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As a long time Chrome user, and someone who (admittedly) said to a FF fan about an year ago, that it's too late for FF to catch up to Chrome now. I gave FF anot

As a long time Chrome user, and someone who (admittedly) said to a FF fan about an year ago, that it's too late for FF to catch up to Chrome now. I gave FF another shot about 6 months ago, and I'm liking it more every month since then. It has been my primary browser outside of work, the major reason I use Chrome now is for Chrome Dev Tools. Also, some websites don't behave well in FF and I find that most of the time it's because of the site tracking being blocked. So not a big deal

DrJaws 7y ago
wouldn't firefox dev edition give you the tools you need? https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/
- arielm 7y ago
  Thanks for the tip!
- rtpg 7y ago
  FF still has some difficulties with some stuff (I've had issues with sourcemaps in particular, they would always work in Chrome but sometimes don't in FF) I get most of my stuff working in FF so don't need to jump to Chrome most of the time but for some gnarly stuff I end up in Chrome
- thayne 7y ago
  feature-wise firefox dev tools are pretty close to chrome's. However, if you have a large number (thousands) of sources and try to set a breakpoint, performance slows to a crawl. This probably doesn't impact a lot of web developers, but when you develop a large complicated web app and want to debug unobfuscated/unminimized code, this is a big pain point. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288493 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288493
  - DrJaws 7y ago
    interesting, thanks for the insight
slovenlyrobot 7y ago
Posts like this always come up in these threads and they're really great, but it's worth adding that 'switching to Firefox' isn't something anyone actually has to do. Just start using it for one thing or another and any complete change will happen naturally if it makes any sense. It's a process that involves no effort and no risk The only thing I use Chrome for is gaming, graphics perf is still miles better than Firefox. But I'd never trust Chrome with anything as much as a private URL or a username or password, for much the same reason I wouldn't stick my hand through the bars of a cage while visiting the zoo. Did they ever get around to fixing that opt-out password sync crap?
- coldfire 7y ago
  Before this, the last time I tried FF was when Servo was in it's early days, it was full of bugs and crappy performance. Couldn't use it for more than a few days and had to switch to Chrome. But this time, the experience was a lot smoother. So it's not a natural switch which happens with time :)
- Caspy7 7y ago
  > 'switching to Firefox' isn't something anyone actually has to do. Just start using it for one thing or another and any complete change will happen naturally This is going to vary with different people. Have you heard the phrase "Default is destiny"? This is especially true for less technical people (the majority of web users). Personally I'm not going to dabble, rather keeping to the safe and familiar, so I have to intentionally trial run something as my goto/default.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Chrome isn't the default on a lot of platforms.
    - sharmi 7y ago
      It is on chrome notebooks. And every search on google.com prompts you to install chrome for 'a better user experience'. Soon, just by plain nagging, it ends up becoming default
thrwaway69 7y ago
Both Chrome and Firefox doesn't work for me. I am sad how tab management isn't given priority on both. Chrome is especially annoying with it hiding the tabs after certain number of them and Firefox takes too much space and crashes often. There is no tab stacking, auto closing, sorting, filtering and multi previews built in. I switched to vilvadi last year and it has been a breeze. On mobile, I don't have any preference but I avoid firefox preview now that it has been crashing on top ranking Alexa sites. I would appreciate better tab management here too because I have to switch between 5 browsers to just manage them all without them crashing.
- thrwaway69 7y ago
  explain the downvotes? I think I am missing something here.
- Piskvorrr 7y ago
  My only beef with Vivaldi is the lack of proxy settings.
iudqnolq 7y ago
FF dev tools has its weaknesses, but it also has some useful functionality chrome doesn't like seeing event listeners in the DOM view
neurostimulant 7y ago
> It has been my primary browser outside of work, the major reason I use Chrome now is for Chrome Dev Tools. That's pretty much what I do in the past few years. Firefox is my primary personal browser, while Chrome is strictly for work only. Hopefully I can fully transition to Firefox for work stuff this year as almost all debugging features I used are available on Firefox. It's mostly just muscle memory that holding me back after years of using Chrome dev tools.
SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
> it's too late for FF to catch up to Chrome now As someone who's been using FF since the Netscape Navigator days, I remember when people were saying similar things about Chrome and IE. Never say never.
aikah 7y ago
The mere fact that login into Google logs me in Chrome as well made me decide to switch to another browser. It's as simple as that. Google doesn't care about user's privacy.
- i2shar 7y ago
  (Comment I made on another thread recently): I switched to Firefox from Chrome a couple of months ago. The sole motivation was the fiasco that ensued after Google decided to mingle Chrome Sync login with accounts.google.com cookies - there is simply no way to sign in to Chrome Sync without creating browser cookies for the same account. I wanted the benefit of saving and syncing bookmarks and extensions across my chrome installations, but I did not want to be tracked across the web with my logged in Google identity and the Chrome changes for "Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar" made it impossible. It was time to move on from Chrome. And I have been very pleased with the new Firefox. Highly recommend it to everyone!
irrational 7y ago
Ironically, I mainly use Firefox at work because of the Firefox Dev Tools. I guess we just prefer what we are used to.
wenc 7y ago
My browser path has been: Netscape (1994) -> IE -> Firefox (for a long time) -> Opera (briefly, but never liked it) -> Safari (a return to the Mac platform) -> Chrome (for a long time) -> Firefox (2 months ago) I never thought I'd return to Firefox but here I am. Browser preferences can certainly shift over time.
- steve_adams_86 7y ago
  There are definitely preference changes over time. Another factor is how quickly the internet and browsers change... Even if your preferences remained the same, your needs will inevitably change too. It's wild to think of how much the internet and browsers have changed in the last 20 years. Yet they still have the same basic back, forward, refresh, address bar, and bookmark components. I wonder if that'll ever change. Address bars have certainly come a long way.
radicalriddler 7y ago
What do you use in Chrome Dev Tools that aren't in Firefox's?

DrJaws 7y ago

wouldn't firefox dev edition give you the tools you need? https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/

arielm 7y ago
Thanks for the tip!
rtpg 7y ago
FF still has some difficulties with some stuff (I've had issues with sourcemaps in particular, they would always work in Chrome but sometimes don't in FF) I get most of my stuff working in FF so don't need to jump to Chrome most of the time but for some gnarly stuff I end up in Chrome
thayne 7y ago
feature-wise firefox dev tools are pretty close to chrome's. However, if you have a large number (thousands) of sources and try to set a breakpoint, performance slows to a crawl. This probably doesn't impact a lot of web developers, but when you develop a large complicated web app and want to debug unobfuscated/unminimized code, this is a big pain point. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288493 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288493
- DrJaws 7y ago
  interesting, thanks for the insight

slovenlyrobot 7y ago

Posts like this always come up in these threads and they're really great, but it's worth adding that 'switching to Firefox' isn't something anyone actually has to do. Just start using it for one thing or another and any complete change will happen naturally if it makes any sense. It's a process that involves no effort and no risk The only thing I use Chrome for is gaming, graphics perf is still miles better than Firefox. But I'd never trust Chrome with anything as much as a private URL or a username or password, for much the same reason I wouldn't stick my hand through the bars of a cage while visiting the zoo. Did they ever get around to fixing that opt-out password sync crap?

coldfire 7y ago
Before this, the last time I tried FF was when Servo was in it's early days, it was full of bugs and crappy performance. Couldn't use it for more than a few days and had to switch to Chrome. But this time, the experience was a lot smoother. So it's not a natural switch which happens with time :)
Caspy7 7y ago
> 'switching to Firefox' isn't something anyone actually has to do. Just start using it for one thing or another and any complete change will happen naturally This is going to vary with different people. Have you heard the phrase "Default is destiny"? This is especially true for less technical people (the majority of web users). Personally I'm not going to dabble, rather keeping to the safe and familiar, so I have to intentionally trial run something as my goto/default.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Chrome isn't the default on a lot of platforms.
  - sharmi 7y ago
    It is on chrome notebooks. And every search on google.com prompts you to install chrome for 'a better user experience'. Soon, just by plain nagging, it ends up becoming default

thrwaway69 7y ago

Both Chrome and Firefox doesn't work for me. I am sad how tab management isn't given priority on both. Chrome is especially annoying with it hiding the tabs after certain number of them and Firefox takes too much space and crashes often. There is no tab stacking, auto closing, sorting, filtering and multi previews built in. I switched to vilvadi last year and it has been a breeze. On mobile, I don't have any preference but I avoid firefox preview now that it has been crashing on top ranking Alexa sites. I would appreciate better tab management here too because I have to switch between 5 browsers to just manage them all without them crashing.

thrwaway69 7y ago
explain the downvotes? I think I am missing something here.
Piskvorrr 7y ago
My only beef with Vivaldi is the lack of proxy settings.

iudqnolq 7y ago

FF dev tools has its weaknesses, but it also has some useful functionality chrome doesn't like seeing event listeners in the DOM view

neurostimulant 7y ago

> It has been my primary browser outside of work, the major reason I use Chrome now is for Chrome Dev Tools. That's pretty much what I do in the past few years. Firefox is my primary personal browser, while Chrome is strictly for work only. Hopefully I can fully transition to Firefox for work stuff this year as almost all debugging features I used are available on Firefox. It's mostly just muscle memory that holding me back after years of using Chrome dev tools.

SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago

> it's too late for FF to catch up to Chrome now As someone who's been using FF since the Netscape Navigator days, I remember when people were saying similar things about Chrome and IE. Never say never.

aikah 7y ago

The mere fact that login into Google logs me in Chrome as well made me decide to switch to another browser. It's as simple as that. Google doesn't care about user's privacy.

i2shar 7y ago
(Comment I made on another thread recently): I switched to Firefox from Chrome a couple of months ago. The sole motivation was the fiasco that ensued after Google decided to mingle Chrome Sync login with accounts.google.com cookies - there is simply no way to sign in to Chrome Sync without creating browser cookies for the same account. I wanted the benefit of saving and syncing bookmarks and extensions across my chrome installations, but I did not want to be tracked across the web with my logged in Google identity and the Chrome changes for "Identity consistency between browser and cookie jar" made it impossible. It was time to move on from Chrome. And I have been very pleased with the new Firefox. Highly recommend it to everyone!

irrational 7y ago

Ironically, I mainly use Firefox at work because of the Firefox Dev Tools. I guess we just prefer what we are used to.

wenc 7y ago

My browser path has been: Netscape (1994) -> IE -> Firefox (for a long time) -> Opera (briefly, but never liked it) -> Safari (a return to the Mac platform) -> Chrome (for a long time) -> Firefox (2 months ago) I never thought I'd return to Firefox but here I am. Browser preferences can certainly shift over time.

steve_adams_86 7y ago
There are definitely preference changes over time. Another factor is how quickly the internet and browsers change... Even if your preferences remained the same, your needs will inevitably change too. It's wild to think of how much the internet and browsers have changed in the last 20 years. Yet they still have the same basic back, forward, refresh, address bar, and bookmark components. I wonder if that'll ever change. Address bars have certainly come a long way.

radicalriddler 7y ago

What do you use in Chrome Dev Tools that aren't in Firefox's?