Posted on 04/21/2009 2:43:07 PM PDT by martin_fierro
6 Reasons Why Firefox Dude May Want to Switch to Chrome
Apr. 21st, 2009 By David Pierce
I did it. About a week ago, I took the plunge. I made Google Chrome my default browser, and now do almost everything within Chrome. I do miss Firefox every once in a while (after all, we were in a relationship for quite a while, and over a number of version changes), but I’m glad I’ve moved on.
Chrome is only getting better – rolling out more features, making existing features work even better, and generally getting faster and awesome-er.
Here are the six reasons that ultimately lead me to checking that “make Chrome my default browser” button:
(1) One Tab, One Process
My biggest issue with Firefox was always that it’s a memory hog. Leave it open overnight, and suddenly it’s taking up 400MB of RAM. That’s a lot of RAM. The only solution would be to close Firefox, and restart it – either losing all my tabs, or waiting approximately 19.5 hours for them all to open again.
Chrome’s better – each individual tab runs as its own process in Windows Explorer. There’s a task manager within Chrome that lets you see which, if any, tabs are using tons of memory, and close just that one. Similarly, if a tab crashes, you’ll be able to just close that one tab, rather than having to close Firefox entirely. With Chrome, browsers don’t crash: pages do. That’s a huge plus.
(2) One Box, Many Searches
With the address bar in Chrome, you can do a ridiculous number of things: search your history, do site-specific search (by typing a domain and then Tab), search Google, or get suggestions based on your browsing history. To search just about anything within Chrome, type Control+L and then whatever you’re looking for. Chrome’ll find it.
(3) Better Downloader
Firefox’s native download manager is awful – it’s a new window, doesn’t make finding documents easy, and does a bad job of showing you what’s downloading without lots of hunting. In Chrome, when you start a download, it just starts. There’s a status bar at the bottom of the page, and you can easily click to open the file, or right-click to do a number of other things with it. Though there are Firefox extensions to mirror the functionality Chrome has, I’d rather have it native – plus, Chrome’s is better anyway.
(4) The New Tab Page
Every time you open a new Tab in Chrome, you’re presented with a page full of possibilities. There’s a list of recently-closed tabs, in case you closed one by accident. There’s a box to search your history, in case you forgot the site you want to get back to. There’s a list of recent bookmarks, for some reason that I never really figured out. And, best of all, there’s a list of sites you visit most – easy access to your top 9 sites is pretty great – not to mention sad that addictinggames.com makes my list.
But that’s beside the point. There’s a ton you can do quickly and easily, right from the second you open a new tab in Chrome. Again, there are Firefox extensions that do some of these things, and the new build of Firefox promises a similar new tab page, but I’ll stick with Chrome.
(5) Application Shortcuts
Ultimately, this was the feature that sold me on Chrome: the ability to turn single sites into standalone applications. Now Gmail, Google Calendar, and Remember the Milk each have their own application that can be launched from the desktop, lives in its own window without a nav-bar, and looks and feels just like a desktop app. Click on a link, and you’re taken to a new tab in Chrome, so your page always stays open. That, plus Chrome’s great use of Google Gears, means your calendar, email, tasks and more can be available online and off as desktop apps.
(6) Tab Around
This one’s not as big a deal as the others, but I think it’s pretty fantastic: Tabs are incredibly easy to manipulate in Chrome. You can pull a tab out to make it its own window, or pull one back in to consolidate your browsing. You can even – I just discovered this – drag a Firefox tab into Chrome and it’ll load right there! If you’re reading this in Firefox, try it. I’ll wait.
Awesome, right? All over Chrome, tabs are easy to move around, open and close, and they live at the top of the page which makes them even easier to find and use.
To put it simply, Chrome is faster and smarter than Firefox. I liked Firefox a lot, but Chrome seems to get how I intuitively want to use a browser. I can’t switch permanently until Chrome has extensions, or at least functional Greasemonkey support; for my regular browsing, though, Chrome’s the clear winner.
Well that is a showstopper for me....running mostly Ubuntu 9.04 here....but something is eating my cycles...
The memory leak has been a persistent problem with Firefox, since about version 0.7. It isn’t quite as bad now, but it still exists.
The largest memory usage I ever had was 800mb under version 2.
Under version 3, it typically ranges between 100-200mb.
Firefox does have some nice extensions/add-ons.
[I may give Chrome a try, but I don’t like Google installing a bunch of other junk, like its toolbar, etc.]
That's the beauty of Delicious. They save your bookmarks as tags on their computer. So you just sign in to delicious from any computer in the world that has Firefox installed with the delicious plugin and you have access to all your tagged bookmarks and can easily generate a toolbar filtered to any tag.
You should try it out.
Install htop. It'll figure that issue out.
I will NEVER put anything on my computer that puts information into Google’s hands.
Search with Ixquick.
Ditto that. I have several computers "Xmarked." Also Adblock Plus. Those two additions go on every machine running FF.I like Chrome, too, but I'm in FF 99% of the time.
For those anti-google people on this thread, go into your tools/options/security tab and unclick the "suspected attack site" and "suspected forgery" boxes. These call google everytime you click a link. This will speed up your Firefox a bunch.
Googlestapo?
htop.....thanks....I think it may be specific to 9.04....but can’t be sure.
Shutting down for a quick run out.
Macbots in 3...2...1...
I’ve never had that problem, except for when the Google Toolbar didn’t work with x64 Linux and would crash firefox every time you opened more than 3 browser windows.
There’s no doubt it’s a memory hog, but I haven’t had it crash on me in at least a year.
I'll stick with the Fox.
Life without Xmarks and ABP would be sad indeed.
Mine too. And Speed dial. No addons, no Chrome.
I switched about 2 months ago to Chrome. Although, I still have Firefox, and I downloaded Flock, but haven’t tried it out yet.
I rarely get a Firefox crash, but I get 1) flash applets stop working, and are replaced with a blank gray area, and 2) the flash plugin gets overwhelmed and drives the load up, causing Firefox to render pages really, really slow.
You and me both. Might as well send your resume to Satan.
Actually what I said isn't quite true. I'll search using Google if what I'm searching for is atypical for me, thus actually REMOVING information from them.
I already sent my resume’ to Satan.
He said I was “overqualified” and suggested the DNC.
shibumi (aka Hummungus, Lord of the Wasteland.)
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