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Why I’m done with Chrome

blog.cryptographyengineering.com

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Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#651

Post by scns »

uglycoyote wrote: post #123
brian-armstrong wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange. I almost exclusively use OSX (El Cap) and haven't had performance issues asides from needing to restart the browser once a month or so. Hopefully they get those problems resolved soon, the browser is super quick when it's working right.

I find that I cannot watch a YouTube video on my MacBook in Firefox for more than 10 seconds without the fans coming on at full throttle. This is one of the few reasons that I start up chrome, as strangely I can watch the same video in chrome without performance issues. I haven't had this issue on Firefox on PC

Try the h264ify extension, it forces h264 video instead of webm, you can block 60fps videos too if you want to halve the size of the download.

If your cpu does not have a webm decoder in hardware, it has to decode them in software which is inefficient.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#652

Post by dsfyu404ed »

clarkmoody wrote: post #408
partiallypro wrote: post #248

Google started going down the path I would describe as an "evil" path years ago. I'm glad people are starting to notice. I used to be a huge Google advocate, up until about 2008. So many things have changed since then. Adsense was the first breach in trust for me, when they banned my account for no reason and ruined any chance of every monetizing my content...since they are basically a monopoly in that area. Getting…

Search for "gun rights" in Google, and the Wikipedia feature box on the top-right of the results page is the Gun Control article. I've noticed the straight search results making a marked decline in quality over the past few months. If one of the keywords within your search is anything remotely profitable, it will drown out all other terms. Then the search results ended after ~4 pages. Definitely changed from the Goog…

This will mostly depend on whether your geoip returns a blue swamp or a red swamp.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#653

Post by Aeolun »

patates wrote: post #624
tananaev wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood my comment. I don't want to collect that information. All I need is anonymous crash stacks and possibly some general statistics (number of users on various app versions and Android versions). Google was collecting extra information without me even being aware of it, until they removed my apps for the store. I want to collect as minimum information as possible for me to effectively maintain t…

> Google was collecting extra information without me even being aware of it I think the point is that you should be aware of it. It is your application after all. Yes, what Google does is weird, but the app developer needs to be more careful in general what 3rd party code they load. On the other hand, I understand you. Probably you do your due diligence when you load some random dependency but you (like everyone else…

I mean, if you use a google library that uses a specific google feature, it’s kind of fair to assume that it’s not a violation of their privacy policy.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#654

Post by superflyguy »

baq wrote: post #617
GW150914 wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google bullies hardware vendors, Apple is its own hardware vendor. That is the essential difference. If MS had done their thing only with hardware they made and sold, instead of twisting the arms of third parties they’d have been OK. There is a qualitative difference between dictating the terms of something you alone build and sell, and using your market dominance to dictate terms to everyone else.

are you talking about device manufacturers or component manufacturers? for the latter, look at what happened to imagination when apple dropped them and then tell me with a straight face that wasn't bullying.

It wasn't bullying. Imagination was a one trick pony with, to mix clichés, all their eggs in one basket. They were always going to be screwed when Apple continued far enough down their predictable path to in-house silicon. The people with a clue all left (mostly to Apple) leaving behind shitty managers and the usual clueless offshore types who resorted to the court of public opinion via an embarrassing, needy blog full of vague threats of legal action. That's the closest it got to bullying, really.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#655

Post by AsyncAwait »

larkeith wrote: post #113
brian-armstrong wrote: post #10

Firefox is a truly fantastic browser now. I've been using it again for about 2 years and haven't regretted it at all. There have been a couple of weird feature hiccups but generally Mozilla seems to get things right.

While I switched back to Firefox a while ago due to loss of trust in Google, it should not be forgotten that they support DRM on the web.

They do, (I imagine if Netflix wouldn't work, they would lose users), but at least it's opt-in.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#656

Post by romanovcode »

Legogris wrote: post #639

The clear break for me came in version 39. I am staying on Chromium 38 for the few sites and extensions where I still depend on Chrome and using Firefox for everything else. Once version 38 becomes obsolete I will stop using Chromium alltogether.

You are not doing any favours to yourself by staying on older version of Chrome. There have been many vulnerabilities and your data might be compromised because of this.

Why not just use a different modern browser instead, I don't get it.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#657

Post by hrrsn »

partiallypro wrote: post #248

Google started going down the path I would describe as an "evil" path years ago. I'm glad people are starting to notice. I used to be a huge Google advocate, up until about 2008. So many things have changed since then. Adsense was the first breach in trust for me, when they banned my account for no reason and ruined any chance of every monetizing my content...since they are basically a monopoly in that area. Getting…

> But if you deal directly with Google ad sales (and this is something I never knew existed tbh) they will intentionally screw you if you are under a certain spend.

Any more details on this?

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#658

Post by romanovcode »

wincy wrote: post #464
S_A_P wrote: post #437

I’ve recently launched an experiment to get off of google. I can’t say I had any real reason other than curiosity. I have some privacy concerns but can’t say that was the main driver here. I think I just looked at my laptop, phone, etc and thought about how prevalent google code was in my life. It was my navigator, my file store, my calebdar, my email, my search engine and my browser. It knows everything about me. Th…

I’m reading all this and was commenting to my wife we should stop using Chrome, then felt really foolish because I remembered we have Google Fiber. I’m not sure what to do about that. I’m also not sure if it’s something I should worry about or not, are there different rules on what Google can do as my ISP vs as my web browser?

I bet as your ISP they can do hell of a lot more.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#659

Post by arountheworld »

amanzi wrote: post #237

Google today is like the Microsoft of 10-15 years ago. Grossly dominant, arrogant, user-hostile, and thinking they're above the law. Microsoft got knocked off their perch and are a much better company today than they were 15 years ago. Google's turn to fall is rapidly approaching.

> and are a much better company today than they were 15 years ago

I disagree. Have you ever tried to deal with them? I've never experienced a company so hostile towards a customer. They are as money hungry as they were a decade ago, if not more.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#660

Post by BurnGpuBurn »

colemickens wrote: post #114
brian-armstrong wrote: post #10

Firefox is a truly fantastic browser now. I've been using it again for about 2 years and haven't regretted it at all. There have been a couple of weird feature hiccups but generally Mozilla seems to get things right.

I'm a huge fan too but it seems like Mozilla keeps dropping the ball on specific odd, "easy" things. The built-in screenshot tool makes it really easy to accidentally upload private information to a public inage sharing site and the Issue tracking a simple button relabeling has been open for months. They refuse to back down on Pocket integration that still leaves an awful taste in my mouth. The Library/Downloads wind…

I never noticed the screenshot tool but, wow, that is some ugly piece of ui. The save button is called "Download" and the upload button is called "Save", holy crap. It sure comes off as someone at Mozilla going "I know, lets shove this new cloud enabled share-your-screenshots-with-everyone thing marketing came up with down every bodies throat via the screenshot tool!"
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