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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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Technology
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@Gormadt They say Firefox is slow. Because in the past it used to, especially with the old engine and when Chrome was new, that's true. But nowadays it does not matter anymore and the speed differences are negligible. If that is the only reason to not use Firefox, then people should reevaluate their decision.
Then there is the argument that people do not like Mozilla. But they like Google more? Even if you use a Chromium based browser by a different company, you give more power to Google this way, as the engine becomes a bigger part of the web. Am I crazy for thinking that?
I use Firefox since version 1 as my default. Occasionally I switched to a different browser, but always came back to good ol' Firefox.
Personally it's not that it's slow, it just holds on to weird patterns for way too long, kinda like how new outlook just feels like old outlook with a new skin. Whenever I open edge, it loads. Whenever I open firefox, it's the "Firefox is installing updates" window that's probably been there since the 90s. Refusing to honor the 'close multiple tabs' etc. It's minor stuff but when there's an objectively better way to do things, it's just annoying.
Well this is sort of a non issue, I can say I feel the same way when I have to open Chrome. Weird ui, doesn't do what I want it to do, no middle click to open new tab, it's so annoying because the firefox way is objectively better. So I'm saying the only objective thing about UI is giving people choice
I don't think I've seen either of those in a decade? Maybe it's because Firefox is my daily driver so it isn't trying to install months worth of updates at a time.
Firefox has been slower to startup for a long time. Maybe a few seconds slower compared to Chrome. But it has always made up for it in it's memory usage. The more tabs you open, the worse Chrome gets.
@NaoPb Firefox starts in 2 seconds total for me on my 10 years old CPU, even with many plugins installed. While there are constantly 6 or more tabs open, most are not loaded in when starting Firefox, unless I click the tab itself. And opening a new private window is almost instant. I even use Firefox for reading PDFs, instead installing a dedicated application, because it is fast loading and does the job. All in all, it's probably not far away from Chrome in starting up Firefox. And it probably isn't that important, because the browser is open all the time for me.
As for the memory usage, I always thought Firefox is being bad here. Can't imagine Chrome being worse. Are people happy with that?
I remember Chrome starting nearly instantly. But that could be that it's doing some preloading. I haven't used Chrome in years though. 2 seconds for Firefox startup sounds about right yes.
As for memory, I wouldn't say Firefox is great. But I often have a lot of tabs open at once while I am researching some things and Firefox is just rock solid for me. It has had some memory leaks in the past but they seem to be mostly gone now. You'd probably find browsers that use less memory but I dare to question if they would use less memory than Firefox in my usecase.
In an unrelated note I am curious which modern browser (in Linux) uses the fewest amount of memory.
@NaoPb Hi, I just wanted report that the startup of Firefox is almost instant. I have a new modern PC build with a modern and fast M2 SSD and took the exact same Firefox profile over. Now running Firefox starts basically instant. The tabs are not loaded in however, so obviously the webpages would start loading once clicking the tab. But Firefox itself is now instant operation for me.
You are probably right. My memories are of using Firefox on a PC with a mechanical hard drive. Back then Chrome seemed to have the upper hand. But these days Firefox loads instantly when you have an SSD. So yes, please ignore my earlier argument.
I've been using Firefox since just before the launch of 2.0, it's never let me down except for a once after Google Play Music went away and I had to use YouTube Music.
For a little while after the switch Firefox wouldn't play a few albums but Google Chrome would. But that was quickly fixed.
Nothing wrong with Firefox. The problem though is that too many people have been convinced that some how Google is better. I personally do not think that it is about details people argue about. It more about using what they know, what their friends know, or what their friends will think is cool. In the end you either care about having an open web and user focused browser or you do not. Most people do not it seems.
The challenge for Firefox is that if user base is too small, developers will no longer test their sites against it. The other issue is that it is not clear if Firefox can keep pace with Google. For example Firefox desktop does not support WPA, and mobile versions it is not complete. It will be interesting how things will evolve. Maybe Google will even take steps to actually keep Mozilla and Firefox around and viable just to keep the Monopoly busters away. Who knows.
For me I do care, and will use Firefox until it is not feasible to do so if that day comes. At the moment it is just fine. Who knows the future.