Opinion: 5 Reasons Why Firefox is Losing to Chrome

[livebriand]

Come to think of it, it would be nice if FF had all tabs in separate processes, so that if one thing crashes it doesn't affect anything else. However, I don't see what's wrong with the interface - I was using it a bit before v4 was released (via 3rd party addons on FF 3.6), and liked it.

 

[kikireeki]

I use both chrome and Firefox on regular basis and I still think that Firefox is way better than Chrome, due to its versatility and useability, and it has been rock-solid stable for me. and I am not a casual user. My PC is online 12 hrs daily along with FF and a hefty amount of tabs.
and for those who are complaining about constant crashes, I'd recommend them to check the memory sticks because FF tends to be very sensitive to bad memory.
Chrome on the other hand has the worst tab management in the world, which could render the browser completely useless, and the add-ons couldn't find a convenient fix so far and that is more than enough for me to prefer FF.

 

[knowom]

[citation][nom]Camikazi[/nom]I know, Chrome crashes a lot, that is one reason I use Firefox.[/citation] It does on Android that's for sure then again Firefox crashes a bit as well at on my windows pc's it does however I use the nightly beta builds so it's expected to have have glitches.

 

[velocityg4]

It all comes down to Chrome being included with so many programs. Most users are too afraid to uncheck anything during a software install. Fearing they may mess something up. Once Chrome is installed it becomes the default browser.

They don't know what browser they are using nor care as long as it works. Most of those losses are from people that click the shortcuts on the desktop that just say internet or e-mail. Which the nice man who installed there modems placed on the desktop for them. While those that don't get lost to Chrome is because they learned to click the Internet Explorer icon. I'm surprised Google doesn't have these included installers also have options clicked by default to uninstall Firefox and hide Internet Explorer.

Most people that truly care about what browser they are using and go through the feature list will probably choose Firefox. Due to all the add-ons. Heck if Chrome had some good download managers like Downloadthemall for bulk files and choosing save name/location and Video Downloadhelper I might actually use Chrome. Chrome would also need a master password, separate search bar, file menu option, and about:config to truly get my vote.

I think I have been using Firefox since 0.8 or 0.9.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]doorspawn[/nom]When developers of product A see a competitor B, some might prefer B.Since as developers they're tied to A, they want to make A more like B.Unfortunately, this is bad for the users. Users who prefer the B will be using B, so those that stick with A don't want A to move toward B.So FF developers, if you prefer chrome you have two good choices. 1: Become a chrome developer instead. 2: Work on what the users want, not what you want.[/citation]
If you like the old look, simply right-click the toolbar and select 'Menu Bar' and uncheck 'Tabs on top'. What's so hard about that? Come to think of it, I never use the file menu anyway, and the newer 'Firefox' menu does all I need.

 

[Marcus52]

One of the things you must do if you upgrade from an older version of Firefox is clear everything except your bookmarks - cookies, cache, history. If you are having or had troubles with a later version, give this a shot.

I've been using Firefox 8 on one computer and Firefox 7 on another. No problems at all. It's always a good idea to remember computer systems are dynamic processes and Installing a new program and having trouble with it doesn't mean the fault is definitely in that program. It could be something else in your computer. While millions of others using something and not having any apparent problems isn't a guarantee that there aren't any, it's a very strong sign that I should pay attention to what else is going on with my system and not just blame the program.

Of course, sometimes the simplest thing to do is just use a different browser, whether or not it's the browser's "fault" or not. But I do try to pay attention to the total package of things my computer seems to not do well, especially as it ages.

I can't help but wonder if this is an attempt to buy a statistical slant on browser use the way Apple tries to prove in some screwball way that Apple computers have a larger market share than they actually do.

While Firefox lagged behind for awhile, it's back on top in terms of performance as one of the best browsers available. And, you can still only use NoScript on Mozilla browsers (no similar addon provides all it does on Firefox, because the designs of other browsers are such that what it does can't be done on them. Intentionally.)

 

[Sasha the BOLD]

Honestly, there's exactly one reason why I can't see myself switching to Firefox right now:

No zoom.

I sit three feet away from my monitor, and it's set to a high resolution. If I don't want to use a magnifying glass while reading text on the web, I need a zoom. In IE I can set a permanent 150% zoom, and in Chrome it's 144%, but I could never find an ability to zoom in Firefox, so I abandoned it.

I guess I'm just a one-issue voter. =)

 

[intel4004]

I love firefox a lot. I like their new layout until firefox 8. Whenever I try to search in google images, the browser freezes and I need to wait a few (5-10) seconds. I hope they can fix that as soon as possible. I'm still staying in FF, but sometimes uses Chrome.

 

[RabidFace]

I have been a loyal FF user since 2004 and can't seem to get away from it. While yes, memory management has been sketchy is the past, the browser usually has always been rock solid. Also, didn't have to worry about all the security holes in IE.

I have done some tests on my own, just by eye, sometimes Chrome did seem a little bit faster in some HTML5 applications, and page rendering, but it's the feel I get from FF. Plus, I don't get the feeling that Google is watching my every move, not that I care anyway.

Also, like some have said, since I found AdBlock+ some years ago, it's a god send. It's always funny when I use Chrome or IE for whatever reason, and pages I frequently visit, there are so many damn ads I am not going to click on any of them anyway.

And as for their market share, Google has been shoving Chrome down peoples throats with embedding Chrome in every installer for a couple years now, plus their millions to market it.

 

[andy_newton]

There are always rooms only for three players. For Instance: Ford, GM, Chrysler; Playstation, Wii, Xbox360; and in this case: Microsoft, Apple, Google.

That third place was vacant for a very-very long time. I had thought that it was Sun Microsystems that would fill that spot with its Sun Solaris.

Mozilla had its chance. All it had to do was to fix its memory leak bug, now it needs to beat Google, or Microsoft, or Apple just in order to survive.

 

[Guest]

I swapped to Chrome a couple months ago as I was getting frustrated with Mozilla's frequent crashes, especially when Flash was involved. I've had substantially fewer crashes with Chrome, and when Flash crashes, it barely causes so much as a hiccup to my browsing.

Icing on the cake, Chrome's initial load time is much quicker, though to be fair, I have NoScript and a more powerful version of AdBlock running in Mozilla that may be slowing it down. On that note, AdBlock (Chrome) doesn't block in-video ads, so I still use Mozilla when ads are bugging me.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

I have Chrome but don't use it. I pretty much use Nightly (Firefox) because it is 64-bit.

 

[tomfreak]

The main reason I switched to FF is because it crash on me more often than Chrome. Since the FF4 everything just went down. I play BF3, it launch from browser, and FF crash more often, till that I cannot deal with it I switched to Chrome.

 

[coolwam]

Ads by Google. and i dont see that with firefox. i like the singke drop down menu on the left with many options compared to chrome's one on right. also i like the hot fiery fox emblem than the same boring red blue yellow green that both windows n chrome use Plus, i'm a rebel n i like to support the weaker simpler hardworking open source company. i hope u do too!

 

[coolwam]

sasha, ctrl+scroll

 

[Guest]

Firefox user here.
One of the main reasons (and this is a point not addressed in the post) is security.
IE is full of holes, keep your browser open and someone who knows what they are doing gets full access to your system.
Chrome and Opera does not have these issues, although there still is a big Flash-Chrome combo security hole, which can be used to read all your stored passwords, also nothing you would want.

Apart from that, I still think the Add-On support of FF is a lot better and wider, and opens all websites it needs to open.
In 2011, if a website does not work on FF, it is poorly designed

 

[belardo]

What do you mean, ff4 looks dated? Chrome hasn't changed its look since 1.x.

ff4+ copied the Opera look from 2 years ago... which STILL gives the user MORE screen space if they shut off the bottom zoom/status bar (which Chome uses pop-up and when DL content - has a bottom bar anyway)

ff4+ is a cheap copy of Opera 11, nothing more... and for sure has less features. A cool Opera feature is that if you accidentally close the wrong window with 15 whatever tabs, you can pull it out of the "trashcan". Same with any tab during the session... handy!

Chrome is a pain in the butt with its super-minimalist functions and options.

 

[mitch074]

@sacha: Firefox was actually the first browset to provide a zooming interface: Ctrl+, Ctrl-, and Ctrl 0; zoom in, zoom out, and reset to 100%. It keeps zooming settings memorized on a domain basis.

Firefox is 64-bit capable on every platform except Windows, due to Windows requiring a different compiler: Microsoft's Visual Studio. Thing is, up until recently, Visual Studio's 64-bit compiler couldn't manage Mozilla's code base. On all other platforms, which support gcc, Mozilla has been 64-bit capable for more than 8 years. It is true, however, that performance could be lacking in 64-bit builds compared with 32-bit builds - until recently. But at least they weren't as nerfed as IE9's.

On top of that, yes, Firefox's NoScript addon is terrific - and by itself a deal breaker for me.

Running each tab in a different process is an ongoing project at Mozilla's - plugin isolation in 3.6.4 was actually the first step in that direction, and the mobile version actually already implements it. Do keep in mind that tab isolation has a non-negligible impact on memory use, so Mozilla probably wanted:
- to finish fine-tuning the new memory manager shipped with Firefox 7 (Fx 7 divided memory use by 2, the final version in Fx9/Fx10 is supposed to reduce it further)
- to make sure that Jetpack, the new plugin environment shipped with Fx4, is stable, final and compatible with independent processes.

You can follow the progress towards that goal by looking up this bug: https/bugzilla.mozilla.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=electrolysis&hide_resolved=1

Last, Chrome's privacy (or lack thereof) is indeed a concern.

 

[AMD X6850]

I have a fairly low end laptop (basically netbook in terms of specs, just larger) with only 2GB RAM.
I have something like 10-15 tabs open at a time. I never shut this laptop down, just put it to sleep.
So for entire weeks, Firefox is pretty much running "non-stop". It hasn't crashed in a long time.
If it was Flash, NoScript is doing a good job of getting rid of the crap that might have crashed it.

The UI change at FF 4 wasn't to my liking, so 2 minutes of tweaking later, I returned it to the old but more comfortable style and I haven't had to change it back ever again (my UI settings have persisted from FF4-FF8).

Like many other users have said before, it is Chrome's minimalistic style and options that displeases me. And the inability to change this to anything else.
Sure, Firefox has a minimalistic style by default and of course, some people like it, some people don't. But it lets you change it. And all the advanced options that some users may need are easily available. If not, there is a ton of stable addons out there to add that functionality.

 

[Guest]

Firefox is for pRon really. Chrome is the better forum and website browser. Both have strengths and weaknesses at the pure browsing level.

I hate trolls blaming mass communications concepts they're not qualified to talk about.