6 ms·

Many people won't switch because either Firefox is slow on their platform (MacOS) or stuff they use are slow on Firefox (Google ecosystem, many other webapps op

Many people won't switch because either Firefox is slow on their platform (MacOS) or stuff they use are slow on Firefox (Google ecosystem, many other webapps optimized for Chrome)

irrational 8y ago
I use Firefox on MacOS. It is easily as fast as Chrome for me (and I have tons of tabs open in multiple windows). And I use Google Docs/Sheets/etc. all day long with zero slowdowns.
- k__ 8y ago
  I use Firefox on MacOS. It is much slower than Chrome for me (and I don't tend to hold open many tabs or windows). I use Google Mail/Groups/Calendar all day long which became unusable in the last months.
  - yesimahuman 8y ago
    Yea the new gmail on firefox was the reason I switched back to Chrome. I blame google for it but I just couldn't bare the performance in FF
    - androidgirl 8y ago
      I've been using the plain html gmail for the past year on Firefox. Works amazingly! Haven't noticed speed issues in Drive either.
    - baroffoos 8y ago
      Open your email in thunderbird or move your email somewhere else. This is all part of googles game. They slow down youtube in every other browser as well.
      - Manishearth 8y ago
        IIRC this isn't intentional, but it's not due to benevolence either: The whole custom elements fiasco (which is largely Google jumping the gun and shipping an unstandardized API that they eventually had to deprecate) means that some Google properties are still written on custom elements v0, and use a polyfill on non-Chrome.
    - konart 8y ago
      Why not just use a client? Gmail is horrendous anyway, even on Chrome. I don't understand how can anyone use it vie web ui.
      - k__ 8y ago
        Don't know, somehow I got used to it over the years.
- balladeer 8y ago
  On Mac usually Firefox is compared also with Safari, if not only.
  - irrational 8y ago
    The only time I've ever used Safari is to download Firefox ;-)
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
ziftface 8y ago
I'm on macOS and Firefox is at least as fast as Chrome. Granted, I'm on nightly with WebRender turned on, but that will be in regular Firefox soon enough.
- krackers 8y ago
  Last I checked on osx Firefox just doesn't feel as native as Chrome. I'm not sure if it's the weird window chrome or the scrolling that feels non-native but something just feels off.
  - MapleWalnut 8y ago
    You can’t do pinch to zoom on macOS, which kills the experience for me.
    - 43920 8y ago
      There's an addon that emulates pinch zoom, it does a pretty good job: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-touch-zoom/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-touch-z.... I agree this should be implemented natively though.
- pmarreck 8y ago
  Thanks to this comment I decided to download Firefox Nightly and turn on WebRender. (Was it on by default 2 months ago and then no longer?) For anyone unaware, WebRender is a new compositing engine for Firefox written from the ground up in Rust that runs on the GPU.
  - ziftface 8y ago
    Hey I'm glad you gave it a try! I think it was turned on for Windows 10 nightly users with Nvidia cards. Not sure if they added more users since then. What do you think if you don't mind me asking?
    - 8y ago
marssaxman 8y ago
I haven't noticed Firefox being any slower than Chrome on MacOS. Then again, I only use Chrome to browse facebook.com, so who knows.
RandomInteger4 8y ago
The whole Google ecosystem is slow on any platform, including Google platforms (Chromebooks).
tyteen4a03 8y ago
Yep, can confirm that FF is still killing my 2014 MBP.
- cronix 8y ago
  Strange, it runs just as fast as Chrome on my 2013 MBP
  - tyteen4a03 8y ago
    It seems to only happen with certain Retina MBPs. Which is a shame - I really wanted to like Firefox on Mac.
    - cronix 8y ago
      That's interesting. Is there somewhere that lays this out (which models, etc)? This is a retina display so I'm curious why it would affect some and not others.
    - SiVal 8y ago
      Likewise. FF turns my 2012 rMBP into a frying pan for any web page with moving content (video, animated GIFs, ads) or just significant JS (Google docs). I would prefer FF, so I keep checking every couple of years, but no improvement. Unusable. On those same pages, Chrome and Safari work just fine. If Apple were making MBPs better each year instead of demonstrating their "courage" ("This time we're taking X away from you because as long as Windows is the only competition, whaddya gonna do about it?") I would have already bought a new one, and that would presumably have more powerful graphics and not get as hot, but I would still want to verify that FF wasn't running the battery down faster than Chrome or Safari.
  - seba_dos1 8y ago
    AFAIK there was a bug causing it to eat a lot of CPU on non-native resolutions (display scaling), which may explain some differences in user's experience.
    - 8y ago
dewiz 8y ago
Other than some Google sites optimized for Chrome (which reminds of sites working only in IE...), Firefox on MacOS works pretty well, better than Chrome on average. Safari on MacOS is probably the winner, because Apple invests a lot on battery saving and performance of its sw.

Many people won't switch because either Firefox is slow on their platform (MacOS) or stuff they use are slow on Firefox (Google ecosystem, many other webapps optimized for Chrome)

irrational 8y ago

I use Firefox on MacOS. It is easily as fast as Chrome for me (and I have tons of tabs open in multiple windows). And I use Google Docs/Sheets/etc. all day long with zero slowdowns.

k__ 8y ago
I use Firefox on MacOS. It is much slower than Chrome for me (and I don't tend to hold open many tabs or windows). I use Google Mail/Groups/Calendar all day long which became unusable in the last months.
- yesimahuman 8y ago
  Yea the new gmail on firefox was the reason I switched back to Chrome. I blame google for it but I just couldn't bare the performance in FF
  - androidgirl 8y ago
    I've been using the plain html gmail for the past year on Firefox. Works amazingly! Haven't noticed speed issues in Drive either.
  - baroffoos 8y ago
    Open your email in thunderbird or move your email somewhere else. This is all part of googles game. They slow down youtube in every other browser as well.
    - Manishearth 8y ago
      IIRC this isn't intentional, but it's not due to benevolence either: The whole custom elements fiasco (which is largely Google jumping the gun and shipping an unstandardized API that they eventually had to deprecate) means that some Google properties are still written on custom elements v0, and use a polyfill on non-Chrome.
  - konart 8y ago
    Why not just use a client? Gmail is horrendous anyway, even on Chrome. I don't understand how can anyone use it vie web ui.
    - k__ 8y ago
      Don't know, somehow I got used to it over the years.
balladeer 8y ago
On Mac usually Firefox is compared also with Safari, if not only.
- irrational 8y ago
  The only time I've ever used Safari is to download Firefox ;-)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

ziftface 8y ago

I'm on macOS and Firefox is at least as fast as Chrome. Granted, I'm on nightly with WebRender turned on, but that will be in regular Firefox soon enough.

krackers 8y ago
Last I checked on osx Firefox just doesn't feel as native as Chrome. I'm not sure if it's the weird window chrome or the scrolling that feels non-native but something just feels off.
- MapleWalnut 8y ago
  You can’t do pinch to zoom on macOS, which kills the experience for me.
  - 43920 8y ago
    There's an addon that emulates pinch zoom, it does a pretty good job: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-touch-zoom/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-touch-z.... I agree this should be implemented natively though.
pmarreck 8y ago
Thanks to this comment I decided to download Firefox Nightly and turn on WebRender. (Was it on by default 2 months ago and then no longer?) For anyone unaware, WebRender is a new compositing engine for Firefox written from the ground up in Rust that runs on the GPU.
- ziftface 8y ago
  Hey I'm glad you gave it a try! I think it was turned on for Windows 10 nightly users with Nvidia cards. Not sure if they added more users since then. What do you think if you don't mind me asking?
  - 8y ago

marssaxman 8y ago

I haven't noticed Firefox being any slower than Chrome on MacOS. Then again, I only use Chrome to browse facebook.com, so who knows.

RandomInteger4 8y ago

The whole Google ecosystem is slow on any platform, including Google platforms (Chromebooks).

tyteen4a03 8y ago

Yep, can confirm that FF is still killing my 2014 MBP.

cronix 8y ago
Strange, it runs just as fast as Chrome on my 2013 MBP
- tyteen4a03 8y ago
  It seems to only happen with certain Retina MBPs. Which is a shame - I really wanted to like Firefox on Mac.
  - cronix 8y ago
    That's interesting. Is there somewhere that lays this out (which models, etc)? This is a retina display so I'm curious why it would affect some and not others.
  - SiVal 8y ago
    Likewise. FF turns my 2012 rMBP into a frying pan for any web page with moving content (video, animated GIFs, ads) or just significant JS (Google docs). I would prefer FF, so I keep checking every couple of years, but no improvement. Unusable. On those same pages, Chrome and Safari work just fine. If Apple were making MBPs better each year instead of demonstrating their "courage" ("This time we're taking X away from you because as long as Windows is the only competition, whaddya gonna do about it?") I would have already bought a new one, and that would presumably have more powerful graphics and not get as hot, but I would still want to verify that FF wasn't running the battery down faster than Chrome or Safari.
- seba_dos1 8y ago
  AFAIK there was a bug causing it to eat a lot of CPU on non-native resolutions (display scaling), which may explain some differences in user's experience.
  - 8y ago

dewiz 8y ago

Other than some Google sites optimized for Chrome (which reminds of sites working only in IE...), Firefox on MacOS works pretty well, better than Chrome on average. Safari on MacOS is probably the winner, because Apple invests a lot on battery saving and performance of its sw.