Is it just me or is chrome much snappier than Firefox?

I'm not sure what the big hurry is? It's not like any of the major browsers are running at a snails pace.

 

You're right nowadays we have the embarrassment of riches in terms of choosing a browser, but speed remains an important issue IMO.

 

You can always test it regardless of feelings. http://www.numion.com/stopwatch

 

Cool, but to what extent is initial loading time a marker for overall interaction performance?

 

I find Maxathon faster than all of them (At least I think so), But it lacks big time in addons and settings.

 

I use Chrome, find it to be very snappy, tried Firefox several years ago, at first it worked fine but after awhile it started freezing, slowing down, basically crap. To me Chrome is all I need, a browser to browse the internet, its fast, simple and works well, what more do you need? I could care less about extensions.

 

Well for one thing when I have to wait a few seconds longer to be able to use my browser it's a bit of a pain. It's not some awful thing but I think faster is better.

And on a larger scale when you have a fast browser you allow developers to create heavier code with more capabilities. If you squeeze function A down to .1ms from 1second you now have froom for functions B, C, and D, which may have been impractical before.

 

The quicker you get off a page, the less time it has to infect you.

 

Why do you hate Chrome?

 

Personally I think that Chrome feels faster than Firefox. Not a reason for me to switch

I don't like that Chrome takes over as the main browser without permission, nor that it tells Google everything you do online by default.

But yeah, it's certainly faster IMO.

 

Speed is not the only criterium for what makes a great browser. I just ran this test with Firefox 14 beta 11 and it actually did better than Chrome:

http://peacekeeper.futuremark.com/run.action

 

Unfortunately raw speed tests don't always show the truth. It depends on many factors, and can and will change. Its fun to do the tests, but I tend to base speed on some time using a browser at the same sites daily. That is how I can "feel" which is faster, regardless of timed speed tests. It is also why there is no clear winner on "which browser is best", because each of us "feels" things so differently.

Sul.

 

1) I hate its interface and I could never for the life of me get used to it

2) I hate its bookmarks manager! Try renaming a bookmark and see what I mean

3) I hate its stupid download manager (although I never use it anymore because I bought Internet Download Manager for all my downloading needs

4) I hate the fact that I have to update it every other day

5) I hate its name

6) I don't feel secure using it due to Google's tracking technology

 

right click bookmark, edit, and type in the name?

 

It updates silently in the background, every few weeks.

 

@berryracer I do not use Chrome but I agree with you except for no. 2 and no. 5. What's wrong with the name? lol.

 

Oh sorry, must've missed it..

I had to go to the bookmarks manager full menu and edit it from there

 

LOL! Cheers bro

 

Some remarks:

1. I don't see much performance differences between the two browsers (although I have to admit that I'm not using 35,000 rounds in Lastpass ). FF has become a lot faster since v4. Keep in mind that some of the default settings in FF seem to be rather conservative so it might make sense to tweak them. A good tutorial can be found here.

2. Having said that, speed is not all that counts. I still prefer FF because it's considerably more configurable (there's hardly anything in about:config which you can NOT change/tweak); many addons are still better and more reliable than their Chrome counterparts (ScriptNo is definitely inferior to Noscript, the Chrome ABP version is not yet on par with the FF one, and the same is true for Autopager - just to name some examples.) Several aspects in Chrome are not as controllable as in FF (see also what I wrote here), e.g., you can not disable DOM Storage (I know, I know there is a switch for that - but if you use it most Chrome addons don't work anymore so it's unusable).

3. Regarding security: Yes, the Chrome sandbox (or rather sandboxes if you're using Ubuntu) is definitely a good thing and I hope that FF will have it, too, before long. However, with FF tightly confined in its Apparmor profile in Ubuntu I feel safe without a sandbox. On the other hand, I regard the risks from XSS and Clickjacking rather high (actually higher than malware trying to break out of a sandbox or Apparmor). While Chrome has a built-in XSS filter, there is nothing against Clickjacking. Noscript is still the only protection against this.

To sum up: Chrome is definitely a fast and good browser which lacks some aspects which are critical to me, though. I might move to Chrome once it gets the improvements I'm hoping for - but not yet.

Ah, I nearly forgot one important aspect (already discussed in other threads): Google is one the few monopolies which try to dominate the Internet, and Chrome is one tool for them to achieve this. If everyone is using their browser, they are free to define web standards as they suit them - and not necessarily us. Therefore, it's also a political decision which browser to use. Again, speed is not all that counts.

 

Very good review man!

 

One more thing I hate about Chrome is the fact that Google tries to force users to install it as it is bundles with 80% of the apps now and the other 20% go for the Ask Toolbar Virus as I call it

 

Its sort of funny, but I like chromium (not chrome, although there isn't much difference) BECAUSE it is so spartan. I don't really like all those extra bells and whistles that are included in the others.

I don't really care which browser it is, as long as it does what I think I want it to.

Sul.

 

Same here... that's one of the first things that attracted me to using Chrome.

 

Well it's either Safari or possibly Chrome for me both powered by Webkit.

I can't use a browser that's not powered by Webkit, because then I get the feeling like i'm using IE 8, wich I only do when I am buying something online, or banking etc...

Unfortunately everytime I have tried Chrome I end up finding something that I dislike about it, a feature or whatever. So I am back with Safari in no time.

But one thing I know is that my fulltime browser has to be powered by Webkit or else it won't work for me. So Google made a wise choice by choosing Webkit as their engine, I can give them that

 

It is what keeps me coming back when I get the itch to switch. A day or two, and I want that simplictic UI that chrome has, so I switch back.

Sul.