Firefox 51.0 = bye chrome

After many years of Chrome before it became the new IE I switched back to FF on most of my work and home PC's about a year ago.

If your championing Chrome still its likely your in denial. ;)

joffy said:
I've just ditched Firefox for Vivaldi, it's great so far.
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I have started to use this quite a lot, the only thing I dont like is Dragging the tabs to other screens is awkward?
 
I'm giving FF a good try again now. Versions 4x always felt clunky, slow and just 'jerky' for me on all PCs (compared to Chrome and even IE/Edge) - you'd get lag until the page finished loading. 51 is feeling good though with multi process windows.

Hmm, when switching back to a tab, it reloaded the page. Does it unload pages from tabs when you don't use them or when it thinks you have too much open? That'll be a deal breaker for me.
 
Firefox has been continually improving as far as I am concerned, not the other way around.

Sure, it is still mostly used by those who know about it whereas Google Chrome is a name that's familiar to the average Joe. But that doesn't make Firefox a worser product.

It has now got multi-process, stable 64bit, hardware acceleration and the widest extension library of any browser and customisation unmatched by any other browser.

I think it is the equivalent to what Android is to smartphone OSes.Used by many, but mostly appreciated by those who make more use of all it has to offer, rather than just an out of the box experience.

For reference, I have been a Chrome, IE and Firefox (with the odd joust with Opera, Nightly channels and others with a major version update.
 
I would argue Chrome just got pushed by the most famous tech company in the world, it's almost nothing to do with which one is technically superior.

When did you last see huge billboards for Firefox on the London Underground or adverts on TV? :p
 
I would argue that Chrome still runs smoother.

In Firefox, I'll get random lag, or lag when I start scrolling or try click something while the page is loading. Almost feels like it isn't all asynchronous sometimes. In Chrome I never, ever get lag, ever.

Plus you can run Chrome in the background so it starts instantly and you still get notifications while it's in the background which is nice (can you do this in FF yet? I've not checked recently). And no matter how many plugins I have in Chrome, it'll start and run just as quickly. FF gets bogged down fast.

The Firefox lag is over multiple machines with a variety of addons and setups.

I'm still giving the latest Firefox a good try at home. I have always preferred the community and 'ecosystem' behind it, but Chrome just feels so much more refined and stable.
 
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you still get notifications while it's in the background
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what notifications, out of interest ?

On reading details on latest es10 nightly update a bit deceived by parallelism -
for a given tab you only have one process for UI and one for content, and adding further processes is just for other tabs; unclear if (say) multiple utube content on one tab is managed by multiple plugin containers (but typically disable w/noscript utube access from OC forum to avoid multiple utube site call's)
Since processes are nonetheless limited, could switch to another tab that used same process, and switch maybe slowed

had not realised chrome can be limited to one process per site will try that, as I must use chrome for (audio) chromecast from plex.
 
What is wrong with RAM use, I want my ram to be used.

Chrome is many times faster as it pre-loads stuff in the RAM you ''might'' use. Firefox is noticeably slower. I have 32GB of RAM at home I want filled though so obviously high ram use is a huge advantage, not disadvantage.

At work I currently use Cefsharp (Chromium component for c#) in my own WPF application, even faster than the bloated chrome.
Even flash (pepper flash plugin) works great in this.

Besides, firefox is often cpu limited, run 30+ tabs and see silly high cpu usage (like 50% +). On a 4.7 ghz i7... Chrome seems to render pages faster too.
 
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snowdog said:
What is wrong with RAM use, I want my ram to be used.

Chrome is many times faster as it pre-loads stuff in the RAM you ''might'' use. Firefox is noticeably slower. I have 32GB of RAM at home I want filled though so obviously high ram use is a huge advantage, not disadvantage.

At work I currently use Cefsharp (Chromium component for c#) in my own WPF application, even faster than the bloated chrome.
Even flash (pepper flash plugin) works great in this.

Besides, firefox is often cpu limited, run 30+ tabs and see silly high cpu usage (like 50% +). On a 4.7 ghz i7... Chrome seems to render pages faster too.
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I believe Chrome uses a unique render engine for each tab, so it's usage is just as silly as Firefox's can be. On my PC currently Chrome has 10 tabs open but has 28 separate processes running.

I have to say, both clean, are pretty much equally fast without measuring. Firefox's main drawback was always start-up speed, but that's much closer now. You're not going to pick a browser based on speed which can only be measured, more so on the features you need.

Chrome's issues with some Verified by Visa sites in the past few months has tipped me more towards Firefox recently, but I use both each day for different things (mainly different Google accounts at work, as some Google accounts can't be used with multiple Drive logins).
 
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Firefox is not slow on startup, with tab loading on demand, pre e10s I can be running with 200 tabs (>>30) in < 60s with 8GB Ram, and when you select another tab it has not been pre-loaded, but the renderer is not slow, so max 1s, and when you use it again it is 'cached'/in-mem.
Memory use is low with on demand tabs
How fast a response do you need switching in a new tab.

Depends what kind of sites you use wrt ff cpu usage, if they are continously 'updating' news sites, with many media feeds; whereas 100 tabs from OC would be fine. (I only hope the new forum s/w will be as friendly ... but they all get fat)
FF can unload unused tabs.

The additional chrome processes maybe the media plugins, one renderer per tab as documented previous page of thread, although can be reduced to one per site.
 
Chrome is instant on startup, even without it running in the background, Firefox isn't.

Tabs loading on demand is the most frustrating thing. If FF keeps doing it, I'll have to go back to Chrome. Yeah it's quick, but I still have to wait.

My browser is my most used program. As long as it isn't using RAM enough to cause paging, it can use as much as it wants to ensure it doesn't lag and isn't slow.
 
Back to Chrome for me. I tried Firefox for the week and it just isn't as responsive, smooth, quick or reliable.

I have had a few instances of crashed tabs, tabs that would decide to unload themselves, LastPass kept logging out every 2 minutes for no reason (I think the separate multi process exe was crashing) and some pages STILL freeze or lag while loading.

All the above issues with just uBlock & LastPass plugins.

It's a shame. I like Firefox, but it just isn't as good as Chrome :(
 
ubersonic said:
Google Chrome did to Mozilla Firefox what Mozilla Firefox did to Netscape Navigator. There can be only one main IE alternative.
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I agree with you and have been using Chrome now for nearly 2 years after being a big Firefox fan. However Firefox has a place in the ecosystem as it is the Open Source alternative.

The problem with Firefox is management rather than engineering.

There has been a lot of movement and changes at the top over the last few years, which is why there hasn't been a clear direction coming from Mozilla.

Resurrecting the 64 bit build after cancelling. E10s (multi process) taking years and years and still not fully implemented.

Then you've got failed projects such as Firefox OS, which just wasted time and resources, which could have been spent better else where.

---

The other thing I notice about Firefox, is they are always implementing features that Google implements in Chrome, they just do it months (or longer) after Google has done it in Chrome.
 
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Craig321 said:
Back to Chrome for me. I tried Firefox for the week and it just isn't as responsive, smooth, quick or reliable.

I have had a few instances of crashed tabs, tabs that would decide to unload themselves, LastPass kept logging out every 2 minutes for no reason (I think the separate multi process exe was crashing) and some pages STILL freeze or lag while loading.

All the above issues with just uBlock & LastPass plugins.

It's a shame. I like Firefox, but it just isn't as good as Chrome :(
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I have been using Firefox since version 3, they seem to make things worst over the years with regards to stability ie freezing etc, anyway afraid to say I'm sticking with Vivaldi(Chromium based) since it's very much like the old Opera which I was a fan of, it just works for me without issues.
 
Elevon said:
I have been using Firefox since version 3, they seem to make things worst over the years with regards to stability ie freezing etc, anyway afraid to say I'm sticking with Vivaldi(Chromium based) since it's very much like the old Opera which I was a fan of, it just works for me without issues.
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Vivaldi is Chromium based. ;)
 
opethdisciple said:
Vivaldi is Chromium based. ;)
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Read my post again I said that ;), but some facts for you.


A Browser for Our Friends

In 1994, two programmers started working on a web browser. The idea was to make a really fast browser, capable of running on limited hardware, keeping in mind that users are individuals with their own requirements and wishes. Opera was born.

Our little piece of software gained traction, our group grew, and we formed a community. We stayed close to our users and our roots. We kept improving our software based on our user feedback, as well as our own ideas on how to make a great browser. We innovated and strove for excellence.

Fast forward to 2015. The browser we once loved has changed its direction. Sadly, it is no longer serving its community of users and contributors — who helped build the browser in the first place.

So we came to a natural conclusion: we must make a new browser. A browser for ourselves and for our friends. A browser that is fast, but also a browser that is rich in functionality, highly flexible and puts the user first. A browser that is made for you.

And so, Vivaldi is born.
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For Google lovers, this FF add-on makes it all worth it -

Google Redirects Fixer & Tracking Remover

Google uses a redirection link to track your clicks. This addon simply removes that redirection and turns every search result in its original link, saving your time and giving you more security and privacy.
Click to expand...

... I like to contibute to google/alphabet revenue
[yes .. other search engines are available]
 
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