{"id":17356,"date":"2010-05-12T11:42:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T17:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=17356"},"modified":"2010-05-12T11:42:23","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T17:42:23","slug":"sticking-with-firefox-rather-than-chrome-for-the-nonce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/12\/sticking-with-firefox-rather-than-chrome-for-the-nonce.html","title":{"rendered":"Sticking with Firefox rather than Chrome for the nonce"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"firefox\"<\/a>I ran an experiment over the last week to see if I could replace my Firefox browser with Chrome.\u00a0 I’ve been a long-time FF user (since back in July ’04<\/a>, back when it was still in beta), but spent a lot of time running Chrome in parallel during the Great Gmail Experiment. There’s been a lot to recommend Chrome — cleaner interface, tabs-as-processes (reducing the overall footprint) — so I thought I’d give it a more thorough try.<\/p>\n

Going from FF to Chrome wasn’t trivial — I was able to easily save all my current tabs in FF (I usually have around 20+ open from session to session) but there are enough odd interface differences and, of course, the need to try to replicate all the behavior I expected and the add-ons I use.\u00a0 Chrome’s add-on ecosystem is much newer (it only recently started supporting extensions in the production version) so there were some gaps, which ended up being part of why I ended the experiment.<\/p>\n

Which I might as well get to at this point. Note that most of these are personal “why it didn’t quite work for me” sorts of things.\u00a0 Chrome is a good, solid product, and if Firefox vanished from the face of the earth, there would be worse fates than having to run it.\u00a0 (To be fair, Internet Explorer, at version 8, is light years past where it was, but it reeks of Microsoft and Central Control, so I avoid it where I can.)<\/p>\n

First off, performance was not as vastly better in Chrome than in FF.\u00a0 I didn’t find it any more stable, or faster to load or shut down.\u00a0 No scientific testing, just general perception.\u00a0 I think, in aggregate, the memory footprint for Chrome was lower, but that was about it.<\/p>\n

I really dislike (ironically) how Chrome handles search engines.\u00a0 Yes, having the Omnibox is nice, but I like Firefox’s search box approach to having a drop-down to chose the search engine to go to, rather than typing in a short code + Tab to look for anything other than your default search engine.\u00a0 I do enough specialized searches (sorry, Google) to make that an annoyance. (That said, Chrome’s method of adding search engines much more dynamically is pretty slick.)<\/p>\n

The biggest issue was not around native performance or capabilities, but how it could be extended.\u00a0 Here are the add-ons I used in Chrome, and their analogs in Firefox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Chrome<\/strong><\/td>\nFirefox<\/strong><\/td>\nNotes<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AdBlock<\/td>\nAdBlock Plus<\/td>\nBoth work fine, though the Chrome version has some odd latency in blocking images.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FlashBlock<\/td>\nFlashBlock<\/td>\nBoth work fine.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Copy Without Formatting<\/td>\nExtended Copy Menu<\/td>\nAllow copying of text from a web page while stripping out formatting. Very cool for blogging. The Chrome version works as part of the selection process; the FF version as a context Copy option. I think the FF one works a bit better.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Docs
\nPDF\/PowerPoint Viewer (by Google)<\/span><\/td>\n		Google
\nDocs Viewer<\/td>\n		Open up various doc types through the Google Docs engine, as tabs, rather than opening up an application to do it. Very nice.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
IE Tab<\/td>\nIE Tab 2<\/td>\nOpen up a tab using the IE engine, for applications that require it to function properly. The FF version seems to be a bit more robust (it handles window closures in OWA better).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Last Pass<\/td>\nLast Pass<\/td>\nPassword manager. The FF version is a scosh nicer, but both work fine (as does the IE version; Last Pass rocks).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Xmarks<\/td>\nXmarks<\/td>\nBookmark sync tool. <\/span>I used this rather than Chrome’s own tool because it works cross-platform (i.e., all my machines have the same bookmarks in IE, FF, and Chrome).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FreshStart<\/td>\nNative FF capability<\/td>\nControls session crashes and sessions for different users of a computer. Never made much use of the crash recovery (which, I suppose, is a good thing.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New Tabs Always Last<\/td>\nDefault FF behavior; can override with Tab Mix Plus<\/td>\nHave new tabs open at the right-hand side rather than next to the tab that opened\u00a0 them. <\/span>Not needed in FF.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tabs to the Front<\/td>\nNative FF option<\/td>\nHave new tabs open as the focus.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
N\/A<\/td>\nTabMixPlus<\/td>\nControls a zillion options about how tabs should behave. FF’s native tabbing is good (as good as Chrome’s); this makes it far superior.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tab Menu<\/td>\nUnneeded<\/td>\nSearch through and select tabs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
N\/A<\/td>\nAdd a Bookmark Here 2<\/td>\nAllow easy adding of a bookmark within the bookmark menu. <\/span>Chrome’s bookmark management is more crude than FFs even without this (e.g., the ability to save all tabs as bookmarks).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
N\/A<\/td>\nClippings<\/td>\nCreate a library of text\/code that can be easily pasted into any window. <\/span>Great for blogging. <\/span>Lots of requests on the forum for this to be ported over to Chrome, and there’s nothing like it I could find.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
N\/A<\/td>\nimgTag<\/td>\nRight-click any image and get an IMG tag for it (including alt, sizes, etc.) created in the clipboard. <\/span>Great for blogging.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
N\/A<\/td>\nFireFTP<\/td>\nGreat FTP client, runs within FF.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As seen above, a lot of the gaps are around the whole tabbing behavior — that might just be me and my expectation, but I really do feel that FF still has this down much better.\u00a0 Of the “missing” extensions at the end, Clippings and imgTag are the most critical just on a day-to-day blogging basis.<\/p>\n

So is that it?\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 Chrome will continue to develop.\u00a0 There’s a new version of it coming out soon (FF4 appears this fall.)\u00a0 And I expect the extension ecosystem in Chrome will continue to grow, too, and likely address a variety of the concerns listed here.<\/p>\n

I may very well be back, but it will take (a) Firefox becoming a significant problem and\/or (b) Chrome gaining some very significant advantages.\u00a0 Or my becoming bored and wanting to try Chrome again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I ran an experiment over the last week to see if I could replace my Firefox browser with Chrome.\u00a0 I’ve been a long-time FF user (since back in July ’04, back when it was still in beta), but spent a lot of time running Chrome in parallel during the Great Gmail Experiment. There’s been a … Continue reading “Sticking with Firefox rather than Chrome for the nonce”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-computer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/firefox.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/29\/new-machine-chrome-configuration.html","url_meta":{"origin":17356,"position":0},"title":"New Machine: Chrome configuration","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 29-Jan-10 6:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't gone bugnutscrazy over adding extensions to Chrome now that it supports them. Part of that is that Chrome remains a secondary browser for me. It is tempting to experiment with making it a primary one, instead of Firefox, but that experiment will wait for another day. In the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"chrome","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/chrome.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51997,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/30\/chrome-takes-another-needed-step-toward-memory-management.html","url_meta":{"origin":17356,"position":1},"title":"Chrome takes another needed step toward memory management","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 30-Jul-15 2:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This isn't actually new -- there are extensions that will perform a similar function -- but it is the sort of thing I'd rather see built into the actual browser, rather than an extension.I tend to have a lot of tabs open. I'll confess one backhanded reason I like Chrome\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18698,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/23\/unblogged-bits-thu-23-sep-10-1130.html","url_meta":{"origin":17356,"position":2},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Thu. 23-Sep-10 1130)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Sep-10 11:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Numbers of the Beast - It would not at all surprise me. Child Hunger, As Seen At Wal-Mart - How is it all those \"lazy\" unemployed people who are being \"encouraged to not work\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7339,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/28\/foxy_extensions.html","url_meta":{"origin":17356,"position":3},"title":"Foxy extensions","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-Mar-05 9:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"As I start looking toward migrating to my new notebook in a few weeks, my eyes are drawn to the Firefox extensions I currently have loaded. For folks' edification ......","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9925,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/10\/restoring_firefox_session.html","url_meta":{"origin":17356,"position":4},"title":"Restoring Firefox sessions","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Oct-06 6:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been using Google Browser Sync for Firefox for about the last week -- and, this morning, uninstalled it. I do like having something that captures the tabs I have...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8377,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/02\/firefox_extensi.html","url_meta":{"origin":17356,"position":5},"title":"Firefox extensions","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Dec-05 12:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doing the upgrade to Firefox 1.5 the other day reminded me it's been a while since I did a list of my current extensions. 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