Chrome is still the best performing browser (even if it's a resource hog).
I tried using Firefox for Linux for about 6 months last year, but had to give up. I got frustrated with the random UI pauses/latency, random crashes, and broken web rendering (not its fault). On the other hand, Chrome just works, and provides a very smooth, low latency experience on Linux. I don't like that I have to give up my privacy for a decent browsing experience on Linux, but that's the state of things.
Firefox.
I am using it since 2008. Once I tried to switch to chrome, but memory and other issues were there.
The initial reason I used firefox was for firebug,Chrome was not even launched at that time.
I have now a soft spot for Firefox, But on mobile I use Chrome, firefox lite is looking impressive but I will wait to get it matured.
That's just like... your opinion man. I never found Chrome to be vastly superior to Firefox. Sometimes it seemed faster, and other times it was a total hog. It's been back and forth like that ever since it came out.
Here's an anecdote for you. I worked at a computer store when Chrome was released. People would come in all the time, and they had no idea they had installed Chrome on their computer. They had no idea that it had taken over as the default browser. They didn't know they weren't using IE. Chrome had a super basic installer that asked one question, and it was linked right from Google's home page. I interacted with average computer users hundreds of times every month.
That's how I believe it became the dominant browser. Average people don't care that one browser is slightly faster than the other or has an omnibar.
From my experience, the reasons why people switched to Chrome have been because it renders pages much smoother and everything generally looks better. These were the original reasons that they moved over to Firefox from IE as well. I personally helped a number of relatives and friends make these switches.
Late last year, after many years on Chrome, I gave Firefox another serious look and I have switched back. Firefox has improved tremendously and I would prefer to give my support to Mozilla from a philosophical standpoint (the Chrome team does a lot of good work with regards to pushing forward the features of the web and its security but at the end of the day, Chrome is still a strategic piece of Google's business machine and not a philanthropic effort)
While I have my reasons for using Firefox, I don't see a compelling reason for most users already happy with Chrome to switch back. The average web user that I know doesn't really understand where web browsers come from and isn't very interested in learning about it. They just care whether the browser runs better or worse for the tasks that they do. (Except many still hate IE and will not even try Edge because the logo looks similar enough - that's a branding issue that Microsoft has)
What irritates me now are more and more sites that only work with Chrome (where they literally throw up a page that blocks access and says go download Chrome). These are sites that are not Google properties so I'm not blaming Google for this bad behavior, but again, I would like to support the diverse browser landscape that has existed to this point. I guess my main complaint to Google is to please stop popping up dialogs about Chrome across all of your properties. The browser I'm using works perfectly fine thank you, and you should be supporting the open web with your products anyway.
I've been using Firefox for quite awhile as my primary browser. I'm now to the point that I only use Chrome for checking websites I'm working on. I've had no complaints about Firefox. For me it is fast and stable.
I use both Chrome (for work) and Firefox (personal) on Windows. Beyond a few specifics, I often can't remember which I am using. There might be many differences under the hood, but in a regular usage Firefox is really damn good. Even on Google's properties. I also use Firefox exclusively on mobile, and same. At the end of the day, they are two very mature, slightly different executions of the same concept. I get the frustrations that may exist on the power user / dev side, but I think our crowd is generally not fair enough in recognizing the tremendous efforts it take to compete with Google with a fraction of its resources.
Note: I use Chrome for work to 1/ isolate my work from personal sessions without the hassle of containers or profiles, and 2/ because I work for a web app targeting Chrome (per the market share).
I've been using Firefox as my default and only web browser on Windows and Linux since it was called Firebird and Phoenix before that (or was it the other way around?). When Chrome first came out, Google's aggressive attempts at shoving it down my throat on what seemed like every single page of every single Google service, made the contrarian in me really, really not want to try it, and I never did. Never felt like I was missing anything, either.
I switched to firefox for personal use only. I still like chrome for work. It's a good way to try out firefox and it also separates my work and home life which is nice.
I was using Firefox in the past few months because Chrome felt slower after the new update.
I am back to using Chrome however. It's really hard to break the habit even though I made it a conscious effort to use Firefox and have enjoyed it thoroughly.
My only gripe with Firefox would be watching youtube I see a Adobe process that takes up a lot of memory even though I force HTML5, it seems to revert to Adobe.
All in all Firefox is the Chrome browser I once loved, but now that Chrome is working back to what it was doing, I forgot about Firefox.
This is how I feel also. I want to use Firefox but Chrome just works better. Mostly things actually sync properly with Chrome. Tabs, settings, extensions, etc. I was a Firefox user since the Phoenix days but switched to Chrome exactly a year ago as Firefox just wasn't meeting all my needs. Want me to switch back? Then fix things like sync and transparent restore of the user profile on a new install, etc.
I switched to Chrome a year ago and while it was a little rough at the start I am very happy overall now. Shame but Firefox was just so much slower that it was annoying me. Plus Chrome syncs everything much better than Firefox ever did.
There seems to be common acknowledgment throughout HN discussions that Chrome is a better browser than Firefox. Why?
I segregate different parts of my online activity into different browsers (work, personal, side projects, etc) and use Chrome, Firefox, and Brave all daily. With the exception of learning some of the UI differences, and the built-in privacy features of Brave, I use all the browsers interchangeably and without any issues (I manually add uBlock Origin to Chrome and FF).
Without focusing too much on the personal subjective elements, what are the definitive features that makes Chrome a better browser?
I've been using Firefox some lately because my work has a heavyhanded managed system-wide Chrome profile and one other problem is that Firefox is just buggy and slow in some noticeable ways that Chrome is not.
This would be funnier if Chrome for Android wasn't trying to shove tab groups down my throat for the ninth time. This time without an obscure flag to disable it.
Looking at why established users complain about Firefox isn't why billions of people moved to Chrome, from many sources. It was the default on our phone and that makes it an obvious desktop choice.
(Not to mention it does do some things nicely, I just much prefer FF for webdev)
Firefox has been my main browser for about 15 years. Never saw the advantage in Chrome, aside from using it once in a while when a webpage didn't work correctly on Firefox. These latest years we are seeing very aggressive behaviour from Chrome (reducing effectiveness of ad blocking, for example) and that just reinforces my decision.
I switched back to firefox last year and haven't looked back. I still use chrome on another laptop sometimes, the performance difference from my human perspective is literally zero.
These days, it's much more common for me to encounter a website that works in firefox but not chrome than the other way around. I actually switched for good when I had to use firefox to file my taxes, because the IRS free self-file site was hopelessly broken on chrome.
Made the switch around 3 months ago to Firefox and it's been great.
I don't miss anything from Chrome and it's a really solid and fast browser. Mobile iOS could be a bit faster but it's okay.
Desktop Version is the best browser out right now (in my opinion)
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