So, for the past few years I’ve been a devoted Firefox man. Really. Like many people, on every new computer (or any computer I got my hands on) I would put Firefox on it for one main reason, default browsers are terrible. Ever since Mac OS 9.5, I’ve deviated from the default browser. But then again, who really hasn’t?
But since 2004, I’ve been using Firefox with several forays into Opera. But even though Opera is great, I’ve always gone back to Firefox. When Google’s Chrome was first released, I used that for about 30 minutes before I couldn’t stand it and once again, went back to Firefox.
The question remains as to why?
Well, I guess it all came down to reliability. That coupled with extensions. NoScript, AdBlock, Ubiquity and XMarks for the past couple of years have been crucial and must-haves for me. But, several months ago, Ubiquity started screwing up a bit. It failed to load commands, it froze either the tab or the whole process and sometimes it would just drop-down but I couldn’t enter any text. Fine, I could live without Ubiquity but it would mean I would have to do things the long way. Then XMarks started sync with bookmarks I had deleted and I started to get lots of duplicates occurring. After a little bit of time, I could sort through that mess and I did. But after that, Firefox just refused to play nice. Period.
I would have to wait about 25-30 seconds for it to start and then once it opened, I would have to wait another 10 seconds before I could click anything or type anything. When I would close or minimise the window, the last bookmarks bar link I clicked on would remain on the screen at which I point I would have to re-open Firefox to get rid of. A few other minor problems got in my way at which point I had to find an alternative.
Opera was first on my list but remembering the amount of times I had gone to it and stopped using it shortly after. Also, its kinda limited customisation abilities and it’s horrid download manager.
Next on the list was Google Chrome. I’ve been using Chromium on my netbook for several months and love it. Super speedy, very few errors and a minimalist design. The last time I had used Chrome on Windows was before extensions was a feature. So, I had a brief look through the extensions and found XMarks and AdBlock. Win. Very big win.
To put it simply, I installed Chrome, synced my bookmarks and I was settled.
But what about a Ubiquity replacement? Well, sadly, there is still not a Chrome equivalent but with the Wikipedia toolbar extension, about half my Ubiquity needs are met. That was that. I made Chrome my default browser and haven’t looked back.
I was a Fox hunter but now I’m a Chrome nut.
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