computer for just having it open.

Firefox works decent on my computer, so I'll try using that as my main browser for some time and see how it goes. I have seen, though, some problems using Firefox and the forums.

Post by **Entity** » January 28th, 2014, 1:19 pm

bionicnacho wrote:I have seen, though, some problems using Firefox and the forums.

Really? Like what? I haven't noticed anything.

Post by **bionicnacho** » January 28th, 2014, 1:27 pm

Entity wrote:Really? Like what? I haven't noticed anything.

I remember I had some problems with editing messages and stuff but I don't know if the issues still persist. Might just be on the Mac version, though.

Post by **Entity** » January 28th, 2014, 4:49 pm

Hmm strange. Were you running the beta version or something? My experience has been exactly the same since I switched, just significantly faster

ElectroYoshi · Post by **ElectroYoshi** » January 28th, 2014, 5:18 pm

Firefox is a well-built browser and all, but I've been using Chrome for years now. I haven't had any of the problems with it you mentioned and frankly I just don't see what I'd be gaining from using it instead. Not to mention that Chrome has a lot of extensions you can download to alter the browser to your liking. Firefox doesn't have that sort of thing, at least not that I'm aware of.

Like I said, I haven't had the problems with Chrome you've had, but if I had, I'd probably change too.

Post by **Entity** » January 28th, 2014, 6:54 pm

ElectroYoshi wrote:Firefox is a well-built browser and all, but I've been using Chrome for years now. I haven't had any of the problems with it you mentioned and frankly I just don't see what I'd be gaining from using it instead.

I agree, that was me. Chrome is a great browser. Google did a great job building it. Maybe it's just my computer is magically incompatible idk. I was very happy with Chrome, I just couldn't tolerate the horrible loading times :/

ElectroYoshi wrote:Not to mention that Chrome has a lot of extensions you can download to alter the browser to your liking. Firefox doesn't have that sort of thing, at least not that I'm aware of.

Yeah, that was the main reason I switched to Chrome from... I don't even remember what I used before, I've been using Chrome for years. It was quick, fast, and the extensions were awesome. Most notably the ad block extension, and Inspect Element, were life savers for me.

I did some research and Firefox indeed has almost identical features. I'm happily running AdBlock and using Firefox's similar (but slightly different) Inspect Element feature

tbh, I liked Chrome slightly better just because I used it for so long, but if it doesn't work for me, it doesn't work...

Post by **kroltan** » January 29th, 2014, 5:30 pm

I'd just mention, Firefox has more extensions than Chrome (11k), and damn, I use almost all of them (OK, I was joking, I have only about 30). The new update that is soon coming (Australis) will also make switching from chrome almost unnoticeable: the new design is just about as round and metallic as Chrome.

I like Firefox for its plethora of extensions: everything I'll ever need in a browser can be found. There's even a simple HTTP sever! But not just on new functionality, Firefox is rooted on the principle of each browser being unique. You can change the location of any UI element easily, there's plenty of themes (and creating your own is painless). I do not like Chrome's premise of "apps", which are nothing more than overpromoted bookmarks, but it may make sense on Chrome OS.

As for what Entity mentioned, try Firebug! It's much like Chrome's inspector, and it has a lot of interesting features. Do note it is not a lightweight extension, it may impact performance when it's open.

Post by **Entity** » January 29th, 2014, 8:05 pm

kroltan wrote: I do not like Chrome's premise of "apps", which are nothing more than overpromoted bookmarks, but it may make sense on Chrome OS.

Yeah that never really made sense to me xP Whatever though.

Yes, firebug is amazing.