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Switching from Chrome to Firefox

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Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#91

Post by bboygravity »

eloisant wrote: post #54
bboygravity wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find mind blowing is that it takes gigabytes (of RAM and/or other local storage) to load a couple of websites. Regardless of which browser is used.

What you call "a couple of websites" are actually full-blown applications. Your browser is more a virtual machine than a document reader. Also, applications tend to use RAM when it's available. Think of all the cache, typically that's why back is snappy (it doesn't re-render the page from scratch). Maybe it would make you feel good to see a lot of unused RAM, but since it's there, it's better to use it than not.

Well, maybe the point I'm trying to make is that they shouldn't be applications.

Hackernews could take 100's of megabytes to load (like pretty much all of the other similar websites do). RAM, page file or otherwise. But it doesn't. It could be a complex application. But it isn't. And it shouldn't be.

Also, I don't think having "too much RAM" is the issue on my 16 GB machine. I routinely have to just shut down the browser entirely to be able to properly do CAD work. Party like it's 1995.

Even if these websites are "legit applications" for good reasons, putting the processing burden on the client is still a choice. There are efficient ways to leave most of the processing to the server. Example: https://www.phoenixframework.org/

Disclaimer: correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just an EE guy with shallow limited knowledge on web stuff.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#92

Post by earenndil »

dzink wrote: post #6

I have been using Firefox for a few months and I’ve noticed browsers on Windows are far slower than on Mac (despite much faster hardware). Is that normal / happening to you as well? Firefox on Windows seems noticeably slower than Chrome. (Any page from entering address to seeing content feels ridiculously slow) I still use it for privacy, but I wonder if there is something I could do to speed it up.

No (don't use mac), but I generally found windows to be much slower than linux, on the same hardware. (Interestingly, freebsd was also much slower than linux--but that's a tale for another time.)

I wonder if it has to do with the scheduler? Desktop linux users sometimes install patchsets to their kernels like zen[1] or ck[2], which effectively enable soft-realtime in order to improve desktop responsiveness and latency, but reduce net throughput. iOS also generally feels more responsive than android, given comparable hardware, for similar reasons: more optimal scheduling algorithm.

1: https://liquorix.net/

2: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Linux-ck

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#93

Post by foepys »

hyperdunc wrote: post #31
clement_b wrote: post #7

I did that about a month ago, after more than 10 years with Chrome only. So far so good, apart from battery usage on Android. I sometimes feel it spirals when too many tabs are left open. Desktop, no problem. I have kept Chrome for my work stuff, because I want 100% efficiency / no delay due to my tech choices and I work on a SaaS tool primarily targeting Chrome. I still think Chrome is better when it comes to poweri…

On Android, Firefox allows you to install extensions (such as an ad blocker).

Only "Firefox on Android". The newer "Firefox Preview" and "Firefox Focus" mysteriously lost this ability. Firefox on Android is stuck on version 68, it's like Firefox' ESR version.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#94

Post by _Microft »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #36

I'm using Firefox as primary browser since Chrome war on as blockers and it works fine for the most part but it's quite rough around the edges my biggest grows come from the omnibar, it still has a heck of a trouble guessing what's a search and what's a domain, the sorting out partial matches feels weird because bookmarks aren't prominent and there's no promotion of URLs entered Vs useless navigated toward and three…

There are some ways to refine the results in the Firefox adress bar, in case you already know what you are looking for. I mainly use * + and % :

Add ^ to search for matches in your browsing history.

Add * to search for matches in your bookmarks.

Add + to search for matches in pages you've tagged.

Add % to search for matches in your currently open tabs.

Add ~ to search for matches in pages you've typed.

Add # to search for matches in page titles.

Add @ to search for matches in web addresses (URLs).

Edit: it looks as if one can search for the input by prepending a ? to it. This will hide any other (local) results from the omnibar, giving easy keyboard access (by direction keys) to the list of search engines at the end of the list.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#95

Post by mendelmaleh »

zaphirplane wrote: post #61
mendelmaleh wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe don't... I relied too much on it, and lost quite some data. Too bad it had no sync capabilities, or even basic import/export for backing up.

What type of data did you loose ? The addon seems to isolate cookies and storage by container

Yes... I had sessions in those containers, the cookies are the data I guess.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#96

Post by czechdeveloper »

inetknght wrote: post #67
keyP wrote: post #59

I switched to FF for my daily driver almost a year ago on my Windows machine and haven't looked back. Previously FF had too many performance issues but since each tab is run in a separate process, it's been just as good as Chrome (not so much on OSX however, I still use Chrome there). The other advantage of FF for me, besides Pocket, is that I can share and send pages with FF on Android which has support for ad-block…

I wish Pocket didn't come enabled by default. It's intrusive spyware. Edit: It's information leaks for advertisements. I switched from Chrome to Firefox to get away from advertisement empires. Having to manually disable Pocket to do that leaves a sour note.

Pocket is owned by Mozilla, so if Pocket is spyware, Mozilla is making spyware. Does not sound right.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#98

Post by yalooze »

psv1 wrote: post #78

For people who are considering switching away from Chrome - give Brave a try, it's really good. I was a bit reluctant for a while because their branding is weird and there's too much focus on their crypto ad model. But if you switch the crypto stuff off, you have a fork of Chrome that performs just as well and also has a few additional privacy features and isn't linked to your Google account. Highly recommend.

Vivaldi is another Chrome fork with a strong focus on privacy. From the original creators of Opera.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#99

Post by kiwijamo »

rahuldottech wrote: post #2

Firefox is great, and I've had an amazing experience on both mobile and desktop ever since I switched almost a year ago. I only wish that their password manager allowed you to import passwords in standard formats from other password managers.

I find the Bitwarden extension is very good. The advantage of using an independent password store is that you can use it on other platforms. For example, Bitwarden provides iOS integration which provides autofill in both Safari and even within individual apps (which is a huge time-saver). In the future you may move to a different browser, and Bitwarden (or your independent password manager of choice) will most likely have an extension for that browser too so you can start using it straight away. I love Firefox but I honestly can't see any reason to lock myself into its password store.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#100

Post by breakingcups »

dzink wrote: post #6

I have been using Firefox for a few months and I’ve noticed browsers on Windows are far slower than on Mac (despite much faster hardware). Is that normal / happening to you as well? Firefox on Windows seems noticeably slower than Chrome. (Any page from entering address to seeing content feels ridiculously slow) I still use it for privacy, but I wonder if there is something I could do to speed it up.

That's odd, for me Firefox on Windows is slightly faster than Chrome. Do you have any extensions installed?
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