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To offer a bit of an opposite view here on HN: I give firefox a shot from time to time. I switch all devices to it, and then I use it exclusively all the time.

To offer a bit of an opposite view here on HN: I give firefox a shot from time to time. I switch all devices to it, and then I use it exclusively all the time. My most recent attempt failed few days ago, after a bit more than a month with it. Firefox performance just doesn't feel the same as chrome, from constant small freezes, to using 100% CPU pretty often. And just overall experience on some platforms - especially macOS doesn't feel native at all. On top of that some websites don't support it that good (not Firefox's fault here - but I don't want to deal with that day to day). Firefox also seemed snappier on the first few runs, but as the time went on I didn't find it faster or feeling less bloated than chrome as a lot of people like to portray it. Chrome for me, as an average user, does not have any of these downsides. The closest to a downside for some people you could pin to chrome is that it's owned by google. At the end of the day, chrome gets the job done, and does it without being in my way, on all the platforms I use, - and that's what I want from a browser, so for now I'm sticking with chrome.

Barrin92 7y ago
on windows I don't notice any performance difference, but on linux (which i use most of the time) in particular on my laptop firefox performance seems (at least subjectively) significantly worse than chrome if my fans are any indicator. I don't know if this is site dependent or just a general issue but it bugs me too much to use firefox right now.
pweezy 7y ago
Same here. I use a 12" MacBook "retina" (not air), which is an ultraportable with a weak CPU. Firefox is borderline unusable, even with uBlock Origin, unless you stick to only 1 or 2 tabs. High def video in YouTube really struggles, Google Maps struggles, and other Google properties like Flights have a habit of freezing up. Plus the non-native feel you mentioned. No pinch-to-zoom, moving tabs between windows feels clunky, and scrolling feels different than almost every other app. I try Firefox for Android from time to time, and I also have a lot of issues with polish that make me stop using it every time. Tab management is extremely clunky, the address bar is inconsistent with virtually every other Android text input (e.g. there's a big X that I expect to clear the address bar, but in Firefox this escapes me from input mode). Even getting the toolbars to reappear by scrolling is troublesome - infuriating. It sucks, because I care about privacy and web diversity, and have been a Firefox user since back in the Phoenix days.
- sjapkee 7y ago
  >I use a 12" MacBook "retina" (not air) You just need to buy a good laptop instead of MacBook.
  - konart 7y ago
    Regardless of one's opinion of Apple products - Firefox does have big problems with macOS, with quite a few issues in their bugtracker that are being worked on. On of them is fixed in v70 already.
iamnotacrook 7y ago
"Firefox performance just doesn't feel the same as chrome, from constant small freezes, to using 100% CPU pretty often" I don't get those problems, but even if I did, it would be well worth it as opposed to seeing ads all the time. If Google wanted me to uninstall Firefox forever and use Chrome they'd allow for plug-ins for Chrome (on Android). While they don't I'll simply never switch. I have no idea how people tolerate ads.
- dhimes 7y ago
  The only sites that give me problems now are ones like Accuweather that try to load media connected to third-party trackers. Firefox won't load them (and I decline to change the settings) and the site fails. For those sites, and others that are intrusive, if you need them, you can use containers. I use containers for things like Twitter and Facebook.
- Miraste 7y ago
  I use Firefox on my non-Android devices, but sadly I have found that Android Firefox is so slow and clunky that even without ads it's less usable than Chrome with ads. Mozilla knows this, too: they have a total rewrite in beta right now, and it's great, but it doesn't support plugins yet.
- EpicEng 7y ago
  I get constant, intermittent stutters when scrolling on FF. On three devices. Sorry, I just want a browser that works. I don't imagine this is a problem for everyone, but I can find reports of it and no fix.
iforgotpassword 7y ago
On desktop I just don't feel any difference. There might be one but it's not perceivable to me. I haven't found a site that doesn't work there in ages. And I have an old fire tablet from 2012 at home that I don't really use anymore, but chrome is unusably slow on it while Firefox still works, which I found interesting. Only thing is that touch recognition on Firefox is worse than chrome. Chrome somehow gets stuff like the small links and vote buttons on hn right while on Firefox I hit the wrong thing ask the time.
- ckosidows 7y ago
  I've had a Google conferencing app fail before on FF when it worked fine on Chrome. That's about my only experience though. I've been on FF on my laptops for over a year now and they've been fine otherwise. Mobile, on the other hand, will probably always be chrome. I just hate the FF mobile app.
- kgwxd 7y ago
  Mac desktop? Most of the time I see complaints about FF performance, the user is on a Mac. I don't know what they're doing so wrong there, but they could probably win a good chunk of users if they focused on making that experience better.
vincent-toups 7y ago
I switched to Firefox on my iPhone and my screen time went dramatically down, which is both cool and good. In a world of highly optimized engagement hacking, a less smooth experience is actually good, arguably.
rossdavidh 7y ago
This is odd, because I use it on both Linux (my laptop) and Android, and I never experience this.
aarpmcgee 7y ago
As a counterpoint, Chrome is also pretty far from a native experience, from a Mac user perspective. Material design is hijacking and homogenizing convention across all platforms.
awinder 7y ago
For Mac users that want to get away from chrome for privacy reasons, I’d look at safari & the chromium based edge browser. Firefox isn’t in the same league on Mac, it’s not a priority and it shows.

Barrin92 7y ago

on windows I don't notice any performance difference, but on linux (which i use most of the time) in particular on my laptop firefox performance seems (at least subjectively) significantly worse than chrome if my fans are any indicator. I don't know if this is site dependent or just a general issue but it bugs me too much to use firefox right now.

pweezy 7y ago

Same here. I use a 12" MacBook "retina" (not air), which is an ultraportable with a weak CPU. Firefox is borderline unusable, even with uBlock Origin, unless you stick to only 1 or 2 tabs. High def video in YouTube really struggles, Google Maps struggles, and other Google properties like Flights have a habit of freezing up. Plus the non-native feel you mentioned. No pinch-to-zoom, moving tabs between windows feels clunky, and scrolling feels different than almost every other app. I try Firefox for Android from time to time, and I also have a lot of issues with polish that make me stop using it every time. Tab management is extremely clunky, the address bar is inconsistent with virtually every other Android text input (e.g. there's a big X that I expect to clear the address bar, but in Firefox this escapes me from input mode). Even getting the toolbars to reappear by scrolling is troublesome - infuriating. It sucks, because I care about privacy and web diversity, and have been a Firefox user since back in the Phoenix days.

sjapkee 7y ago
>I use a 12" MacBook "retina" (not air) You just need to buy a good laptop instead of MacBook.
- konart 7y ago
  Regardless of one's opinion of Apple products - Firefox does have big problems with macOS, with quite a few issues in their bugtracker that are being worked on. On of them is fixed in v70 already.

iamnotacrook 7y ago

"Firefox performance just doesn't feel the same as chrome, from constant small freezes, to using 100% CPU pretty often" I don't get those problems, but even if I did, it would be well worth it as opposed to seeing ads all the time. If Google wanted me to uninstall Firefox forever and use Chrome they'd allow for plug-ins for Chrome (on Android). While they don't I'll simply never switch. I have no idea how people tolerate ads.

dhimes 7y ago
The only sites that give me problems now are ones like Accuweather that try to load media connected to third-party trackers. Firefox won't load them (and I decline to change the settings) and the site fails. For those sites, and others that are intrusive, if you need them, you can use containers. I use containers for things like Twitter and Facebook.
Miraste 7y ago
I use Firefox on my non-Android devices, but sadly I have found that Android Firefox is so slow and clunky that even without ads it's less usable than Chrome with ads. Mozilla knows this, too: they have a total rewrite in beta right now, and it's great, but it doesn't support plugins yet.
EpicEng 7y ago
I get constant, intermittent stutters when scrolling on FF. On three devices. Sorry, I just want a browser that works. I don't imagine this is a problem for everyone, but I can find reports of it and no fix.

iforgotpassword 7y ago

On desktop I just don't feel any difference. There might be one but it's not perceivable to me. I haven't found a site that doesn't work there in ages. And I have an old fire tablet from 2012 at home that I don't really use anymore, but chrome is unusably slow on it while Firefox still works, which I found interesting. Only thing is that touch recognition on Firefox is worse than chrome. Chrome somehow gets stuff like the small links and vote buttons on hn right while on Firefox I hit the wrong thing ask the time.

ckosidows 7y ago
I've had a Google conferencing app fail before on FF when it worked fine on Chrome. That's about my only experience though. I've been on FF on my laptops for over a year now and they've been fine otherwise. Mobile, on the other hand, will probably always be chrome. I just hate the FF mobile app.
kgwxd 7y ago
Mac desktop? Most of the time I see complaints about FF performance, the user is on a Mac. I don't know what they're doing so wrong there, but they could probably win a good chunk of users if they focused on making that experience better.

vincent-toups 7y ago

I switched to Firefox on my iPhone and my screen time went dramatically down, which is both cool and good. In a world of highly optimized engagement hacking, a less smooth experience is actually good, arguably.

rossdavidh 7y ago

This is odd, because I use it on both Linux (my laptop) and Android, and I never experience this.

aarpmcgee 7y ago

As a counterpoint, Chrome is also pretty far from a native experience, from a Mac user perspective. Material design is hijacking and homogenizing convention across all platforms.

awinder 7y ago

For Mac users that want to get away from chrome for privacy reasons, I’d look at safari & the chromium based edge browser. Firefox isn’t in the same league on Mac, it’s not a priority and it shows.