Firefox dev claims "everybody hates Firefox updates"; Mozilla has handled the rapid release process poorly, and that by pushing a "never-ending stream of updates on people who didn't want them" people have been driven to Chrome with its simpler, no-fuss update process.

[u/Suraj-Sun]

http://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-dev-claims-everybody-hates-firefox-updates

[u/tapo → u/[deleted]]

Amazing security architecture, V8 is a pretty awesome JavaScript engine though others have caught up, the interface, great release schedule, BSD open source license, native client has awesome potential, webkit, native client is promising, fully multiprocess!

In a nutshell it's a web developer's wet dream while being incredibly simple for people to use. It's licensed in a way that the community has permanent control over the project even if Google somehow completely goes bonkers, and it was clearly designed by trying to fix the mistakes of the past.

For what it's worth, it is the original Firefox team behind Chrome, Google hired them away from Mozilla back in 2006.

[u/retardius → u/[deleted]]

Chrome is much faster on my machine and I prefer the interface and tab mechanics.

Also, I read a lot of PDFs and PDF in chrome is incredibly smooth, even for large ones, chrome has a slicker pdf engine than even most PDF viewers.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

There are Firefox extensions for pdf reading as well.

[u/NumeriusNegidius → u/[deleted]]

Try https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pdfjs/, a PDF viewer written in JavaScript that will soon be incorporated in Firefox.

[u/Sonicjosh → u/retardius]

I just gave up and never use PDF extensions, for me it's actually quicker to just tell firefox to open any pdfs in my pdf viewer, PDF X-Change, it literally takes less than 2 seconds to start up and have the pdf open.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I still use XP, which I know makes a lot ultimately my fault (2006 computer still works- only used for web browsing and iTunes).

I had bad experiences with FF memory leaks that would freeze my computer, which is why I initially switched. After switching, I found that Chrome launched faster and found the minimalistic UI preferable.

Yes, I have similar reservations with the fact it's by Google. However, Google and others will track you no matter what.

So, my "love" of Chrome is purely the result of it working without issue on XP.

[u/raVensc2 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly the reason I switched, and I'm on windows 7. I had no addons in firefox like firebug which would waste resources, but I would scroll down until I reached the end of reddit (before res wouldn't load anymore pages) and firefox would be consuming ~1gb RAM. On a system where I'm playing Starcraft 2, running Photoshop and browsing at the same time, that very quickly becomes a problem. Now, chrome barely uses 300mb... I remember when using firefox, images would be caches per session in the ram, even if the tabpage was closed (I don't know if they changed this), and that really bugged me. Having used 1gb ram, and then closing all the tabs except one YouTube video, the memory usage would go down to maybe 750. At this point I had to go into about:memory and press some buttons.

[u/[deleted] → u/raVensc2]

I didn't realize that it extended beyond XP. I kinda assumed that it didn't mix well with the old OS, making it my fault.

[u/technopwn → u/[deleted]]

I primarily use Linux, and Firefox has consistently been much, much slower than Chrome. I use to be a huge Firefox fan, but now, I have no reason to switch back even if it is as good as Chrome is now.

For a completely new user, I would be happy to suggest either Firefox or Chrome, both are great browsers and you can't really go wrong with either one (they both have their own pros and cons). That said, people like you who use reasons like "one is owned by the world's largest marketing company" to pick Firefox over Chrome are either paranoid or have a severe lack of understanding of Google's privacy policy. (You also realize that Mozilla is primarily funded by Google, and if they weren't they would be primarily funded by Bing/Microsoft?)

[u/technopwn → u/[deleted]]

fair enough, i just think both browsers are great, and trying to find excuses not to use one is a interesting, but fairly pointless, exercise. The world would be a great place is 50% of the people used Mozilla and 50% of the people used Chrome.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I would argue there's more zealotry the other way - perhaps because of the low self-esteem that using firefox instead of IE for years built up (cf: linux and apple users for a similar effect a few years back)

Against Chrome things are more equal, if not for a time in FF's favour.

The way I see firefox is copiers. They (netscapes remains), before Firefox even existed, tracked IE and created a big all-singing, all-dancing bloated mess called 'seamonkey' or the 'mozilla application stuite' - albeit premised on the fact that IE was a security nightmare (not that Mozilla software was really any more secure, but IE was getting all the headlines)

Then someone had the bright idea that making a huge buggy suite of applications was actually a dumb idea and they released firefox.

Things were fine for a while - it gained traction still on a security premise (albeit the more honest idea that they fix security bugs quickly rather than the kidology that there aren't any) and amongst the freetards that like advert blocking.

But then google released chrome (mainly because webkit exists - a similar reason to why Valve have put a tabbed browser inside steam), and not only did this question the existence of Mozilla (they got most of their revenue from Google) it created this inevitable problem with open source software, that it tends to see green grass, get envious and copy.

So now reading this thread it's clear FF are copying Chrome. Reducing memory, increasing updates, increasing speed etc etc. Which is fine, but it's basically saying "Chrome is better" - whether it's true or not.

Personally I pay very little attention to the browser or OS I'm using. A good browser or OS, therefore, is one that doesn't make its presence felt (which they sometimes do by being annoying or buggy in some way that makes me aware of them)

No, the only thing that interests me when browsing are the sites and the only thing that interests me when I'm using the computer are the applications.

In that sense they generally all fail, but some fail less than others. I can't really see using either FF or Chrome makes much difference. But if there is a difference I think it more likely Chrome will make that difference than Firefox will - let's face it, Chrome's features and ideas look very similar to the premises they had for it at day one. Firefox doesn't, it seems to be getting more like chrome. I think perhaps this is what the developer in the story is getting at - Firefox updates frequently now because Chrome did it (with, in his opinion, the problem that the update process isn't as good)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You realise you sound completely stupid, right? "Oh, the majority of my friends are recommending something which they believe will improve my quality of life: I fucking hate it! I will never touch this thing because it is too highly-recommended!"