Observations on Firefox 6

[Isthmus]

I don't know about you guys, but Firfox used to be my favorite browser by far. I was a big supporter of their accelerated upgrade cycle and absolutely love what they did with their new "chrome-like" interface. However ans of the new update, I find that FF6 is definitely more slugish and unstable than 4 and 5 where. I still love the new interface though (thanks Chrome for leading the way). My biggest pet peeve about FF's new release cycle is that extensions no longer work or have time to catch up with the most recent release. As a result most extensions become useless once FF updates. Since the updates are so frequent, many fantastic extensions cant seem to keep up. This annoys me to no end.

Chrome on the other hand somehow manages to keep all their extensions functional regardless of update (and their cycle is just as fast as FF's). T boot Chrome seems to be getting faster and more stable, while FF seems to be going in the opposite direction. Still there are three things that keep me from making chrome my default browser:

1. the sheer number of extensions - Yes even with broken extensions, firefox has an enormous number of them that chrome doesn't have at all. if you are an extension user you can still get more of what you want with firefox than with chrome;

2. a customizable interface. with chrome, all you can do is change the theme. with FF you can change themes, buttons, move buttons around, ad or remove macros, move the location of tabs, change the size of the buttons, etc. In other words, you can customize the interface to work for you which you just can't do with chrome (IMHO this is Chrome's biggest fail); and

3. The ability to right click on an image and view it. On FF you can right click on any image and select view image. The browser then takes you to a page showing only that image. Until the Chrome 13 update Chrome did not have this ability. you could copy the image URL, but you had to open your own window and past the URL to see the image by itself. now Chrome has the ability to see the image, but it opens it in a new tab, which I find annoying. I think FF's approach to this is much better.

On the positive side, Chrome is much faster, more secure, works amazingly well with extensions - especially those made by Google (switching between accounts and google services in chrome is a breeze), is super stable, and it benefits from most of the chrome OS features (such as an large and growing number of browser based apps). Chrome has been a god send to my kid, since I can now add a ton of games to her computer that she can play independently of websites.

[matt.wu]

I gave up on Firefox a couple releases ago. Chrome has been getting better and better.

[SCM64]

Been on Chrome since it first came out and have not looked back. We have to use IE at work and it's ok. Used FF for quite a while and enjoyed it, but Chrome has been rock solid and I couldn't tell use last time I have any kind of issue.

Although since I am on the iPad so much, I guess I'm really a Safari guy.

[apnk]

Yep, quit using Bloatfox a few years ago. I use Opera (my fav because it has a lot of things already built in which you would need extensions for on the other browsers) and Chrome.

[userfriendly]

Been on Chrome for awhile now, ever since it came out on the Mac. Love the speed, the clean look, and especially the omnibar.

[Isthmus]

So does anyone have any insights regarding Opera, as it compares to Chrome?

I used Opera some time ago, but was not impressed by it and returned to what I was using at the time (FF). Any thoughts?

[ezcheese]

I gave up on Firefox a couple releases ago. Chrome has been getting better and better.

Me too.

[sharkfin]

yup, my FF has been buggy and kept crashing on me.

I'm back on Chrome again. But Chrome also has some bugs on a few of my fave websites.

No perfect browser.

[bigolac]

I was just going to throw the book at FF when the newest version would not work with one of my extensions - mouse gestures, I think.

Started using Chrome - I don't think I'm going back. I can customize my own mouse gestures, which I don't think I could do in Firefox. Things just seem to 'work' better. Seems faster as well. I like the apps as well - canvas rider, anyone?

I've also found mFlow, a music app. Just punch in your favorite group and listen away! Probably nothing more than a web link, but it is neat and free.

- Adam