firefox vs. chrome : there can only be one

ascannerlightly

has anyone here made the switch from ff to chrome? how do the two compare in terms of stability, customization, add-ons/plugins, etc ?

exoplasm

Chrome has no customization, addons or plugins (except flash).

It's faster than Firefox, but I would not say its more stable. Not necessarily less stable, though.

I could not switch to it because of the lack of addons. I keep it around for "wonder what this website I just spent 3 months developing looks like in Chrome" moments.

Blake T

Chrome has in my opinion a btter interface and more importantly for me more screen real estate. Firefox in my opinion looks plain ugly now days and is annyong to use.

real_pochacco

I use both, but Chrome really doesn't work well with Facebook for me for some reason. That has meant that I stick with Firefox more often now.

Cyvros

exoplasm wrote: »

Chrome has no customization, addons or plugins (except flash).

Depends on whether or not you're on the dev channel. The latest dev channel builds have got support for userscripts and basic extensions (including an adblock). The past two builds have also included a "Reset to default theme" button, so themes are apparently on their way.

Unless you're willing to switch to the dev channel builds, it'd probably be best to stick to Firefox for the time being. Otherwise, Chrome isn't much against Firefox. I haven't had any trouble at all with the dev channel builds until the very latest build (3.0.187.1), which sometimes crashes when I close an Incognito Mode window.

Some good points for Chrome are that its cold starts are generally much faster than Firefox's, it comes with Google Gears, it uses screen real estate really well (tabs at the very top are awesome if you love your screen edges), and it seems to cope with shaping to 64kbps most excellently. Firefox just kind of splutters and gives up whenever we get shaped.

Lurk

I currently use both. Firefox for my desktop and chrome with privoxy for my netbook.

NotASenator

Surpisingly, IE8 is quite robust as an alternative.

ascannerlightly

it may be a tad naive and/or childish, but i absolutely refuse to use ie in my non-work computering (aside from the increasingly-rare page that is borked in ff).

i appreciate all the responses.

starmanbrand

A while ago my FF was crashing and acting stupid. Couldn't fix it no matter what I tried, and I didn't care much, so I switched to Chrome. This was about 8? months ago or so.

Man did it bliggity-blowblowblow. It was fast as hell and took up hardly any resources when doing like 15 tabs, unlike firefox. But I just could never get into it. Maybe now its better?

After chrome failed me I switched to Opera and I haven't looked back. I love opera with all my heart. Its quick, doesn't seem as resource-heavy as firefox, and it introduced me to speed dial.

TychoCelchuuu

Uh the answer is Opera. It always has been and always will be. Opera is faster (although Chrome makes an admiral attempt to win), Opera handles Greasemonkey plugins, Opera's built in ad-block is fantastic, Opera is totally customizable, and Opera has everything you'd ever need right out of the box. I tried Chrome for a bit when it came out and it impressed me, but Opera has more featues and no downsides compared to Chrome.

GrimReaper

No, since it's almost completely devoid of customisation or options I only ever use Chrome rarely when I need to test something in a webkit browser.

I have a number of gripes about Chrome, like googleupdater, or how it sends a unique id to google regardless of what you set. Its cookie options are a total joke and the total lack of addons except for essentially using fudges is a total turn off.

I actually don't use Googles official Chrome build but prefer to use the srware iron build instead.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's the fastest and most secure browser by light years. But the lack of actual features that most other browsers have had for years is a big turn off in my eyes.

N.B. I use Firefox.

Dog

I haven't seen a need to use anything but Chrome. I guess it's missing some "features," but I guess I never used them anyways because it has everything I need.

Shorn Scrotum Man

Blaket wrote: »

Chrome has in my opinion a btter interface and more importantly for me more screen real estate. Firefox in my opinion looks plain ugly now days and is annyong to use.

This was the reasoning for my switch to Chrome.

And don't get me wrong, I love the way Chrome works, all the little UI things like the address bar functioning as a google search as well.

But the screen real estate issue eventually got me to switch to Safari, which has slightly more.

TychoCelchuuu

In Opera hit F11 and you get 100% screen real estate. Just putting that out there. And if you want less than 100% go into settings and just untick whatever status bars you don't want.

ascannerlightly

ff has that

Shorn Scrotum Man

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

In Opera hit F11 and you get 100% screen real estate. Just putting that out there. And if you want less than 100% go into settings and just untick whatever status bars you don't want.

Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome all have that.

Weirdly enough, Safari (Windows addition) doesn't seem to.

Having 100% isn't the point though. I want my UI available to view, just unobtrusive.

TychoCelchuuu

So uncheck whatever you don't want to be obstrusive! It's very easy, I'm telling you.

GrimReaper

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

So uncheck whatever you don't want to be obstrusive! It's very easy, I'm telling you.

Yep, it's pretty easy in Firefox.. using customise drag and drop things around. There is actually a Chrome theme that makes Firefox look identical to Chrome.. if you want it to.

Cyvros

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Uh the answer is Opera. It always has been and always will be. Opera is faster (although Chrome makes an admiral attempt to win), Opera handles Greasemonkey plugins, Opera's built in ad-block is fantastic, Opera is totally customizable, and Opera has everything you'd ever need right out of the box. I tried Chrome for a bit when it came out and it impressed me, but Opera has more featues and no downsides compared to Chrome.

Eh, I've never felt any speed difference between Chrome and Opera. Also, Chrome's Greasemonkey support was contributed by the guy who wrote Greasemonkey for Firefox in the first place, so it has proper Greasemonkey support (unless something's changed recently, I believe Opera can only handle most userscripts). Opera's built-in adblocking is pretty cool, but I've always had troubles blocking text ads (which AdSweep does, although it does screw up bits of Gmail).

Not to mention that Opera lacks any useful extensions. And I may be just plain weird with this, but there are only two main parts of Opera I've ever used regularly: the browser itself and profile syncing.

Also, does Opera on the desktop have Gears support? I know that Opera Mobile does, but I never heard anything more about desktop Opera.

e: Oh, and Opera's tabs are at the top, but not at the screen edge. :P

ASimPerson

Based on the screen space complaints here I realized people actually still use the default FF theme. Huh.

There's some good minimal FF themes out there, I prefer https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/307 personally.

Narian

I use the default Firefox theme with small icons and the size is just as small as any minimal FF theme is going to get (1 line for the menu, 1 for the ui buttons/url bar, one for my bookmark toolbar and one for my tabs).

Don't see the issue.

Erandus

I simply cannot abide the fact that Chrome and Opera do not let me wheel-click my bookmarks to open them in new tabs. Also, Chrome does not let me hold down the wheel click to quickly scroll up and down the page. These are deal breakers for me.

Cyvros

Narian wrote: »

I use the default Firefox theme with small icons and the size is just as small as any minimal FF theme is going to get (1 line for the menu, 1 for the ui buttons/url bar, one for my bookmark toolbar and one for my tabs).

Don't see the issue.

Chrome's basically tab bar in the title bar plus the UI buttons/URL bar (unless you have the bookmarks bar up). Also, the status bar only appears if a page is loading or if you hover over a URL. There's an additional bar at the very bottom if you have any extensions, but otherwise, it's very minimalist.

Erandus wrote: »

I simply cannot abide the fact that Chrome and Opera do not let me wheel-click my bookmarks to open them in new tabs. Also, Chrome does not let me hold down the wheel click to quickly scroll up and down the page. These are deal breakers for me.

Took them a while, but these two can be done in the latest Chrome builds.

Erandus

Cyvros wrote: »

Erandus wrote: »

I simply cannot abide the fact that Chrome and Opera do not let me wheel-click my bookmarks to open them in new tabs. Also, Chrome does not let me hold down the wheel click to quickly scroll up and down the page. These are deal breakers for me.

Took them a while, but these two can be done in the latest Chrome builds.

If that's the case, I may give it a revisit. I'm really surprised at how long it takes them to noticeably improve the app with functionality like this.

azi137

Chrome user.
I had a lot of add ons for ff that I really didn't use that often. Rather than needing google search bar (I need google search like a person ODing on heroin needs addrenoline shot to the heart--shit keeps me alive), just use the address bar. Granted you can search live in IE through the address bar but wth searches using live (joking).

Screen real estate is a huge plus. And there are a lot of factors that if I tried to describe would take up too many letters, but Chrome is just so much more FLUID than ff. Bookmarking....tabbing....searching....

On a side note, I am curious about Opera. I have it, but I rarely use it. I've even had a good reason to use it (gaming) but couldn't handle leaving my safe zone. I forsee myself doing it at some point, but until then, Chrome remains my drug of choice.

GrimReaper

azi137 wrote: »

Chrome user.
I had a lot of add ons for ff that I really didn't use that often. Rather than needing google search bar (I need google search like a person ODing on heroin needs addrenoline shot to the heart--shit keeps me alive), just use the address bar. Granted you can search live in IE through the address bar but wth searches using live (joking).

Screen real estate is a huge plus. And there are a lot of factors that if I tried to describe would take up too many letters, but Chrome is just so much more FLUID than ff. Bookmarking....tabbing....searching....

On a side note, I am curious about Opera. I have it, but I rarely use it. I've even had a good reason to use it (gaming) but couldn't handle leaving my safe zone. I forsee myself doing it at some point, but until then, Chrome remains my drug of choice.

Just on the bookmarking thing, I'm really surprised on that. I consider Firefox to have the best bookmark system of any browser. I haven't actually used my bookmarks toolbar in a very long time. With tags I can find sites I want to find very quickly. (with awesomebar.. start typing and bam.. usually first result)

The bookmark system in Chrome is very primitive, it's one of the reasons I don't use it as my primary browser.

Cyvros

This seems relevant, so I thought I'd post it here: Opera's getting a new feature called Unite that basically lets you use your browser as a server. I've got to admit that this is pretty damn cool. I know, you can use something like lighttpd, but this is so much easier.

So going to try Opera again once 10 comes out.