Firefox Developer:

By +Frank B.
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Grand Master

Rudy

Posted
Posted

Up until a year ago when the whole "lets get our version number up higher for stats" crap started I dropped Firefox after using it since the beginning when it was Mozilla Firebird. I have been using chrome ever since.

Because Chrome doesn't change their version number very often :rolleyes:
Experienced

mancode20

Posted
Posted

I don't know why people are complaining. I'm using the latest beta of Firefox 14 Portable, which I believe is Beta 10, and it's lightning fast now!! They changed something to make it render faster, so pages load instantly, and it's WAY MORE RESPONSIVE when switching tabs, or even tab groups when using TabGroups Manager. It's instant now!! The start-up time is fast enough for me, and improvements are coming. I like the new panel based download manager in Firefox 14 as well, but it annoys me how Firefox never wants to remember my last used download directory. I'm trying to find a good extension to deal with that small issue. The ONLY MAJOR ISSUE I see with Firefox, is that sometimes you do get a page that can lock up the browser for a couple of minutes, but it always seems to come back. That is annoying, and I understand they are working on that with the SuperSnappy project as well. The ONLY thing I miss when using Firefox compared to Chrome, the smooth animated tabs, cause I like to put my tabs in a certain order and it's much easier and more fluid the way Chrome handles it. That's the thing Chrome has over Firefox in my opinion, and that's not even that big of a deal! They are working on that as well, if they can fix the bugs it causes. Once Firefox 15 adds silent updates, and 16 or some later version finally adds animated tabs and the SuperSnappy project, Firefox will be perfect in my opinion! Maybe you guys are using bad add-ons if you think it's slow, not as fast as Chrome, etc. I'm loving Firefox and can't wait til it gets even better!! Great job, Mozilla team!! The new release cycle has obviously paid off.

Veteran

bogas04

Posted
Posted

I switched because:

- rapid release cycle - the stupidest thing ever to happen to firefox

- the add-on issues were highly annoying (even before the rapid release cycle)

- performance was slower compared to chrome

- cross platform - chrome is much faster on android than firefox mobile

Use latest firefox on desktop and on android , for once , to see how they have improved.

Veteran

bogas04

Posted
Posted

After reflecting again , I believe Rapid Release Mechanism SAVED Firefox. See this , umm , weirdly presented picture :p

post-293012-0-68292100-1341950944_thumb.

Apparently , after advent of FF 7 , 8 and 9 , users got Azure , Memory Improvements , Faster Startup and finally TypeInference , everything in 6x3 weeks , gradually. Had Firefox 4 still continue with lil security updates , i am darn sure all such improvements would have been just found @ "Firefox Minefield" , waiting to launch for users , after a year. Moreover you can see how FF share is even increasing stopping the old trend since FF 3.6 days. The reason why every darn browser is losing its share to Chrome is only due to the way Chrome advertizes and bundles Chrome to almost everything, and used to be fast and lightweight . An average user wouldn't even come to know about such details of a browser. Also the developer is ex-developer , i am pretty sure he didn't leave the job solely due to these updates , he should have mentioned other internal problems in management and stuff,instead.

Also it seems Chrome is fighting with IE, however it is Safari which is taking away FF's market-share , which is quite predictable as FF for OSX is not a good alternative to Safari 5 , and now 6.

isn't the firefox browser becoming bloated? extensions this and that? adding this and that in general? I remember when firefox was slim and sexy

I feel same for Chrome. When it came it was all fast and lightweight. Now it has inbuilt flash , pdf viewer , translator. Installing some other softwares ends up them adding their own toolbars to Chrome , just like IE6 times, Adding addons and opening more than say 5 tabs makes it take hell lot of ram often leading to crashes and feels fragile to use.

Grand Master

Knife Party

Posted
Posted

make it silent updates, problem solved. I think people just want to complain, well because complaining is complaining. FF and Mozilla have really upped their game with the past releases, so by all means if you can't enjoy the browser, go get IE which gets updates in 'x' amount of years when MS finally decides to get off their backsides and produce something.

Grand Master

tsupersonic

Posted
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Use latest firefox on desktop and on android , for once , to see how they have improved.

Firefox is my backup browser, so it's installed on all the computers I use. It's even my primary browser on my work laptop. I tried the latest release on mobile. What used to be a good product back in the day is just a subpar product, and the mobile version was NEVER good. It has always run slow on my Incredible, and it was slow on my Galaxy Nexus.
Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

I feel same for Chrome. When it came it was all fast and lightweight. Now it has inbuilt flash , pdf viewer , translator. Installing some other softwares ends up them adding their own toolbars to Chrome , just like IE6 times, Adding addons and opening more than say 5 tabs makes it take hell lot of ram often leading to crashes and feels fragile to use.

Then apparently you don't know what you're talking about. The built in PDF viewer doesn't slow Chrome down at all because *pause for gasp* those modules are only loaded when they're actually needed. Nor does other software add toolbars to chrome, you cannot in fact add toolbars to chrome, you can only install extensions. I can open 30+ tabs in Chrome and it doesn't slow down one bit, and as with all browsers with tab process isolation, it's very rare for tab crashes to hang the main thread. All browsers with TPI use more memory, it's a price you pay for extra stability and security. I've been using Chrome for 3 years and I've only seen a couple of occasions on which a crashed tab has caused the main thread to also crash.

Mentor

BetaAddict

Posted
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Rapid release is superior IMO, but mozilla should have implemented silent updates and addressed extension compatibility issues before switching to the new cycle. If they had done so the new cycle wouldn't have gotten the poor reception that is has.

Agreed 100%. I use Aurora/Nightly channels most of the time and having daily updates is nice, but I would really like silent updates without the UAC popup asking whether to restart. Seriously, if you can program it to download the update without asking, then why not just sit back and wait until I restart the browser to install without even prompting. Not a hard concept to understand, Mozilla. Nonetheless, it's the addons that are keeping me hooked on Firefox, otherwise I'd have ditched back to chrome much sooner.

Grand Master

Boz

Posted
Posted

It's not an update what made me stop using Firefox. It's the fact that they really haven't made huge strides in optimizing the lightness, memory usage and speed of Firefox. Chrome no matter how many extensions I have installed and how many tabs I have open feels so snappy that it's insane. It's super fast too.

Sorry Mozilla, but the reality is that you need to make stuff WORK better not make updates every few weeks and then complain it's what it is killing Firefox.

Updates or not, Firefox is just not as good in experience. Simple as that.

Make clean clean design, super super light memory requirements and make everything snappy and you can compete with Chrome, otherwise there's nothing that will make me go back to using it.

Veteran

bogas04

Posted
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Then apparently you don't know what you're talking about. The built in PDF viewer doesn't slow Chrome down at all because *pause for gasp* those modules are only loaded when they're actually needed. Nor does other software add toolbars to chrome, you cannot in fact add toolbars to chrome, you can only install extensions. I can open 30+ tabs in Chrome and it doesn't slow down one bit, and as with all browsers with tab process isolation, it's very rare for tab crashes to hang the main thread. All browsers with TPI use more memory, it's a price you pay for extra stability and security. I've been using Chrome for 3 years and I've only seen a couple of occasions on which a crashed tab has caused the main thread to also crash.

You may know better , but toolbars do exist , they come from utorrent , anti viruses and many other softwares. Anyways , let's not turn it to chrome discussion thread :)

Grand Master

remixedcat

Posted
Posted

they should have kept the old release model. it was easier for businesses to mentally adapt and for addon devs as well.

basically when mozilla did this they said **** you to thier userbase.

they felt like they had to copy of chrome in UI and release and look what happens.... people say "firefox is trying to be chrome... might as well use chrome then"

and they did have a fair amount on suckups and lots of the dev leads couldnt get thier heads out of thier asses. tons of people protested a lot of the changes that dug thier grave and they wouldn't listen to us....

Grand Master

+Zlip792 MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Till Firefox 4, Firefox use to listen to users opinion like their contest for their upcoming UI but now they not listen to anyone (listen to Chrome only).

6 weeks rapid release cycle is too rapid, I personally would have suggested 12 weeks release cycle. I hate to say but Yes, Firefox is following Chrome blindly.

I am using Firefox since very long ago but still using FF3.6, UI interaction is faster than FF4 onward even with all kind of snappy thingy.

For Rapid Release Cycle, FF15+ is the solution.

Grand Master

Ryoken

Posted
Posted

Because Chrome doesn't change their version number very often :rolleyes:

Chrome does.. but here's the funny thing.. If you aren't a "power user", you have no idea.. Google doesn't advertise there version, it's just always Chrome.. Not "Download Chrome 20 NOW" or anything..

I don't use FF a loot, I'll admit it.. I've never been a big fan.. In earlier versions it was a good browser imho, but the UI didn't do much for me, and I for one hated the community.. [ If you aren't running FF you were an idiot, regardless of reasons.. ] But as a web developer I've always had it installed, and use it one or more times a week.. [ at least till I went between jobs.. ]

Anyway, it was always prompting for installing updates.. If it wasn't the browser itself, it was an addon.. and that gets annoying, when I fire up a browser, I have **** to do. I don't want to download, and install, and relaunch.. I wanna get my stuff done. Now. That's one of the great things about Chrome, it was always in the background.. install when you close, not when you open..

Now I've been told that FF has a silent update now.. that's great.. but I gotta imagine at least a few people got tired of the constant nagging..

In any case, I'm not gonna move to FF.. I hate the UI, don't like how it needs addons for everything to make it useful, and I have always found it to be the most unstable of all the browsers I use.. apart from the Canary builds of Chrome.. But even FF Stable crashes more for me than Chrome Dev..

Another thing they can take a hint on, it pick a interface, and stick with it. Look at Chrome, from original release till now, the UI has had all but the most minor changes to the browser itself [ settings and such have had more drastic changes.. but not the day to day stuff ].. FF is constantly changing.. not massive changes like IE sometimes does between major releases, but still..

Change for improvement is good, but change for the sake of change isn't.. I always got the impression, most changes were "Look, new version, it's not the same, See!" ..

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