6 ms·

I switched a couple of months ago because Chrome is just a bloated piece of garbage. One of my favorite features in Firefox is containers, which I used to have

I switched a couple of months ago because Chrome is just a bloated piece of garbage. One of my favorite features in Firefox is containers, which I used to have different users for in Chrome. Maybe Chrome has something similar now but it's one of the things I liked when I switched over. Haven't had any issues so far, glad I did

sbov 7y ago
I love Firefox's containers, but AFAIK you can't sync your settings. Makes reinstalling a major pain.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  On the other hand Firefox actually lets you move your profile folder from one computer to another without throwing up a panic flag and resetting everything.
- DavideNL 7y ago
  "Currently, add-on sync leaves setting synchronization to the individual add-on. If an add-on has support for syncing settings, they will be synced. If not, they won't. For now, if an add-on doesn't preserve settings during Sync, you should contact the add-on's author and request Sync support." https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/Addon_Sync https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/Addon_Sync
josteink 7y ago
> One of my favorite features in Firefox is containers Container tabs are great. Combined with Tree Style Tabs and Containerise addons, you have something unbeatable in both terms of security, privacy and user friendliness.
- select-all 7y ago
  Wow thanks! I've been looking for something like Containerise, but for Chrome for a while. Didn't know it already exists in FF.
itwy 7y ago
I don't understand how it's better than multiple profiles. I use multiple accounts for the same services (Asana, AWS, email, etc.) how can I manage that with containers?
- neogodless 7y ago
  In my opinion, profiles are useful for separating "who I am." Whether that's my personal life and my professional life, or if it's me or my spouse using the same computer. Containers are useful for separating "who I am to my providers." As far as Facebook is concerned, I am a Facebook user, but I don't use Amazon or Google. But Amazon thinks I'm an Amazon user that doesn't use Facebook or Google. You can accomplish this with profiles, but in Chrome (last I checked) that meant multiple windows, rather than just sites being displayed in tabs that indicate the container in use. So for that purpose, I believe containers are more useful. (I also think Firefox should step up their profile game, because when my spouse and I alternate using a computer we share, it's inconvenient for me to close all her Firefox windows so I can open my profile!)
  - nneonneo 7y ago
    You can definitely have two profiles open simultaneously - on MacOS, this is achieved with “open -n Firefox.app --args -P [profile name]”; on Windows, “firefox -no-remote -P [profile name]”. Admittedly, that should _really_ be exposed in the UI somehow, but at least it means you can wrap up the command in a handy desktop shortcut (e.g. one that says “my Firefox” and one that says “her Firefox”).
    - neogodless 7y ago
      OK - I hadn't come across that. I actually have the shortcut on my desktop that prompts you to pick a profile if you don't have any windows open already. I'll have to see if I can tweak the shortcuts to open each one! Thanks!!
      - chaghi 7y ago
ryanmercer 7y ago
>I switched a couple of months ago because Chrome is just a bloated piece of garbage I switched to Chrome a few years ago (and even to a Chromebox as my daily driver, on my second now because I wanted Android app support) because Firefox was a bloated piece of garbage, if I left 5-10 tabs open for a few weeks in Windows they'd be using several gigabytes of memory from a leak, memory use growing hourly. Edit: I don't know why I'm being downvoted, this is even on Mozilla's own site showing it hasn't been fixed: "Firefox's memory usage may increase if it's left open for long periods of time. A workaround for this is to periodically restart Firefox" With an alternate solution being: "Add RAM to your computer" ... "RAM is cheap" https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-m... I have not had this issue at all with Chrome in Windows 7, Windows 10 or ChromeOS.
- JoshMnem 7y ago
  It's already fixed: https://www.ghacks.net/2019/03/01/firefox-67-automatically-unload-unused-tabs-to-improve-memory/ https://www.ghacks.net/2019/03/01/firefox-67-automatically-u... There's also this: https://www.ghacks.net/2012/05/22/make-firefox-more-responsive-with-suspend-background-tabs/ https://www.ghacks.net/2012/05/22/make-firefox-more-responsi...
chrisjc 7y ago
Same, but I was hesitant to switch. All I heard were comments like yours about containers and such. Finally after hearing about it so much, combined with all the talk about Quantum making things faster I gave FF a go. Haven't looked back. I still use Chrome for some tasks such as watching/listening to Youtube. (edit: not bc of performance, but bc I hate OSXs Cmd-Tab ordering)
- sh33mp 7y ago
  >not bc of performance, but bc I hate OSXs Cmd-Tab ordering That's a trivial but surprisingly reasonable reason for using two browsers. OSX has some annoying quirks sometimes.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  > I hate OSXs Cmd-Tab ordering What is this?
asenna 7y ago
> One of my favorite features in Firefox is containers I switched a couple months ago from Chrome to Firefox as well but to tell you the truth, I just heard about containers and what you could do with it. I guess I must've been living under a rock, this is amazing! I was already glad I made the switch for the less resources being used on my aging Macbook Pro and better privacy features, but containers just took this experience to the next level for me! EDIT: What actually triggered my switch was at one point, a few tabs on Chrome(regular things like Youtube) started causing my CPU/fan to go crazy on my MBP 2015(the last decent MBP). Instead of trying to figure out what extension or what setting was causing the problem, I thought I'd give FF a try and just couldn't look back after.
- Histrionic 7y ago
  TLDR for containers? What do we use them for? I thought Chrome puts each tab in a separate container anyway.
- brandmeyer 7y ago
  I love FF and use it daily. But honestly, the "some random tab has runaway javascript" is as much of a problem on FF as it is on Chrome. If you leave a JS-heavy site open long enough, sooner or later you'll have some runaway JS come and bite you in the battery. The only complete solution I've got is... to turn it off and back on again. The entire browser, not just the offending tab.
asdff 7y ago
Does anyone know an extension or option in containers to preserve your browsing trajectory between containers? I had a google container for a while, but opening links opens a new tab and closes the google container, so therefore you cant it back or forward without reopening that container tab. Same thing if I click a container link or something and it pushes it into a new tab, I loose that ability to go backward. It's just a minor gripe but I'm so into the habit of hitting the back button on my mouse while browsing rather than cmd shift tab.
- chupasaurus 7y ago
  History of opened URLs of the tab is accessible to sites via DOM, what you propose would be a leak.
m-p-3 7y ago
My favorite features of Firefox is bookmarks tags, which IMO is way better than directories to categorize them. I hope Mozilla won't deprecate those..
timvisee 7y ago
I wouldn't call Firefox bloat-free with things like Pocket integration. But yes, it's an awesome browser anyways!

sbov 7y ago

I love Firefox's containers, but AFAIK you can't sync your settings. Makes reinstalling a major pain.

Dylan16807 7y ago
On the other hand Firefox actually lets you move your profile folder from one computer to another without throwing up a panic flag and resetting everything.
DavideNL 7y ago
"Currently, add-on sync leaves setting synchronization to the individual add-on. If an add-on has support for syncing settings, they will be synced. If not, they won't. For now, if an add-on doesn't preserve settings during Sync, you should contact the add-on's author and request Sync support." https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/Addon_Sync https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/Addon_Sync

josteink 7y ago

> One of my favorite features in Firefox is containers Container tabs are great. Combined with Tree Style Tabs and Containerise addons, you have something unbeatable in both terms of security, privacy and user friendliness.

select-all 7y ago
Wow thanks! I've been looking for something like Containerise, but for Chrome for a while. Didn't know it already exists in FF.

itwy 7y ago

I don't understand how it's better than multiple profiles. I use multiple accounts for the same services (Asana, AWS, email, etc.) how can I manage that with containers?

neogodless 7y ago
In my opinion, profiles are useful for separating "who I am." Whether that's my personal life and my professional life, or if it's me or my spouse using the same computer. Containers are useful for separating "who I am to my providers." As far as Facebook is concerned, I am a Facebook user, but I don't use Amazon or Google. But Amazon thinks I'm an Amazon user that doesn't use Facebook or Google. You can accomplish this with profiles, but in Chrome (last I checked) that meant multiple windows, rather than just sites being displayed in tabs that indicate the container in use. So for that purpose, I believe containers are more useful. (I also think Firefox should step up their profile game, because when my spouse and I alternate using a computer we share, it's inconvenient for me to close all her Firefox windows so I can open my profile!)
- nneonneo 7y ago
  You can definitely have two profiles open simultaneously - on MacOS, this is achieved with “open -n Firefox.app --args -P [profile name]”; on Windows, “firefox -no-remote -P [profile name]”. Admittedly, that should _really_ be exposed in the UI somehow, but at least it means you can wrap up the command in a handy desktop shortcut (e.g. one that says “my Firefox” and one that says “her Firefox”).
  - neogodless 7y ago
    OK - I hadn't come across that. I actually have the shortcut on my desktop that prompts you to pick a profile if you don't have any windows open already. I'll have to see if I can tweak the shortcuts to open each one! Thanks!!
    - chaghi 7y ago

ryanmercer 7y ago

>I switched a couple of months ago because Chrome is just a bloated piece of garbage I switched to Chrome a few years ago (and even to a Chromebox as my daily driver, on my second now because I wanted Android app support) because Firefox was a bloated piece of garbage, if I left 5-10 tabs open for a few weeks in Windows they'd be using several gigabytes of memory from a leak, memory use growing hourly. Edit: I don't know why I'm being downvoted, this is even on Mozilla's own site showing it hasn't been fixed: "Firefox's memory usage may increase if it's left open for long periods of time. A workaround for this is to periodically restart Firefox" With an alternate solution being: "Add RAM to your computer" ... "RAM is cheap" https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-m... I have not had this issue at all with Chrome in Windows 7, Windows 10 or ChromeOS.

JoshMnem 7y ago
It's already fixed: https://www.ghacks.net/2019/03/01/firefox-67-automatically-unload-unused-tabs-to-improve-memory/ https://www.ghacks.net/2019/03/01/firefox-67-automatically-u... There's also this: https://www.ghacks.net/2012/05/22/make-firefox-more-responsive-with-suspend-background-tabs/ https://www.ghacks.net/2012/05/22/make-firefox-more-responsi...

chrisjc 7y ago

Same, but I was hesitant to switch. All I heard were comments like yours about containers and such. Finally after hearing about it so much, combined with all the talk about Quantum making things faster I gave FF a go. Haven't looked back. I still use Chrome for some tasks such as watching/listening to Youtube. (edit: not bc of performance, but bc I hate OSXs Cmd-Tab ordering)

sh33mp 7y ago
>not bc of performance, but bc I hate OSXs Cmd-Tab ordering That's a trivial but surprisingly reasonable reason for using two browsers. OSX has some annoying quirks sometimes.
saagarjha 7y ago
> I hate OSXs Cmd-Tab ordering What is this?

asenna 7y ago

> One of my favorite features in Firefox is containers I switched a couple months ago from Chrome to Firefox as well but to tell you the truth, I just heard about containers and what you could do with it. I guess I must've been living under a rock, this is amazing! I was already glad I made the switch for the less resources being used on my aging Macbook Pro and better privacy features, but containers just took this experience to the next level for me! EDIT: What actually triggered my switch was at one point, a few tabs on Chrome(regular things like Youtube) started causing my CPU/fan to go crazy on my MBP 2015(the last decent MBP). Instead of trying to figure out what extension or what setting was causing the problem, I thought I'd give FF a try and just couldn't look back after.

Histrionic 7y ago
TLDR for containers? What do we use them for? I thought Chrome puts each tab in a separate container anyway.
brandmeyer 7y ago
I love FF and use it daily. But honestly, the "some random tab has runaway javascript" is as much of a problem on FF as it is on Chrome. If you leave a JS-heavy site open long enough, sooner or later you'll have some runaway JS come and bite you in the battery. The only complete solution I've got is... to turn it off and back on again. The entire browser, not just the offending tab.

asdff 7y ago

Does anyone know an extension or option in containers to preserve your browsing trajectory between containers? I had a google container for a while, but opening links opens a new tab and closes the google container, so therefore you cant it back or forward without reopening that container tab. Same thing if I click a container link or something and it pushes it into a new tab, I loose that ability to go backward. It's just a minor gripe but I'm so into the habit of hitting the back button on my mouse while browsing rather than cmd shift tab.

chupasaurus 7y ago
History of opened URLs of the tab is accessible to sites via DOM, what you propose would be a leak.

m-p-3 7y ago

My favorite features of Firefox is bookmarks tags, which IMO is way better than directories to categorize them. I hope Mozilla won't deprecate those..

timvisee 7y ago

I wouldn't call Firefox bloat-free with things like Pocket integration. But yes, it's an awesome browser anyways!