Firefox 16.0 (BETA)
- Thread starter Neil79
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Or get it from the official source, en-GB
A higher version number
My Firefox 16.0 says it is up to date and it is in the beta updates channel according to help > about.
Mine does this too... Only it seems it doesn't like this latest update. Came to browse the intarwebs when I got back from work this evening and I was greeted by a horrible message of "Firefox is not responding" every time I started it
Having to search google and post here using IE... *shudders*
What can you do in Firefox that you can not do in Chrome?
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything and if your response is Firebug I'd argue that the Chrome developer tools are at least on par with it in terms of functionality especially in the last two versions (21 and 22).
For me the main thing is customization, you can't do anything with chrome apart from changing themes. With firefox you can remove/add the required buttons, change where they are placed, use different icons, colours, themes etc. can even make it look like any other browser i.e. chrome, IE9/10, safari, opera etc. Bookmark separators are a huge plus as well, when you have loads of bookmarks and like to keep everything organised and neat looking and then these other reasons are why I stick with firefox for now:
The only advantages chrome have IMO are:
- speed dial 2 app, much better than firefox alternatives
- smoothness throughout UI
- runs much better on computers with lower end hardware
- better UI throughout as in the settings, history, bookmarks panes etc.
Until chrome solves/improves the below, firefox forever!
- Firefox is faster for me (especially when loading image/GIF/Flash intensive pages, chrome really sucks in that area), pages are loaded first and then rendered instantly where as with chrome it loads the pages whilst rendering at the same time so it doesn't have that same instant feel as firefox, just appears that it loads faster. However, overall chrome is faster and smoother throughout the UI.
- having the gmail tab pinned and if you receive an email it doesn't change colour, you need to install an addon and have an icon in the nav bar, so more clutter
- pages aren't remembered where you left off after you close chrome, just reloads them and brings you back to the top of the page again, so means you have to scroll all the way through again looking for the last post you read
- userstyles look no where as good on chrome
- no where as smooth when scrolling as firefox even with smooth scroll installed especially for image/flash/GIF intensive pages
- font looks much better, more smooth for firefox
The only advantages chrome have IMO are:
- speed dial 2 app, much better than firefox alternatives
- smoothness throughout UI
- runs much better on computers with lower end hardware
- better UI throughout as in the settings, history, bookmarks panes etc.
Soldato
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Last time I used Firefox it was a mess. They have added so much junk to what was a great explorer. I switched to Chrome reluctantly but haven't looked back. Its so much faster, lighter and easier to use.
What junk have they added? The only major visual difference is the default theme compared to previous versions. It doesn't come bundled with additional addons or anyhing like that.
Let's see, compared to Chrome...
1: Better ad-blocking scope.
2: Customisation of virtually all elements of the entire browser window.
3: More extensions.
4 (personal): FireFTP is an unbeaten extension. It is one of the reasons I keep coming back to FF because no other client (free or pay) does what FireFTP can do and that's to offer a seamless FTP client with inline HTTP url copy feature for fresh uploads and inline browse in a new tab for uploaded files among other features.
5: Tab management is better, tab grouping is an excellent feature as are tab session based windows.
6: Still has better bookmarks management. Can add separator lines in a folder to organise bookmarks more logically. A must for people with a vast bookmark collection of various sub-categories.
7 (personal): BBCode extension, makes posting on forums much more efficient with custom tag support for clipboard/selected text (youtube link paste and post etc), this doesn't exist on Chrome app store.
8 (personal): FoxToPhone extension has a few better features than Chrome2Phone on Chrome.
Those are off the top of my head, there are many more but I take them all for granted now as I've been using them so long I just never think about it.
Let's see, compared to Chrome...
1: Better ad-blocking scope.
2: Customisation of virtually all elements of the entire browser window.
3: More extensions.
4 (personal): FireFTP is an unbeaten extension. It is one of the reasons I keep coming back to FF because no other client (free or pay) does what FireFTP can do and that's to offer a seamless FTP client with inline HTTP url copy feature for fresh uploads and inline browse in a new tab for uploaded files among other features.
5: Tab management is better, tab grouping is an excellent feature as are tab session based windows.
6: Still has better bookmarks management. Can add separator lines in a folder to organise bookmarks more logically. A must for people with a vast bookmark collection of various sub-categories.
7 (personal): BBCode extension, makes posting on forums much more efficient with custom tag support for clipboard/selected text (youtube link paste and post etc), this doesn't exist on Chrome app store.
8 (personal): FoxToPhone extension has a few better features than Chrome2Phone on Chrome.
Those are off the top of my head, there are many more but I take them all for granted now as I've been using them so long I just never think about it.
Yup, firefox only gets better and better for me. I hated firefox before V4 and used chrome as it was far better for me back then.
Forgot about these as well!
Adblock being a major one, chrome blocks the ads, however, for quite a few ad placements, there is just a gap left, where the ad should be displayed, on firefox the ad and space used is completely removed.
Forgot about these as well!
Adblock being a major one, chrome blocks the ads, however, for quite a few ad placements, there is just a gap left, where the ad should be displayed, on firefox the ad and space used is completely removed.
Since I disable all plugins (a great feature of Chrome) I never have problems with flash intensive sites. The feature is especially good as you can then manually select which flash or silverlight elements to load by clicking on them. Thus on sites which have multiple videos when you only want to view one it significantly improves the page load speed.
Can't comment on this as I use Thunderbird for all my email accounts.
This is wrong. Chrome does remember your position on a page when you close the browser and re-open it. I just tested it in the latest stable version of Chrome.
User styles look rubbish on all browsers.
Can't say I've noticed myself but I'll concede this one.
Subjective.
The other major advantage of Chrome is the easy syncing of bookmarks, settings and plugins. I never have to manually install a plugin or change the configuration of Chrome when I use a new computer as these are all automatically synced when I login. Until Firefox has something like this I will never use it as a primary browser. Oh and even better Chrome allows you to specify your own encryption key for the synced data so you can be sure your data is reasonably safe (not that it really matters that much to me).
If you use Adblock Plus on Chrome you get the same behaviour as Firefox for ad blocking and space removal.
Oh I would prefer to use Chrome as my main browser but it just isn't as powerful as Firefox and both are just as fast at loading and rendering pages so I choose Firefox.
Out of the box the Chrome UI is nice and makes better use of toolbar space but once customised, Firefox holds its own unique ground.
Fact is, Chrome still has a way, o go in terms of core essential features and then extension scope before it can beat Firefox.
I am on an SSD so my speed is reflective of that kind of system setup.I can't speak for what those not on an SSD experience.
Out of the box the Chrome UI is nice and makes better use of toolbar space but once customised, Firefox holds its own unique ground.
Fact is, Chrome still has a way, o go in terms of core essential features and then extension scope before it can beat Firefox.
I am on an SSD so my speed is reflective of that kind of system setup.I can't speak for what those not on an SSD experience.