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Why Firefox?

progSHELLprogSHELL
edited March 2011 in Technology
All right guys/ladies. I don't really know why I should use Firefox as opposed to Internet Explorer. That seems to be the browser of choice among geeks, so what are the differences?

Comments

  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    I use Chrome, and I haven't even touched Internet Explorer for the longest time.

    Back when I cared, Internet Explorer was generally insecure and did not properly implement many web standards. This could well continue to be the case, though Microsoft has likely made some improvements.

    The best thing about Firefox is the masses of extensions that are available. Those extensions are the only reason I sometimes look back from using Chrome, though I continue to prefer it.
  • AnrildAnrild
    Chrome has extensions too. Although honestly, I switched to Chrome because it runs much faster for me than any other browser. I got sick of Firefox crashing on me all the time, Chrome seems more reliable (although I'm not the right type of geek to tell you the particulars as to why that would be).
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    I know Chrome has extensions, but in general Firefox has many more available.

    As for stability, I think one of the reasons Chrome was more stable was that it runs each tab in a separate process. However, I don't know if other browsers have caught up in this regard at the moment.
  • WindUpBirdWindUpBird
    Chrome is faster, more reliable, syncs my bookmarks to the Google Cloud, and has a suite of excellent web apps and extensions. Additionally, sites that are google search enabled (tons of them) have an awesome feature. Punch their full URL into the omnibar (i.e. "http://www.thepiratebay.org"), hit tab, and search. No search plugin required.

    Also, I really like how streamlined and lightweight Chrome is, the "Most Visited" pane and the Google Instant-enabled Omnibar, and how easy it is is to do things that you'd normally need to extend Firefox to do.
  • Casa VinoCasa Vino
    edited March 2011
    Chrome for the above reasons is also my referred browser.
    Post edited by Casa Vino on
  • Victor FrostVictor Frost
    I live my life in the google-verse. Having chrome makes that even better.
  • AlanAlan
    I usually use it because of the development tools and it runs great in Ubuntu. I haven't really had any problems with it crashing. My second choice would most likely be Opera for causal browsing. It has man of the extensions I use in Firefox built in and a few other tools useful for development. IE can still be a pain but it is getting way better to work with.
  • DkongDkong
    edited March 2011
    Back when I cared, Internet Explorer was generally insecure and did not properly implement many web standards. This could well continue to be the case, though Microsoft has likely made some improvements.
    This. I really haven't kept up with IE since IE6, which was complete and total shit. Back then it didn't even have tabs, and Firefox had tabs (which is an absolute must for browsing). That was one of the biggest reasons I switched, along with security and web standards being other good reasons. IE might be better by now, but I'm sure it's still not worth using over Firefox or Chrome.

    At this point, I'm still a Firefox guy. I have Chrome installed, but I use it sparingly. The only thing Firefox really does wrong for me is use 150-300k of memory when it's running. Other than that, it's perfect. Extensions are a moot point for me at this point, since both browsers can block ads now. Firefox still has a much larger selection of extensions, though. Speed differences are null. It takes 3ms to open a website in Firefox, and 2.9ms to open it in Chrome. Whoop de doo...Yes, those are made up numbers, but what I'm getting at is that it takes so little time to load webpages nowadays that any speed differences are negligible to actual users.
    My biggest beefs with Chrome are the lack of customization and deep menu options. I want to customize everything, and I just can't do that with Chrome. Also, Chrome doesn't quite have bookmark keywords (typing in "fb" to open up your bookmark to facebook, for example). The only way you can have bookmark keywords is if you import bookmarks with keywords from Firefox. To me, that's just chickenshit. So it has the capability, but selectively doesn't use it? What the fuck? On that note, I find that the entire bookmark manager for Chrome blows. I just feel so limited when I'm using Chrome...

    I'm excited to see what improvements are coming with Firefox 4. I don't think it's time to give up on Firefox for Chrome just yet...
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    I use Firefox 90% of the time. I need to check out Chrome again to see if all the extensions I use in Firefox are replicated there too, but I suspect not. AdBlock is only one important thing for me, other things like advanced tab controls are the things that make the Internet bearable.

    The rest of the time I mostly use Safari on my iPhone, or Chrome on my laptop of I need to have two browsers open at once logged into different accounts.
  • Jain7thJain7th
    The only upside to Firefox for me is Video Download Helper, so that's the only time I use it. Otherwise I find Chrome to be better all around.
  • Void DragonVoid Dragon
    The two main reasons I stick with firefox are live bookmarks (chrome has an extension that badly duplicates this functionality) and the open folders behavior. In firefox, when you open all bookmarks in a folder, it does not open subfolders. In chrome, any bookmark, no matter how deeply nested in subfolders, is opened when you open all, which basically makes my sorting of bookmarks worthless.
  • trogdor9trogdor9
    I'm gonna continue using Firefox until they port Vimperator/Pentadactyl over to Chrome, which is unlikely given Chrome's inferior extension framework.
  • DkongDkong
    edited March 2011
    The two main reasons I stick with firefox are live bookmarks (chrome has an extension that badly duplicates this functionality) and the open folders behavior. In firefox, when you open all bookmarks in a folder, it does not open subfolders. In chrome, any bookmark, no matter how deeply nested in subfolders, is opened when you open all, which basically makes my sorting of bookmarks worthless.
    Oh yeah, live bookmarks are just another thing to back up my point that Chrome's bookmark management is lightyears behind Firefox. To be honest I think even IE handles bookmarks better than Chrome does. Chrome's bookmark toolbar has down syndrome, as well.

    EDIT: For as much hate as I've been giving Chrome, here's something good about it: Chrome not hacked at pwn2own. And more reasons why IE and Safari blow - they were both hacked in seconds.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • Dragonmaster LouDragonmaster Lou
    I was a Chrome guy for a while, but I'm switching back to FF now that 4.0 is pretty much close to shipping. Chrome is a pain to use with one of my favorite tools, TiddlyWiki, and it doesn't support MathML yet (what's taking them so damned long!).
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