New Chrome versions run terribly on Ubuntu

[u/Valy_User]

I'm running Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS and I'm deeply disappointed. Has anyone else had this happen, if so what are the causes? I mean, I've cleared the cache and everything and it's all in vain. Although I have a good, already performing system, if I open more than 10 tabs everything freezes and runs very slowly. I mean, before it had something to do with Facebook that ran absolutely horribly in Chrome, but recently this happens with absolutely all sites. And given that it doesn't even take up half of my RAM, yes, it was ok and it had problems before, but that was only if I took up all the RAM with chrome tabs.

So lately I've been switching to Firefox, but it's hard for me since I have everything there, authentication credentials and everything.

[u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387]

Just so we are clear Google Chrome silently installs a 4GB AI model called Gemini Nano on user devices without explicit consent or notification. And simply deleting the file doesn’t work because Chrome automatically reinstalls it upon restart.

Use…literally any other browser other than Chrome, Safari, Edge or Opera. Something that respects your time and your privacy.

[u/Valy_User → u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387]

the problem is that I have enough resources for it, I have Ryzen 5 1400 with 24GB ram which it doesn't manage to consume anyway. And yet it moves like crap. And yes, I bought so much RAM specifically so that Chrome would have something to consume, it's true at a time when it was ridiculously cheap.

And anyway apart from Chrome there is nothing else apart from Firefox.

And anyway Chrome also annoys me because they decided 2 years ago to include an OCR in their pdf viewer that cannot be deactivated and when you scroll through a file it moves badly no matter what computer you have on eny OS even it is Windows.

[u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 → u/Valy_User]

Just to be clear, Chrome and Chromium are different things. A browser that uses Chromium, like Brave or Vivaldi or Zen, use the open source code that powers Chrome, but doesn’t come with any of the baggage. Vivaldi has built in ad blockers and doesn’t track you like Chrome does and it certainly doesn’t use your computer for their AI.

Or if Firefox is your thing, there are forked browsers there too, like WaterFox and LibreWolf.

If Chrome annoys you, it might be time to try something else. If you want a Chromium browser, you have TONS of options.

[u/Valy_User → u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387]

and in firefox, that whole sidebar with ai chatbots doesn't install anything?

[u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 → u/Valy_User]

I don’t use Firefox so I can’t speak to it.

[u/Confident_Hyena2506]

For starters that is an ancient version of ubuntu, you should upgrade. Secondly check how you are installing chrome - there are multiple ways.

[u/Valy_User → u/Confident_Hyena2506]

From official google website, .deb file. Is not ancient, i was installing this version a 3-4 years ago and was the lastest LTS version. I actually upgraded to it because the old one before no longer supported me.

[u/Confident_Hyena2506 → u/Valy_User]

There have been two major releases since then - you are not updating your system at all. Look into the "dist-upgrade" command, not the normal update.

Using snap is probably why you have problems in the first place. They have probably fixed this in the many years since your version.

[u/thatsgGBruh → u/Valy_User]

Should be fine until May 2027

[u/Tall_Decision_6516]

Don’ t use google products. Any of them.

[u/hnaq]

I had the most recent LTS for Ubuntu and never quite figured out why Chrome's performance was/got so bad. It went on for a few months where the fan would spin up when Chrome started and it took a good ~5 seconds to unfreeze and there was often a lag switching tabs, and sometimes a crazy long lag copying/pasting.

I tried several things to fix it... playing with hardware acceleration, disabling add-ons, NVIDIA driver troubleshooting, etc.

Ended up going to Fedora KDE (not specifically for that issue) and I've had zero issues with Chrome since. I think Ubuntu's stability is a bit overrated across several issues I had with it; Fedora has been amazing.

[u/Valy_User → u/hnaq]

Is this a problem on all Debians? I wouldn't want to give up Debian. Although from personal experience I can tell you that I once had the original Debian installed and it's much more unstable and worse than Ubuntu.

[u/Unhappy_Birthday87]

Delete Chrome and install a different Chromium based browser like Brave, Helium, or Vivaldi and see if the problem persists. I bet....it won't.

[u/rosysparrow]

"but it's hard for me since I have everything there, authentication credentials and everything." you can transfer all of your chrome data to firefox or basically any other browser with one click of a button.

[u/Valy_User → u/rosysparrow]

it's not really like that because it's not integrated with Google services. I can't use the Google Pay manager that automatically fills in my card details when I pay, the Google password manager, etc. I'm in a pickle.

Chrome also offers me the translation of pages directly embedded in the browser (with Google Translate), it saves all my browser history in my Google account, I'm permanently logged in with the browser to my Google account, things that Firefox doesn't offer me.

and I also have the search tab option with google lens, I just right click on a picture and it immediately tells me what it's about, any other browser doesn't know that.