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View Full Version : Goodbye Firefox, Hello Chrome? (or Opera?)



drawkcab
February 18th, 2012, 10:15 AM
Firefox has been junk lately. On my windows partitions, the last FF update means that I have no navigation bar. On my Linux partitions FF crashes when I open anything requiring flash, sometimes taking the desktop with it if I don't force quit.

I generally favor FF because of the extensions that are available but I wonder if the pressure to keep pace with Chrome is counter productive in the sense that they are pushing out updates and new versions that are incredibly unstable.

So it's on to Chrome for the moment. Though not as customizable, Chrome is snappier and functions better than FF in a number of ways. Its extensions are coming along I suppose.

But really, what worries me about Chrome is privacy.

At the coffee shop this morning I installed Chrome on my new netbook and then synced it with my Google acct. Chrome's autocomplete was already somehow drawing on information collected about my searches made long ago on other boxes in a galaxy far, far away. That is terrifying.

Opera is looking more and more enticing every day.

haqking
February 18th, 2012, 10:25 AM
Firefox has been junk lately. On my windows partitions, the last FF update means that I have no navigation bar. On my Linux partitions FF crashes when I open anything requiring flash, sometimes taking the desktop with it if I don't force quit.

I generally favor FF because of the extensions that are available but I wonder if the pressure to keep pace with Chrome is counter productive in the sense that they are pushing out updates and new versions that are incredibly unstable.

So it's on to Chrome for the moment. Though not as customizable, Chrome is snappier and functions better than FF in a number of ways. Its extensions are coming along I suppose.

But really, what worries me about Chrome is privacy.

At the coffee shop this morning I installed Chrome on my new netbook and then synced it with my Google acct. Chrome's autocomplete was already somehow drawing on information collected about my searches made long ago on other boxes in a galaxy far, far away. That is terrifying.

Opera is looking more and more enticing every day.

What has autocomplete got to do with privacy ?

Did you import data from another browser, do you have autofill turned on, do you store session cookies etc etc

And privacy really relates to your identity, if you tie things to your google acct and choose to give them your real information then the onus of privacy is on you ? IMO anyways, google dont know who i am and i have 10+ google accounts, they can autocomplete all they like ;-)

Peace

whatthefunk
February 18th, 2012, 10:36 AM
Im a huge fan of Opera. I started to have all sorts of firefox problems like you and switched to Opera around 3 or 4 months ago. Things are in different places than they are in firefox, so it took a while to get used to it, but I love it. Its quicker than ff and Chrome on both my machines as well.

TeoBigusGeekus
February 18th, 2012, 11:11 AM
I've been using Opera for almost 10 years now (since it had ads).
I can't imagine using anything else, it's become second nature to me.

Chrome/Chromium is primitive, Firefox is bloat (always IMO).

HansKisaragi
February 18th, 2012, 11:49 AM
Iv been using Chromium since the first release.

Best browser out there in my humble opinion.

tkod
February 18th, 2012, 12:09 PM
I've been using FF for a long time and don't consider switching. The latest versions are quite like chrome when it comes to performance. You can bring back the navigation bar by right clicking on the right of the menus and selecting Navigation bar. You can customize everything. As for flash it's always buggy on linux, idk if chrome handles it any better. Never crashed so badly with me though. I'd recommend flashblock, since at least I myself only use youtube's flash function, everything else I've seen lately in flash is advertisement, and its normal to bloat your browser.

HansKisaragi
February 18th, 2012, 12:27 PM
Youtube has html5 support.

http://www.youtube.com/html5

kohoutek1
February 18th, 2012, 12:46 PM
I too just discovered the small joys of Chromium. Fast, direct. Devs could be more flexible with theming, but I've learned to like the tab-bar-at-the-top thing. No more Firefox for me.

Paqman
February 18th, 2012, 01:03 PM
What has autocomplete got to do with privacy ?

Did you import data from another browser, do you have autofill turned on, do you store session cookies etc etc

And privacy really relates to your identity, if you tie things to your google acct and choose to give them your real information then the onus of privacy is on you ? IMO anyways, google dont know who i am and i have 10+ google accounts, they can autocomplete all they like ;-)


^This.

If you don't want to use the features you think are an invasion of your privacy, don't use them. But don't use them then complain about it.

graabein
February 18th, 2012, 01:48 PM
Hello Firefox!

HotCupOfJava
February 18th, 2012, 04:34 PM
Don't have a problem with Chromium or Firefox per se, but I did have to switch the default browser from Chromium to Firefox on my son's Lubuntu installation.

I run a proxy on his machine so I can filter web content through Dansguardian, and it was next to impossible to make Chromium connect to the proxy port like I wanted it to.

jldoll
February 18th, 2012, 04:40 PM
Love Chromium!

drawkcab
February 18th, 2012, 05:57 PM
You can bring back the navigation bar by right clicking on the right of the menus and selecting Navigation bar.

I wish this were true but it's not. Navigation bar lost on two of my windows partitions as well as a friend's this week. That's unacceptable


You can customize everything. As for flash it's always buggy on linux, idk if chrome handles it any better. Never crashed so badly with me though. I'd recommend flashblock...

Flash was working relatively well until recently and avoiding flash is not an option. In order to be fair to FF, I should probably see if this happens in other desktops. Perhaps its the combination of FF and Gnome 3 that's the problem.

drawkcab
February 18th, 2012, 06:04 PM
What has autocomplete got to do with privacy ?

Quite a bit if Google is saving the things I search for in other browsers tethered to my account and then sending them back to me by default at another location on a totally different machine.


Did you import data from another browser, do you have autofill turned on, do you store session cookies etc etc

No and no. This happened yesterday on a newly installed OS which is why it caught my attention. How could chrome which had just been installed this brand new box know my search history from other boxes? Obviously that data is now tied to my profile.


And privacy really relates to your identity, if you tie things to your google acct and choose to give them your real information then the onus of privacy is on you ?

I don't have a problem with my tethered browsers sharing my account information...but when Google is sharing search information remotely among my browsers (i.e. through Google) by default, I get a bit paranoid. Maybe I'm just naive and/or maybe I just need to read up on privacy and adjust my settings accordingly. Just surprised me is all.

drawkcab
February 18th, 2012, 06:10 PM
^This.

If you don't want to use the features you think are an invasion of your privacy, don't use them. But don't use them then complain about it.

You're missing the point. This has nothing to do with information that I've voluntarily shared on my google account. This has to do with logging the things I search for on one computer and then sharing those things with another computer at a later date by default.

Copper Bezel
February 18th, 2012, 06:33 PM
Yeah, but you have Google Sync turned on, and that's what it's meant to do. I mean, it's an opt-in feature, and that's what it's for. You didn't know what the feature did, clearly, so maybe that could have been clearer. It logs that information for local use, turning on Sync uploads it, and it's shared with any machine you connect to that account, which is the same result as, say, using U1 to sync .config/google-chrome.


I too just discovered the small joys of Chromium. Fast, direct. Devs could be more flexible with theming, but I've learned to like the tab-bar-at-the-top thing. No more Firefox for me.
It's still the only browser that does tear-off tabs right. Add that to Chrome's .pdf viewer and the extension selection, and it's quite handy. I wouldn't want to use anything else. But I don't have any real problems with Firefox, either. (I updated last night, and Firefox still loaded and played Flash video just fine on the one web site I use it for, which is one of those lovely non-standard works-in-Firefox-and-IE sites.) Really odd.

Oh, re: theming, do you mean like skins? You can get Chrom(e/ium) skins, create your own through a web service, etc., but I really appreciate that the default one follows the GTK theme settings now. It's nice that Chrome finally looks at home on my desktop.

linfidel
February 18th, 2012, 07:04 PM
As a web developer, I've always had both Firefox and Chrome installed, and I've used Chrome as a default browser for a while, but I always end up switching back to Firefox. I personally find Firefox to actually be more stable, and I don't see much difference in performance. Chrome may be faster, but I don't really notice - and I have a fairly old, low-powered system.

I installed the Flash-aid plugin, and have no problems with flash now. I don't have any other problems. I find Chrome to be a bit annoying, especially the fact that it has no menu bar - if you need to use the keyboard, it's extra work to access menus. But I also don't like it because I use Lastpass a lot, which doesn't work nearly as well as in Firefox, so that probably has a big effect.

I don't really like that chrome doesn't have a separate search field. I don't really like the fact that it monitors my every keystroke even when I'm typing URLs directly. Yeah, the Google fanboys can say it's opt in, but with Firefox, I have more choice; I can use the "opt-in" for searches if I want, but not for everything else. I don't have to worry about Google monitoring my every move.

Paqman
February 18th, 2012, 07:20 PM
You're missing the point. This has nothing to do with information that I've voluntarily shared on my google account. This has to do with logging the things I search for on one computer and then sharing those things with another computer at a later date by default.

So you weren't aware that by default, Google logs all your searches and clickthroughs? Go to https://www.google.com/history/ to see it all and adjust your settings. I'm surprised you weren't aware of this. Google are a search company that sell advertising based on what people search for, this is what built Google.

If you voluntarily sync your new browser to your Google account, it shouldn't be a big surprise when that browser starts using the information contained therein.

tekkidd
February 19th, 2012, 02:14 AM
Firefox has been junk lately. On my windows partitions, the last FF update means that I have no navigation bar. On my Linux partitions FF crashes when I open anything requiring flash, sometimes taking the desktop with it if I don't force quit.

I generally favor FF because of the extensions that are available but I wonder if the pressure to keep pace with Chrome is counter productive in the sense that they are pushing out updates and new versions that are incredibly unstable.

So it's on to Chrome for the moment. Though not as customizable, Chrome is snappier and functions better than FF in a number of ways. Its extensions are coming along I suppose.

But really, what worries me about Chrome is privacy.

At the coffee shop this morning I installed Chrome on my new netbook and then synced it with my Google acct. Chrome's autocomplete was already somehow drawing on information collected about my searches made long ago on other boxes in a galaxy far, far away. That is terrifying.

Opera is looking more and more enticing every day.

Really? Im running Firefox 10 ESR on both my Mac and my Linux desktop and both run like a dream. As far as the navigation bar disappearing, a little tinkering with the settings should solve the issue.

hotwax
February 19th, 2012, 02:37 AM
you could try SRWare Iron, which is a spin off of chrome and better privacy

drawkcab
February 19th, 2012, 02:43 AM
Really? Im running Firefox 10 ESR on both my Mac and my Linux desktop and both run like a dream. As far as the navigation bar disappearing, a little tinkering with the settings should solve the issue.

Nah, it's something specific to the windows edition. Chrome is working for me for the time being.

SoFl W
February 19th, 2012, 02:47 AM
At the coffee shop this morning I installed Chrome on my new netbook and then synced it with my Google acct. Chrome's autocomplete was already somehow drawing on information collected about my searches made long ago on other boxes in a galaxy far, far away. That is terrifying.

Google is terrifying (and evil) but it is SHINY so it is cool. You could wait until Firefox version 234³ is released next week.

drawkcab
February 19th, 2012, 02:49 AM
So you weren't aware that by default, Google logs all your searches and clickthroughs? Go to https://www.google.com/history/ to see it all and adjust your settings. I'm surprised you weren't aware of this. Google are a search company that sell advertising based on what people search for, this is what built Google.

If you voluntarily sync your new browser to your Google account, it shouldn't be a big surprise when that browser starts using the information contained therein.

Thanks, I'm going to do this.

tkod
February 19th, 2012, 04:16 PM
Just updated FF, current version 10.0.2 on windows 7, navigation bar is fine, flash is fine. Also streamed a flash video last night on FF 10 in xubuntu 11.10, flash was fine, navigation bar was fine. Don't trash the software, the problem is in your setup.

kurt18947
February 19th, 2012, 05:11 PM
As a web developer, I've always had both Firefox and Chrome installed, and I've used Chrome as a default browser for a while, but I always end up switching back to Firefox. I personally find Firefox to actually be more stable, and I don't see much difference in performance. Chrome may be faster, but I don't really notice - and I have a fairly old, low-powered system.

I installed the Flash-aid plugin, and have no problems with flash now. I don't have any other problems. I find Chrome to be a bit annoying, especially the fact that it has no menu bar - if you need to use the keyboard, it's extra work to access menus. But I also don't like it because I use Lastpass a lot, which doesn't work nearly as well as in Firefox, so that probably has a big effect.

I don't really like that chrome doesn't have a separate search field. I don't really like the fact that it monitors my every keystroke even when I'm typing URLs directly. Yeah, the Google fanboys can say it's opt in, but with Firefox, I have more choice; I can use the "opt-in" for searches if I want, but not for everything else. I don't have to worry about Google monitoring my every move.

This mirrors my experience. Chromium seems a little faster than Firefox on a 10+ year old notebook running Lubuntu but other wise I find speed indistinguishable. +1 for flash-aid. And Firefox has more extensions that I find useful than does Chromium. The fact that I've been a netscape/firefox user since dinosaurs roamed the earth may enter into it as well :D.

CharlesA
February 19th, 2012, 05:43 PM
Just updated FF, current version 10.0.2 on windows 7, navigation bar is fine, flash is fine. Also streamed a flash video last night on FF 10 in xubuntu 11.10, flash was fine, navigation bar was fine. Don't trash the software, the problem is in your setup.
That's what I have seen as well. Firefox 10 looks the same (or very similar) on XP, 7 and Lucid for me. Navigation bar included.

Lucradia
February 19th, 2012, 08:09 PM
I can't recommend chrome at all sadly: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1758275

Opera renders pages incorrectly most of the time, so does Safari. Midori can be a pain sometimes too.

Bungo Pony
February 19th, 2012, 08:36 PM
I love Opera. It's the fastest, most stable browser I've ever used. I've used it since they initially went ad-free. For the occasional pages that don't render correctly, I use Firefox briefly which always remind me of why I switched to Opera.

TeoBigusGeekus
February 19th, 2012, 08:38 PM
Could you please give me some examples of pages that don't render properly in Opera? (Just out of curiosity)

craig10x
February 19th, 2012, 08:40 PM
Google Chrome is excellent....and it renders web pages beautifully in ubuntu (best i have ever seen...much better then firefox...sorry firefox fans)....and it's speedy too...

I prefer the actual Chrome over Chromium because they add a very handy built in pdf reader and a ppa to your update manager to always get the latest versions...

AND you get newer stable versions much quicker then you would on Chromium (even after adding a Chromium ppa updater)....

Copper Bezel
February 19th, 2012, 08:43 PM
Lucradia, smart address bars are just the new standard. They're an expected feature and don't have any serious disadvantages. Safari's getting one, too, incidentally.

Lucradia
February 19th, 2012, 11:48 PM
Lucradia, smart address bars are just the new standard. They're an expected feature and don't have any serious disadvantages. Safari's getting one, too, incidentally.

Firefox can still search and enter an address into the omnibox even if you turn off the "Suggestion" Feature. Firefox even added a gui-friendly way to turn it off in version 6~7, at the bottom of Privacy Options.


Could you please give me some examples of pages that don't render properly in Opera? (Just out of curiosity)

Usually JavaScript heavy pages, or pages like SheezyArt, unless they fixed the huge black border that appears in Opera when viewing your options.

All browsers except Firefox (and Netscape, and Mozilla) will also "Lag" (this is on purpose) DHTML Chat scripts like shoutboxes on websites like mmohut, because they don't want to "Force check." This force check issue is part of the reason why I can't get accurate update feeds on DeviantART. On chrome, it can take hours before the force check issue appears.

a2j
February 20th, 2012, 08:32 PM
both, chromium and firefox are working fine for me. but I'm tying to move away from google and their privacy policy.

Phrea
February 20th, 2012, 08:52 PM
I've been using Opera for almost 10 years now (since it had ads).
I can't imagine using anything else, it's become second nature to me.

Chrome/Chromium is primitive, Firefox is bloat (always IMO).

Same here, been using it at least for 12 years now.
Every other browser is useless, compared to Opera.

SoFl W
February 24th, 2012, 05:15 PM
Could you please give me some examples of pages that don't render properly in Opera? (Just out of curiosity)

I have had problems with Opera and pages not loading. I removed it from my system so I can not longer tell you what pages don't load properly. I have problems with Opera not closing properly and a element of Opera always running in the background.

Before you say I am anti-Opera or don't know enough about it, back when Opera was shareware, I PAID for Opera because I liked it enough. (yeah that long ago)

I like FF addons but the new version number ever 15 minutes annoys the hell out of me and I feel the quality of FF has gone down.

Doeno
February 24th, 2012, 05:47 PM
I heard that Chrome was adding a 'Do Not Track' feature soon.

mihalybaci
February 24th, 2012, 06:44 PM
I love Firefox, and its email companion, Thunderbird. I have the official FF release (10.0.2) running on my Ubuntu 11.04 desktop and FF Nightly (13.0) on my 10.04 laptop, and rarely have problems. Even the Nightly release, which has the latest updates and is the "most unstable", runs perfectly most of the time. And the AdBlock Plus add-on is awesome.

Wraakvol
February 24th, 2012, 08:00 PM
I've been using Chrome even before I buy my current laptop, and that could be a couple of years. It's fastest, and, IMO, it's becoming the safest web browser now.

Lucradia
February 25th, 2012, 02:07 AM
I heard that Chrome was adding a 'Do Not Track' feature soon.

It still won't allow you to remove the world / clock icon suggestions or allow force-check though. Firefox has had "Tell websites I don't want to be tracked" option for a while now.


I've been using Chrome even before I buy my current laptop, and that could be a couple of years. It's fastest, and, IMO, it's becoming the safest web browser now.

There's a reason why IE isn't safe, and this thread points out why: Becoming Mainstream; it won't be long before Chrome starts getting malware and whatnot like Firefox, Opera, IE, and the rest.