Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#71

Post by shaicoleman » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:10 PM UTC

* Switched a couple of years ago from Firefox because of better dev tools.

* GPU acceleration doesn't work properly with Firefox/Linux (Dell G5 SE, Ryzen 4800H). Some sites I use daily, such as Google Maps, are painfully slow/laggy on Firefox.

* There's something about the Firefox's scrolling behaviour that I find really annoying.

* It works well across all platforms (Firefox on Android wasn't great last time I checked).

* It's the most tested browser. Many websites don't bother to test with Firefox.

* Chrome has the richest extension ecosystem.

* Some of the alternatives, such as Brave are not as trustworthy. Security is a bigger concern than privacy for me. Google has one of the best security track records.

* I'm heavily invested in the Google ecosystem, and I use dozens of their products. There's always a switching cost involved. Just changing the browser has a negligable effect on privacy if I'm constantly using the other Google services.

* Personally had overall an overwhelmingly positive experience over the last 15+ years I've been in the Google ecosystem. Google hasn't done anything to betray my trust so far.

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#72

Post by skybrian » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

marshmallow_12 wrote: post #66

skybrian wrote: post #21

This subject has gotten extremely political and I simply don’t trust most of what’s posted on Hacker News. Everything looks like motivated reasoning to me. Only a small minority really understand the issues and they use motivated reasoning too. It’s much like deciding which nutritional studies to trust when most people aren’t scientists and are just reposting memes. And although I don’t know what’s going on anymore,…

I think what you are saying is privacy concerns are a straw man. But just to accuse HN doesn't really help me. Can you share with us a bit about what is going on in Chrome. I would be genuinely interested to hear more about how it was made/runs etc.

Oh, I don't know anything. I didn't work closely with the Chrome team, and even if I did, I left Google years ago.

But I don't think my co-workers were evil, and though I didn't work personally with them much, I think the folks on the privacy and security teams know their business.

Public blog posts can be extremely difficult to understand though, I'm guessing because it's gotten so political. You can get a bit more from "intent to ship" emails on the public mailing lists.

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#73

Post by abecedarius » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:21 PM UTC

shaicoleman wrote: post #71

* Switched a couple of years ago from Firefox because of better dev tools. * GPU acceleration doesn't work properly with Firefox/Linux (Dell G5 SE, Ryzen 4800H). Some sites I use daily, such as Google Maps, are painfully slow/laggy on Firefox. * There's something about the Firefox's scrolling behaviour that I find really annoying. * It works well across all platforms (Firefox on Android wasn't great last time I check…

Why do you see Brave as less trustworthy? I don't think the news has reached me.

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#74

Post by foobiter » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:29 PM UTC

I’ll also ask: why aren’t you concerned about a single company dominating the browser market - I use firefox specifically because I don’t want chrome to monopolize the industry

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#75

Post by rand846633 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:29 PM UTC

One reason is that chrome vulnerabilities are between 3 and 5 times more expensive. And thus, I would guess, more rare.

Sources: https://www.zerodium.com/program.html

https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2021/1/25/announcing-...

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#76

Post by catlifeonmars » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:31 PM UTC

Daho0n wrote: post #33

xvector wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If privacy + security is your goal, you ought to change from Chrome to Brave. Brave is Chromium-based but actually protects your privacy. If privacy above all is your goal, then Firefox is your best bet.

Brave have been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar multiple times. I don't know if it's more secure than Firefox but it's definitely less private.

Literally, or figuratively, or both?

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#77

Post by shaicoleman » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:33 PM UTC

abecedarius wrote: post #73

shaicoleman wrote: post #71

* Switched a couple of years ago from Firefox because of better dev tools. * GPU acceleration doesn't work properly with Firefox/Linux (Dell G5 SE, Ryzen 4800H). Some sites I use daily, such as Google Maps, are painfully slow/laggy on Firefox. * There's something about the Firefox's scrolling behaviour that I find really annoying. * It works well across all platforms (Firefox on Android wasn't great last time I check…

Why do you see Brave as less trustworthy? I don't think the news has reached me.

* Brave is derivative software. In case of security issues, there might be some lag from when the issue is fixed in Chrome to when it'll be fixed in Brave.

* Brave adds custom code that generally has less eyes on it.

* The business model is potentially problematic. Which can lead to incidents such as this one: [1]

* I don't know how good are Brave's security development and operational practices.

* Trust is something that is built over time. Brave hasn't been around so long, so doesn't have an established security track record.

1. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-aff...

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#78

Post by trog » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:48 PM UTC

pvtmert wrote: post #54

I am actually suprised nobody mentions profiles. I seperate stuff using profiles (little avatar next to menu button on top-right corner) Especially important if you want to split your clients' stuff and with your own things. (History, bookmarks, sync) And sync is the second reason. Of course firefox would work too but they were just late to the game. I already had lots of stuff (bookmarks, history, passwords) to migr…

> And sync is the second reason. Of course firefox would work too but they were just late to the game. I already had lots of stuff (bookmarks, history, passwords) to migrate to...

You probably know this but if you install Firefox now it will prompt you to import all your settings from Chrome. You can also set up sync between all your Firefox instances (including mobile).

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#79

Post by trog » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:52 PM UTC

I use Chrome for a few specific things (though Firefox is my primary browser):

* Netflix - I think I started doing this back when it wasn't fully supported in Firefox and now it's more of a reflex than for any major reason.

* Google Meet/Slack video calls. Every so often I try to run a Meet in Firefox. The audio works flawlessly but video seems to regularly freeze.

* For the few sites that the devs didn't test in Firefox and something weird happens :)

Re: Ask HN: For those who use Chrome, why do you?

#80

Post by MikeUt » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:54 PM UTC

shaicoleman wrote: post #71

* Switched a couple of years ago from Firefox because of better dev tools. * GPU acceleration doesn't work properly with Firefox/Linux (Dell G5 SE, Ryzen 4800H). Some sites I use daily, such as Google Maps, are painfully slow/laggy on Firefox. * There's something about the Firefox's scrolling behaviour that I find really annoying. * It works well across all platforms (Firefox on Android wasn't great last time I check…

You don't consider tracking your location against your explicit settings a betrayal? Or the pushing of AMP?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-lo...