5 ms·

I've switched to Safari and DuckDuckGo last week. I can still search on google with the DuckDuckGo shortcut !g when the duck doesn't quack. I tried Firefox but

by ekzy 8y ago

I've switched to Safari and DuckDuckGo last week. I can still search on google with the DuckDuckGo shortcut !g when the duck doesn't quack. I tried Firefox but it became too slow. Safari is actually pretty good, for me the main problem is that it reduced my productivity for web development (I need to get used to the safari devtools) and the lack of some browser extensions (redux devtools etc). For now, I keep switching back to chrome for web development.

kvz 8y ago
Did you try FF recently? It feels as fast as Chrome for me these days! devtools are good and transition was surprisingly frictionless. Bonus: I’m trying Linux and it works/syncs my stuff across Mac/iOS/Ubuntu.
- ekzy 8y ago
  I am on mac, I used FF when they announced their performance improvement last year [1], and it felt fast at the beginning but then it started to get slower. I can't explain why as it was a while ago and I did not look much into it [1] https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-how-firefox-got-fast-again-and-where-its-going-to-get-faster/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-h...
  - isoskeles 8y ago
    Same here. The way I noticed the slowness was that I am used to opening up a new tab and immediately typing in my url or search. Whatever speed comes naturally to me, Chrome can handle it. Firefox would lag in ways that resulted in half of what I typed being cut off and other odd behavior. I am positive that Firefox is (or was, when I tried it last year) slower than Chrome in this regard, which was incredibly frustrating and caused me to switch back to Chrome within a week.
  - kbrosnan 8y ago
    There are a couple fixes in 63 beta specifically about OS X performance. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes/ > On macOS, WebGL power preferences allow non-performance-critical applications and applets to request the low-power GPU instead of the high-power GPU in multi-GPU systems - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1349799 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1349799 > Faster tab switching in the majority of cases for our macOS users - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1481519 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1481519 > Improved the reactivity of Firefox on macOS - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1265824 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1265824
- drakenot 8y ago
  I really struggle with FF's scroll acceleration. I suppose it is just years of using Chrome but the scroll behavior and inertia when I scroll using the trackpad just feels painfully "off". I realize this is something that is kind of petty to complain about all things considered, but the issue is just always there. Perhaps with enough time I would learn to get used to it. I spent quite a bit of time trying to modify a half dozen settings in FF that were posted on reddit to emulate Chrome's scrolling behavior but none felt exactly right. Recently I had used the Edge browser on a friend's machine and I felt like the scroll behavior was really fast and responsive as well.
matwood 8y ago
I use Safari and treat Chrome as just another development tool. We should be using other browsers during development anyway so we don't end up in another IE situation.
move-on-by 8y ago
DDG's bang features are great. You might be interested in the !sp bang - which takes you to StartPage (a proxy for Google). This way you can still get the Google results without using google when DDG isn't cutting it.
- solarkraft 8y ago
  Great tip, thanks!
- user812 8y ago
  I heard they still ping Google because they also have google ads on their site.
thinelvis 8y ago
I've been using a Blackberry Z10. I relay my Gmail to a remote Unix pay-for account, and only receive from there; I only send mail from a VM on my VPN'd home computer. This phone does phone calls, SMS, and I use the built-in browser on private mode. There's NOTHING Google on this phone, and I sign into nothing. I do feel like I'm not part of the game any more, but I'm not part of the game any more!

by ekzy 8y ago

kvz 8y ago

Did you try FF recently? It feels as fast as Chrome for me these days! devtools are good and transition was surprisingly frictionless. Bonus: I’m trying Linux and it works/syncs my stuff across Mac/iOS/Ubuntu.

ekzy 8y ago
I am on mac, I used FF when they announced their performance improvement last year [1], and it felt fast at the beginning but then it started to get slower. I can't explain why as it was a while ago and I did not look much into it [1] https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-how-firefox-got-fast-again-and-where-its-going-to-get-faster/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/entering-the-quantum-era-h...
- isoskeles 8y ago
  Same here. The way I noticed the slowness was that I am used to opening up a new tab and immediately typing in my url or search. Whatever speed comes naturally to me, Chrome can handle it. Firefox would lag in ways that resulted in half of what I typed being cut off and other odd behavior. I am positive that Firefox is (or was, when I tried it last year) slower than Chrome in this regard, which was incredibly frustrating and caused me to switch back to Chrome within a week.
- kbrosnan 8y ago
  There are a couple fixes in 63 beta specifically about OS X performance. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes/ > On macOS, WebGL power preferences allow non-performance-critical applications and applets to request the low-power GPU instead of the high-power GPU in multi-GPU systems - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1349799 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1349799 > Faster tab switching in the majority of cases for our macOS users - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1481519 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1481519 > Improved the reactivity of Firefox on macOS - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1265824 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1265824
drakenot 8y ago
I really struggle with FF's scroll acceleration. I suppose it is just years of using Chrome but the scroll behavior and inertia when I scroll using the trackpad just feels painfully "off". I realize this is something that is kind of petty to complain about all things considered, but the issue is just always there. Perhaps with enough time I would learn to get used to it. I spent quite a bit of time trying to modify a half dozen settings in FF that were posted on reddit to emulate Chrome's scrolling behavior but none felt exactly right. Recently I had used the Edge browser on a friend's machine and I felt like the scroll behavior was really fast and responsive as well.

matwood 8y ago

I use Safari and treat Chrome as just another development tool. We should be using other browsers during development anyway so we don't end up in another IE situation.

move-on-by 8y ago

DDG's bang features are great. You might be interested in the !sp bang - which takes you to StartPage (a proxy for Google). This way you can still get the Google results without using google when DDG isn't cutting it.

solarkraft 8y ago
Great tip, thanks!
user812 8y ago
I heard they still ping Google because they also have google ads on their site.

thinelvis 8y ago

I've been using a Blackberry Z10. I relay my Gmail to a remote Unix pay-for account, and only receive from there; I only send mail from a VM on my VPN'd home computer. This phone does phone calls, SMS, and I use the built-in browser on private mode. There's NOTHING Google on this phone, and I sign into nothing. I do feel like I'm not part of the game any more, but I'm not part of the game any more!