Saturday, February 20, 2010

Trying Chrome for awhile

My beloved Firefox has been getting increasingly gummy on me. Now that Chrome has extensions (such as mouse-gestures), it's becoming a more attractive alternative.

Plus it doesn't seem to ruin post-composition in Blogger as it used to do.

What are y'all using, these days, and why?

50 comments:

Scott Shaffer said...

I've been using Chrome for about 6 months. I like it. A lot. Seems much faster with Firefox. I have run into a couple of web sites that don't format well with Chrome, but besides that it's a winner.

Chris Anderson said...

You too? Firefox is about to drive me to drink! What did they do?? I was so desperate yesterday that I actually used IE for a while. Yikes. (I'm ashamed.)

Fred Butler said...

Let us know how you like it. I am up for giving it a try.

We alternate between IE and Firefox. I have liked Firefox for a couple of years now, and like many of the features. Safari came with a download of my wife's new Ipod and I tried it and thought it had some cool features.

DJP said...

We understand and affirm you, Chris. (c:

Yeah, I don't know. With the latest release, FF seemed better — but now it's back to being gummy, cranking up the CPU, grinding and grinding. That's not even counting the interminable startup time when it first opens.

Chrome starts up right away, and seems to slap down the pages right quick.

Scott, I see an extension that will let you open a tab in IE. Search among the extensions; you might like that.

deekdubberly said...

Chrome is best, hands down. Others (namely, Firefox) are good, but Chrome is better. Once you get used to it you shouldn't be disappointed.

Roger said...

I use Firefox, the foremost reason is Firebug (I'm a software developer).

I also use IE, but that is because our clients use IE and I have to make sure it works (infact there is a nifty little pack that give you all the versions of IE, usefull for when you've got clients stuck in IE6 *shudder*).

My beloved wife uses Chrome and prefers it over the others.

Terry Rayburn said...

I use Chrome when I'm in a hurry (I like the thumbnail picture links homepage for my oft-used sites, plus it's VERY fast-loading for me).

Otherwise, 50-50 Firefox (for its robustness) and IE (for it's familiarity to the rest of my family).

Rileysowner said...

I have been using Chrome for a while, although I still use Firefox as well. The long load up time of Firefox tends to push me toward Chrome which seems to load almost immediately. I have come to like how Chrome functions as well. We will see who prevails.

Unknown said...

Have tried Chrome in the past and wasn't to happy with it. Also tried Opera and a few off-beat, but am back with Firefox. Not happy but what are you gonna do?

David Alves said...

I heart Google Chrome, but I recently installed a filter on my laptop, and it's only compatible with IE 7. Which I loathe. Or, to channel John Piper, "abominate."

(And don’t have—I have IE 8, which makes matter worse.)

The price you pay for purity. But yeah, I really love Google Chrome. Much easier to use than IE—more user friendly, more streamlined.

Almost never had a problem with it. The usual freezing every now and again, but nothing serious.

It also has an awesome feature where you can automatically pull up the last websites you were viewing when you last closed the browser. Sweet.

VcdeChagn said...

Chrome (General Surfing)

Firefox (Sites where I need to use Roboform)

Explorer (when I have to and after taking painkillers to kill the feeling of having bamboo sticks lit under my fingernails)

What happened to make firefox so SLOW...

Susan said...

Still using FF. Used Chrome before FF. Still okay with FF as of now....

DJP said...

Well, the version is 4.0. Changed a good bit since I first used it.

If you haven't used it for awhile, perhaps it's worth a try.

Main reason I quit was because it messed up posts in Blogger. Not now.

Mark said...

My wife's laptop was having the same problems with FF. I went through all the add-on extensions, deleted the ones she didn't really use and updated everything else. Problem solved.
For me, I use Firebug so much to build websites I stick to FF, although I like to use Chrome now and then. I tried Safari, but with Gmail it opens links in new windows, not new tabs. Super annoying. I'm guessing there's probably a fix out there for that behavior, but I just don't think it's worth the time.

Phil Gons said...

For the last month or so I've been using Chrome primarily instead of Firefox as a test to see if Chrome could replace Firefox for me. The only thing holding me back was the absence of extensions that I relied upon in Firefox. Now just about every one is available for Chrome as well, so I've just recently switched to Chrome and am very pleased.

ann said...

On my very old IBM computer I use Chrome. Firefox takes ages to start and eats up all RAM. On my MacBook Pro I used to use FF, but recently switched to its native Safari and am not going back. FF has become heavy, slow and unreliable. Sadly.

Chris H said...

Unless I am just legendarily thick, I cannot find a way to import my RSS feeds into Chrome from Firefox. This makes my blog-reading irritating... but I suppose it's good for hitcounts.

Joe W. said...

I love Chrome; hands-down the fastest browser out there.

deohsan said...

Strange...Everybody else says Chrome is faster than FF. I experienced the reverse--Chrome always takes forever to load on my PC (tried it, and uninstalled it already) , but FF is faster.
Are my settings wrong? Am I missing anything?

Ben Stevenson said...

I mainly use Chrome. I sometimes use Firefox, mainly for FireFTP for uploading files to websites.

I like the address bar and search bar being the same thing in Chrome.

JohnBrianMck said...

IE for Roboform.
FF for most everything else, but as others noted it is slow loading lately.
Chrome for downloading files, and as my default browser. In the last few weeks have been using it more than FF.

Terry Rayburn said...

For the record, I'm not having any slowdown problems with FF.

I recommend CCleaner to keeps things clean.

It cleans out all your browsers at once, and is free.

www.ccleaner.com

I run is once every week or so.

threegirldad said...

Might want to keep an eye on that license agreement. That sort of idiocy, plus the fact that Chrome was full of security holes the day it was released had me avoiding it like the plague. Things do seem much better now on both counts.

The FF development community better get its act together quickly.

I can't even remember the last time I used Internet Exploder. It's FF, Opera, and Safari (in that order).

DJP said...

What pushed me over: once some time back, I tried to open something in Firefox, and it kept grinding and grinding. On a hunch, I copied the link, clicked the Chrome icon. Opened instantly, as it always does (and FF never does). Pasted the URL in, boom, open.

That happened several times over the following weeks.

When it happened again yesterday the thought finally penetrated my skull, "So why don't I just try out 4.0 as primary for awhile, see if it's come of age?"

So far, really pleased.

DJP said...

deohsan, maybe one of the geniuses will have a suggestion, but I don't offhand. You're the first I've heard experiencing that.

Anonymous said...

I happen to like offbeat, odd browsers, which perplexes my family(I argue that as far as quirks go, it's harmless and doesn't cost anything). I was an early adopter of Mozilla (the precursor) to Firefox when everyone else was still saddled with IE.
While I still have FF, which everyone else in the household uses, I spend most of my time on a wacky little browser called K-Meleon. It uses the same Gecko engine that Firefox uses, but loads much, much faster. There's a version called K-Meleon CCF ME which is especially helpful on resource-constrained systems.

Barbara said...

Totally uncool, I know, but I run Windows 7 with IE-8 because its font doesn't hurt my eyes (FF and Chrome both have dotty fonts that kill my eyes) and I'm not constantly having to download this or that plug-in to see what I want to see and read what I want to read, and I don't have to have a gazillion mb used up for another browser. Only complaint with it in Windows 7 is the fact that it does like to confuse my attempts to scroll with attempts to zoom, and I'm not the only one with that complaint.

But I couldn't handle IE-8 in XP.

P.D. Nelson said...

Use Firefox at home I'm suppose to use IE at work and do so when the IT person is in the room. Tried Chrome and hated it. But when I make web pages for friends who use Macs Chrome most looks like Safari so I still have it on my desktop. Staying with Fox until something better comes around.

Ben Stevenson said...

Barbara,
It is easy to change the font in both Firefox and Chrome.

In Firefox, just go to Tools menu (along from File, Edit, View etc).
Then select "Options"
Then select the "content" tab.

Firefox is also pretty small in terms of the storage size needed for the application (only 7.7Mb to download Firefox 3.6).

VcdeChagn said...

If you use Roboform, you can download an extension for Chrome called "IE Tab" at https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd

This extension allows one click loading of sites using the IE browser engine as a tab in chrome.

The roboform toolbar then appears at the bottom of the page automatically (after you move your mouse down there) in the IE tab.

It's a great solution to the problem of having to open a separate browser to use roboform.

Just learned this after my post last night so thought I would share.

Anonymous said...

I downloaded Chrome for the speed, but I just don't see it. I didn't believe the commercials when they said it's like getting a new computer, but I thought it would at least be faster than IE. I can't tell a difference, not in that regard.

Becky Schell said...

I started using Chrome back when you first mentioned it, Dan. I really like it and I do appreciate how fast it is. The miniature screenshot links to frequently visited websites is a sweet feature, especially since they added the ability to choose specific ones to be there all the time.

I only use Firefox for a couple of reasons now. First, when I need to click on a multiple-choice option on a website and Chrome won't support it. That happens less and less now, but sometimes it still draws a blank when there should be little circles to check. The other time is if I need to be in two different gmail accounts at the same time. Gotta do that in separate types of browsers.

One plus that Mozilla has over Chrome, it has a lot more lovely design options for decorating your browser, but I have found a delightful flower pattern in Chrome that I am quite content with (sorry, had to throw in the girly thing).

Like many others, Mozilla is way slow on my computer. Mark (or whoever reads this and knows the answer), how do I find add-on extensions, figure out which ones I don't really use, and then delete them? My husband is no geek, so I have to figure this stuff out myself.

Becky Schell said...

P.S. The drag & drop and drop-down menu bookmark system in Chrome is much handier than Mozilla's. Mozilla's most frequent site feature is helpful, but it doesn't compare to the ready-access Chrome gives.

Gary said...

OK - am I the only reader of Dan's blog that doesn't have a clue what any of this is about?

DJP said...

Yes, Gary, you are. (c:

We're talking about different web browsers. Specifically, I'm talking about Firefox vs. Google's Chrome.

The other main one mentioned is IE, meaning Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows OS.

Clear it up?

Ben Stevenson said...

Gary,

The one minute video on this site should help explain things

http://www.whatbrowser.org/en/

The site is produced by Google, presumably in part to promote Chrome, but it is generally fair to other companies products too.

The Squirrel said...

Since I switched to Windows 7, I've returned to IE-8, because I was having the same slow problems with FF, and because I finally found a spell-check plug-in of IE :)

threegirldad said...

how do I find add-on extensions, figure out which ones I don't really use, and then delete them?

Up on the Firefox menu, click Tools, then Add-ons. If you don't immediately recognize an add-on listed there, uninstall it. It's doubtful (though not impossible) that you're using an add-on without realizing it.

threegirldad said...

Hey, Squirrel! I figured you would be too good for this place now that you've gotten some press over at Triablogue.

That's quite the educational background you have there.

;-)

Sheldon said...

For you Firebug users...Chrome now has a firebug extension. Just FYI if you want to try Chrome out. I just switched to Chrome from FF and am very pleased thus far.

The Squirrel said...

threegirldad: Yeah, some bloggers have odd senses of humor, don't they? Akkadian? LOL!!

I've even gotten e-mails from a few folks, saying that they couldn't find my book at Amazon...

:o)

~Squirrel

Becky Schell said...

threegirldad,
Thanks for the help!

Gilbert said...

For very basic browsing, using terminal windows in Linux, I use "lynx", version 2.8.5-28 from CentOS. tText only, but for news sites I visit, it works fine and without annoying ads or pop-ups.

And for my website and for a few government ones, Netscape 4.8 under Vista still works well. For my favorite weather sites, it renders them well, and I still use it.

Otherwise, I use a mix of IE8 and Firefoc 3.6.

BTW, in case y'all didn't know, Firefox 3.5.7 and 3.5.8 have serious slowdown problems. 3.6 helps. One thing that would have helped this thread is knowing what version of software you are running.

DJP said...

It was 3.6.

Moon said...

I went back to IE a few months ago bc Firefox was giving me an awful lot of trouble...and I'll tell ya, I feel like i'm using a better version of Firefox....I have my tabs like i had 'em in firefox, all my links stored in Delicious, which I found out a few weeks ago that I could add to IE :D...overall I'm satisfied with IE, it's fast, it doesn't slowdown my computer and it even looks a little like Ff.

John said...

Dan...people...people...Dan

There is a cool, way cool FF add-on called "memory something" that my friend uses and he says it sped everything up. He browses (like 14tabs or more when reading the news)and he went from whatever it was in RAM down to like 38K with all THAT open.

John said...

And I'd be scared of Chrome with all I am hearing about what google does with our gmail search stuff...

Rob said...

I like Chrome very much, but I've experienced several things that find me going back to FF. The work webmail I can access from home hangs up ... something about cookies. I've looked in the settings and have cookies enabled, etc. Frustrating. Also I use FireFTP to upload pics to my blog. Is there a similar FTP client for Chrome?

Rob said...

I should add that I'm still using FF 3.0.14 and don't experience the gumminess some of you are describing.

Stephen Rodgers said...

I'm using Chrome (the Dev channel version). Between extensions, bookmark sync, and the fact that it's FAST, I'm extremely happy with it.