[X] My Assistant

according to [en.wikipedia.org] many sources it seems that Chrome is the most used browser around - and it seems so also in the HV section, which i lurk a bit more often.

personally i used it a bit and tbh i cannot understand why do people call it even a browser. it lacks many options, it doesn't give you a proper notice about what happens (just a generic "oops... something went wrong (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)" which makes you regret windows' BSODs) and if what [www.srware.net] SRWare claims is true, it's merely a tool for Google to acquire datas.

back then i used to use opera a lot, and to switch to firefox when support for JS became more needed. now i use both of them, but when i use computers outside i often (have to resort to) use Chrome as well.

afaik it's so spread because Google made deals with some manufacturers, so it's not even so different from Internet Explorer, but i guess it's only one of the factors.



what do you people think? what do you find so useful/irreplaceable on Chrome? did you try any other browser?

I'm using Chrome mostly because it doesn't get über-slow when you've got more than 1-2 plugins and extentions and because of the possibility to create skins very easily. I also prefer its new tat windows rather than firefox'es.

Doesn't mean that I haven't got things to reproach to chrome though, like its bad habit to be constantly writing on the hard drive or the fact that it's owned by a damn intrusive and despotical american company. That's why I still have Firefox around because I can use any extention I want, DownloadHelper for instance.

And other browsers... is there such a thing to begin with? I'd want Opera to be more of a standard, but heck everyone designs his website mostly for chrome and firefox. And the rest... no comment. If they were really good more people would talk about them.

tl;dr
I had to chose between plague and cholera, I chose the plague.

The fact that it's integrated with your Gmail/Google account is very useful. I have an Android phone so I keep all of my bookmarks/login details/etc. synched up between my computer, phone and laptop just by having the right account and browsing with Chrome. It's just way too convenient to ignore.

I've used a lot of browsers, from the original Internet Exporer on through Edge, Netscape Navigator, Firefox through many generations, chrome through many generations, safari, opera, and half a dozen or more obscure ones I can't be fucked to remember the names of.

I like Chrome better at the moment.

I keep running into issues with Firefox where it has memory leaks. If I leave one or more tabs open for days/weeks at a time, you can rest assured that Firefox will chew up all of your memory and crash at some point. As much as I overall like it, this problem has often made it impossible to use as my main browser.

I've also run into a lot of issues on a lot of websites I've used over the years where any browser other than chrome or firefox just doesn't run the site correctly. To include IE at several points in history.

This situation becomes even more of an issue when you start using personal scripts on various websites. Getting scripts built to work with other browsers has been a hassle. Hell, sometimes getting them built to work in Firefox instead of only Chrome, or Chrome instead of only Firefox has been an issue. Many script developers working for free don't feel inclined to build and support multiple versions. So whatever they prefer is what scripts are available. So if there is a website I want to use, and scripting is important to me, then whichever browser is easiest to install, use, and update scripts for becomes much more attractive. For awhile I disliked Chrome because they seemed to keep screwing up scripts that were important to me, and the developers of those scripts threw up their hands and only continued development in Firefox versions.

Integration with gdocs, gmail, hangouts, and Android has made Chrome much more attractive to me for the last few years. I've messed around with Microsoft's offerings and they've always been clunky and shitty. I've messed around with Mozilla's Thunderbird and so on, and never found it as seamless and useful.

So, overall Chrome works the best for me and the things I do. If that changes and I feel inclined to retool my working habits to a new browser, I'll do so.

Edit:
I've never used Iron. Looks pointless to me. Only real difference I see is 12 previews instead of 8; a feature I hardly use or care about.

The rest are either "I made my settings changes already, so Iron literally has nothing to offer me on that point" or "I already installed Chrome and that one-time thing already happened, so Iron literally has nothing to offer me" or worse, "I disagree with the stance Iron offers and want Google to make suggestions to me and Iron apparently can't provide that functionality."

There is privacy, and there is paranoia.

This post has been edited by Cryosite: Oct 19 2017, 21:38

it lacks many options, it doesn't give you a proper notice about what happens

[bugs.chromium.org] It's intentional

re. Chrome's market share - probably due to Android and Google - especially before the rise of smart phones I noticed that 'normies' (for lack of a better term) were a bit resistant towards using non-IE browsers (FF, Opera) but these same people eagerly embraced Chrome on desktops because (IMO) they 'trust' Google like they trusted Microsoft and IE.

IE, only time ever I used them is after installing Windows to download Firefox, which of course is the only desktop browser for me. I did use Pale Moon for a time of course as a protest at Mozilla's (at that time) crazy policy of forcing updates even when a user explicitly prohibited them that in FF's settings.

Other browsers: post-Netscape, other than Firefox - Opera (speedy, installed the newer one on my Galaxy tab), Dolphin/Zero (mobile only, would love a Dolphin Zero for desktop), Tor (curiosity). Midori (it came with a distro, I think) and Lynx (for terminal, to show-off/enhance my nerd cred around the normies (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif))

lynx, wow I haven't used that since I was last forced to for class (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)


But yeah I use chrome mostly and sometimes switch off between that and firefox but chrome I found handles things much more nicely whereas firefox has a bunch of memory leaks which I feel kills my computer if I have a ton of tabs open. I always have the habit of having a lot of tabs which I also found chrome handles quite better than other browsers I've tried.

+ as others have mentioned the integration with gmail, docs, hangouts, and such makes it kind of the goto normally.

also flash comes built-in so I can watch videos and such right out of the box unlike some other browsers which is helpful if I'm in a restrictive environment (for work or so). Although I suppose HTML5 is changing things around a bit?


But yeah I've also use maxthon as well (mostly for my adult content stuff (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) since i'd like to keep things separate. Maxthon is actually pretty nice, but I'm not sure why it doesn't get as much attention as other browsers.

wow, seems i forgot to reply, my bad (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

well, thank you all for your opinions. basically, the reasons to use chrome are:
- decondelite: stability (but not fully satisfied with many things)
- dynellen: integration with google services
- cryosite: stability, convenience with addons and integration
- azngel: stability and integration

basically, seems that chrome is explicitly designed to be as simple (or dumb, depending on what you actually look for in a browser) as possible and firefox's weak point is memory leaks (stability). without that, what's remaining is, uh... integrations with google services? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/duck.gif)
also, babasr has a point as well.


btw, has anyone ever used Vivaldi? as far as i understood it should be a fork of Opera, but closer to what the old Opera was before adopting Chrome's rendering engine

This post has been edited by Scremaz: Oct 30 2017, 23:34

FireFox definitely has memory leaks, but I like using it all the same with NoScript and some other privacy add-ons since it's great minus the odd application restart required to recoup performance.

I use Chrome as the defacto "don't want to mess around with NoScript/etc temporary permissions" for certain sites. Other than that I found most of Chrome's actual browser features mediocre or mostly inapplicable, save the process manager, which unfortunately my PC specs can't handle anyway, rendering it as a personal demerit currently.

Chrome conquered it's (desktop) market share mostly because of advertising on the google search page and bundling with installation wizards.
I used it for a while after it was introduced and it was pretty fast and lightweight, but over time they added a lot of features which kinda ruined the lightweght part for me, tough it took many years to fix the horrible text selection it had.

I still use it occasionally for the developer tools that are pretty good but wouldn't use it as main browser because I prefer the addons/customizable interface of Firefox and the ability to keep/search a large history.

Had some problems with Firefox memory leaks years ago but I don't really keep the browser open all the time since session manager does a fine job (also switching to ublock origin improved resource usage) and Firefox ESR is much more stable than Chrome where I've encountered many times the sad tab page.

There is a chromium-based browser Vivaldi. I like it coz it has a lot of cool shits like useful screenshot option, notes and cool history viewer and has a lot of options to customize it.

There is a chromium-based browser Vivaldi. I like it coz it has a lot of cool shits like useful screenshot option, notes and cool history viewer and has a lot of options to customize it.

jfy, you're basically using legacy Opera (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[sircmpwn.github.io] https://sircmpwn.github.io/2017/12/16/Firef...pery-slope.html

tl;dr Firefox has a "feature" that lets Mozilla remotely install invisible extensions whenever they want and without needing user consent, and they've been using it in some rather questionable ways (like installing an extension to promote a TV show)

[sircmpwn.github.io] https://sircmpwn.github.io/2017/12/16/Firef...pery-slope.html

tl;dr Firefox has a "feature" that lets Mozilla remotely install invisible extensions whenever they want and without needing user consent, and they've been using it in some rather questionable ways (like installing an extension to promote a TV show)

I've been predominately use Firefox for ages. And so far they have never installed anything like that.

Also, Firefox has memory leaks that are worse than Chrome? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

What have you guys been smoking n can I have sum of dat?

This post has been edited by q91: Dec 17 2017, 12:56