Live data from Hacker News

I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

techradar.com

411–420 of 699 posts

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#411
post #79

I’m a Firefox user but I’m not sure that I can agree that it’s lighter than Google Chrome. I think Chrome is generally faster at everything. Chrome is also more stable. For some reason my Firefox randomly freezes once or twice a month and gets stuck in a crashing loop where only a reboot will fix it. But on principle I use Firefox whenever possible. I appreciate the effort that went into it. Still have to use Chrome…

This is what keeps me away from Firefox. I gave it a try for 3 months a little while back but it was so much slower than Chrome for general browsing. Maybe I'm due another try.

Weird... Since quantum, FF usually it's faster that Chrome for general browsing. Specially if you have uBlock origin installed.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#412
post #291

Is there really a killer feature of Chrome that justifies its use over FF? I've been using Firefox and have never been disappointed with it. I always just assumed that if you wanted privacy, it's better to use Firefox over Chrome, Safari, or Brave.

I personally dislike Firefox for its annoying "Looking for updates" pop-up whenever I open the browser. That 3 second stop generated more dislike from me for Firefox than bad privacy policies of Chrome ever could.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#413

I feel like I'm in the minority here, but Edge has been consistently better than every other browser I've tried. I have about 30 tabs open across 3 windows on my 10 yo. laptop, that I upgraded to 8GB of RAM. If I try to open even 10 tabs in Firefox, the laptop slows down to hell. Running a local speed test to my Linux server on MS Edge, I get ~910Mb/s download (CPU maxes out) and ~980Mb/s upload. If I fire up Firefox…

Edge is the way to go for Windows machines,especially if you prefer the chromium engine. MS made lots of Windows specific optimizations, with a focus on memory use. The other killer feature is 'secure mode' that disables JS JIT, which is where most if the security issues have come from in modern browsers. Plus, in this context, MS's incentives align much closer to mine than one if the largest advertising companies in…

I disagree. I have yet to see a browser try to enable so much telemetry and features that track everything you do on the web. There are like 30+ things unique to Edge that they push on users. Even after turning them off, I've had Edge magically turn them back on without my consent. Chrome isn't perfect, but if you know what to disable it really isn't that challenging to make it as privacy-friendly as Firefox... and Firefox isn't the perfect angel here either. Chromium is even better, especially on Linux to escape some of the "Google-ification". I really do not see any difference between Chromium and Firefox when it comes to default privacy settings. Regardless, it is always best to go in and disable them or use a policy file to do so.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#414
post #384
post #287

I used Firefox in the early-mid 00s, switched to Chrome not long after launch, after my colleagues showed me how much slicker is was than a now fairly heavy Firefox (at the time.) Then evil Google emerges, Chrome got fat, FF trimmed up and went privacy-as-a-default, and I'm back on FF again for the better part of the last decade. Opera had a look-in around 2008 but it didn't last long, although some of the features w…

I'd switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if I could somehow focus the URL bar with Cmd+D instead of Cmd+L (years of muscle memory with Alt+D on Linux previously). Other browsers have a menu entry for this (File -> Open Location... in Chrome) so keyboard shortcuts can be switched in the Keyboard settings but Firefox doesn't have this. :| I've tried various methods without success. If anyone had a working solution I'd be v…

I'm on Windows 10 with FF right now and Alt+D just worked for me, along with Cmd+L and F6 as other have said. I think your muscle memory should be just fine. Time to switch!

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#415
Firefox was good a few years ago.

Somehow they managed to get on-par with Chrome performance. So, I switched back to FF after being a Chrome user for years.

But they couldn't keep up, so I was forced to leave them again.

I went for Brave, because I wanted to reduce my use of Google products and I couldn't be happier.

Chrome performance, good adblock integrated, Tor, IPFS, and crypto wallet out of the box. Awesome piece of tech.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#416
post #291

Is there really a killer feature of Chrome that justifies its use over FF? I've been using Firefox and have never been disappointed with it. I always just assumed that if you wanted privacy, it's better to use Firefox over Chrome, Safari, or Brave.

Its only killer feature to me is that websites are designed and tested with a Chromium-first attitude. As a regular FF user I might stumble upon a website that’s quite buggy or straight up doesn’t work, which forces me to use Chrome for that specific website. Other than that I don’t really feel like there’s anything, and Edge is currently a better Chrome than Chrome anyway. EDIT: and for the record, I’m still upset M…

I've been on team FF since the switch from IE like 20 years ago- I agree sometimes there is additional jank, but I also want to add that it is rare enough that it's been a non-issue 99.9% of the time.

Even then, I expect some of it is the fact I use an obscene number of plug-ins to break most social media sites (to prevent overuse).

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#417
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those experienced with web dev around here will tell you Chrome is the main (or only) browser tested with most websites these days. Some things might be slow or broken in Firefox. One example situation that comes to mind is you can't scroll to the bottom of the page on some sites in Firefox due to terrible spaghetti layout design, so the submit button is not normally reachable. Or it loads under a banner and becomes…

I only had one site in recent memory that failed to load. I put in a call to the support line and they fixed it. Tbh this whole idea that the web is broken on ff is not true, tho it is true some web assembly apps fail to work properly in my experience. I challenge anyone here to give an actual useful site that fails to work properly in ff.

A recent example I found: https://tools.usps.com/rcas.htm (the "Initializing Services" modal never goes away in FF, works almost immediately in Chrome and Edge)

This is just the most recent example I remember, unfortunately there have been enough at this point that if I'm doing anything important (such as filling and submitting some important form), I do it in Chrome because I don't want it to silently break in FF and cause other issues with invalid or corrupt data submitted to the service.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#418

I've switched from Firefox to Safari for most of my browsing, and Chrome for anything that needs devtools. Why? Battery. Efficiency. On the new M1 Macbooks I can run Safari and be unplugged all day long. The increased power consumption and battery drain is noticeable when using FF and I can't make it all the way through the day. As far as extensions go, I have 1Blocker and it works well, it does block YouTube ads. Th…

I tried safari, but the lack of extensions is a major turn off. How do you browse the web without uBlock Origin or “I don’t care about cookies”?

I notice no difference between chrome and ublock origin or safari and Wipr or Firefox Focus.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#419
post #291

Is there really a killer feature of Chrome that justifies its use over FF? I've been using Firefox and have never been disappointed with it. I always just assumed that if you wanted privacy, it's better to use Firefox over Chrome, Safari, or Brave.

Its only killer feature to me is that websites are designed and tested with a Chromium-first attitude. As a regular FF user I might stumble upon a website that’s quite buggy or straight up doesn’t work, which forces me to use Chrome for that specific website. Other than that I don’t really feel like there’s anything, and Edge is currently a better Chrome than Chrome anyway. EDIT: and for the record, I’m still upset M…

Yeah I'm still surprised MS did that too.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a longtime Mozilla contributor, so I’m probably biased toward Firefox, but there are still a few Chrome features that I wish Firefox had, like: - Easier to create and use multiple profiles (somewhat mitigated by Mozilla's multi-container add-on) - Google Translate integration

The profiles is what gets me. I have a personal bad professional profile on my device and whenever clicking on a link, it will open the page in the latest chrome window (re: profile) that was last accessed and it works wonderfully. Firefox profiles are a completely different process/app/structure and it just really does not work gracefully in any scenario I’ve tried.

This is also what keeps me from considering FF for a daily driver. I have the same workflow and it's very easy to keep straight.

I have hotkeys assigned to each profile via macOS shortcuts. Cmd-shift-# focuses a given profile. Or opens a new window of that profile if there wasn't one already.

Links from other apps always open in the most recent profile.

This makes it very simple to ensure links I click in Slack/iMessage/etc open where I want them to.

(Took the time to write this out in the hopes some Firefox folks see this..)

Post reply on HN