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The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

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Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#51

Post by therealmarv »

takno wrote: post #49
therealmarv wrote: post #45

Messing for the last several months also with mobile browsers on my Android devices. Especially because mobile scare-/malware was bothering me too much in recent times ( harmless example you could open on Android: https://shkspr.mobi/vibratescam/ ). Compared them all (Chrome, Chrome beta, Firefox, Firefox beta, Opera, Brave) and realized that Firefox+uBlock, especially since Firefox 45, is reasonable fast and good to…

I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong. FF45 on a fast Android phone for me is almost unbearably laggy both on loading and scrolling pages. I mean to the point where I can't really understand how anybody is using it. I've tried this with and without a couple of ad blockers and ghostery

I'm running Firefox beta (now 46) mostly... they are constantly improving it and it's more bleeding edge but still stable enough, maybe give it a try.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#52

Post by mwcampbell »

How much of the poor performance discussed in this article is due to Chrome itself, and how much is due to the fact that Android devices tend to have worse single-core performance than iOS devices?

Is there a browser for Android based on a recent version of WebKit (not Blink)? If so, that would help answer the question.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#53

Post by clumsysmurf »

"Chrome is 3x to 300x slower than Safari."

This would not surprise me.

I have a 2009 MBP with 4G RAM. Performance issues become very obvious with low spec hardware. Safari is incredibly snappy, complex pages like amazon.com scroll smoothly with no effort. This old machine actually feels new in that scenario.

The only concern I have about Safari is that Apple's security patches seem to come at a slow pace.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#54

Post by okket »

bdickason wrote: post #48

I think this article is missing the idea of the browser hype cycle (Every 4-5 years): 1. A cool new browser comes along promising a minimal featureset with a focus on speed. 2. Early adopters make the move and start asking for a few features they liked on their old browser (extensions, some customization, etc). 3. The new browser is excited by the growth opportunity and invests in said features. 4. Eventually, the ne…

Such a "hype cycle" can only exist where the OS supports integration of 3rd party browsers (desktop only).

On mobile devices you can rarely switch browsers without losing access to major parts of the OS (read: 3rd party browsers can render/view web pages, but forget about integration).

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#55

Post by wahsd »

abritishguy wrote: post #20

I've always liked this article by one of Stripe's interface designers: https://medium.com/@bdc/chrome-is-the-new-ie-1a21c1efc133#.3... >Chrome is unfortunately contributing to the web’s bad reputation by caring more about developers than end-users. Mobile Safari can easily handle, say, a Photos.app-like interface with a translucent navigation bar, native-like swipe gestures and smooth animations. Chrome handles none…

Pretty much describes the archetypal difference between Apple and Google, end-user experience vs engineers developing for engineers ... and those pesky end-users if we must.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#56

Post by jnem »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #53

"Chrome is 3x to 300x slower than Safari." This would not surprise me. I have a 2009 MBP with 4G RAM. Performance issues become very obvious with low spec hardware. Safari is incredibly snappy, complex pages like amazon.com scroll smoothly with no effort. This old machine actually feels new in that scenario. The only concern I have about Safari is that Apple's security patches seem to come at a slow pace.

I'm suprised by all this safari love in 2016. Working in front end web development, Safari has become the IE of today. Compatability and support for otherwise common web technologies is just plain broken.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#57

Post by kwhitefoot »

j_koreth wrote: post #46
zdkl wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience. I've switched to Vivaldi, it feels like the Firefox of old. It's chromium under the hood though

Opera 12 is the only viable choice

I almost agree but sadly Opera 12 is now so far behind that there are websites that don't work properly with it. Especially if involves video.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#58

Post by jrcii »

update wrote: post #44
thenomad wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly, I have recently found Firefox so slow - particularly on YouTube where for some reason it's unusable - that I'm considering a full-fledged switch to Chrome.

I swear this conversation is as old as time --- or at least Firefox & Chrome. person 1: "Firefox is slow now i'm moving back to Chrome" person 2: "interesting! I find the complete opposite and am moving back to Firefox!" :)

I'm switching to Netscape.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#59

Post by evook »

Etheryte wrote: post #47
evook wrote: post #23

Just FYI vivaldi beta 3 is stable enough for personal browsing and works well with µBlock origin (AM) + flash control.

From personal experience, Vivaldi is a lot more bug-ridden than other common browsers. It's rather new so it's understandable, but I don't really see the place to recommend it currently, especially in a discussion like this.

Tried out Beta 3?

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#60

Post by SomeCallMeTim »

okket wrote: post #54
bdickason wrote: post #48

I think this article is missing the idea of the browser hype cycle (Every 4-5 years): 1. A cool new browser comes along promising a minimal featureset with a focus on speed. 2. Early adopters make the move and start asking for a few features they liked on their old browser (extensions, some customization, etc). 3. The new browser is excited by the growth opportunity and invests in said features. 4. Eventually, the ne…

Such a "hype cycle" can only exist where the OS supports integration of 3rd party browsers (desktop only). On mobile devices you can rarely switch browsers without losing access to major parts of the OS (read: 3rd party browsers can render/view web pages, but forget about integration).

>On mobile devices you can rarely switch browsers without losing access to major parts of the OS

You mean "on iOS", not on mobile devices in general. On Android at least all such integration is done with Intents, a broadcast message from the OS or one app to another, and those Intents can be remapped to target whatever app a user wants, meaning a third-party browser can be as integrated into the OS as Chrome. You can even replace the launcher (the home screen) by having your app accept the "Home" Intent.

Whether a particular browser respects the Intent linkage correctly is another story. But it's absolutely possible. Chrome is doing nothing secret and magic on Android.

The exception is WebViews embedded in apps, which are rendered using the Chrome engine (on recent Android versions). But as an app developer, let me tell you that having random third-parties replace the WebView in my app is a profoundly bad idea. It's hard enough to target all the Android versions without having to also target every random browser rendering engine.

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