Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Firefox vs. Chrome (vs. IE)

The only reason I even included Internet Explorer in the title is so it didn't feel left out, but I'll admit right now that I never use the browser. I find it as useful as belly button lint. My real debate is between Firefox and Chrome - what do you think?

I've used them both, and they each have their good points, they also have their bad points. I'm not sure what to do...

Firefox:
I've been using this for years, so I'm used to it. I understand its quirks and bobbles. I'm okay with that (no one's perfect). But it's usually Firefox that forces me to use Chrome - when it freezes, I close down the browser, and then try to reopen it I get the message "Firefox is already running". Really? Where...in a marathon? Because it's not running on my laptop! That's when I go to Chrome.

Chrome:
I just started using this because of the aforementioned Firefox blip. It really is faster (even with my lightning quick 3 Mbps DSL connection). I don't know what makes it faster, but I like...when it works. I'm not kidding when I say that about 20% of my URLs come up at "Oops! That link appears to be broken!", which it never is - I hit the refresh button and it will connect. So is it really any faster if I have to refresh 1 of every 5 searches?

Anyway, that's my debate. I don't have an answer (I'm not even sure if I'm looking for one), but it's been on my mind a lot recently (as Firefox freezes and Chrome can't find things). Some day I'd like to try Safari, but until Apple lowers their prices, I'm just not willing to make the switch.

3 comments:

Bob Conklin said...

Maybe Chrome is too fast. Maybe that's why you have to refresh the pages; the internet can't keep up with the unpatient Chrome.

As much as I like Firefox in theory, it is indeed glitchy. Let's face it; it's a square peg in a round hole. I havne't tried chrome yet because to be honest, I'm too old and set in my ways to learn yet another browser.

The last couple of versions of IE (since they introduced tabbed browsing) have actually been quite good and since a majority of websites are designed for compatibility with IE anyway it's a necessary evil. In fact, the only time I have problems with IE is when I'm viewing webpages built with Joomla, which is open source software and pretty much by default is designed for compatibility with the open sourced Firefox. So I keep Firefox on hand for that growing minority of websites. Otherwise, like it or not, Internet Explorer really is the most stable and reliable option out there.

Camille said...

Interesting. Mitch's laptop was all but unusable so I suggested uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling. Well, it won't uninstall (HELLO?).. so he just started using IE and all is well again. I do love Firefox, but it is super glitchy. I have never heard of Chrome. Might try that.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. Maybe there's something wrong with my IE. I never use it because I can play three games of solitaire and add a chapter to my novel before the thing will even open. It's so slow I can actually count the number of hairs that turn gray while I'm waiting for it to load...