When I heard that Lefty advocates had managed to hound a traditional marriage supporter from his position at Mozilla’s CEO, I did what any sensible opponent of California’s Proposition 8 and supporter of Maryland’s Question 6 would do: I immediately dumped Firefox and found another browser (in my case, Chrome). I support gay marriage. I do not support demonizing the roughly half of the country that disagrees with me.
What I did not realize, however, was just how bad Firefox has gotten over the last few years. I am absolutely shocked by how much faster Chrome loads and operates, and it’s apparently a heck of a lot more stable, too. What makes it more startling is that I had Chrome on my Chromebook; I guess that I assumed that the faster speeds there was just due to Google optimizing the computer for its browser. No, it works better on desktops, too. And you can even import your bookmarks and passwords.
So, seriously: if you use Firefox and you’re ticked with Mozilla, dump Firefox and find another browser that suits you. It’s standing on principle AND will make your life easier, to boot.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: Even if you’re not ticked with Mozilla, honestly, I’d tell you to switch anyway. Firefox is really bad these days.
I’d been thinking about making the switch, and had installed Chrome about a week ago. But now after seeing you take the step I fired it up and imported my bookmarks from Firefox, and indeed it is much faster, especially on script heavy pages like the NRO Corner.
A couple of questions for other Chrome users. (1) is there any way to make it skip the startup page where it wants me to sign into my Google account? and (2) is there a way to move the tabs below the bookmark toolbar instead of having them on the top of the window?
1) Yes. 2) I dunno. Probably.
Thanks for your very helpful response.
A little searching led me to a number of Chrome support forums where users have been asking for my #2 above since at least 2010, and Google has steadfastly refused to implement it.
Maybe I’ll investigate Opera.
Changing the home page can be done under “Settings” — the three-bars on the far-right, just under the tabs will bring up the menu to get there. There are also settings for adjusting what gets synced with their services; disabling them all might disable the “log into Google” feature.
I think the reason they haven’t moved the tabs is because, conceptually, the address bar is for the currently selected tab; putting the tabs between the content and the address bar would break the visual connection between the two. It’s a UI consideration.
I shifted to Chrome already .. it seems to handle some of the corporate sites that Mozilla/Firefox just can’t figure out and anything that saves me from MSIE is a good thing, even if it’s from Google.
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Mew
In the past, Chrome would not play Netflix unless you did a little song and dance to fool it. Is that still the case?
Well I’ve been using it since the early days and have never had that problem, so, probably not? But I’m not sure what was preventing it from working for you.
Now… imagine what IE is like…
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Now… imagine what IE 7 is like…
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Horrified. Just horrified. I’d switch if hadn’t already. Sadly, do you think any of the other browser makers would have stood up for him if he was their CEO? I don’t.
I love how their press release talks about how tolerant they are after they fire someone for daring to think differently.
We all have to think precisely the same things, because diversity.
I have never used Firefox.
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I know what everyone is going to say, but I am an IE person. Yell at me all you want, I am not going to conform to the unconformists of the world.
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However I do use Chome on my Nexus 7 tablet and I have no complaints.
I also use IE, I’ve had bad experience with Chrome personally, and I never could stand Firefox.
#$^^.
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I was hoping he’d at least stand strong.
I’d have preferred that he’d fire the #$%^wads calling for his head.
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I’d have preferred to stay with Firefox. Their privacy policy was so much better than Google’s and MicroSoft’s. (Admittedly, damning with faint praise, there.)
Done. Switched to Chrome.
I have to say, that was the cleanest import I’ve ever done. I was expecting a hitch somewhere along the line, and there weren’t any. It even kept the autocomplete of unbookmarked sites I commonly type into the address bar. (Like this one.)
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And yes, it’s loads faster.
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Some praise for Mozilla: It uninstalled itself quickly, cleanly, and without complaint. Yes, that should be normal, but we all know it isn’t.
The problem is that Chrome is a poorly designed, bloated piece of closed-source spyware installing junk, not to mention yet another piece of the Google Walled Garden.
Opera has decided it wants to be Chrome Jr, and IE is, well, IE. That pretty much leaves Firefox.
I’m trying out Opera atm, but I don’t see a tool like noscript for it and a quick search seems to indicate it may not be possible for Chrome based browsers.
Anybody know if there is something equivalent?
IIRC, you can turn off javascript, like you can turn off flash. There may be something with more granularity than that, it might only be in old versions. I like to just turn it off, so that is what I looked for in Opera.
Yeah, I’ve got over 1000 tabs open in my Firefox right now. I’m not going to try switching, because that sounds as much fun as kicking a dead whale down the beach.
I’ve been ticked off at Microsoft for decades, and Google for a good long while, so I guess I’ll just add Mozilla to the list. I’m having a hard time getting used to Chrome, and Opera doesn’t even seem to have a way to import my Firefox bookmarks (which Chrome did nicely).
For as little as I care about browsers, safari on my iPad works fine
I have an old knoppix live CD that comes with something called, IIRC, Ice Weasel.
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I’ve seen several sorts of light weight browsers on linux distributions, and amybe there is something obscure that will work better for me.
I dunno. Google made a toolbar that tried to install with junk sometime back. I’ve made a point since not to install software made by that company. I do not trust them as software makers.
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As someone who thinks ‘gay marriage’ should make sense to a fujoshi who considers mpreg real, I’m not sure this is grounds to be rid of firefox. Remember the whole ‘content and tools should not be avoided merely because content or tool creators are politically wrong, have wrong values, or are generally vile’ argument.
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Do I still read Mercedes Lackey? Sometimes. Do I still read Wen Spencer? Sure. Do I still read Stross? I’m debating that, but if not, it will mainly be due to taste.
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Yeah, with software, maybe being able to trust the organization is important. If mozilla’s been cancered by the leninist organization weapon, maybe they will slip in all sorts of crud in the updates.
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I probably ought to do some research for when I next get a hold of a computer and start installing such.
I think I have my original NCSA Mosaic browser software around here somewhere….
NoScript and AdBlock. Those are non-negotiable for me, and Google will never let them come to be. “Script-heavy” sites aren’t heavy for me. I have a higher (not infinite degree) of protection against drive-bys. I see ads only when and where I choose. And none of them flash, or move, or do anything other than sit there. Maybe not the full multi-media experience the ad writers planned for me, but that suits me just dandy.
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I use Chrome on my mobile and my tablet, and it’s flat-out horrible, but that might just be my relatively old phone and tablet.
I use AdBlock and NoScript with Chrome, mebbe you should try a newer version?
As someone who supports free expression and think that gays could already get most of their desires via current contract law, I’d be more likely to drop Mozilla for firing the dude than the dude giving a (relative to him) tiny amount of money for Prop 8. But, if I’m going to switch, I’d want to switch to a browser not run by people who would want me to die in a grease fire. So what, pray tell, is the conservative alternative to Chrome and I.E.?
I switched to Chrome ages ago as FF had become impossibly slow and buggy and I wanted to link across my devices…but had I not I’d dump it today.
This absolutely stinks and it’s going to get worse after the recent SCOTUS decision…the left will go after high profile individuals to shame and destroy. The so-called “Roman” tactic…crucify a few and the rest fall into line.
Eich is not a just a suit, he co-founded Mozilla and wrote Javascript…he is a high value scalp and a warning to the tech industry not to support conservative causes.
FF user for probably 7 years, I just spent the last 2 hours downloading Chromium (open source Chrome that Neil recommended on RedState) and getting the extensions that I wanted working (Ad Block, Do Not Track, FB Purity, etc) and then making sure that it works for a while before I delete FF…
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Wow, I know that FF was slow and buggy, Chromium is much, much faster.
Sounds like some people on the left are also crying foul over Mozilla.
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/04/03/the-hounding-of-brendan-eich/
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I’m kinda surprised, but I find it heartening that some on the left are getting disgusted with their side’s behavior.
Dumped Chrome a while back for various reasons. Have stripped FF of updates at least twice as they have impeded performance. Checked out Opera but I think I’m going to go with Safari for ease of use reasons. Have been looking at dropping FF for a while now as I’ve noticed problems accessing conservative websites in several of the updates.
Well was going to wait a week before uninstalling but after looking around some I decided to kill it with fire. It’s gone Jim.