ff vs chrome

By SlayerS_BoxeR
in Web Browser Discussion & Support

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

+theblazingangel MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Firefox and Chrome are both great. Get them both, pick whichever one suits you best.

 

Don't ffs start asking which is better, the thread will just descend quickly into chaos because far too many people seem incapable of calm, sensible, intelligent discussion of such things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rising Star

SlayerS_BoxeR

Posted
  • Author
Posted

i am aware of the fact that both of them are great (as i've used both of them), but was just wondering since there were lots of recent crash/bugs conversation.

what about from developer's perspective?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

I use Firefox because I constantly keep a lot of tabs open (60+) and Firefox's GUI handles them better (tabs have a higher minimum width so you can see the name of a tab when many are open, not just a favicon).

 

If I could make Chrome handle tabs better then I would likely use it instead (Firefox crashes every other day or so due to the tabs, likely because I use sleep mode instead of shutting down every night), I think it would functionally handle the tabs better, but the GUI for doing so blows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rising Star

SlayerS_BoxeR

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I use Firefox because I constantly keep a lot of tabs open (60+) and Firefox's GUI handles them better (tabs have a higher minimum width so you can see the name of a tab when many are open, not just a favicon).

 

If I could make Chrome handle tabs better then I would likely use it instead (Firefox crashes every other day or so due to the tabs, likely because I use sleep mode instead of shutting down every night), I think it would functionally handle the tabs better, but the GUI for doing so blows.

 

what about the memory usage?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rising Star

SlayerS_BoxeR

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It's currently sitting at 1.6GB.....pretty high overall, but on a system with 24GB it hardly makes a difference.

 

 

oh i meant what about the memory usage comparison btw chrome and ff?

how much memory does it take up each or when you open multiple tabs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

Matthew_Thepc

Posted
Posted (edited)

Recently moved from IE11 to Nightly for my main browser, gotta say it's pretty good. IE is definitely noticeably faster, but FF's big advantage is with add-ons. I do use Chromium sometimes, and it's a fine browser, but it doesn't have as many great addons as Firefox, and Chromium doesn't come with an auto-updater (Chrome does, if you trust Google it's not really a problem).

 

Oh, and startup time on Nightly (probably Firefox too) is just horrible - it shouldn't take 10 seconds to start a browser on an i7 w/ 16 GB of RAM :s

 

Edit: Another thing or two I forgot to mention, Firefox has tab groups and pinned sites that are really nice when you want to work on a bunch of different things at a time. Almost makes up for it's crappy handling of tabs across windows :) I also like Firefox's dev tools better than Chrome's (though IE11's still take the cake for me), if that's something you're interested in.

 

My recommendation is (and I know you said don't mention IE, but it's actually a really good choice):

  • If all the add-ons you want are available on IE, use IE11. There's really no other browser in my experience that beats it in terms of speed, stability, and simplicity (except *maybe* Chrome, but IE is still quite a bit snappier than Chrome, and you don't get bothered to 'Sign in with your Google Account' every time you want to do something .-.)
  • If you want a fair amount of add-ons (or just love open-source), but still want speed and simplicity, go with Chrom(ium). Chromium if you're fine with manually updating your browser every day or so (or installing an auto-updater, not sure if there are any good) or are really paranoid about Google, or Chrome if you want a browser that "just works" whether Google tracks you or not.
  • If you're OK trading some speed for a superior experience and feature set, go with Nightly. Or Firefox/Australis/etc. if you're not into the whole beta-testing thing :)
Edited by Matthew_Thepc
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

oh i meant what about the memory usage comparison btw chrome and ff?

how much memory does it take up each or when you open multiple tabs?

No idea, I would be willing to test it out if there was an easy way to load all my tabs into Chrome from Firefox.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

simplezz

Posted
Posted

I prefer Firefox for a few reasons. Some are probably subjective though, and I certainly wouldn't take just my word for it.

1. The Extensions are really great.

2. It's extremely customisable. Some things like disabling animations, blinking, changing themes, or reducing disk access, I just can't seem to do the way I like in Chromium. 

3. It has a Tor build in the AUR; So I can transfer my settings easily.

4. I'm not a fan of the process-per-tab functionality. It's clogs up my HTop / PS -A, it uses more memory, and it's slower in my opinion.

 

There are a few other reasons, but that's all I can think of at the moment. This isn't to say Chromium is bad. It and Firefox are my go to browsers usually, but I find myself spending a lot more of my time in Firefox.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+longgonebn Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

Memory Usage is bad for both, always has been.

 

For me I have Chrome open 24/7 and many of my tabs (Google service, Gmail, YouTube, a few others) will hit 1GB. I have 32GB of RAM, but the issue is those pages slow to a crawl, so I have to end it, and restart it, the tab that is.

 

Besides that, it's really personal opinion. I used to be a heavy firefox user, but I just enjoy the way Google does certain things now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

simplezz

Posted
Posted

Recently moved from IE11 to Nightly for my main browser, gotta say it's pretty good. IE is definitely noticeably faster

 

To be fair, IE only has a speed advantage because it's a first party browser on Windows. Try running it on OS X or Linux, and you'll see it's a good deal slower ;)

Oh, and startup time on Nightly (probably Firefox too) is just horrible - it shouldn't take 10 seconds to start a browser on an i7 w/ 16 GB of RAM :s

It's not the ram that's slowing FF down, it's your disk. Try using it with a tmpfs (ramdisk), and a profile-sync-daemon. That, and defragmenting its sqlite databases on a regular basis helps (I use aur/browser-vacuum). And of course don't forget to disable the 'Block xx' settings, which slow it down considerably.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Max Norris

Posted
Posted

Both are good, find which one suits you better.  Chromium is typically faster under the hood, but (in my opinion) I can't stand the horribly inflexible interface.. I can live with the slightly lower speed, which 99% of the time I don't even notice anyway unless I'm on a benchmark site or some other site that's really "code heavy".  Firefox easily clobbers it when it comes to customization and addons hands down.  Chrome has (more or less) the same addons or workalikes, but for an example compare Chrome's version of ABP with Firefox, a lot of functionality just isn't there in the Chrome version.  Memory really isn't a concern for me, but typically Firefox uses a fraction of the memory Chrome does.  Usually at a few hundred megs for Firefox versus well over a gigabyte with Chrome, that's with a bunch of addons for both mind you. Modern systems usually won't notice either anyway.  Last I checked a few months back, Chrome was pretty bad with font rendering too, may have been finally fixed by now I would hope.  Both sync really nicely, I have Firefox on both the Windows and Android platforms, zero complaints there.  Both have really nice dev-tools available too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mentor

gohpep

Posted
Posted

I like Firefox from a dev's perspective, but there isn't really a difference between FF and Chrome in rendering, it's just that I prefer Gecko.

 

Chrome isn't fast when you know how much of a memory hog it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

Matthew_Thepc

Posted
Posted

To be fair, IE only has a speed advantage because it's a first party browser on Windows. Try running it on OS X or Linux, and you'll see it's a good deal slower ;)

It still does have a speed advantage, nonetheless, and if you're using Windows it's a great browser :p

It's not the ram that's slowing FF down, it's your disk. Try using it with a tmpfs (ramdisk), and a profile-sync-daemon. That, and defragmenting its sqlite databases on a regular basis helps (I use aur/browser-vacuum). And of course don't forget to disable the 'Block xx' settings, which slow it down considerably.

I actually think it has more to do with Windows or maybe one of my add-ons, I installed a portable version of Nightly to a RAMdisk and it started in about 2 seconds, but then I moved that portable version on to my main disk and it again started in 2 seconds. Then I tried in Arch and it started in about 2 seconds again. Not sure what exactly is happening, other than something weird about fully-installed Windows programs, it's probably an add-on.

Also my disk is an SSHD, so *in theory* it should have automatically cached/sped up the startup time drastically after a few Nightly startups. If it takes a full SSD to have a reasonable startup time on Windows that's just plain wrong :\

I'll have to look into defragging it's database, not completely sure how to go about that on Windows tho :p What's "And of course don't forget to disable the 'Block xx' settings, which slow it down considerably."? I haven't come across anything like this suggestion before, but it sounds promising :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

simplezz

Posted
Posted

I actually think it has more to do with Windows or maybe one of my add-ons

You could be right. I've had misbehaving addons slow mine down before.

I installed a portable version of Nightly to a RAMdisk and it started in about 2 seconds, but then I moved that portable version on to my main disk and it again started in 2 seconds. Then I tried in Arch and it started in about 2 seconds again.

2 seconds sounds reasonable. I usually have about 8-10 addons at anyone time, and it usually loads in 1-2 seconds for me, depending on the computer workload.

Also my disk is an SSHD, so *in theory* it should have automatically cached/sped up the startup time drastically after a few Nightly startups. If it takes a full SSD to have a reasonable startup time on Windows that's just plain wrong :\

Well if you use a tmpfs, the disk becomes irrelevant except for the profile copy / resync at startup and shutdown. The main influence is then ram and cpu speed. High mhz and Dual channel are essential.

I'll have to look into defragging it's database, not completely sure how to go about that on Windows tho :p

http://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox

What's "And of course don't forget to disable the 'Block xx' settings, which slow it down considerably."? I haven't come across anything like this suggestion before, but it sounds promising :)

BBtfLn1.jpg
  • Matthew_Thepc
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+Red King Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted (edited)

Firefox has good development tools (separate download).

Chrome is faster and more stable.

Firefox is single 32-bit (in 2014 mind you) process so it will crash at ~3GB.

Now IE is a 64-bit HTML5 browser, multi process, with the best HWA of any browser out there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

simplezz

Posted
Posted

Firefox is single 32-bit (in 2014 mind you) process so it will crash at ~3GB.

It's 64bit on Linux if you have a x86_64 arch.

 

Now IE is a 64-bit HTML5 browser, multi process, with the best HWA of any browser out there.

The OP stated he didn't want IE though.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

Matthew_Thepc

Posted
Posted

You could be right. I've had misbehaving addons slow mine down before.

2 seconds sounds reasonable. I usually have about 8-10 addons at anyone time, and it usually loads in 1-2 seconds for me, depending on the computer workload.

Well if you use a tmpfs, the disk becomes irrelevant except for the profile copy / resync at startup and shutdown. The main influence is then ram and cpu speed. High mhz and Dual channel are essential.

http://www.crystalidea.com/speedyfox

BBtfLn1.jpg

Found my problem, turned out to be an outdated version of Lastpass (the Firefox Addin site has the 2.x version, while the actual lastpass site is on 3.10 O.O)

 

Thanks for the tips :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mentor

snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member

Posted
  • Member
Posted

Chrome's been particularly bad lately. It had a nice stability issue (related to scrollbar changes) in the initial stable revision of chrome 32. It would incessantly, scream about unresponsive pages. See: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=335248

 

Lately, it has another issue with RT audio/video where it will stutter due to priority adjustment of unfocused windows: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=223679. Seems to largely be an issue with html5 audio/video playback more than anything else though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

Wakers

Posted
Posted

I would use IE11 in a heartbeat if they did 2 things;

 

Enabled proper add on support that doesn't involve installing toolbars.

 

Fixed font rendering in Windows 8 - ENABLE CLEARTYPE YOU FOOLS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.