thinking of switching to Chrome, anything i should know?

Hi

getting a little sick of firefox, so im considering making the switch to google chrome or opera, but before i do i wanted to ask opinions about these two browsers.

when chrome came out the two things that were talked about a lot was the privacy invading usage monitoring and incompatibility with quite a few websites.

are these still problems? are there any new problems? would it be a good browser to switch to?

thanks in advance

 

I am using Google Chrome v4 right now due to the slow start-up of Firefox and lame UI. I will change back to Firefox when Firefox released it's v3.7.
Firefox 3.5.X sucks. Firefox 3.6.X improved.

Opera is good. But I haven't try it before. I heard some said it safer to use Opera compared to IE and FF due to Opera is very less populate(less hacker aim).

Safari, you can try. I heard it is the fastest.

 

according to the benchmarks and news safari is slow and also the worst performer in security.

i'm trying to decide between opera and chrome. how do you find chrome?

actually the reason i'm thinking of dropping firefox is because i leave my browser open for weeks with lots of tabs open, and after a while firefox seems to be hogging lots of memory and becomes unstable, for example it crashes, or video on youtube/etc stutters, and i have to close firefox and reload all my tabs . really annoying

 

I'm using the latest stable Chrome release and I find it to be nothing short of amazing.

It works with all the sites I use, and it blazing fast. Not to mention is sweet and simple UI.

All other browsers are just bloated and try to do more than they need to.

 

i use an ssd so chrome doesn't deliver anything to me others don't as well. so i'm, after a recent tryout, back to firefox for adblock, xmarks, and some of the other things that make live great.

 

i would be using chrome if there was a good adblocker for it. websites just become annoying after you've gotten used to them without ads.

 

I suggest you just try it and see if you like it. As long as you don't remove your Firefox User Data, there's no harm in trying.

 

yeah, i have all of them installed currently. no harm whatsoever. even safari "iehk ugly chrome copy ".

 

Chrome sends usage data back to Google's servers. It isn't any data that can identify you (username, IP adress, etc). It is stuff like how many times you clicked this button. If you clicked this tab after opening this windows, etc etc. Same stuff Microsoft does. If data got sent back that can identify you, then Google opens itself to lawsuits, so it's an offense that they take seriously.

You can opt out of the usage data tracking if you want.

Chrome is a quick and easy browser. Nothing especially revolutionary about, besides it's default home screen and the placement of page tabs.

Probably the most secure of the bunch.

No dealbreaking problems that I am aware of.

 

You should try ChromePlus.

It has many great features.
1. Double click tab to close page.
2. Mouse Gestures
3. Super drag
4. IE tab
5. Download tools supported in context menu.

And ChromePlus is also de-chromed, ie it doesn't send usage data.

Cheers

 

I will use chrome when it has adblock... but until then im sticking with ff.

 

Chrome has Adblock plus, I use it. It is nowhere as good as the FF version, but hopefully it will get better.

 

Yeah, there aren't any comparable Firefox ad blockers in Chrome.

I use AdSweep. It isn't as thorough as AdBlocker Plus + NoScript,.

 

i installed firefox 3.6 beta 3 just to see if it was any better, now i have 2 versions of firefox on my computer lol. i thought it would just upgrade the old version. Will i lose my saved data if i uninstall the beta, or will the non beta firefox still remain along with my data?

cheers

 

beta always install at another place to not harm your original installation.

 

I hate installing Betas.

Dave...
Clutch.

Dave Dave Bo Bave
Banana Nana Fo Fave
Be Bi Bo Bave
Dave!!!!

 

uhm.... yeah?


and btw, hate installing betas? why using google products then? is there anything NONbeta made by them?

edit: and i know there is (chrome being one). i was just joking at their gmail beta

 

does anyone have a link to the adblock thing for firefox? i want to try it out. I've never actually installed any extensions for firefox lol.

 

Google baby!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

afhStingray.

Ray Ray Bo Bay
Banana Nana Fo Fay
Be Bi Bo Bay
AfhStingRay!!!!!

 

Nice to see someone is in a good mood
Wonder what you could do with "MidnightSun"...

Anyways, back on topic: While Firefox actually has one of the lowest initial memory usage levels, it does have a tendency to increase over time due to the seemingly unpluggable memory leaks.

Chrome has a high initial memory usage, since it splits its tabs and interface into different processes, lending an extra degree of stability (similar to setting each Windows Explorer window to launch in a different process, which, incidentally, I highly recommend) - when one window/tab crashes, the whole program doesn't crash.

Opera's memory usage is fairly middle of the ground, I'd say. It seems similar to IE8, more than FF, less than Chrome. I find many of its built-in features to be very very useful, and in addition to its speed and extensive interface customizability (as in button/toolbar placement - FF does, however, have many more quality themes. But Opera 10's default theme is very nice, in my opinion.), which is even greater than that of FF, make it the browser of my choice. I am big on screen real estate, so I have optimized my Opera toolbar configuration to be even fewer vertical pixels than Chrome, yet have more functionality.

Chrome is very good for Gmail, though, which is what I use it for.

 

i didnt want to google it in case i downloaded the wrong thing lol.

think i might just try chrome for a month and see how it goes. i dont really care about themes, and i dont use add ons (so far anyway). my only criteria really is stability. firefox really got on my nerves cos it gets laggy and crashes on me. with so many tabs open and a really slow connection (512k) its a pain reloading everything.

 

you know. this was stated years ago back with ff1.0, and gets requoted today. just like people till today say vista is unstable and buggy and slow and all.

software moved on. firefox is no memory hog since years, even riddled with plugins. doesn't mean it doesn't have bugs (but most are flash related.. flash behind a proxy == death of firefox ). memory usage nowadays is stable enough to let it stay open for hours without noticing any issues. and even if there is a problem. close it, open it again, and it did a fresh start.

it's true that it does it all in one process => an individual tab forgetting to release memory somehow will not give that memory free after closing, unlike ie8 and chrome.

but in general, the problem is mostly gone since years. i had the biggest memory issues around, dunno.. i guess it was ff2.0

 

my tabs arnt open for hours, they're open for days, sometimes weeks. This is because my connection is really slow, so i just leave them open when im researching something. and i can confirm that it really is a memory hog. for example, say i open 20 tabs, leave it over the weekend without touching the computer, on monday it will be consuming much more memory than it did on friday. i dont mind that so much, because i have plenty of ram, BUT, streaming video will start stuttering, scrolling becomes not so smooth, etc. the browser just gets really sluggish, then at some point, it will crash. its for these reasons i want to drop using firefox.

 

Firefox is a memory hog over here too.

 

well, it's not the way one should use a browser. open for weeks, .. you can save stuff, you know, for later looking at it. it's not like it would hurt closing it once a day.. the lost seconds are so TERRIBLE..

and no matter how slow your connection is, it can't be that slow that you can't reload a page for weeks..

anyways, people love to use their systems in weird ways. firefox might not be right for you, then, yes. but instead of searching the "perfect browser", changing the habbit just a little bit could fix all the problems. but changing habbits is SO uncool. everything has to change around you to perfectly fit you, of course..

have fun letting any other browser crash after weeks or months..

 

A computer should conform to how you work, not the other way around.

 

sure. then again, if one uses it in extreme ways, one doesn't have to expect it to conform perfectly.

most of peoples "i hate my computer doing this all the time that way" problem get simply fixed by watching them, and then saying "why don't you do it that way, then?" and the problem is gone for ever. working in support, changing the way the USER uses or abuses it's system helps for most of the cases.

 

Now we are getting beyond the scope of the thread.

 

why? it's the op who wants to know stuff about switching to chrome, and if it helps. most likely, not closing tabs will let them "get slow over time" too, just like "not closing firefox".

so if he really never closes an open page, any browser will show it's worst case szenario.. so i stay at suggesting to consider switching habits instead of switching browsers

how's that beyond the scope of the thread?

 

I'm not getting dragged into this.

 

? i'm not dragging anyone.

he has problems with firefox because he lets every tab stay open for days/weeks.
that is a problem he wants to get fixed.

problem is, no browser really fixes that, as they are not designed for that kind of 'serverstyle' usage. closing and reopening shouldn't take long and can be done at least once every day, solving his problem completely with ANY browser.

i'm just giving him tips here. it's not like he will follow my ideas anyways.

 

My friend who uses Firefox leaves his computer on 24/7, and hence also leaves Firefox on 24/7. While he says it has gotten better since 2.0 (when I stopped using Firefox), he still has to close it every 2-3 days or so due to excessive memory usage. Of course, your mileage may vary, but it's not entirely true to say memory leaks are a thing of the past for Firefox.

It would be interesting to see a good line graph of the memory usage of various browsers over time, maybe up to a week.

 

He will if he's wise; they're good tips.

 

this is almost as silly as when the windows mobile fanboys kept insisting resetting their devices a few times a day is "good practice".

FYI i also use IE and it does not have the issues firefox does when left open for weeks. So i guess microsoft designed IE for "server style usage"?

i dont think you've even tried various browsers leaving them open for weeks on end. if someone with a similar usage pattern has tried out chrome/opera/safari, i'd love to hear about their experiences.

leaving a browser open continuously is hardly "abusing" a system, its just a piece of software, just like word, MSN, skype etc, which are running 24/7 and dont exhibit the same issues.

moreover, with increasing cloud/web integration, users are beginning to leave browsers open all the time. for example my webmail programs automatically refresh when new mail is recieved, facebook alerts you when someone starts a chat with you. it used to be the weak point was the OS where it needed to be rebooted every so often, but with windows XP that changed. now the browser seems to be the weak point for "always on"

 

leaving your browser on is like leaving your car in cruise control and wondering why it eventually stops moving.


ps, recognizing firefox has a memory leak issue is one thing(don't deny this, its a fact - its gotten BETTER over the years, but the problem is still there), however, claiming its a problem when you're using it in an inappropriate is not right.

 

It's more like leaving the lights on and they eventually become misaligned. Then flipping them on an off realigns them.

ps, recognizing firefox has a memory leak issue is one thing(don't deny this, its a fact - its gotten BETTER over the years, but the problem is still there), however, claiming its a problem when you're using it in an inappropriate is not right.

 

i think whether its an "inappropriate situtation" is open to debate. like i said, IE dosent exhibit this issue. the purpose of this thread is to find out if Chrome is ok with it as well, as i'd rather use chrome than IE. I think i was clear enough on that point.

If IE and chrome et al dont exhibit this issue, that means its firefox specific. so your analogy is not accurate. i already know for a fact IE does not have this issue

 

well, ie does have the problem of using it for days (using, not letting it stay open. same for firefox) to get instable and crash. been there, it did that.

i just don't see it as a good reason to switch browsers. chrome has good reasons to switch to. closing and reopening every some days is not one. that's some secs spend each couple of days. horrific..