-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Former Mozilla CTO: "Chrome won."
- Thread starter kingocfs
- Start date
Pyroclastic
Banned
Don't use Chrome as my defaukt because I don't want to use Google for everything Internet related. Smartphone, search and navigation is more than enough.
Firefox is too much of a memory hog though. Pale moon 4lyf
Firefox is too much of a memory hog though. Pale moon 4lyf
ShadowOwl
Member
Firefox and it's forks are still the only browsers I can recommend to people who are concerned about their privacy. Even Chrome's/Chromium's extension developer community is no match to the amount of work and variety of Firefox addons. Also, Tor is using Firefox as its basis for a reason on both desktop and mobile devices (Orfox).
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Huh? You don't even need admin rights to install Chrome or Firefox on a work computer.
ShadowOwl
Member
Yes, you do sir. Or you're working at a place where each and every user has admin rights.
The portable versions can be used with no admins rights though.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
I need to contact the IT department to install most software (like iTunes for example) because it asks me for admin username and password (which I don't have), but I installed both Firefox and Chrome just fine without having to enter admin username/password. And they aren't portable versions.
ShadowOwl
Member
As an IT guy: that's extremely weird.
Caayn
Member
I know that Google "advertised" it during the early days of Chrome that you could install it without needing administrator rights. The IT department was pissed and when they contacted Google, Google told them to install an enterprise version of Chrome that's compatible with Window's GPO.
Chrome install in the user's AppData directory, for which they don't need administrator permissions, instead of installing in the program files directory. (not sure if it determines install location based on the user's permissions) Apparently other browsers followed suit.
ShadowOwl
Member
That explains a lot, going to take a closer look at those installers when I'm back home (currently on a Linux device).
ShadowOwl
Member
You've got mail!
Captain Smoker
Member
I use Firefox since a decade.
Best browser.
Edit: But Safari on iPhone.
Best browser.
Edit: But Safari on iPhone.
ShadowOwl
Member
With Apple's software restrictions for the App store it's impossible for any browser to compete with Safari. Free software is unwanted on Apple devices.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
it's not that weird. I work in a giant multi billion dollar corporation and we need admin rights for a lot of shit but to install web browsers we do not. IE is still the default but pretty much everyone uses chrome and if you're having issues and call IT, they will always ask "have you tried it on chrome?" or something like that.
LoveCake
Member
When I first started online I used IE like everyone else but very quickly I moved over to Firefox, a few years ago (maybe four/five years) there was an update to Firefox and I simply couldn't get flash to work, I had a look about and ended up in the Firefox forums, apparently Firefox knew there was an issue with the new version of Firefox and they had told Adobe about the problem (it was on Adobe's side) where Flash wouldn't work with the new Firefox version, so instead of waiting for Adobe to fix Flash, Firefox just released the update, there was a workaround where you had to go into the deep settings of Firefox and change things and once Adobe released the fix you would have to change it back again, I wasn't able to go back to the previous version of Firefox, after a few days of messing about I installed Chrome and just used that as my default.
When I upgraded to Windows 10 I tried Edge and I like it, it uses less power and my laptop doesn't have the fan running so much as I did when using Chrome, I much prefer Edge now.
I use Firefox on my work PC as default and also my Android mobile, but at home it's default Edge, I still use Chrome and Firefox occasionally, on my Linux laptop I use the Firefox version for that.
The problems I had with Firefox was that it just got too bloated and the same thing happened with Chrome, Edge doesn't have loads of add-ons but for the sites I visit daily and all the time Edge is fine, I don't need to block adds or download content from them etc, if I do then I open up Chrome or Firefox, I would like Edge to have an account system like Chrome and Firefox do so everything is backed up, one day they will get there.
It is a shame about Firefox though, and from what I read there were a lot of unhappy coders/developers who built add-ons that would no longer work after Firefox changed something big in the browser that meant the coders/developers had to re-work their add-on and most said they would not, seems like Firefox lost a lot of hard won good-will when that happened.
With Android (Chrome) and Apple (Safari) phones Firefox has a hard job, I use it on my Android mobile due to the extra security that can be added to it over Chrome, I know they tried with their own phone which never took off, the only thing that I can see is for them to work on a OS that can work on phones, maybe work with Nokia or even Amazon with all their Kindle and Fire TV's and the poor browser Silk replaced with Firefox.
When I upgraded to Windows 10 I tried Edge and I like it, it uses less power and my laptop doesn't have the fan running so much as I did when using Chrome, I much prefer Edge now.
I use Firefox on my work PC as default and also my Android mobile, but at home it's default Edge, I still use Chrome and Firefox occasionally, on my Linux laptop I use the Firefox version for that.
The problems I had with Firefox was that it just got too bloated and the same thing happened with Chrome, Edge doesn't have loads of add-ons but for the sites I visit daily and all the time Edge is fine, I don't need to block adds or download content from them etc, if I do then I open up Chrome or Firefox, I would like Edge to have an account system like Chrome and Firefox do so everything is backed up, one day they will get there.
It is a shame about Firefox though, and from what I read there were a lot of unhappy coders/developers who built add-ons that would no longer work after Firefox changed something big in the browser that meant the coders/developers had to re-work their add-on and most said they would not, seems like Firefox lost a lot of hard won good-will when that happened.
With Android (Chrome) and Apple (Safari) phones Firefox has a hard job, I use it on my Android mobile due to the extra security that can be added to it over Chrome, I know they tried with their own phone which never took off, the only thing that I can see is for them to work on a OS that can work on phones, maybe work with Nokia or even Amazon with all their Kindle and Fire TV's and the poor browser Silk replaced with Firefox.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
What do you need Flash for in 2017?
IE
Really comes down to the device I'm using.
Windows 10 - Edge
Android - Chrome
IOS and Mac - Safari
Linux Distros - FF
LoveCake
Member
It was about four to five years ago, could have been six maybe.
Stuggernaut
Grandma's Chippy
What Tab abilities does Firefox (or other browsers) have that makes it better than Chrome? Have not used in years, so no idea what I am missing...
NESpowerhouse
Perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane.
I'm not switching from Firefox just because in addition to using it for over 6 years, I just do not feel like transporting all of my bookmarks and passwords over to Chrome.
Unknown Soldier
Member
There are still plenty of sites out there which use Flash but you don't even realize it because Chrome has Flash built-in.
Angelus Errare
Banned
tab scrolling which used to be in Chrome google removed it...not even sure why.
That's the issue here. If this chart is anywhere close to accurate, you may not have a choice in the matter if you want to see websites that adapt to the newest practices in a handful of years. Hence the vicious cycle.
ProfessorMoran
Member
IE going the way of Netscape, will MS try to somehow but that marketshare back?
Stuggernaut
Grandma's Chippy
Had to look up what that was lol.
Would be cool I guess. I never have so many tabs open that I can't just click on a tab. Also, when I want to scroll through I just hold control and tap Tab to cycle forward, or hold Shift and tap Tab to cycle backwards. Guess I never knew there were other options.
Hoho for breakfast
Member
Yeah this for me. It fucked up and went slow as hell too much.
Face it Tiger..
Banned
Firefox is a nice alternative when one of my Chrome extensions is causing a webpage to malfunction and act unusable.
ClosingADoor
Member
Gets a bit difficult. People have an unreasonable hate against everything IE. They poisoned their brand when it comes to this. Also, the lack of extensions will hold them back. The tech and young crowd wants their adblocker (as much as I am against it myself).
What might help is to tie it all in with the Microsoft account stuff and bring Edge over to iPhone and Android with everything synced.
NESpowerhouse
Perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane.
What sort of new practices would an all-Chrome ecosystem afford?
Coreda
Member
Opera Presto (ie: the <12 versions) had the unique tab stacking feature which allowed you to drag tabs over each other to group them into a single, expandable tab space. I believe Vivaldi (based on the same engine Chrome uses) has implemented some version of this. Double-click tabs in the stack to collapse/expand. So useful.
Even Firefox with addons lacks this feature (there is some extremely simplified version in one of them IIRC).
The web is more standardized today than it was in the heyday of IE. If Firefox keeps implementing HTML5 and upcoming standards, it's going to be still fairly relevant. Chrome does not add "special features" (ie. stupid idiosyncracies) to edge out the competition the way IE did. That's not how Google operates.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Firefox has left side bookmarks window.
Firefox wins.
Firefox wins.
darkinstinct
...lacks reading comprehension.
Things will be mixed up in the future for sure. Be it with AR devices from Apple / Microsoft or with a total newcomer that offers functionality the others lack. Look back ten to fifteen years and everybody that existed (and was supposed to exist forever) is dead. It's been like that with every technology over the last two hundred years. The untouchable companies will fall and somebody else will take their place.
Nobody knows that for sure, obviously, but it doesn't necessarily have to do with the Chrome ecosystem so much as the number of people using it. However, just the fact that hugely popular sites like YouTube run better in Chrome means that they will stranglehold on this shit for the foreseeable future.
If hardly anybody is using FF in 5 years, devs won't test for it and it won't be able to keep up with whatever new directions web development ultimately heads in.
That's a big "if."
I originally used Firefox back in the day, but switched to Chrome when I noticed how much memory FIrefox used. Then I switched back to Firefox after about a year when Chrome started to become too memory intensive. Then a year later I switched back to Chrome again for the same reasons :/
Now Im still using Chrome, but some things like youtube videos constantly freezing if I do too many time skips is making me sorta wanna switch again.
Now Im still using Chrome, but some things like youtube videos constantly freezing if I do too many time skips is making me sorta wanna switch again.
JeTmAn81
Member
If you're a web developer you're not getting equal usage of all browsers even if you have to test in everything. You end up doing most of your actual development and testing in one browser before testing it on others in the end. I have a bunch of browsers installed but mostly use Chrome.
P.S. I bet you don't use Lynx
they have, first they blamed extensions, then they fixed some decade old memory leaks, now they are getting rid of extensions. and finally, if you don't do anything, FX isn't a slow, memory leaking piece of shit anymore.
Insane Metal
Member
Holy shit I had no idea FF went to the bottom like that O_O
Chrome FTW, absolutely love it.
Chrome FTW, absolutely love it.
protomouse
Member
Dropped Firefox for Chrome about six years ago, and never looked back.
Firmly Safari on iOS though. Third-party iOS browsers are pretty much just GUIs on top of the built-in WebKit rendering engine anyway.
Firmly Safari on iOS though. Third-party iOS browsers are pretty much just GUIs on top of the built-in WebKit rendering engine anyway.
RecRoulette
Member
Used Chrome for a few years then went back to FF because Chrome started using up way too many resources. Now I only use Chrome when I need something with flash.
Not sure if it ever swung the other way. Firefox never pissed me off bad enough to switch like Chrome did.
Not sure if it ever swung the other way. Firefox never pissed me off bad enough to switch like Chrome did.
Pokemaniac
Member
Firefox actually lets the tab bar scroll instead of letting the tabs get unusably small.
Zantetsuken
Member
I like Slepnir and Firefox. The only reason I use Chrome is to cast videos and anime to my Chromecast.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Post-antitrust MS has had no ability to do anything to earn market share fairly by competing. I don't anticipate anyone ever caring about or using Edge, because MS hasn't provided anything resembling a compelling reason why anyone would want to.
Similar threads
- Poll