The spitemaster
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I picked up the new Chrome browser today. To me it feels faster than firefox and I don't even think about explorer. I do think, however, that my opinion is more coloured than most. (Because I read their online "comic" on how it works) Therefore, does anyone have a opinion, that has a more technical base than mine, to weigh in on?

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Jatopian
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...wow. Just... wow. This thing looks amazing (I'm reading the comic). I'm a little worried about the "hidden classes" thing in JavaScript, and some of the extra security features look a bit Vista-esque, but overall I'm very impressed.

I currently think I'll stick with Firefox 2, just because I have all these add-ons that I would hate to do without (Remove It Permanently, BugMeNot, Greasemonkey, ilu) and also the security bit mentioned already, but I am sorely tempted to get Chrome.

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eytanz
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Jatopian wrote:
I currently think I'll stick with Firefox 2, just because I have all these add-ons that I would hate to do without (Remove It Permanently, BugMeNot, Greasemonkey, ilu) and also the security bit mentioned already, but I am sorely tempted to get Chrome.

You choose Firefox 2 over 3? Is it the add-ons? Or is there some other reason?

Chrome looks really cool, but I don't want to be an early adopter with my browser. I'll wait a few weeks before thinking about switching over.

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[Last edited by eytanz at 09-03-2008 12:02 AM]

TripleM
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Probably going to be my favourite feature: it has its own task manager; one tab can crash without taking down the whole browser.

Possibly my least favourite feature: this is going to be so popular it means I'm going to have to check ANOTHER browser when building websites

edit - so far I like it, but there is one thing that annoys me. When I have multiple things open (messenger, browser, various other programs), the taskbar is too cluttered so I tend to switch between things simply by clicking somewhere in them; normally the toolbar. The toolbar is far narrower than normal.. in fact, there is very little room that you can click in to focus the window that wouldn't hit a tab/somewhere you didn't want to click in the page.

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[Last edited by TripleM at 09-03-2008 01:33 AM]

Lamkin
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It'll be interesting to see what the Mac port will look like, as I love Gmail, and iGoogle blows away anything else out there.

[Edit: Well, "port" apparently isn't the word Google wishes to use for either the Mac or the Linux versions...
In case anyone is interested, here's a link to a brief article about Google's plans for those respective platforms:
http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/02/google-doesnt-believe-in-timetables-for-chromes-mac-and-linux-launch/]

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[Last edited by Lamkin at 09-03-2008 02:12 AM]

vittro
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I'm posting from Chrome!
The browser is actually cool, and SIMPLE. Just like I want it.

I want an option to disable "history saves" from a list of sites, and the option to add a password to the list so no-one can modify it or see the sites.

I also want the mouse scroll bar to scroll really fast on click like with Firefox.

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Someone Else
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I don't like it. Personally, I enjoy Firefox quite a lot, and am probably prejudiced. I started using it, and the scroll settings (for a mouse wheel or whatever the thing on the right of the touchpad on a laptop is called) was probably something like 13 or 14 lines at a time. I kept scrolling past where I wanted to read. Then, "Options" is hidden off to the side in an unlabeled drop down menu, instead of the standard top left. Not only that, but that sort of option isn't available in there. So I switched back to Firefox. Sorry to sound like I'm ranting (and on a very limited amount of time, but first impressions count), but you don't redesign the UI just to be different.
I agree that it has a bunch of cool features, but I still don't like it overall.

Also, I really like how customizable Firefox is. With all the add-ons that are available, you can (I'm guessing here) probably duplicate most of Chrome's features.

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[Last edited by Someone Else at 09-03-2008 02:25 AM]

Jatopian
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Oh yeah, that Firefox add-on that made it span multiple processes, that was awesome and totally existed at some point.

You choose Firefox 2 over 3? Is it the add-ons? Or is there some other reason?

It's really more an issue of "Why should I upgrade?"

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techant
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TripleM wrote:
Possibly my least favourite feature: this is going to be so popular it means I'm going to have to check ANOTHER browser when building websites

My least favorite issue too.

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[Last edited by techant at 09-03-2008 05:22 AM]

TripleM
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Someone Else wrote:
I don't like it. Personally, I enjoy Firefox quite a lot, and am probably prejudiced. I started using it, and the scroll settings (for a mouse wheel or whatever the thing on the right of the touchpad on a laptop is called) was probably something like 13 or 14 lines at a time. I kept scrolling past where I wanted to read. Then, "Options" is hidden off to the side in an unlabeled drop down menu, instead of the standard top left. Not only that, but that sort of option isn't available in there. So I switched back to Firefox. Sorry to sound like I'm ranting (and on a very limited amount of time, but first impressions count), but you don't redesign the UI just to be different.
I agree that it has a bunch of cool features, but I still don't like it overall.

Also, I really like how customizable Firefox is. With all the add-ons that are available, you can (I'm guessing here) probably duplicate most of Chrome's features.

To be honest, I think thats the point. A huge majority of users don't need all the extra customisation and options that slow down the browser; for them, this is perfect. It's almost the lack of features which makes it preferable.

NiroZ
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I'm going to have to echo the chorus here, because until chrome gives me weather updates, blocks ads and automates my bibliographies, I'll have to pass.

I mean, separate tab processes are cool and all, but I'd only need it like 5 times in a year.

Briareos
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Well, I don't know how they did it, but they actually managed to make themselves look bad just with the installer - there's no way to choose a folder to install into, and I definitely don't want any program (and especially not a web browser) installed into my Windows user profile, "Local settings" subdirectory or not...

What were they thinking?

Also, what's with only providing some web-setup type installer instead of a full fledged installer that doesn't download stuff off the internet while installing?

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Pekka
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I second the annoyance caused by the installer.

Apparently the only way to disable the annoying spellcheck is to monkey with the en-US.bdic file in Dictionaries. Since it doesn't have support for Finnish, I'd rather turn the thing off for now. I managed that by replacing the aforementioned file with a zero length one. As far as I could tell, the actual menus in the program don't have an option to turn it off...

Anyway, here are the various about pages that modern browsers just have to include these days. I got the list from a posting on Reddit.



You can type them in the address bar.

Considering it's still a beta I don't have too many complaints. I am not giving up on Opera yet, either.

Fafnir
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Working my way down the features page, there seem to be a lot of nice ideas in there. I particularly like the idea of giving the browser its own task manager for increased stability - barring a version of Flash for Linux that's more stable than its developers after the staff party ( YOU ADOBE), that alone would be enough to make me consider switching. Incognito browsing looks pretty useful too. A lot of the best features of Firefox 3 made it - the address bar and the downloading interface come to mind. Oh, and what I've read so far of the comic is awesome.

The obvious hitch is the lack of extensions. Plug-ins looks promising, but the community support obviously isn't there yet. I refuse to switch until it has an adblocker with the same level of functionality as Adblock Plus. I've also gotten very used to gesture-based controls, almost to the point where I feel crippled browsing without them. Also a concern is how much overhead giving each tab its own process will introduce - I generally browse with a lot of tabs open, and my computer isn't exactly high-spec. This might well be offset by the better memory management, though.

Overall, I'm pretty excited!

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[Last edited by Fafnir at 09-03-2008 05:27 PM]

NiroZ
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Something just occured to me.

Why another browser? I doubt many people will switch from IE to chrome (who is the big mojo everyone is trying to beat), so why does Firefox, Opera and safari need more competition?

Maurog
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Silly me, thinking more competition was a good thing for the end customer.

Anyway, I'm using IE but I might just switch to Chrome when it grows a bit more meat on its already impressive bones.

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Briareos
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NiroZ wrote:
I doubt many people will switch from IE to chrome (who is the big mojo everyone is trying to beat)[...]

Ah, but that's probably what they're shooting for - everyone knows (I daren't say "loves") Google, so that alone will probably account for a lot of people giving that browser a try.

Of course they could also add it as a drive-by download to Google Earth, like Apple (*#@$%&!) is doing with Safari...

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NiroZ
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Maurog wrote:
Silly me, thinking more competition was a good thing for the end customer.

Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just confused as to why google wants to release its own browser. After all, it practically owns firefox.

eytanz
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Jatopian wrote:

You choose Firefox 2 over 3? Is it the add-ons? Or is there some other reason?

It's really more an issue of "Why should I upgrade?"

There are many nifty features in 3 that I like, but the two best reasons are that Firefox 3 is noticably faster and it uses considerably less computer resources.

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eytanz
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NiroZ wrote:

Maurog wrote:
Silly me, thinking more competition was a good thing for the end customer.

Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just confused as to why google wants to release its own browser. After all, it practically owns firefox.

What? Google has no control over Firefox. Since Google is becoming more and more about web-based applications beyond search, Google needs a browser that's optimized for running google apps. They can never be sure whether Firefox will give them that.

By the way, apparently there are [url= http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/09/why_i_wont_be_using_google_chr.html]serious issues with Chrom'e EULA. Google said they'll be fixing them, but I'd recommend waiting until they do before downloading it.

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NiroZ
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True, except for its funding. While that doesn't mean that google controls mozilla, I'd imagine they have quite a bit of sway.

While you point may be true, eytanz, they will always need to optimize for other browsers, if not for customers then for anti monopoly reasons.

Fafnir
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Well, the reasoning they give is that making a better browser will encourage people to use the Internet more, which as an Internet advertising company works in their favour. And a lot of the innovative features - the multi-process browser and the new security system come to mind - can only really be built in from the ground up. Then they made it open source because other browsers copying their ideas and code helps them for the same reason.

Considering just how pathetic Internet Explorer is, I'm inclined to believe them. Especially since a browser made by a big corporation with lots of perceived accountability looks like a much better idea to the average computer user than some fly-by-night "open source" thing.

It probably helps that there's no Adblock equivalent for Chrome yet, too.

Oh, and to head the conspiracy theorists off at the pass - and to be fair, with Google they're often right - I've checked the Privacy Policy and they don't seem to be collecting any information useful for data mining without explicit consent. And the EULA has now been fixed - looks like the lawyers just slipped up.

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