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Chrome 15 Overtakes IE 8 For Top Browser Spot

An anonymous reader writes "If you're reading this on Chrome, you're part of a wave that has ditched Internet Explorer or Firefox and helped vault Google's browser to the top Web browser spot worldwide." Are you reading this on Chrome? (I'm using Chromium right now, but that's pretty close.)

507 comments

  1. First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    IE lagging behind again.

    1. Re:First post from firefox by InsightIn140Bytes · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's just stupid comparison. Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't. This compares two exact versions, Chrome 15 and IE8. If you compare just browsers, IE is still easily number one at 50%, while Chrome has 25%.

    2. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've compiled Firebox from source. Also Removed the spy-ware.

    3. Re:First post from firefox by Joce640k · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up...!

      --
      No sig today...
    4. Re:First post from firefox by rhyder128k · · Score: 5, Interesting

      An excellent point. It's also worth noting that Firefox is the most popular browser in Europe. Probably due to those EU regulations about Windows offering a default choice. Y'know the ones that people said would have no effect anyway.

      http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/01/04/us-internet-europe-idUKTRE70324F20110104

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    5. Re:First post from firefox by InsightIn140Bytes · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Same goes for Opera, which is extremely popular in Russia and CIS countries and actually beats any other browser. It has like 50% market share in some countries. http://my.opera.com/dstorey/blog/2009/03/16/a-look-at-desktop-market-share-cis-edition

    6. Re:First post from firefox by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Let's not let logic get in the way of "mathitized" activism.
      We no longer see it important to teach people real math so the group who can come up with MaGiCaL numbers must be right.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    7. Re:First post from firefox by multimediavt · · Score: 2

      It's just stupid comparison. Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't. This compares two exact versions, Chrome 15 and IE8. If you compare just browsers, IE is still easily number one at 50%, while Chrome has 25%.

      Didn't Microsoft just release a statement saying they were going to be doing the same thing? So we'll have to wait for that to happen before the comparison could possibly be a valid judge of what browser is most used. My web logs still say IE, which does make me sad like bull. }:(

    8. Re:First post from firefox by msauve · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "IE is still easily number one at 50%, while Chrome has 25%."

      What's it matter? I'm much more interested in what percentage of web sites are W3C compliant. When that approaches 100%, then browsers will compete on true merit (speed, UI, etc.), not their support of proprietary extensions and how well they put up with badly coded HTML.

      I'm sick and tired of "browser x isn't supported," and "this site best viewed with..." crap, which is just indicative of clueless website developers.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    9. Re:First post from firefox by Kjella · · Score: 1

      50%? No, more like below 40%, Chrome 27%, Firefox 25%, Safari about 6% and Opera 2%. At least according to statcounter it's a loooong time since IE passed the 50% mark. Like september last year or thereabouts.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    10. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True but it's worth noting that IE versions are not exactly compatible and tend to be a headache for developers, so in a way, they are different...

    11. Re:First post from firefox by Requiem18th · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I also want to add that all the popularity of Firefox is due to it's own quality.

      Chrome is aggressively advertised in all Google services, specially Youtube.
      It also has TV ads including Super Bowl ads, using celebrities like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and even Hatsune Miku!

      It also tries to sneak installs by sponsoring freeware downloads with chrome bundled. Opt-out of course.

      They even messed up with the opt out option to make it hard to opt-out. I am specially offended by that *because* it is such a petty thing to muck with. It was a simple, straight forward Windows form but the opt-out option was semi-disabled. Oh come on that's just childish!

      So I'm not impressed by Chrome's market share. It mostly shows the efficacy of strong marketing. I'm not saying it is a bad browser, or that Firefox is perfect, just that Chrome's success isn't really due to some sense of superiority.

      And another thing.

      What is with Chrome fanboys? Google is a for-profit corporation vent on market domination. It is NOT a good thing if Chrome kills Firefox, the last thing we need is another browser monoculture.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    12. Re:First post from firefox by LordLucless · · Score: 1

      Version numbering's all artificial anyway. The difference in render between Chrome 5 and Chrome 15 is far far less than that between IE7 and IE8. Each IE iteration is like an entirely different browser. Internet Explorer is the only browser that I need to code/test for each individual version.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    13. Re:First post from firefox by elashish14 · · Score: 1

      To be fair, the article doesn't state anywhere that it was due to the browser ballot. It could have just been a natural trend.

      Nevertheless, good to see that there aren't any dominant browsers anymore. As long as there's a multitude of browsers, it means that there will be standards compliance...

      or rather, Flash. ughh

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
    14. Re:First post from firefox by similar_name · · Score: 1

      Sure, but since IE is automatically installed on 86% of operating systems (ie. Windows) It's fair to compare browser versions since you generally have to download chrome to begin with.

    15. Re:First post from firefox by at_slashdot · · Score: 1

      Not only this, but the interest in which browser is on top should decline, the very fact that people give a damn which browser is more popular is because browsers are not compatible and people hope their favorite browser would become the default browser that people would code site for.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
    16. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I would say past tense. Firefox has hardly been exemplary for a long time, though its doing a little better catching up right now.

    17. Re:First post from firefox by BrokenHalo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I also want to add that all the popularity of Firefox is due to it's own quality.

      True. Firefox is now a rock-solid, stable and mature browser. Having said that, I have actually been using Chromium as my default browser for a few months, for just two reasons:
      1. Chromium loads webpages perceptibly faster, and
      2. because Chromium by default takes up marginally less real-estate on my laptop screen with menubars, toolbars and whatnot that are not necessary.

      However, if Chromium were not available, I would not be persuaded to use Chrome, as I am not happy about the possibility of anything I do being relayed to Google.

    18. Re:First post from firefox by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Interesting...........completely anecdotal, but I don't know anyone that uses chrome, much less even knows it exists for the most part of them.

      Hell, most of them I had to explain what FF was....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    19. Re:First post from firefox by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Hatsune Miku!

      Who?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    20. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same goes for Opera, which is extremely popular in Russia ...

      In quasi-capitalist Russia, Opera browses you!

      Wait ... hold on...never mind.

    21. Re:First post from firefox by Intropy · · Score: 1

      That depends entirely on why you want the data in the first place. It you're interested in a browser dick wagging contest then the version doesn't matter. If you're looking at preference trends, the version probably doesn't matter as much, but you might care about the difference between "really old" and "new." If you're planning on what features to use in your website version being released in a year, then you really, really care about version.

    22. Re:First post from firefox by mustPushCart · · Score: 1

      It says more about how much inertia users have with regard to browser changes more than anything. It took me a long time to consider switching browsers (from IE) but it took me a really short time to start using chrome and discovering its awesome features.
      And yes they are awesome in every respect. Chrome is simply... better.

    23. Re:First post from firefox by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Funny

      Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't.

      So basically, it does the exact opposite of what Google does for Android.

    24. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can buy the speed argument (hell, the website I help administer loads faster on Chrome), but what are these features that Chrome has that Firefox is missing?

    25. Re:First post from firefox by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I also want to add that all the popularity of Firefox is due to it's own quality.

      By "quality" I assume you really mean "qualities", i.e. the combination of its appearance, UI, stability, compatibility, and so on. And that's the problem with FF today, the market is broken up into people sticking with 3.6.x because it's a significant improvement on all of its successors, people on a random spread of versions up to whatever we're on this week (I don't want to post a version number because by the time this post appears it'll have changed), and people who've abandoned it for Chrome, which FF seems to be trying to copy, but badly.

    26. Re:First post from firefox by edalytical · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Chrome's marketing is downright deceptive. After running a test on speedtest.net you'd be presented with a ad for Chrome that read something like: "Internet speed not what you expected? Try a faster browser." That's, in my opinion, a lie. Google isn't the saint we thought it was. It's a fucking advertising company. That's worse than any operating system or office suite company that was once the market leader.

      --
      Win a signed Stephen Carpenter ESP Guitar from the Deftones: http://def-tag.com/?r=0008781
    27. Re:First post from firefox by pinkeen · · Score: 1

      I don't think that it's only advertising. IMO Chrome provides the fastest and smoothest web experience out there. I am not a fanboy. In fact, knowing how much data is being collected by google makes me a bit uncomfortable.

      I showed chrome to friends and family. Ex. take my dad - he was accustomed to FF's interface. He is not proficient with computers so once he know something he's very reluctant to change, but once he used chrome for a while he didn't look back. Same for a bunch of my friends and rest of the family. They were simply amazed by the sheer speed of page loads, etc.

      DISCLAIMER I don't know about IE, cause I haven't used it for a long time and I didn't let any of my family members use it (well, it was pure evil then).

    28. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both have approximately 0% market share on less popular architectures like PPC. The Chrome V8 javascript engine is ARM or x86, and there is no way to get IE8 supported outside of Windows.

    29. Re:First post from firefox by machine321 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's that song from Lion King... you know, Hatsune Mikuta.

    30. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Now if only it (Opera) had 50% market share in countries that have a tradition of people paying for software.

      Your weak flamebait attempt gets my vote for dumbest comment of the month.

    31. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be fucking stupid if you paid for your browser.

    32. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is however a great thing if Chrome kills IE. Even IE9 is so far behind in supporting standards.

    33. Re:First post from firefox by asavage · · Score: 1

      Chrome also comes on some new computers. The Lenovo Thinkpad I bought last month came with chrome.

    34. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      menubars, toolbars and whatnot
      huh?
      pretty much every browser out there just has one line of tabs with a button on the same line now
      that applies to firefox, chrome, opera and IE

      Just when was the last time you used firefox - firefox 3.6?

    35. Re:First post from firefox by MojoRilla · · Score: 1

      Yes, there are poorly coded sites. A ton of them. Welcome to the web.

      But saying that everything should be W3C complaint and everything would be better is nonsense.

      Do you think W3C is a single standard? Never changing or growing? Are you aware that today's proprietary features are often the W3C specs of tomorrow? Do you think that there are ways of interpreting the spec that might be to spec but different? Does the W3C specify performance for every task in a browser?

      The W3C is a standards body. Necessarily behind the curve. Browsers have significantly different characteristics, and W3C or any other standard isn't going to make those differences disappear. Some sites will look better in one browser or another. Especially if the site is pushing the envelope.

    36. Re:First post from firefox by Just+Brew+It! · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed. I love Chrome (ditched Firefox for Chrome a couple of years ago when the long load times and sluggishness of Firefox on Linux became too much to bear), but this story amounts to little more than playing silly games with statistics.

    37. Re:First post from firefox by Nimey · · Score: 5, Informative

      Back in the day Opera /was/ worth the $39 license fee. This was in the days of Netscape 4 (ptui!) and Internet Explorer 4 (bletch), and it was really the only decent browser; didn't crash your system on a regular basis or bring it to a crawl.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    38. Re:First post from firefox by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 3, Funny

      Do you live in Cuba? Or a war-ravaged African country? Or bumfuck Utah?

    39. Re:First post from firefox by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Not to mention does the chromium offshoots count as Chrome or other? Because I've been handing out Comodo Dragon to all my customers and have no clue if we would be counting as Chrome or not. I've also noticed more Chromium installs on machines that come through my door, it seems to be getting some of the geek buzz like early Firefox did. I wouldn't be surprised if there are several other chromium based out there and who knows what they show up as either.

      I do think this is a good lesson though, ignore your users at your own peril. MSFT ignored their users with IE for the longest time by letting IE 6 rot which gave them a bad rep to this very day, and Firefox ignored its users and went nuts on the bling bling and version numbers, thus running many users off.I know that after FF 4 I had to find something else because of all the complaints from customers about its lack of speed and "making everything jerky" which was FF slamming the shit out of the CPU.

      But trying to judge simply by referrer i don't think will really work. i mean didn't Opera show itself as IE to keep from having compatibility problems? I'm pretty sure it did back in the day and i have no idea what SWIron or QTWeb (great browser BTW) or the myriad of other little browsers list themselves as, wouldn't be surprised if they simply chose Chrome for compatibility reasons.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    40. Re:First post from firefox by theurge14 · · Score: 1

      "Google isn't the saint we thought it was. It's a fucking advertising company. That's worse than any operating system or office suite company that was once the market leader."

      Or perhaps they're an open-source software company that finally discovered an actual business model.

    41. Re:First post from firefox by mustPushCart · · Score: 1

      Speed is a good enough reason to switch but:
      1. The address bar search has to be one of the best things about it. Nothing makes non chrome users jaw drop when they see me type wik google chrome and watch the chrome page load up. Same for youtube and most other big websites.
      2. New tab page is awesome, thumbnails of my tabs and the last visited sites is awesome (they screwed this up recently requiring 2 clicks instead of one)
      3. Incognito mode does not close my main browser without asking me like firefox does
      4. Does not crash often, i work using the UnityWebPlayer which will often cause browser crashed, yet when the unity plugin crashes in chrome it doesnt take tehw hole browser down with it.
      5. PDF native, wow, the first time i read this in the news somewhere i instnatly upgraded my chrome and ditched whatever pdf reader i was using. Now i even open downloaded pdfs in chrome and it streams(!) pdfs.
      6. Angry birds! and other assorted games in the app store.
      7. moving tabs around is soooo much nicer in chrome

    42. Re:First post from firefox by mustPushCart · · Score: 1

      sorry that first comment should be:
      The address bar search has to be one of the best things about it. Nothing makes non chrome users jaw drop when they see me type wik [tab] google chrome and watch the wiki page load up. Same for youtube and most other big websites.

    43. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, Google fanbois are like Apple fanbois. Except they're Google fanbois.

      There's not many Firefox fanbois. People advocating it are generally the ones believing in a Free and Open web (with the capitals). Those people don't make neaaaaaarly as much noise.

      I don't know if it's a sad or a good thing.

    44. Re:First post from firefox by EdgeCreeper · · Score: 2

      This may have been a bit later, but there was the ad supported version, which was fine.

    45. Re:First post from firefox by kangsterizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hopefully 1. will be fixed soon. Chrome and Firefox are roughly as fast. Some pages load faster on Firefox. Some faster on Chrome.
      But ALL Google pages load faster on Chome (and Chromium of course). That's because they all use Google-only protocols (such as SPDY) which do make a difference.

      That's how you segment the web by the way, even if it's using open source stuff. Thanksfully, for that very one (SPDY) it's going to be in Firefox soon, hence, 1 would be fixed soon. But I'm *sure* Google will find other ways.

      They're probably going to include Chome-only tags (oh wait, they already do that! offline gmail anyone?) or NaCl components, or Dart only component.

      And that's why Google's actually turning evil after all.

    46. Re:First post from firefox by tbird81 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Take your aspie pill. It was obviously a joke.

    47. Re:First post from firefox by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So you have the source code for Chrome and have built it from source?

      You have any of the really important Google software, i.e. the backend source code?

    48. Re:First post from firefox by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Just because you don't know someone who uses it in no way means it's unpopular.
      It just means you have a rather small cadre of people you talk to.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    49. Re:First post from firefox by bananaquackmoo · · Score: 2

      It's crystal clear that you sir are not a website developer. Have you ever had to troubleshoot bugs specific to various versions of internet explorer? Including CSS, Javascript, and more, on LARGE scale websites? Yeah, I didn't think so.

    50. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The primary Vocaloid. A personification for the voice used in the vocaloid software. The software uses inputted lyrics to create songs using the chosen voice. It is big in Japan, where they even have concerts where they project Miku onto a screen while she sings. A very novel technology, which is growing with more exposure.

    51. Re:First post from firefox by anon208 · · Score: 0

      That isn't true. Even if Firefox went away there would still be a great browser out there. It is called Opera. Oh wait... I see... Opera is like Ron Paul in the 2012 republican campaign.

    52. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Firefox = Adblock plus = my favorite browser.

    53. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A computer-generated singer, the first in the Vocaloid series of synthetic singers.
      If you know who she is, congratulations, you're a bit of a nerd or Japanese.
      If you think she qualifies as a celebrity on par with Lady Gaga & Justin Bieber, congratulations, you are one of the biggest otaku losers on the planet, and I'm actually surprised that you know who the other two are.

    54. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm sick and tired of "browser x isn't supported," and "this site best viewed with..." crap, which is just indicative of clueless website developers.

      Your last point is hog wash. You should have stopped before you said something silly. The truth might be that a site does in fact look bad in non-compliant browsers, and telling the visitors the reason (ie, "the site looks bad because you are using Internet Explorer, try one of these other browsers for a better experience.") is reasonable and is a kindness on the part of the site developer. I agree that it's best to code to standards, but we also are responsible for explaining how a user can get a better experience.

    55. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...it took me a really short time to start using chrome and discovering its awesome features.

      Name one.

    56. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me youtube it for you?
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DTXO7KGHtjI#t=40s

    57. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wtf are you talking about?
      Last I checked, SPDY was disabled by default on chrome and you have to enable it in the about:flags page.
      I am not saying that they don't test Chrome on their own sites, but it's not using any unfair advantage for the moment.

    58. Re:First post from firefox by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      Parent poster may sound like a troll, but he has a point - software piracy is widespread in Russia (and was even more so), and one of the reasons why Opera grew so popular there was because it was a decent alternative browser long before Mozilla/Firefox were usable, and no-one cared about it being non-free back then - I've never seen a legally licensed copy of Opera back in the day, everyone just used keygens.

      Also, 50% is a bit of an overstatement - the real number today is more like 30%, tied for the top spot with Firefox.

    59. Re:First post from firefox by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Ironically, last time I've seen "your browser is not supported" on any website, it was owned by Google - it was when I enabled the new (i.e. Google's) redesign on blogger.com while using Opera.

    60. Re:First post from firefox by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Google automatically updates all newest versions of Android to their oldest one? ~

    61. Re:First post from firefox by darkmeridian · · Score: 1

      Chrome also has the following advantages that are under the hood yet still very important (for nerds like me):
      (1) Chrome is sandboxed.
      (2) Plugins are more secure in Chrome.
      (3) It is multi-threaded in a way that benefits more from multi-cores.
      (4) Chrome is faster.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
    62. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These arnt adds by google these are adds by speedtest with a google referal link

    63. Re:First post from firefox by dave87656 · · Score: 1

      Interesting...........completely anecdotal, but I don't know anyone that uses chrome, much less even knows it exists for the most part of them.

      Hell, most of them I had to explain what FF was....

      Odd, everyone I know here in Germany, except one guy, uses Chrome or FF. More use FF. Only one guy uses IE and he is a die-hard Windows fan who probably has Windows sheets on his bed. ;-)

    64. Re:First post from firefox by dave87656 · · Score: 1

      Same goes for Opera, which is extremely popular in Russia and CIS countries and actually beats any other browser. It has like 50% market share in some countries.

      Now if only it had 50% market share in countries that have a tradition of people paying for software...

      Since Opera is free, why would that matter?

    65. Re:First post from firefox by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

      firefox + adblock pluse + https everywhere + no-script = mine

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    66. Re:First post from firefox by SeaFox · · Score: 2

      Hatsune Miku!

      Who?

      The synthetic singer. A holographic pop idol from Japan.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

    67. Re:First post from firefox by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 2

      unless they use debian

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    68. Re:First post from firefox by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

      dude why the flash hatred, not just you on this site especially and growing else where flash is not the devil. i like flash it lets me watch copyrighted drm'ed movies and shows on linux, apple, windows or any other major system while i do not like drm i realize it is a necessary evil at this point and flash is the most benign form of it because it at least will run on my free/open-source operating system. if it were not for flash i could not watch hulu without loading windows in a virtual machine and i could not then get my fix of chuck and merlin without breaking the law or paying Microsoft. long live flash!

      (i know i will be modded troll for this but i am not)

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    69. Re:First post from firefox by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

      and for a very good reason and operating system is a much more complicated thing than a web browser and when it comes to embeded systems like phones they are often highly modified and customized to run on that hardware if you just flashed every phone with android using the same image you would have a tremendous amount of breakage and incompatibilities i mean what would happen if mickysoft updated every xp computer to vista? or worse yet automatically to say vista 64bit and suddenly a program you used every day that depended on a 16 bit dll no longer worked. you would throw a shit fit wouldn't you? same story *10 for a phone

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    70. Re:First post from firefox by Kierthos · · Score: 1

      Counterpoint: You still can't put tabs below the address bar in Chrome.

      (I didn't say it was a strong counterpoint. It's just something that gets on my nerves.)

      --
      Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
    71. Re:First post from firefox by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 2

      Parent poster may sound like a troll, but he has a point - software piracy is widespread in Russia (and was even more so)

      That was exactly the point I was trying to make, although it seems to have got lost in the giant whooshing noise: If you're trying to make money from your software then being very popular in a geographic region where piracy is the norm isn't terribly useful. This will no doubt again get modded as a troll by people who haven't lived there and don't know how it works - you pay whoever runs your microraion for net access and it's sort of understood that that comes with access to all the pirated software, music, and video content you can eat. If for some reason what you wan't isn't there, everyone knows someone who can get it for them.

    72. Re:First post from firefox by segin · · Score: 1

      Because it wasn't always free, and at one point, cost money.

    73. Re:First post from firefox by justforgetme · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't like chrome very much. I like chromium even though it's kind of a bitch to compile if you go that route.
      I have to say though that I'm kind of offended. It isn't really "Google Chrome" its chromium with google branding.

      This hideous self promotion (and misinformed peer promotion) of the search giant has to stop!

      --
      -- no sig today
    74. Re:First post from firefox by thsths · · Score: 1

      > Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't.

      Actually MS does that too, now. But MS is driving a rather schizophrenic agenda there - on one hand they want you to use the latest browser (IE9), on the other hand it is not available to the biggest installation base out there: Windows XP. That was a stupid decision, and it will hurt them for some time to come.

    75. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, so when they unilaterally decide to eliminate a feature you depend on, it happens automatically, and you have no choice. They just eliminated side tabs and said "they aren't coming back".

      So I'm back on firefox. Don't see anything like this for IE either. Everybody I know uses side tabs, it's bizarre to me that they are so hard to come by.

    76. Re:First post from firefox by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      According to StatCounter, IE is at 41%. However you're right that it's still way above Chome with only 26% (which itself is just above Firefox with 25%).

      On the other hand, in Germany IE is already second with only 25%. But second not to Chrome (which holds the third place at 13%) but to Firefox, which has the absolute majority with 52%. Indeed, Firefox has surpassed IE in Germany already before July 2008 (which is the oldest data currently available at StatCounter).

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    77. Re:First post from firefox by Vlijmen+Fileer · · Score: 0

      You mean bumfuck USA?

    78. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was obviously a joke

      I like jokes, but there is no joke there. It simply doesn't fucking make logical sense. Period.

    79. Re:First post from firefox by Phoghat · · Score: 1

      Or download Youtube videos anymore, whereas FF still allows it.

      --
      Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
    80. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you don't use IE, Safari or Chrome (not Chromium) then, because all of those are paid.

    81. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have two web sites, and IE 7+8+9 hardly make it to 2nd place. IE 6 appears even less than Opera.

    82. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://dev.chromium.org/spdy/spdy-protocol/spdy-protocol-draft2 - Am I missing something? They seem to have documented the protocol for all the world to see/use. How is that evil?

    83. Re:First post from firefox by aitan · · Score: 1

      Google is already serving webkit-only css in the mobile versions, so when people try Firefox mobile those sites don't work as nicely as the default browser in Android, although Firefox is perfectly capable of handling them if they were coded properly.

    84. Re:First post from firefox by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      I also want to add that all the popularity of Firefox is due to it's own quality.

      So you think they wasted that money on the full-page ad in the New York Times in 2004?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    85. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thus it would be interesting to see the median or even better mode averages instead of only the mean...

    86. Re:First post from firefox by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Debian Fanboys won't promote Firefox. They might promote Iceweasel, though.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    87. Re:First post from firefox by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      I use Chrome at work (my choice) but Firefox at home. Chrome is usually very fast and being able to just hit ctrl-T and start typing to search with suggestions is very nice, but there are some annoyances that stop me switching over for personal browsing on my own PC.

      That is the problem with Chrome: a lack of customisability and APIs for extensions. It's fine if you happen to like the way Chrome works, but if it doesn't you probably can't fix the annoyance.

      - Smooth/fast scrolling. The SmoothScroll extension takes care of both of these but seems to have been removed from the Chrome extensions site. I found the last version and installed it locally.

      - RSS reading. I use Brief in Firefox and there is nothing even half as good for Chrome. Google Reader is bearable I suppose.

      - Cookie permissions. In Firefox I use Cookie Button to whitelist ones that I want and have the rest deleted when I close the browser. There is nothing like that for Chrome. There are similar looking extensions but they maintain their own whitelists instead of integrating with the built in one.

      - Search from the context menu switches to the search tab instantly. Again there is an extension but it still makes the screen flicker.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    88. Re:First post from firefox by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      To be fair, the article doesn't state anywhere that it was due to the browser ballot. It could have just been a natural trend.

      Actually those two should be relatively easy to distinguish: Did the rise of Firefox or the decline of IE in any way correlate with the ballot introduction?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    89. Re:First post from firefox by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Actually, if I had read this before posting to this story, I'd have modded you up (I currently do have mod points). Flash ads and Flash intros are evil, but Flash can be and is used for good. Some of its uses will probably be replaced by HTML5, but not all. And anyway, it's much better than some MS-only and/or Windows-only technology.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    90. Re:First post from firefox by aitan · · Score: 1

      "IE is still easily number one at 50%, while Chrome has 25%."

      What's it matter? I'm much more interested in what percentage of web sites are W3C compliant. When that approaches 100%, then browsers will compete on true merit (speed, UI, etc.), not their support of proprietary extensions and how well they put up with badly coded HTML.

      I'm sick and tired of "browser x isn't supported," and "this site best viewed with..." crap, which is just indicative of clueless website developers.

      And what happens with new sites (specially mobile versions) that use webkit only css features instead of using a standard approach?

      Why can't they add the vendor prefix for the other browsers as well?

      Although not stated as "best viewed with..." they are hurting the forward development of the web by sticking to just one vendor and we are going to suffer the same IE6 problems that we hate so much, but now it's webkit the culprit

    91. Re:First post from firefox by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      If it speeds up web browsing and is a fully open protocol that is unencumbered by patents I don't think it's evil. New technologies are inevitable if we want the web to be faster and so far Google has made sure its sites work fully in other browsers, excepting things like offline Gmail that simply can't be implemented without them.

      What is the alternative? Some OS developers create some RFCs? Fine, but would the process move along as fast without backing from a company willing to throw time and money at the project, and would browser support from Firefox, IE and Opera come any quicker?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    92. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also want to add that all the popularity of Firefox is due to it's own quality.

      True. Firefox is now a rock-solid, stable and mature browser.

      Define "rock solid". I've actually half-switched to Chrome lately due to persistent firefox crashes. Now, supposedly the cause of the crashes is the Flash plugin, and indeed, there are no crashes if I disable Flash. Yet, the exact same flash plugin doesn't Crash chrome. Just like a an application such as a browser shouldn't be able to bring down an OS, an plugin behaving badly shouldn't bring down the whole browser.

    93. Re:First post from firefox by Z_God · · Score: 1

      Not Chrome or Chrome's source code, but there is Chromium with its source code. This is also what I'd use, since it's in Ubuntu's repository. Why would you want to use Chrome instead of Chromium?

    94. Re:First post from firefox by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      this is not the first time I am seeing this. I think they are trying to capture the trend, not exactly the current state.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    95. Re:First post from firefox by euroq · · Score: 1

      Just because you don't know someone who uses it in no way means it's unpopular.
      It just means you have a rather small cadre of people you talk to.

      No it doesn't. It could mean that the poster has a rather small cadre of people he/she talks to. But not necessarily. They could have an enormous cadre of people they talk to, who all happen to use IE and Opera and Safari.

      --
      Just because the U.S. is a republic does not mean it is not a democracy. Democracy/republic are not mutually exclusive.
    96. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe the transformation from something to being evil has already occurred. Ever since the main product of Google changed from search and ads to you and me, I have been feeling more and more uncomfortable with them. As of then, the companies buying US as a product from google have been taken care of very well. Google is now close bedfellows with many a frivolous copyright company and they have no inhibition to add to the patent mayhem that is ripping apart the global tech market.

      It is no secret that they desire their "product" to be completely locked in in a Google hegemony. Chrome will become just as broken in terms of standards as IE was.

      I have kicked my google habit fortunately. Ditching gmail, youtube and a myriad of other services we all get lured into.

    97. Re:First post from firefox by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      With AdBlockPlus working with Chrome, I have one good reason stick to FF: NoScript

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    98. Re:First post from firefox by makomk · · Score: 1

      Chromium is decidedly inferior to Chrome, unfortunately. In particular it lacks Chrome's (proprietary) integrated PDF reader and is from what I can tell entirely incapable of launching an external one; you have to download PDFs and manually open them in an external reader. This is unbelievably annoying if you encounter as many PDFs as I do.

      (Oh, and I'm hearing that the new NaCl native code stuff they're pushing both relies on non-open-source code and is so closely tied to Google Chrome and the particular implementation that it's probably impossible to implement elsewhere.)

    99. Re:First post from firefox by makomk · · Score: 1

      Because Chrome actually allows you to view PDFs within the browser rather than insisting on downloading them to disk and making you mess around to manually open them with an external app?

    100. Re:First post from firefox by f()rK()_Bomb · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm in Ireland, attending college as a mature student, every single teenager uses chrome, as do all my friends. When someone complains about Firefox on Facebook everyone points them to chrome. Exact opposite experience, anecdotes are useless.

      --
      "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
    101. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hiii, mister resident MS shill.

      No, it's correct to bin IEs by version number, as there are usually years between two IE versions.

      Any webdev knows that, as you need to have separate tweaks in HTML, CSS and JS for IE6 and IE7 (if you're still stuck with demographic that uses them, and that's not a small number), IE8 (which still sucks, but much less) and real browsers (with very rare specific tweaks).

      So, no, while site for Chrome 10 doesn't need much change from site for Chrome 15, but site for IE9 needs a fuckton of changes for IE8, and site for IE8 needs a fuckton of changes for IE7.

      Fucking stop it with too obvious shilling already. Sending someone as dumb as you to do this is just a waste of money. There are better and subtler shills out there, you just plain suck.

    102. Re:First post from firefox by rishistar · · Score: 1

      You could pay the fee and get the ad free version, which I did as well. Certainly in the age of dial-up it kicked IE4 and Netscapes bottom. When I was working in the Caribbean at the time it was great as it fitted onto a single floppy disk and you could just press G to stop images from downloading while surfing which made it great for accessing content. It was a browser and a mail client, was fast, had tabbed browsing and mice gestures and just nice to use.

      --
      Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
    103. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's actually one of the things I do not like about chrome.

      When Microsoft started creating their own tags for IE or ActiveX components, everybody moaned and bitched. At that time I agreed with the sentiment that such a thing was wrong. Now, the new dear gigant advertising corporation is doing the same 15 years later, and just because they wrote some warm motto somewhere, everybody thinks it is fine to break network standards again.

    104. Re:First post from firefox by berberine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I work at a junior high where the science teacher has a Master's in Computer Science. She tells everyone not to use anything but IE because those other browsers aren't supported by Microsoft and you don't know what virus you're going to get with them. She's extremely vocal about it and nothing I've said makes a difference. She just keeps telling me I'll be sorry when I get a virus from "that Firefox you use." She has the teachers in the junior high convinced not to use anything else.

      Meanwhile, you go to the high school where my husband works and they use a mix of Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and IE, depending on their own preference.

    105. Re:First post from firefox by ThosLives · · Score: 1

      Chrome automatically updates all old versions

      This is actually one reason why I don't use Chrome. I don't like that the auto-updater was installed on my machine without notifying me that such an updater was installed (I don't like when I find new processes running at startup). I also don't like the fact that the upgrade occurs when perhaps I prefer the previous version to the newer one.

      While I understand the benefit in having everyone have up-to-date code from a security standpoint, in my opinion those security measures should be independent from the UI and other feature set. So, if there is a minor security-only update I don't mind, but I want to be asked if I should install it. If it's a UI update, I want to be able to opt-out.

      --
      "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
    106. Re:First post from firefox by chris.alex.thomas · · Score: 0

      in the real world, nobody cares about that

    107. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what? That's what MS has said they will do (subject to several footnotes). It's not what they do now, so today the comment that the comparison is stupid still holds.

    108. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Define "rock solid". I've actually half-switched to Chrome lately due to persistent firefox crashes.

      Well, OK, it's quite true that I haven't had a crash in Firefox for a very long time. (And yes, I am plenty old enough to remember early versions and its predecessor, Mozilla.) But there again, I don't often crash Chromium either. In fact, the only recent occasions I have had such issues with either browser have been when certain dodgy websites have introduced nearly-unkillable dialogue boxes, and I have used killall to escape. I don't think a deliberate crash counts.

    109. Re:First post from firefox by colfer · · Score: 1

      Opera has been free with no ads for many years. They make the majority of their money from the mobile version (free to individuals, though), and some from other embedded devices and search partners (Google). I don't know if the cloudy thing, Opera Unite, or Opera mail makes money.

    110. Re:First post from firefox by mvdwege · · Score: 1

      Strange. Firefox gives me a nice dialog that defaults to 'Open with Document Viewer'. How is that different from a PDF opening in my browser? Or are you suggesting that Chrome does not first download the PDF to a temporary directory?

      Mart

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    111. Re:First post from firefox by epe · · Score: 1

      in Cuba FF and chrome/chromium are pretty common choices

    112. Re:First post from firefox by jthill · · Score: 1

      NaCl's BSD-licensed . So's Dart. So's SPDY.

      That's evil, and PP is *sure* Google will come up with more evil BSD-licensed projects. That argument got modded to 5 on /.

      --
      As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
    113. Re:First post from firefox by Nimey · · Score: 1

      It was a bit later (I bought v3 and v4 licenses, and that started IIRC with v5). Trouble with the ad-supported version was that the ad took up a decent bit of screen real estate on a 640x480 monitor, which I had back then, so I stuck with the older version and then switched to Mozilla once that got up to a late beta.

      This was on my parents' Windows 98 computer. At the time you could get Opera on Linux, but you had to buy a separate license for each operating system (the other OS supported being OS/2, I think) and I didn't have quite so much extra cash. On my Debian box I had to use Lynx + zgv (for pix), then once the milestones got to M18 I started using that sometimes; Debian was stuck on M18 for ages (well over a year) until Woody was released.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    114. Re:First post from firefox by Nimey · · Score: 1

      Absolutely. Being able to tell Opera to not load images over a slow 33.6 or 53k line was a wonderful feature, especially if the remote server was laggy.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    115. Re:First post from firefox by Calos · · Score: 1

      Can't you just tell your system to always open PDF files with your viewer of choice, and next time you download a PDF, instead of opening it, on the download bar hit the dropdown and select "always open this type of file" or whatever it says? Works for other file types, at least.

      --
      I vote based on politicians' actions, unless contrary to my preconceptions. Often wrong, never uncertain. #iamthe99%
    116. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't.

      So basically, it does the exact opposite of what Google does for Android.

      If by opposite you mean the exact same, then yes. On Google's own phones, the nexus line, they get updated. It's the OEMs that aren't updating.

    117. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2. because Chromium by default takes up marginally less real-estate on my laptop screen with menubars, toolbars and whatnot that are not necessary.

      Yes, but you can configure them all, Opera, Firefox, Chrome to be the same (tabs on title bar, address bar only), and Chrome even has a greater minimum of bars (can't remove address bar).

      IE can also be configured to show only two bars- the title bar and a combined address/tabs bar.

    118. Re:First post from firefox by makomk · · Score: 1

      That seems kind of counter-intuitive, but I guess I could give it a go...

    119. Re:First post from firefox by makomk · · Score: 1

      Chrome defaults to automatically downloading them to your Downloads directory and just leaving them there. I hear that Safari does the same thing; it's a bit obnoxious from a security point of view.

    120. Re:First post from firefox by makomk · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I mean that Chromium does that. Chrome apparently displays them within the browser itself.

    121. Re:First post from firefox by edumacator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      anecdotes are useless.

      Not true. I had a friend once who used anecdotes very successfully.

    122. Re:First post from firefox by Calos · · Score: 1

      Do other browsers work differently?

      All you're telling it to do is open a file; it looks to the system to figure out what to open it with. Maybe the download bar just doesn't have as much information to be as intuitive as download boxes?

      --
      I vote based on politicians' actions, unless contrary to my preconceptions. Often wrong, never uncertain. #iamthe99%
    123. Re:First post from firefox by swillden · · Score: 1

      Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't.

      So basically, it does the exact opposite of what Google does for Android.

      Google does update the Google Experience phones (the Nexus line) to new versions of Android. There was a /. article day before yesterday about how Nexus S phones are all getting ICS.

      Google does not force the carriers to update the phones which the carriers configure and manage, because Google has no way to do that. One of the downsides of choosing an open source model.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    124. Re:First post from firefox by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      They even messed up with the opt out option to make it hard to opt-out. I am specially offended by that *because* it is such a petty thing to muck with. It was a simple, straight forward Windows form but the opt-out option was semi-disabled. Oh come on that's just childish!

      You should at least put the blame where it belongs. Google doesn't write the installer, nor does it require that the opt-out be hard to find or use. They do pay a small amount for installations via the installer. The decision to make it hard to opt-out was made by the greedy people who wrote (or repackaged) the software you're installing.

    125. Re:First post from firefox by Just+Brew+It! · · Score: 1

      Given that Chrome has been a Google project from the start, it seems to me you've got it backwards: Chromium is Google Chrome with the branding stripped. I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish by criticizing Google for wanting to put their name on the browser they developed...

    126. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're probably going to include Chome-only tags (oh wait, they already do that! offline gmail anyone?) or NaCl components, or Dart only component.

      And that's why Google's actually turning evil after all.

      Open source! But do you have the money to pay the developers to keep up to us?

    127. Re:First post from firefox by Branciforte · · Score: 1

      Google makes the source code for Android publicly available as soon as it is out of the development stage. It is the handset manufacturers who refuse to give you a way to update.

    128. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This science teacher's competence (or the lack thereof) may explain why they are teaching junior high instead of working in industry.
      In my experience, a decent programmer with an MS in CS earns between 2x and 3x what a teacher makes.

    129. Re:First post from firefox by justforgetme · · Score: 2

      well, they did V8 (and they did it brilliantly, not that it wasn't always apparent that it should have been done that way since the beginning). Webkit they didn't do nor did they do SQLite or any of the other libraries chrome uses.
      Anyway, my intention isn't that much on criticizing Google on putting their label on a collection of libs, after all they did do a good job at putting them together. I just want to stress that Google is getting praise for putting together some tech (and who wouldn't do a good job with that many resources) and doesn't attribute that praise to all the people who are actually brilliant (aka the devs of the FOSS tech chromium uses).

      Google does search. Google does search very well. Google can develop whatever tech (and webapps) they want to help consumers reach their adds (and they do it with android, chrome, google docs, etc). All the individuals on the Internet should understand that referring to any of their tech as Google zxyzxy just makes them part of the google advertising campaign and terminally ends in the googlification of everything. I bet You like that prospect very much?

      --
      -- no sig today
    130. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SmoothScroll extension completely freaks out on OS X lion with the multi touch mouse. Still looking forward to fix.

    131. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Back in the day Opera /was/ worth the $39 license fee. This was in the days of Netscape 4 (ptui!) and Internet Explorer 4 (bletch), and it was really the only decent browser; didn't crash your system on a regular basis or bring it to a crawl.

      You forgot it also fit completely on one floppy disk!

    132. Re:First post from firefox by Nimey · · Score: 1

      I'm trying to forget about floppies, you bastard.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    133. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. I can go download IE or Chrome right now, with any operating system, absolutely for free.

    134. Re:First post from firefox by helix2301 · · Score: 1

      I use Firefox but I do think chrome is great much faster and has a lot of hidden neat features. As far as Google services go they all run better in chrome and rightfully so its there browser. I do think that the article is not accurate they are comparing an out of date browser with Chrome. Most home users do not even know there is an alternative. Plus chrome is gaining popularity because it's bundled with some many things so it can get you hooked easier. IE still owns the market unfortunately.

    135. Re:First post from firefox by Cinder6 · · Score: 1
      --
      If you can't convince them, convict them.
    136. Re:First post from firefox by Xest · · Score: 1

      "True. Firefox is now a rock-solid, stable and mature browser."

      Hahaha, wait, you were serious weren't you?

      More memory leaks than Windows ME, less security than IE? and the performance of Vista?

      Firefox WAS a rock solid browser around version 2.0 - 3.0, but has got progressively worse since then, now it's anything but.

      The guy above talking about Firefox's market share being based on it's quality has a good point though. Certainly it grew it's market share based on being a high quality browser, but it's also seeing declining market share because it is now a low quality browser.

      I've primarily been using Firefox for years, and still do, but I'm getting increasingly tired of it, and each new release doesn't make things better because the devs are too interested adding in really tacky themes like it's the 1990s again rather than focussing on keeping it the secure, solid, high performance browser that it was when it was gaining market share. I have most major browser installed on my computers because I do a fair bit of web dev, so I tend to use whatever browser I had open last, but I'll find myself intentionally loading another browser, rather than continuing to use Firefox now.

      Firefox's popularity really is based on it's quality, but again, that's why it's popularity is now declining. It's no coincidence that when Firefox was good it's marketshare was increasing, but now it's bad, it's decreasing.

      Of course, another factor worth pointing out is how dire Firefox is at supporting new HTML5/CSS3 features. Chrome, Opera, Safari are light years ahead of Firefox here, and even IE9 seems better in most cases. I dare say when people have been sent links to fancy new HTML5/CSS3 demos that they've been given an incentive to download Chrome or whatever and start using it because Firefox failed spectacularly to display the page properly, which, as an aside, wouldn't be so tragic if it weren't for the fact that Mozilla has been one of the biggest proponents behind the hijacking of web standards by WHATWG.

      "We want the new standards to have all these shiny fancy things! Oh, that means we have to actually implement them in our own browser? Well shit, we thought we were just dictating what everyone else was expected to do!"

    137. Re:First post from firefox by cochito · · Score: 0

      You really had to fight hard for that mod down and the inappropriately applied "flamebait". My comment is not flamebait, it's a response to flamebait. His hysteria and fanboy-ness is in his sig. Use your mod points wisely. If it's my claim that you're hissy about, then do your research. IE and Safari run faster in their native environments. Do you really think the average user wants to embrace a perceived "inferior" browser (i.e. Chrome and Firefox) with a non-native interface? The user is only motivated to change from the default option when they experience issues or are discontent by performance. Do you know how many years it took to even market FF to the general public? Think about that.

    138. Re:First post from firefox by BenoitRen · · Score: 1

      - Cookie permissions. In Firefox I use Cookie Button to whitelist ones that I want and have the rest deleted when I close the browser. There is nothing like that for Chrome. There are similar looking extensions but they maintain their own whitelists instead of integrating with the built in one.

      Why do you need an extension for this? Did they remove the spot in the options/preferences to configure this behaviour? All you need for the automatic deletion is to accept cookies for the current session by default. The whitelist is, as you say, built-in.

    139. Re:First post from firefox by BenoitRen · · Score: 1

      Sounds like someone who got in bed with Ballmer and would be the perfect partner.

    140. Re:First post from firefox by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It is built in but the GUI is not designed for adding sites quickly. In Firefox I can do it in two clicks. I made an extension that is just a shortcut to the preference page which helps, but even then you have to format the string with wildcards manually. Plus there is no way to import the list from Firefox, and mine is quite long.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    141. Re:First post from firefox by BenoitRen · · Score: 1

      I was talking about Firefox; don't know much about Google Chrome. SeaMonkey user here, by the way. :)

    142. Re:First post from firefox by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

      The license is not an argument against evilness. That's why it modded +5. People aren't that easily tricked anymore, sorry.

    143. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chrome has had smooth scrolling in about:flags since version 15.

      Personally my usage is similar, I use chrome at work and firefox at chrome. Reason for me is my work computers are on the slow side and chrome is significantly more responsive. Firefox has improved a lot lately (especially aurora, nightly) but chrome and opera are still much more responsive on lower spec'd machines.

      At home I have a powerful gaming rig and can't really tell any performance differences between the browsers, so I use firefox because it offers the best customization and features.

      On my laptop, which is running arch linux I use chromium, because again its more responsive. Also firefox's hardware acceleration is pretty poor/buggy on my intel graphics if I enable opengl layers. Chrome's opengl acceleration works fine.

      They are both solid browsers, I use whatever works best on the machine I'm currently using :)

    144. Re:First post from firefox by elashish14 · · Score: 1

      You make a lot of good points, but there's one important reason why it's bad: there's only one vendor providing the one sole implementation. I suppose one could argue that it's the very reason that it enables all those benefits that you mention. It's also the reason a lot of problems arise. For one, it's one of the most popular attack vectors on Windows (and possibly Macs as well soon). Then there's the fact that it will only be supported on platforms chosen by said vendor. This made even worse when you consider that in 99% of cases, their only reason for choosing a particular platform is whether it makes economical sense for them to do so. The product you get is limited by the mindshare that they're willing to invest in. Case in point: has Flash performance on Linux caught up to that of Windows yet?

      Which brings me to the fact that it's bloated and slow. If I'm using an operating system (or any other piece of software) which is too resource intensive for my machine, I can switch it out and use something else. There's no replacement for Flash - you either get what it gives you or nothing at all. There's no alternative. And of course, we'll probably never see its source. As far as I know, it's the last piece of closed-source software that I have running on this machine.

      So while I agree that it's nice that we have Flash to give us these things, I think a standards-compliant implementation would be far more ideal.

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
    145. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who?

      You must be an IE Binger. Search is hard for you. QQ so sad. You put your query into /. rather than Google... oh your life has to suck waiting that long for information.

      So. Sad.

      Yes, I'll be taking that nerd card now. Geek card too. No, you can keep your library card, it may help you get the other two back but I doubt it.

    146. Re:First post from firefox by omfgnosis · · Score: 1

      Google is trying (with some success and some failure) to introduce improvements to the web technologies in browsers. None of the "Google-only" things you mention are things Google wants to be limited to Chrome. Their strategy is not to have the best browser or the largest usage share of browsers, their goal is to improve all browsers, so that they can do more with the web.

    147. Re:First post from firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Despite everything that others have said on this, I'd say this is only a matter of outdated knowledge. Someone experienced with the early internet, when netscape and IE ruled and there were many "free" programs ready to infect your computer, might carry forth this notion. If they are proud of their knowledge, they may also refuse to listen to others. But that's a problem of overbearing pride, not incompetence.

    148. Re:First post from firefox by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      Yes I should have said qualities. Thanks.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    149. Re:First post from firefox by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      That would be adobe I think, I'm relatively sure it was a Flash install. Either that or Java. It was a fresh system...

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    150. Re:First post from firefox by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      Yeah pretty much. Browser users don't read the paper much I guess, and really it wasn't that big of a marketing campaign, it just was a huge project for Mozilla.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
  2. But by Doctor+O · · Score: 0

    I still got FP with FF.

    --
    Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
    1. Re:But by JustOK · · Score: 4, Funny

      Probably, but the Googlelluminati have now put it in second.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  3. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Google's decision to drop native h264 support in Chrome means I deleted it and won't be installing it again. Likewise, I steer all clients away from it and do not even bother to test our websites in it. I thought it was finally time for the browser wars to be over and for everything to really work in whichever browser was chosen easily. Then Google pulled that one. Idiots.

    1. Re:No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think Chrome should depend on the underlying OS to handle video. This allows them to both support and NOT support h.264. Most people will get h.264 support, and those who want to vote with their wallets won't.

    2. Re:No by hedwards · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is that as long as MPEG LA expects to be paid for use of the standard you're going to have a two tiered net the way that it used to be with Flash. Granted most folks would have a license via MS, but it's a really shitty situation to have to either a licensing fee to use the web or violate somebody's patents.

    3. Re:No by ianare · · Score: 1

      do not even bother to test our websites in it

      Yeah, who needs a quarter of the web, anyway ?

    4. Re:No by Vegemeister · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with violating somebody's patents?

  4. Version war? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is complete nonsense, if you take into account all versions of said browsers, IE still comes out on top. Who cares that a particular version (numbering incompatibility?!) is more used than another?

    1. Re:Version war? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Who cares that a particular version (numbering incompatibility?!) is more used than another?

      I would say that a lot of people who have to provide support care a great deal whether you're using IE 6 or IE 8.

      No?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Version war? by Terrasque · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because IE6, IE7, IE8 and IE9 are more or less four completely different browsers. My experience is that there are usually more differences between two IE version's HTML / JS parsing than the difference between Opera, Firefox and Chrome combined.

      IE9 is the first browser where Microsoft actually tried. It's not perfect by far, but at least it's trying. IE6 is from the days where companies competed over who could make the most batshit insane browser. IE7 were a major change from IE6, and IE8 was a small change from IE7. But still carrying the El Batshitto legacy from old IE6. IE9 is, as said, a completely different ballpark (it's generally around the same level as firefox v3.6).

      Don't be fooled by the name similarity. They truly deserve to be counted separately for each major version.

      --
      It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
    3. Re:Version war? by multimediavt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who cares that a particular version (numbering incompatibility?!) is more used than another?

      I would say that a lot of people who have to provide support care a great deal whether you're using IE 6 or IE 8.

      No?

      No, just us web devs. :)

    4. Re:Version war? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

      Hardly anyone uses IE 6 or IE 7 in the US besides a few corporations. Maybe 4% of users according to statecounter. IE 9 barely has 10% as average Joes do not like the UI and many businesses feel IE 8 is fine.

      IE 8 is still over 80% of the IE market. It wont go away and it is the next IE 6 of the 2010s. So the article is pretty accurate.

    5. Re:Version war? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Yep IE 8 is great because it supports html 4 and css 2 the right way. I have a feeling since it is not dying at all that it will be the next IE 6 of the 2010s as users do not want to leave. HTML 5 is going to have a serious problem if people keep using IE 8. It will be just a phone technology due to people waiting on businesses to leave IE 8 who wont leave IE 8 because people keep making websites that cater to it and it is a repeat all over again.

      I would much rather see the headline of IE 9 falling before Chrome as it would mean we can move forward.

    6. Re:Version war? by yuriyg · · Score: 2

      IE9 is the first browser where Microsoft actually tried. It's not perfect by far, but at least it's trying.

      Sorry, but I have to nitpick here. IE3 was the first browser where Microsoft actually tried. It was so beyond anything that Netscape/Mozilla offered, feature- and interface- wise. IE3 is the reason why IE is still in the lead 10-15 years later. Posting this from Chrome ;)

    7. Re:Version war? by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

      If MS pushed hard on IE 9 then that will prevent the IE 6-ification of the web again.

    8. Re:Version war? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      They are. It is in Windows Update and they are even giving out 3 months of hulu free if you switch and put it on your Windows taskbar if you go to www.microsoft.com under IEs website.

      People who are into browsers do not use IE. Only old people and businesses. Windows 8 will hopefully fix that. I do not want to be using my phone for the cool websites and still using html 4 in 2019 when Windows 7 support ends.

    9. Re:Version war? by jjohnson · · Score: 2

      Not sure what you're remembering. Netscape 3 was obviously better than IE3; the only thing IE3 offered was a browser good enough to be described as clearly worse than Netscape 3. It was IE4 that was marginally better than Netscape 4, and IE5 where it was obvious that IE was the leading browser because Netscape/Mozilla decided to just completely shit the bed with evolving the whole communicator suite.

      --
      Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
    10. Re:Version war? by devleopard · · Score: 1

      Chrome of course auto-updates, so it's easy for one version to rise to the top. However, we'll see IE take the lead back when they implement auto-updating (Not that I'm an IE fan, but I agree that stats like this are FUD-ish)

      --
      The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
    11. Re:Version war? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      IE9 has a low percentage not because someone doesn't like the UI. It has a low percentage because it doesn't run on XP.

    12. Re:Version war? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, MS bundling and tieing the OS to the browser is the reason IE is still in the lead.

    13. Re:Version war? by styrotech · · Score: 1

      I seem to remember IE3 being one of the first if not the first browsers to have any kind of CSS support (which of course was pretty limited and nobody used it back then anyway). But yeah it was worse than Netscape 3 in about every other way.

      As you say though - the tables were turned (no pun intended) with IE4 and 5. Netscape 4 seriously overstayed its welcome. It was the equivalent of IE6 around 10-12yrs ago.

    14. Re:Version war? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Okay, maybe just IE8 for now, but I think it's just a matter of time before Chrome beats the entire IE market, from 6-9.

    15. Re:Version war? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IE 9 has 10% (half of the top spot IE 8 at 21%) because for most people XP is good enough. 35% of computers still run XP.

      IE 8 vs IE 9 has little to do with it, except IE 9 won't run on XP.

    16. Re:Version war? by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      IE6 was all about making sure customers would find it difficult to migrate any applications they wrote for it to another browser and the fact that it is still around today is a testament to how successful that policy was but is also hilarious how Microsoft are now trying to get their customers off it. How about paying for all the work required and issuing a full apology for its awfulness followed by Steve Ballmer having to do the monkey dance until he passes out.

  5. All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by Meshach · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also are they lumping all versions of Chrome together? All versions of Firefox together?

    Seems misleading...

    --
    "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
    Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by InsightIn140Bytes · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, they are. It even says so in the article, but someone just dedicated to copypaste one really specific sentence from it to Slashdot. IE still has 50% market share, while Chrome has 25%.

    2. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by Pharmboy · · Score: 1

      Chrome is pretty much autoupdating anyway, FF (If I remember right) is almost as much. IE isn't that far behind in autoupdating, and on par if you are using Win7. And it really isn't that misleading: either you prefer Chrome, regardless of version, or you prefer IE, or FF, regardless of version. It still provides useful info.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    3. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by abhi_beckert · · Score: 1

      If you look at the graph, chrome 15 has a bit over 24%, while all other versions of chrome are down around 0.1%.

      They are not lumping versions of chrome together.

    4. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by icebike · · Score: 1

      Also are they lumping all versions of Chrome together? All versions of Firefox together?

      ...

      Yes, they are. It even says so in the article, but someone just dedicated to copypaste one really specific sentence from it to Slashdot. IE still has 50% market share, while Chrome has 25%.

      No they are not lumping all versions of Chrome together.

      The reason is that Chome auto-updates. Look at the graph, you can see the rise and fall of each chrome version.
      Hardly anyone is running old versions of chrome.

      IE is starting to Auto-update too, but this did not happen on older releases, so many people are stalled out on older IE releases and will never update until they get a new machine.

      See this statement in TFA:

      But wait, there is a caveat to this: Chrome 15 beat IE 8, specifically, this one week at the end of November, with 23.6 percent of the worldwide market, compared to IE 8's at 23.5 percent. With all the versions of IE floating around, IE is still No. 1 in the world, but Chrome is right behind it.

      The cherry picked statistic was version specific: Chrome 15 overtakes IE 8. And as such, its a pretty meaningless statement.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    5. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by LordLucless · · Score: 1

      And as such, its a pretty meaningless statement.

      I wouldn't say that. The most popular Chrome version has now overtaken the most popular IE version. That's a decent milestone.
      Of course, it's not in the same ballpark as "total Chrome install base overtakes total IE install base", but it's not too shabby neither.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    6. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by similar_name · · Score: 1

      or you prefer IE

      Just anecdotal of course, but the only people I know that prefer IE are the ones that I say 'open your web browser', get no response, then say 'open Internet Explorer'. Do people really prefer it?

    7. Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I know people who do consciously prefer IE, but they're mostly working either for MS or for MS partners.

  6. Version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I am using Chrome 18 right now

    1. Re:Version by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Wow, I feel so archaic, I'm running 16...

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  7. I use Megaupload by atari2600a · · Score: 0

    M E G A, upload to me today send me your file!

  8. Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    How misleading is this! One must count IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9 users to get the actual IE share, which is much larger than that of Chrome. And next year, when M$ "silently" upgrade all IE users to the latest release, the numbers will favor IE even more. Let's not mistake marketing fud for reality.

  9. Version by geraldpringle · · Score: 1

    15? They are behind a bit, I am running 18

  10. I'm completely baffled by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I simply can't understand how a browser with such a godawful interface could get so popular.

    1. Re:I'm completely baffled by dak664 · · Score: 1

      Google has control of the ratings perhaps. I would not know, I avoid their products for what they are.

    2. Re:I'm completely baffled by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Because it runs fast and seems to install on PC with strict security settings.
      That and the people who promote it probably doesn't give the free software virtue speach.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:I'm completely baffled by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 1

      Because it ... seems to install on PC with strict security settings.

      I hate software that does this. It is exceedingly rude for developers to deliberately bypass the operating system security setup. What is wrong with requiring administration of a computer by done by an administrator?

      The first time I installed Chrome I did it under an admin login (using RunAs) and it didn't seem to install anything. I thought that it might require me to be logged in as my admin account, so I switched accounts and found the icon on the desktop! Does this mean that you have to install it multiple times on a family computer with separate accounts for everyone? That is stupid!

      I wish there was a setting that would trigger a UAC prompt whenever you attempted to run an executable that was not owned by an administrator account. At least you can set the firewall to block by default.

    4. Re:I'm completely baffled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just because you don't like it doesn't mean the rest of us don't like it either. I find it a superior interface. YMMV.

      - anon

    5. Re:I'm completely baffled by Deathlizard · · Score: 2

      Probably because all the other browsers are adopting Chrome's layout and practices. In some cases it's a detriment to usability.

      For example, IE used to use a favorites sidebar to sort favorites as the default. This was nice because most bookmarks were easily accessible in one click (two with a folder) as long as the bar was in place, where chrome has a drop down menu for their bookmarks. IE9 adopted the chrome interface, so now you have to click favorites, then click on the link. (and yes you can get the sidebar to stay, but that's another click you didn't need to do previously). At least when Mozilla adopted the chrome look, you could delete the favorites menu button and replace it with a favorites button that uses the sidebar.

      Still using Firefox as my main browser. Frankly the only reason I think people are switching is because the Firefox devs have Chrome on the brain, and if they're basically trying to turn Firefox into Chrome, people say "Hell, might as well use Chrome since that's what Firefox is turning into." IE isn't much better in this regard, but at least their sticking to their guns when it comes to version numbering.

    6. Re:I'm completely baffled by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      It's okay, IE will be less popular soon.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    7. Re:I'm completely baffled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Installing something to a user's home directory is not bypassing security. If an administrator doesn't want users running things from their home directories, he should disable that ability, which is not all that hard to do, even in Windows.

      That said, installing to a home directory *by default* is really stupid and completely ignores the fact that multiple people (and accounts) often share the same computer. From what I've heard, Chrome has an MSI available that installs to a normal location, but in my opinion, that should be the default behavior in the installer most end-users get, perhaps with the option of installing to a different location instead.

    8. Re:I'm completely baffled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does this mean that you have to install it multiple times on a family computer with separate accounts for everyone? That is stupid!

      From personal experience, I can tell you that yes, that is unfortunately what is seems to mean. Needless to say I uninstalled Chrome after finding out.

    9. Re:I'm completely baffled by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      because firefox fucked up, big time. also, because you simply can't escape the chrome adverts. they're on tv, roadside billboards, all over the web, on the fricking walls of metro trains! and its been like this continuously for longer than a year now.
      i simply can't get it out of my head: "chrome fast"

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    10. Re:I'm completely baffled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never understood how Microsoft managed it. Thank god WebKit and Firefox came along.

    11. Re:I'm completely baffled by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      The big problem with Chrome's UI is not that is's bad. It's that it's set in stone. Firefox gives you a lot of building blocks and a default arrangement for them. If you want to change something you can usually do so and if not there's probably an add-on that does it. Even with the new push to imitate Chrome wherever possible it's possible to turn Firefox into something resembling 3.x with just a few clicks.

      Different people have different preferences. Some of us think that the Chrome UI is horrible and won't use Chrome because of it - and perhaps we would use Chrome if Google made the UI as configurable as that of Firefox. Plus, that might help Chrome get some more elaborate add-ons.

      I am aware that most users won't customize their browser UI. Of course that doesn't mean that those who would aren't a valid target demographic. (Cf. the debates about Unity and Gnome 3.)

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    12. Re:I'm completely baffled by jon3k · · Score: 1

      What's so awful about it?

    13. Re:I'm completely baffled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not bypassing the security setup though; it's actually working with it. The whole point of a multi-user setup is so that different users can have their software and data environments the way they want them without impacting other users. Chrome doesn't need admin privileges, so it doesn't ask for them - which is how things are supposed to work.

      Installing Chrome for *all* users can be done, but there's a separate install package for that. http://www.google.co.uk/chrome/eula.html?system=true&standalone=1

    14. Re:I'm completely baffled by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I simply can't understand how a browser with such a godawful interface could get so popular.

      Because only a small percentage of users are like you. The vast majority really like Chrome's interface.

      Why? A big part is that it removes a lot of clutter that didn't ever mean anything to them anyway. Just yesterday I watched my brother-in-law using Firefox; he went to google.com and searched for gmail to get to his e-mail. I asked him why he didn't type gmail.com into the location bar, or gmail into the search bar. He responded that he'd never quite understood the difference between them, and had found that just typing what he wants into Google worked best.

      Now, this is a man in his 40s, who's been playing with computers for about 15 years now (since his early 30s), is something of a gamer, understands something about the internals of his computer and has upgraded video cards, processors, hard drives, etc., and done it by himself. He uses Windows (reinstalling it every few months, seems like), but has experimented with Linux, dual-booting Ubuntu for a while. He's not a geek, but he's a moderately-knowledgeable computer user.

      Next time I have a chance, I'm going to have him install Chrome, and I guarantee you he will love it. The unibar is perfect: "Just type whatever in here". The lack of status bar won't bother him in the slightest; I noticed yesterday that when a site was a little slow, he didn't even bother looking at the status bar to see what was happening: The icon on the tab was still moving, so he knew to keep waiting. He may or may not like the fact that the bookmarks bar only shows on a new tab. If he doesn't, it's easily changed. I'm sure he'll really like the default home page, with its display of commonly-visited sites. I know he'll love Chrome Sync, since he has three computers he uses regularly. And I know he'll like the speed.

      IMO, people try Chrome for the speed. But not only does the UI not drive them away, the vast majority like it better. It gets rid of stuff they didn't understand anyway, and makes the browser easier to use.

      Another data point: while typing this I asked my wife what she thinks. She's a heavy web user, but not at all technical, at least not in the way slashdotters would interpret the word. Lots of people ask her computer questions. Her comments on FF UI vs Chrome UI:

      • She thinks the unibar is fantastic. Much better than the divided location and search bars.
      • She really likes the Chrome startup page, with the thumbnails of her favorite sites.
      • She really likes that the "+ is always there", meaning the icon to open a new tab. FF uses the same plus icon but because it hides the tab bar when there's only a single page open, the "+" isn't always there.
      • She didn't know what I meant by "status" bar until I showed her. She said she never looked at that, except to look for the lock icon for secure web sites, and that's in the location bar on Chrome.
      • She doesn't know why anyone would care to see the URL protocol.
      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    15. Re:I'm completely baffled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's aspergers for ya.

    16. Re:I'm completely baffled by Stormwatch · · Score: 0

      The rule number one of interface design is consistency. All programs must look and function like they belong together with the operating system and with each other. Developers must heed the interface guidelines as a devout believer heeds his holy scripture. Well, Chrome says "fuck you" to consistency. It is completely alien, with its own weird blue borders; it looks nothing like the system or any other program. This shit is acceptable from indie freeware like jDownloader, not from a large corporation's flagship web browser.

  11. Microsoft do a browser? by phonewebcam · · Score: 2

    Well I never. Next you'll be saying they do a mobile OS, or even more far-fetched: a search engine.

    1. Re:Microsoft do a browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      phonewebcam do English?

  12. Reading from Chrome OS 16 on my Cr-48 by Nimey · · Score: 0

    In terms of hours used, my Cr-48's been my primary computer since around the time I got it a year ago. I just can't beat its combination of "just works"[1] and coming back from sleep to live connection in about 5 seconds.

    [1] Now that they've fixed the touchpad driver and some crash and rendering bugs.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
    1. Re:Reading from Chrome OS 16 on my Cr-48 by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      In terms of hours used, my Cr-48's been my primary computer since around the time I got it a year ago. I just can't beat its combination of "just works"[1] and coming back from sleep to live connection in about 5 seconds.

      [1] Now that they've fixed the touchpad driver and some crash and rendering bugs.

      that's odd. my windows and osx machines never had these "touchpad driver and some crash and rendering bugs" and they also return from sleep in chromeos fanboy! boy, that's new!

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    2. Re:Reading from Chrome OS 16 on my Cr-48 by Nimey · · Score: 1

      Don't bother your elders, kid. You don't know the difference until you've tried one.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    3. Re:Reading from Chrome OS 16 on my Cr-48 by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      no seriously, i don't understand how you can tout ""just works"[1] and coming back from sleep to live connection in about 5 seconds" as reasonable plus points of chromeos when literally every os in existence has been doing it for years!

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    4. Re:Reading from Chrome OS 16 on my Cr-48 by Nimey · · Score: 1

      Except they haven't.

      Windows takes a fuckton longer than 5 sec to come from sleep (at least S3, only an idiot does ACPI S1, and forget fresh boot or hibernate) and get a live wireless connection again - my conventional Acer 11.6" laptop takes over 30 sec with Win7. OSX isn't much better. Half the time Linux is lucky if S3 and resume works because of shitty ACPI implementations. From a cold shutdown I'll get back on within 10 sec or so.

      As to "just works": this is the secret sauce. It's virus proof. It's luser proof. If you screw up the system, the absolute worst you'd have to do is pull the battery, flip the switch to dev mode, boot up, and once it's done wiping the stateful partition put the switch back and seal up. Now you've got a fresh stateful partition (no user data on device) and provided you've got Chrome Sync set up (which you really should do) in a few minutes you'll have your bookmarks, etc. back; the only things of consequence that's not saved are cookies and system preferences. Also it's got two independent copies of the operating system, so if one gets screwed up (bad update, for example) the system should detect it and reload the good copy. Your grandfather can't break this thing.

      It's not for everyone though. It's really only good for use as a second or third computer because of all its limitations, but as a Web terminal you can't beat it.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  13. Ummm what about both? by Turnerj · · Score: 2

    What if you use both Chrome and Firefox or Chrome and Internet Explorer (not that I can see much incentive for Chrome and IE)? Wouldn't the results be inaccurate?

  14. Switched within the last fortnight. by forkfail · · Score: 1

    Used to at least like to think of myself as a free thinking, rebellious edgy kind of guy.

    Now just part of the herd, I guess.

    *sigh*

    --
    Check your premises.
    1. Re:Switched within the last fortnight. by asher09 · · Score: 1

      I switched from Firefox to Chromium last week too. The reason for me was that AdBlock Plus started allowing certain ads, which included commercials, etc on news sites. So there was no advantage in using FF any more. I'm fairly happy with Chromium so far even though for certain Flash tasks in Facebook tend to be less stable than in FF.

      --
      Some were yelling one thing, some another. Most of them had no idea what was going on or why they were there. Acts19:32
    2. Re:Switched within the last fortnight. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      The reason for me was that AdBlock Plus started allowing certain ads, which included commercials, etc on news sites.

      Actually, I didn't even notice it thanks to RequestPolicy -- no reason to unblock ad sites.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  15. Firefox still rules by furbyhater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Posting this from Iceweasel 8.0/Debian Wheezy.
    Once you've got used to some of the better add-ons (adblock, noscript, peraperakun, tabmixplus, treeestyletabs) it's hard to make a change.
    I don't care enough about slightly lower memory usage or slightly shorter start-up times (4GB of RAM, browser running for a week on average).
    I don't get the advantages of chrome.
    I've used chrome, and I experience more of a vendor-lock-down feeling with it. Of course there are a lot of extensions, but they seem more of an afterthought as compared with Firefox.
    The biggest problem of Firefox ATM is that they are copying chrome too much instead of choosing their own direction.
    That's all.

    1. Re:Firefox still rules by bhcompy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      without a proper NoScript solution, all other browsers fail. FF is a bloated beastly browser, but can't live without NoScript anymore.

    2. Re:Firefox still rules by furbyhater · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not only noscript, as the poster below indicates, once you've got used to tree-style-tabs there's no going back.
      It seems to me that firefox's development model fosters the creation of cool, innovative add-ons more than chrome.
      Even though their faster-than-light release cycle of late may put and end to this... :-(

    3. Re:Firefox still rules by Threni · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I just don't understand how bookmarks work on Chrome. Why can't I have what I have on Firefox - a menu item I can click on to get a scrollable list of bookmarks? I don't want a whole empty row just for a single bookmark button, and I don't want a bookmark `frame` or tab, or whatever. Why can't I have an icon somewhere which gets me my full list of bookmarks. Just like in Firefox.

    4. Re:Firefox still rules by furbyhater · · Score: 1

      This is just a wild guess, but maybe Google doesn't want people to organize their bookmarks by themselves.
      In their vision, you should just tag/bookmark pages randomly, and "let them handle the rest" a.k.a "data-mine the shit out of you".
      Just a shot in the dark, but who knows, it would mesh well with the impression I get when using their other services (I'm an avid user of gmail i.e.).

    5. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Show bookmarks bar". Then, anything not in there will be under "Other bookmarks".

    6. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The other browsers don't need noscript, because they actually have some security, such as sandboxing, and there are privacy plugins for every browser that are far easier to use.

      Firefox requiring noscript is a detriment, not a benefit. Go look up past java exploits for browsers, chrome and ie block nearly all of them while Firefox without NS is practically wide open.

    7. Re:Firefox still rules by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

      I'll just mention Firefox is half the size of Chrome, on disk. (on Windows at least)

    8. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      without a proper NoScript solution, all other browsers fail. FF is a bloated beastly browser, but can't live without NoScript anymore.

      Opera has NotScripts. Of course, because of the Opera curse you'll ignore this fact.

    9. Re:Firefox still rules by bhcompy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Other browsers will not load a bunch of crap from 15 different sites when I go to a Gawker website? Will automatically block XSS? Will only load JS from sites that I whitelist? NoScript helps make the web faster. I don't particularly use it for security(it helps to a degree). I use it to prevent all the shiat from loading on every website I go to. Hell, it makes Slashdot run less like shiat.

    10. Re:Firefox still rules by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      I like Opera for mobile. Never been impressed by the PC solution.

    11. Re:Firefox still rules by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      Yes, but Firefox takes up a 200+mb footprint in memory.

    12. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same here, I try Chrome/Chromium every now and then on Debian & Windows... then I remember how horrible the web is without AdBlock and go back to IceWeasel/Firefox.

    13. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      without a proper NoScript solution, all other browsers fail. FF is a bloated beastly browser, but can't live without NoScript anymore.

      Chrome has an addon called ScriptNo, that functions in the exact same way, only even more granular.

      So...yeah.

    14. Re:Firefox still rules by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      Unless things have changed, Chrome devs have mentioned that Chrome doesn't have the hooks to do NoScript the way it's done in FF

    15. Re:Firefox still rules by shione · · Score: 1

      No script isn;t just for security and speed. Noscript also indirectly blocks ad sites and web trackers.

    16. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You may want to look into RequstPolicy as well, then; currently I run both, but NoScript seems less useful for me these days.
      (That one just blocks more types of cross-domain requests; it has fewer options as it isn't focused on security as much.)

    17. Re:Firefox still rules by ripdajacker · · Score: 1

      I find the syncing feature in chrome the selling point. I had used firefox for years, but since they went to 4.0 the change was just too much.

      Memory usage shouldn't really be a benchmark in modern browsers, sa RAM is basically free.
      Memory leaks should, of course, be considered in the tests.

      The advantages chrome gives me is speed on my laptop, the chrome-to-phone extension and ReadItLater.
      All probably replicable on Firefox, but in the end it's just a piece of software. Just like KDE vs. GNOME, or MS Office vs OpenOffice.

    18. Re:Firefox still rules by Bj�rn · · Score: 1

      I just don't understand where this misconception that Firefox uses a lot of memory comes from. Firefox is the leanest of the three major browsers in all test that I have seen, while Chrome is usually the worst offender. Here is comparison of memory usage from CNet: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20047314-12.html
      When comparing memory usage results are the following:
      Chrome 10: 390 532
      IE9: 205 616
      FF 4: 148 020

      There are other test with similar results. Also note that, since then, Firefox 7 supposedly reduced the memory footprint by 20 - 30%.

      --
      Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. --Niels Bohr
    19. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Give Requestpolicy a try. If you like Adblock and Noscript you probably like it too.
      If someone knows an equivalent for Chrome I am willing to switch browsers.

    20. Re:Firefox still rules by purpledinoz · · Score: 1

      I agree 100%. What add-in are you guys using for cookie management? I'm currently using Cookie Monster. Just curious what the other ./ people are using.

    21. Re:Firefox still rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For me the advantage of Chrome is the synching--especially extensions and it works cross-platform. I use a Windows 7 x64 machine on my desktop at work, a MacBook Pro for work when I travel, an iMac at home, and use Lucid Lynx on an ancient Gateway Solo 2500 in my basement workroom. Chrome synchs my extensions for GoogleVoice, Twitter, etc., along with my bookmarks and preferences. Yes, I realize that means some will say I'm selling my privacy out to Google, but I don't find it any different from other synching (iCloud, et. al.) services. The ability of Chrome to run *identically* on multiple platforms and stay synched and updated without my intervention is a beautiful thing.

  16. Tree style tabs by DragonHawk · · Score: 5, Informative

    The one thing that keeps me off Chrome for serious web browsing is the lack of a **full** equivalent to Tree Style Tab. I've found various attempts, but until something with all the critical features is available, I can't leave Firefox.

    And yes, it's that important. I find serious web browsing without tree tabs is basically unusable.

    Some analysis of Chrome extensions I've tried follows below, along with a longer explaination of why tree tabs matter.

    -----
    Why tree tabs are important

    Critical features:

    * Arrange tabs in a hierarchy (subordinate/superior relationships)
    * Links middle-clicked to open in a new tab, open under the current tab
    * You can collapse branches of the tabs tree, like a folder tree in Explorer/Outlook
    * You can drag tabs around to restructure the tree

      For example, my current top-level hierarchies at work are "PVI clusterfsck", "vern buerg list", "to read", "vmware ctrl alt del", "new server", and "training". "training" has four immediate subtabs, each for various training providers we use at $WORK. Each of those is an exploration of their course hierarchy. I can expand or collapse any section or subsection as my focus changes. I can also bookmark branches for later.

      For me, at least, knowledge isn't linear, it's tree structured. The Back/Forward paradigm is totally inadequate for the task.

    -----

    Tree Style Tabs (Beta)
    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ffididlaalcoegfcalmeldjfnihmoech

      Unfortunately, it's lacking some features. The biggest is that it
    doesn't actually replace the tab bar across the top of the screen.
    Rather, it gives you a new toolbar button, which, when clicked, drops
    down a tree structure. No way to make that appear permanently, that I
    can see. (TreeStyleTab appears much like a "side bar" in Firefox.)
    The tree structure does reflect which tab opened from which. But I
    can't drag tabs or branches to organize them, nor can I
    collapse/expand branches.

    -----

    Tab Sense
    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oiabeebnmckkdjloeofbfladabfhedlg

      Similar to the "Tree Style Tabs (Beta)" above. Same
    button-not-a-sidebar issue. Does allow collapse/expand, which is
    good. It opens up a new Google Chrome window to hold collapsed tabs
    (with the message to minimize it and forget about it), which is rather
    kludgey. Still can't drag tabs.

    -----

    Tabs Manager
    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ioigddmjfpphkbamgbaolfkpifddnaje

      Same button-not-a-sidebar issue. Tab structure doesn't appear to
    reflect browsing history. Seems to have only two levels, a "folder"
    it creates, and all your tabs. Does allow dragging of those tabs, but
    I'm not sure what the point is. Can't find a way to create a folder.
    I'm not quite sure what the point is.

    -----

      Some of these limitations might be due to Chrome's architecture,
    rather than the extension programmers. In particular, I suspect
    Chrome just doesn't let extensions have enough access to the UI to do
    anything really useful. Which is a shame, because Chrome feels so
    much faster than Firefox.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
    1. Re:Tree style tabs by sribe · · Score: 2

      The one thing that keeps me off Chrome for serious web browsing is the lack of a **full** equivalent to Tree Style Tab [mozilla.org]. I've found various attempts, but until something with all the critical features is available, I can't leave Firefox.

      Wow, I had no idea such a thing existed. I've stuck with Safari out of familiarity, occasionally missing the old OmniWeb and its window sets (or whatever it called them). But this is exactly the thing to make me look into changing my primary browser. I deal with a lot of web pages at once, and the windows + tabs paradigm is really inadequate, and leaves me trying organize URLs in an external program, which is really tedious...

    2. Re:Tree style tabs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe some people don't realize you can have multiple browsers. I have Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari. Chrome is faster and I use it for pages with lots of Javascript. Firefox is for most everything else. Opera and Safari are used as backups so if a web page doesn't work right I check in them to see if it is the server or my browser. I'm not on Windows so no IE for me (I guess I have a VM with IE9 on Windows 7) but I never use it at home.

      My point is you don't have to not use Chrome because it lacks one feature. Use Chrome for what it is good at, and use Firefox for what it is good at. I can't imagine you always browse in a fashion that is requiring that much tab organization. You probably occasionally just browse a single page at a time or watch a video or something.

    3. Re:Tree style tabs by 0ld_d0g · · Score: 1

      For me, at least, knowledge isn't linear, it's tree structured. The Back/Forward paradigm is totally inadequate for the task.

      In reality, knowledge isn't tree structured, its a graph. The Tree paradigm is totally inadequate for the task. ;-)

    4. Re:Tree style tabs by fostware · · Score: 1

      I appreciate the screen real-estate as well.

      My taskbar runs down the left side of the screen, and I ran Tree Style Tabs down the left hand side as well.
      Sure I have oodles of screen already at dual 1920x1200, but it's useful given the amount of websites that *still* format for ~1024px wide
      I blame the netbook / tablet format ^_^

      All I've read so far suggests the extensions can only work within the established rules, which preclude working outside the drawing area and the top toolbar.

      --
      "We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." - Aneurin Bevan
    5. Re:Tree style tabs by eht · · Score: 1

      Nothing bugs me more than wasted real estate on the sides.Tree view tabs, even opening a ton of sites only go down half way then it is empty space to the bottom, in addition to all the websites that have a sidebar on them, like Slashdot. I much rather run with two browsers open side by side, or a browser and anything else rather than using up 1680 wide just for a browser or even worse 1920 and this is with dual monitors as well. I also find it much easier to eat up top or bottom real estate and scroll up and down than to eat up sides and then either have to expand the browser to the full width of my monitor or scroll side to side, one of which is very wasteful and the other just doesn't flow right for me.

    6. Re:Tree style tabs by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      try side tabs in about:flags. its quite nice, but its not completely tree style :(

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  17. IE6 to IE8 by Turnerj · · Score: 1

    Didn't Microsoft the other day that they are going to silently upgrade IE6 to IE8? I would think that number could push IE8 back on top of Chrome.

  18. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's stupid to have you browser perform content filtering. That's the kind of thing you have a filtering proxy do, so that the filtering applies to ALL of your apps, including any other browsers you may be using. Hell, setting up such a proxy isn't even that difficult, and there are many options available. Furthermore, you don't have to worry about it breaking with each minor browser update, like seems to happen with Firefox's plugins all the time now.

  19. AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There is an AdBlock addon 4 Opera too -> http://www.bing.com/search?q=AdBlock+for+Opera&go=&qs=bs&form=QBLH )

    Plus? Well:

    You can even Right-Click on pages & select "Block Content" & that can "do the job" easily enough on adbanners & more on ANY page...

    However, Opera has PLENTY of BUILT-IN NATIVE OPTIONS for control of things in its GLOBAL & OVERRIDE/BY SITE menu options for what you mention:

    1.) Tools Menu

    2.) Preferences

    3.) General tab has "popup control" (a source of malware sometimes)

    4.) Advanced tab has

    a.) Cookies
    b.) Plugins
    c.) Security (security protocols like BETTER THAN TLS 1.x)
    d.) Certificates control
    e.) Trusted Website mgt.
    f.) Master Password controls

    ( & more)

    5.) Network section has

    a.) Proxy control
    b.) Network referrer control
    c.) Geolocation control

    ( & more)

    6.) MOST IMPORTANTLY vs. Javascript &/or Plugins?

    Opera's CONTENT TAB controls java, javascript, plugins (only on demand setting too optional), style options (where you can use your own PROTECTIVE css filters even, which I do, alongside HOSTS &/or PAC files).

    Pretty much ALL YOU NEED to stop yourself from being bombarded by ads, OR WORSE, being infested/infected by malware thru them!

    * OPERA ROCKS - & only just got better in 64-bit, & right in time for Christmas too...

    APK

    P.S.=> Nicest part is, it has an overrides section where you can MAKE EXCEPTIONS, by site (in bysite preferences of the same area above)...

    ... apk

    1. Re:AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True this, you can even use a filled content blocker, like the one from Fanboy (google " opera urlfilter.ini fanboy " ), so there's absolutely no needs for extension, has been available since damn long time ago too.

    2. Re:AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: The parent post has a link to Bing!
      Be careful!

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    3. Re:AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      Oh, thank god we have you apk! A good thing you posted such specific detail because there's nobody on Slashdot with enough technical nouse to understand the incredible hidden power of their hosts file without your prompting.

      Once again apk saves the day!

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
    4. Re:AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Public service announcement: The parent post has text in all uppercase!
      Be careful!

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    5. Re:AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Parent post is an off-topic troll. Be careful!

    6. Re:AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He got modded up though, lol (n' ur off topic troll)

  20. Good by whisper_jeff · · Score: 2

    While my personal preference is for Safari, as a designer, this is good news, on two fronts. First, anything that knocks IE market share down is a great thing because I, like every web designer out there, am sick and tired of uttering the phrase "it works perfectly in every browser _except_ IE..." Second, I think it's good because, pure and simple, I think the Webkit engine is phenomenal. Both Safari and Chrome have deep HTML5/CSS3 compatibility and, more importantly, they are capable of things that allow web designers to do some really spectacular things. While I would love to see Safari market share increase, I'll be very happy to see webkit market share increase any way it can.

    1. Re:Good by BZ · · Score: 1

      > have deep HTML5/CSS3 compatibility

      And the worst CSS2.1 implementation out of the 4 major browser engines, if you look at the W3C CSS2.1 test suite.

      I'm not sure how you're measuring "compatibility" here. Are you counting claimed-to-be-implemented features or are you counting correctly-implemented features?

    2. Re:Good by cochito · · Score: 1

      Is that a display:run-in sentence? rofl. I see you're out of date: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/

    3. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am impressed. You managed to get through that entire post without mentioning your mac or your iphone.

    4. Re:Good by BZ · · Score: 1

      I have no idea what your issue was with sentences, but looks like WebKit has finally fixed enough of the bugs specifically in the test suite to be ahead of Presto, but still behind Gecko and Trident.

      Let me know when they fix their broken selector handling, ok?

    5. Re:Good by omfgnosis · · Score: 1

      I appreciate the clamor for correctness, but at a certain point what web developers expect of a browser is that we can write code and it can appear and work the same in every browser, and then that we can do powerful things with that code that appears and works the same in every browser. Edge cases definitely hit us from time to time, and those implementation details do matter, but more often than not those aren't the complaints we have. We want basic things like display: inline-block or text-overflow: ellipsis or box-shadow: inset to work without weird hacks. (And since I'm not feeling particularly loyal, the last complaint is directed at Chrome, the second at Firefox, and the first at Firefox and IE; I'd have included a complaint directed at Safari but I can't think of one, and that's not an endorsement of Safari I'm just drawing a blank at the moment; and I'd have included one for Opera but I can't be bothered).

      I think you'll find we measure compatibility by how much special care we need to coax a given browser to do what it's told. You can claim WebKit is lacking, and it might technically be, but it certainly lives up to that expectation better than the competition.

    6. Re:Good by BZ · · Score: 1

      > I think you'll find we measure compatibility by how
      > much special care we need to coax a given
      > browser to do what it's told.

      But that measure presumes a certain set of things that you're telling the browser, and in practice that set is most affected by the marketing that browser developers do and the things they push web developers to try. Web developers only think to try things that they've been told work in some browser; if a browser implements a useful feature that doesn't get sufficiently hyped, web developers tend to not find out about it and tend to not try using it and so don't realize other browsers are missing it. Gecko's support for SVG filters on non-SVG content is an interesting example.

      So what you're telling me is that WebKit has the best marketing department at the moment. You're right; it does. That doesn't make it most-compatible; it just means that web developers don't even realize how limited they're being by WebKit's limitations and what they could do if they could do things other browser support but WebKit doesn't.

      Or in other words, by your definition the most "compatible" browser is always the one with the best advertising department and the best state for the web is for that browser to have a monopoly so you can just target it (using the canned snippets the advertising department provides, more often than not) and not have to worry about anything else....

      I can see how that situation might make web developers' lives easier in the short term, and indeed it did back in 2000-2001 or so. The browser they targeted then was IE6, and it supported all sorts of things others did not (while lacking support for other things, but the advertising was heavily slanted IE-wards). As I said, easy short-term, but long-term life starts to suck.

  21. IE 6 and IE 8 are different animals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Not entirely stupid. In terms of interface there's a world of a difference between IE version 6 and IE versions 8 and up. So there's still probably a need to separate between IE version 6 and below, IE version 7, and IE version 8 and above (which are relatively close in terms of interface and standards compliance).

    That desktop browser stats I would therefore like to see:

    Chrome
    Chromium (mainly for the GNU/Linux guys)
    Firefox 3.x
    Firefox 4.x+ (or should I say 4-ever)
    IE 6
    IE 7
    IE 8+
    Safari
    Opera
    Everybody Else (including users of IE 5.5)

    1. Re:IE 6 and IE 8 are different animals by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 3

      Then go look the numbers up and compile them into groups yourself.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  22. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by fafaforza · · Score: 1

    Maybe, I personally haven't looked into it too much. The usability of Opera wins me over. I just visit known sites, and close any obnoxious sites. They don't deserve any traffic. For anything questionable, I suffer with Firefox.

  23. Is it accessible yet? by Haeleth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does Chrome have the ability yet to make text a readable size without widening the page so I have to scroll sideways?

    Does it have the ability to selectively stop/play animations?

    No? Then I'll be sticking with Firefox a while longer, I guess. Come back when your browser's accessible and then we'll talk.

    1. Re:Is it accessible yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Who's trying to convince you to switch? Use what you want; only MSFT stand to gain from you using their browser (as you've bought their OS).

    2. Re:Is it accessible yet? by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      The readable thing isn't much of an issue with this.

    3. Re:Is it accessible yet? by abhi_beckert · · Score: 3, Informative

      Perhaps you should try Safari. It defaults more modern zoom-everything behaviour, but has a "zoom text only" setting to bring back what you want.

      Anyone who hasn't tried safari for a while (especially on windows) really should give it another try as it's improved a lot. There is a list of small features ten miles long I can't live without, that are only in safari.

      PS: Be sure to check out the third party extensions as well.

    4. Re:Is it accessible yet? by bgarcia · · Score: 1

      Does it have the ability to selectively stop/play animations?

      There's an extension called Gif Stopper.

      --
      I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
    5. Re:Is it accessible yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last time someone listed such a featurelist for Safari, I laughed at how behind they were. Impress me.

    6. Re:Is it accessible yet? by kangsterizer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Chrome doesn't support DPI changes. And for that alone, it's UNUSEABLE for me. 1080p screen on a 13 inches.

    7. Re:Is it accessible yet? by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      ?

      That's kinda your operating systems job...
      I've never seen anything relating to 1080p on computers anyway, myself. I've seen screen DPI, but not resolution ratings.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    8. Re:Is it accessible yet? by vlueboy · · Score: 1

      Good point. I heard about that around may when I got this new PC.

      A quick search led me to stackexchange. I know I read discussions on elsewhere about how google fails to honor it 120dpi rendering. Or maybe it my having to go under the hood for a config file where a simple "DO NOT let pages go under x point fonts" a la Firefox and Safari should be provided (Supposedly Chrome 13 or so came out with a fix, but like I promised, I'm still on FF3 at home.) Or perhaps the issue with text is that hardware-accelerated blurry-fonts a la Safari|Firefox/Vista+ are also not Chrome's goal.

      This is starting to be too much work for those of us that must poke at fonts for older people or ourselves. The stock Widescreens we get at 720p aren't tall enough to comfortably read text at their max resolutions.

      It will be at least another 5 years for displays to kill this plague of mere 800 pixels tall (to provide a bogus satisfaction for 720p checklists) in favor of real 1080p. 72 and 96dpis are still the only output configurations desktop developers test GUIs on, ever. Some day entry-level smartphone resolutions will reach "retina" levels. Thence, half-blind older geeks will finally be delivered a good out-of-box compromise between unreadably tiny menus and large, multi-pixel glyph strokes that your OS loves to silently truncate text from.

    9. Re:Is it accessible yet? by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      safari on windows is completely shit. it looks extremely ugly, performs extremely slowly, and isn't even the best at rendering stuff.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    10. Re:Is it accessible yet? by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      that's the problem! chrome does not respect the os dpi setting. it does not change when you change the dpi in your os.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  24. Misleading...but still significant by NoKaOi · · Score: 2

    Though a few people have pointed out that it's version specific, if you look at the actual numbers Chrome is still pretty close to IE, which is very cool. Of course, it's based on pageviews and not the number of users, and I bet most people who bother using Chrome probably use the web more than your average IE user. Is Firefox going to go bye-bye? I expect that there will always be an open source browser that has a reasonable market share. Will Firefox continue to be on top, or will we be seeing a different dominant open source browser in a couple of years?

  25. What's wrong with the interface? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Personally I prefer it to the alternatives - and especially all the extra bits that aren't obvious.

    To take just one example, the way you can drag the tabs. You can re-order them (no bit deal), but also the way you can drag them out to create a new Chrome window - or the reverse to merge multiple Chrome windows together. I know it's just minor stuff, but it's an attention to detail that I hadn't seen before.

    1. Re:What's wrong with the interface? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      To take just one example, the way you can drag the tabs.

      You can do all the same stuff in firefox, and have been able to since before Chrome existed.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:What's wrong with the interface? by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      You can do all the same stuff in firefox, and have been able to since before Chrome existed.

      but only slowly and shittily.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    3. Re:What's wrong with the interface? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      You can do all the same stuff in firefox, and have been able to since before Chrome existed.

      but only slowly and shittily.

      It's 2011. Here's a nickel, kid, get yourself a real computer.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:What's wrong with the interface? by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      yeah, firefox runs only on REAL computers. anything which has 8gb ram and core i7 extreme asskick edition is just not real enuf for firefox.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    5. Re:What's wrong with the interface? by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      and why is everyone calling me 'kid' today?? i'm not a fucking kid. its you guys who are too old.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    6. Re:What's wrong with the interface? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      and why is everyone calling me 'kid' today??

      It's because you're saying some ridiculously sophomoric kiddie shit. Yes, I mostly run Firefox on a tri-core Phenom II, but I also run it on a 900 MHz P3 and it's fine. I run all the same extensions on both platforms, too. Chrome used to be faster, but recent editions' memory footprint is just as ugly as Firefox. Meanwhile, Notscripts is garbage compared to Noscript, it doesn't actually work, and the load of running a bunch of crap JavaScript that Notscripts has failed to block on that little P3 of mine (EEE701) is enough to put Chrome well ahead of Firefox in the CPU usage category. So when you have something to contribute to an adults' conversation, probably people will stop calling you "kid". I didn't get a memo, if that's what you're asking.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  26. Re:I'm a Former Firefox developer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    You sound like a fag, or at least metrosexual.

  27. For those of us with SSDs however... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've used Chrome a lot and like it even more. Unfortunately, a mere day's browsing generates 700,000 writes according to windows (almost an order of magnitude over any other browser). As an SSD user, this just isn't acceptable and all the fixes are a complicated way of 'shoving the cache onto a spinning disc drive'.

    1. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by sa666_666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you have some RAM to spare, consider moving the cache to a RAM disk instead. This will save the SSD, and is even a good thing to do if you're using a hard drive.

    2. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by MrMista_B · · Score: 1

      Thank you so much for this post! I got an SSD about a half year ago and have been using Chrome for about the same length of time. /Just/ finished setting up a RAM disk. I think you just saved me a couple months of SSD life. Thank you!

    3. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by rev0lt · · Score: 1

      I'm not shure chrome is that noisy disk-wise, or how the parent AC measured it (so I'm not confirming it or questioning it), but I find amusing the irony of putting a disk cache in ram so it won't mess things up :)

    4. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by Waccoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Firefox also lets me move the browser cache and profiles to my hard drive or any folder I want. Chrome only supports writing to the same folder to which its installed. There's not much point to an SSD if I have to install applications to a hard drive.

      When I tried Chrome, it read 20GB+ and wrote between 2-4GB every time I did a cold start. I ditched the browser very quickly. Aside from wondering what the fuck this advertising company was doing reading and writing so much data on startup, I wasn't going to let Chrome thrash my SSD to death.

      I've since discovered that Chromium and Iron don't torture drives. Not only have I banished Chrome from my system, but all other Google apps as well.

    5. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by gottabeme · · Score: 1

      I have also been shocked at Chrome's disk activity at startup--it just doesn't make sense. But you're telling me that Chromium doesn't do the same thing? I find it hard to believe that all the disk thrashing comes from Google-specific code that's only in Chrome. Surely it's related to messing with things like the history files (which are saved indefinitely and rewritten into separate files), indexes, cache, and other SQLite databases, which are in both...right? If Chromium really is so much better about this than Chrome, great--but it seems unlikely to me.

      --
      "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
    6. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by Waccoon · · Score: 1

      It's pretty well known that Chrome = Chromium + other closed source stuff. I've been informed by some Chrome fans that the high disk usage is due to the SafeBrowsing feature, though I have no idea why that would end up reading so much information, rather than just downloading and writing anti-malware profiles. Since getting rid of Chrome over a year ago, I haven't bothered trying it again or doing any more testing. I hate the GUI and I don't appreciate the minimalist configuration options, so it's not for me, anyway.

      I use SysInternals tools to keep track of I/O on my system, by the way. What I'd really like to know is if that disk activity involves spidering out of its install folder, and what it's reading. 20GB is a lot of stuff to read given that the install is supposed to be under 100MB, and it'd be awfully hard to convince me that Chrome isn't reading things that it damn well shouldn't. At least I tried it out on my gaming system and not my workstation.

    7. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This can't be right.... 20GB Read and >2 GB written ??? Where ?

    8. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you so much for this post! I got an SSD about a half year ago and have been using Chrome for about the same length of time. /Just/ finished setting up a RAM disk. I think you just saved me a couple months of SSD life. Thank you!

      Me too! :-)

      Changing Chromium to use a RAM disk was quite easy to set up:

      edit /etc/fstab:
      # create ramdisk, 512 MB
      tmpfs /mnt/ramdisk tmpfs defaults,size=512M 0 0

      mount the ramdisk:
      mount /mnt/ramdisk

      open browser with alternate data directory:
      chromium-browser --user-data-dir="/mnt/ramdisk"

      done. Took me about five minutes. However, no noticeable speed improvements, and all saved data is lost after reboot.

    9. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by f()rK()_Bomb · · Score: 1

      This is utterly stupid, ssd wear is vastly overblown. 6 months using my ssd, delta between least and most used blocks is still zero. 2000 hours powered on, 750 gigs written, 1.5 tb read. The ssd is 240 gigs, so each block has been used 3 times, only 99997 writes left... You do realise the disk controllers are smart enough to not just directly write each windows write operation to the disk right?

      --
      "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
    10. Re:For those of us with SSDs however... by f()rK()_Bomb · · Score: 1

      Bah, too many 9's there, should be just 9997 writes.

      --
      "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
  28. Chrome 15? by EricX2 · · Score: 1

    I'm using Chrome 16, does that mean the most used single version browser is old or that 'NEWS' story is outdated already?

  29. Mission accomplished! by KBehemoth · · Score: 1

    Google developers, you can relax now and start adding massive amounts of bloat that drove me from Firefox to Chrome!

  30. Re:Misleading (no, you are) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But IE6, IE7 and IE8 could be three different browsers. They only have the name in common and the amount of work arounds needed.
    Chrome 1 through 16 are more like each other than IEn and IEn+1 (infact safari/opera/ff and chrome are more like each other than any IE). Also, chrome autoupdates so no one is left behind on ancient versions.
    Because of that, I feel that comparing latest chrome to current IE-king is not as stupid as you think.

  31. Bloat? What Bloat? by rudy_wayne · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People keep claiming that Chrome uses less memory than Firefox so I decided to take a look.

    Memory used:
    Initial start up, no pages open:

    Firefox 39 MB
    Chrome 56 MB

    5 tabs open:

    Firefox 135 MB
    Chrome 152 MB

    Size on disk (Windows version)

    Firefox 44 MB
    Chrome 75 MB

    There are things that I like about Chrome and over the past couple of years Firefox has really pissed me off with their never ending bonehead design decisions. But the "Firefox is bloated" claims just don't make sense.

  32. Firefox is infected with Unity syndrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Aurora and Nightly builds have a "Jersey Shore" user interface. So many features from Firefox have been removed that by the time you added enough extensions you could of just used Chrome or even stuck with IE9. IE9 is still behind engine wise but is at least acceptable until IE10. When IE10 does come out next year Firefox will be smacked against the wall unless its developers brings back the Firefox 3.6 user interface and starts listening to its userbase again. Otherwise the browser market will be IE for corporate, Chrome for nearly everyone else with a minority of Opera users and Safari for Apple-land while Firefox goes they way of Netscape, Mosaic, Flock and other failed browsers.

    1. Re:Firefox is infected with Unity syndrome by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Could've or could have NOT FUCKING COULD OF

    2. Re:Firefox is infected with Unity syndrome by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      If the interface is so bad, why not just right click and change back to the old one?

      --
      It's been a long time.
  33. Chrome has it's issues too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Things Chrome does wrong or poorly:
    - video codecs, sorely lacking, needs flash
    - doesn't use threads appropriately, insteads opens every page in a separate "fork" of the browser. Chrome basically wastes. Open more than one Chrome tab that has flash being used (eg gmail, any site with ads, etc) and watch as the performance suffers greatly.
    - Not 64bit

    This doesn't happen in firefox. However Firefox used to crash before out-of-process plugins.

    This is the current status quo, the way everyone wants things to work. The program should be multithreaded correctly, and sandbox plugins as a separate process. This is also what we do on the server end. worker Apache22+mod_fastcgi +php5.3+php-fpm+xcache. Most efficient use of memory, only pages with php on it call the php parser, apache has a fixed memory usage.
    Chrome's model looks like the old Apache1.3prefork+mod_php+apc, where every connection process eats up memory. The end result is that Prefork only lets you have like 100 connections where threaded 2.2 lets you have 4000 with the same CPU and RAM. When people rave about nginx or lighttpd they're still using varients on forking at the expense of memory use. All these web servers started out when the CPU performance per core was increasing. It's now decreasing or stagnant (2.2Ghz for the Intel E3) while cores increase.

    In a web browser, flash is one of the problems. If you take flash out (flash operates so poorly with threads, that you get nothing but screen tearing if it can't monopolize all cpu's.) you still can only open about 6 tabs before a machine with 4GB of ram starts having to page swap. Try and leave twitter open for 24 hours, or gmail. Eventually they'll make the system so sluggish you'll restart the browser. This doesn't happen on firefox, I can easily open 30 tabs and not slow down unless flash drags it down. This is actually what I had been doing. Using Chrome with flash and using firefox for everything that doesn't require flash. I also use Opera with script turned off when I need to visit a site that I consider hazardous to browse (eg 4chan, hacker sites, torrent sites, download sites, basically anything that spawns nusiance popups or jacks the visible tab) even if I'm just looking at what people are yabbing on about.

    Flash is on the way out. in 3 years flash, silverlight and Java won't be used on the desktop anymore. It will be HTML5 or Native binary (steam/appstore). No more security riddled extensions, plugins or other crap (toolbars) that users don't understand how to use and don't understand the privacy implications of.

    Java's death-knell was Oracle. Nobody likes Oracle. Oracle only buys what they plan on squeezing money out of before they throw it away.

    1. Re:Chrome has it's issues too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > doesn't use threads appropriately, insteads opens every page in a separate "fork" of the browser. Chrome basically wastes.

      You do know, that's part of it's security model, do you?
      Also, forking doesn't waste much compared to threads. The comparison to apache is invalid, because with apache the speed overhead of forking matters most, which is the biggest part of the 'simultaneous connections possible' equation if I'm not mistaken. This is not an issue with chrome.

      Having each tab in a different process is also an advantage because if a tab is leaking memory it is contained to that process (I only wish they would set the process name to include the tab title).

  34. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by locopuyo · · Score: 1

    Yes you can.. it's in the freaking options by default you don't even need to download some shitty add-on.

  35. Re:Nobody cares. by flimflammer · · Score: 1

    Some people do.

  36. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by hedwards · · Score: 0

    Why would you want a 64-bit browser? With the exception of a couple areas you're not likely to see any improvements in performance and ultimately you'll end up using even more RAM than you were previously.

  37. NoScript missing by seezer · · Score: 1

    Nothing else to say.

    1. Re:NoScript missing by Arker · · Score: 1

      Yes, that's what's keeping me on Firefox 3.6 for now. If it aint broke dont fix it. I have a browser that, with the appropriate set of extensions, ignores the majority of crap on the net, doesnt stress the net by downloading it all, and makes the web usable again. I'm in no hurry to give it up for either Chrome or IE. IE is obvious - but Chrome is produced to serve ads, and the day you see a Chrome that allows for blocking the crap that most ads rely on someone will be very chilly in hell. Mozilla org may have gone totally nuts with their last few releases but it's still free software, and when they stop supporting me I can always switch to IceWeasel.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  38. first spot who cares by Murdoch5 · · Score: 1

    I use what works, Firefox, Lynx, Links, Chrome. I use what will work when I need it.

  39. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by sa666_666 · · Score: 1

    On a pure 64-bit system, the memory you'll save by not having 32-bit libs loaded will eclipse any extra memory used because of longer pointers in 64-bit mode. As well, there's something annoying about having an *almost* fully 64-bit system with one or two apps holding it back. Perhaps it's an OCD thing or something :)

  40. At this point by __aaqvdr516 · · Score: 1

    And now for more misleading statistics:
    Windows 7 usage has surpassed all Linux and Macintosh usage*. Windows XP retains 15% share.

    *statistics based on my household machine usage.

  41. Nightly by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

    Ironically, I just switched back again. I mainly use Chromium for light-weight browsing, because it starts faster, and Firefox (or rather Nightly) when I need extensions or non-broken plugins. Apparently they still haven't managed to integrate a proper PDF viewer in Chromium, even years after one was included in the Windows version of Google Chrome.

    1. Re:Nightly by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

      About that, you should try pdfjs in Nightly. it's currently an addon, but i'm guessing eventually it might get integrated.
      that's the mozilla js pdf viewer. its very fast and light, much better than acrobat, and much better than anything i had so far because its so fast.

      there are still some issues which i run into *sometimes* like editable fields that aren't always working, but for 99% of the tasks it's really cool.

    2. Re:Nightly by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

      I'm using that. Unfortunately, it is broken on some basic functionality like math symbols, so I frequently have to resort to downloading and viewing in evince. Worse, sometimes it makes insidious mistakes that are hard to catch, like exchanging "set intersection" with "set union" and leaving me completely baffled about a formula. :)

  42. Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The ones who should be worried about this are not Microsoft. Rather, they are Mozilla. This news just goes to show how irrelevant Firefox is quickly becoming. Luckily for them, they still have time. All they need to do is stop doing the stupid shit that they've been doing the past couple of years.

    First, bring back the fucking menu bar and the status bar by default! The space gained by not showing them is much less valuable than the time saved by having the browser's functionality easily accessible (using the menus) and by having informational messages shown much more obviously (using the status bar). It was a really fucking stupid decision to hide these by default, and it has crippled Firefox's UI. No, I don't want to dig through about:config trying to find the right options to re-enable this functionality that shouldn't be disabled by default.

    Second, go back to a sensible release schedule! Put out solid, well-tested major releases once a year. Use version numbers that are actually meaningful. Don't succumb to stupid release policies or version number shenanigans just because Chrome does. Using a sensible release schedule will also help prevent the UI from changing drastically on a monthly basis, which only serves to drive users away.

    Third, fix the really fucking horrible memory and CPU consumption that Firefox has exhibited for years now. This alone is one of the major reasons why people use Chrome. It's not that they like Chrome, but rather they just don't like how Firefox consumes so much fucking memory even after short browsing sessions, and even when using a fresh installation with no extensions or add-ons installed yet. It's even less pleasant when Firefox feels so much slower than Chrome, Opera, and even IE these days.

    Fourth, show the damn protocol in the URL bar by default! Yes, it's important, and no, it doesn't waste space. It was a pathetic decision to remove it, and it really made Firefox much less usable. No, I don't want to dig through about:config trying to find the right option to re-enable this functionality that shouldn't be disabled by default.

    Mozilla had their most successful years before Firefox 4. It has been all downhill since then. It's also been long enough that it should be obvious that this new approach isn't working. It's driving away the core Firefox users who made Firefox what it once was. If Firefox is just going to be a poor imitation of Chrome, and inferior in many ways, then why the fuck don't people just use Chrome? Well, that's what's happening. Maybe Mozilla can get their shit together and fix this problem before Firefox is completely irrelevant.

    1. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Uh, all those things you're saying will will allow Firefox to become more relevant again are things that are done the same way in Chrome.

      "Well, people obviously prefer the way Chrome does this... let's go the opposite way!"

      Sounds like dumb geek theory to me. It doesn't win you converts... you've just admitted defeat and rolled back to the old stuff so you can die quietly.

    2. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I couldn't agree more, except for one note..

      FF started 'noobifying' their user interface, in an effort to attract more 'average' users. While the latter hardly succeeded, they managed to bully away a large part of their support crew. "No, we won't listen to what users want. You are only 1 in thousand wanting that feature (or not)". In the long term, that attitude damaged them.

      To me, it's just useability. I don't bother FF or chrome too much, it started all with 'just trying' chrome but it appeared i sticked to it, automagically. Why? Not even sure, as webkit isnt' the most compatable engine around (don't shoot me, shoot the web developers). But because of the tiny details: little wasted screenspace. A close button on the first tab (that FF has disabled for some obscure reason). The fact that i can close the browserapp and launch again, without error messages saying 'ff is still in use'. A normal looking button to open the configuration menu. Etc. Etc.. About any detail why i think chrome might be slightly better is a slap in the face of Mozilla's UI design team.

    3. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your first two points kinds are meaningless since people have fled FF for a UI exactly like the one that you claim is a reason that they left FF.

      You are correct about FF's performance, but people will not just come back to it because it gets better performance... I left FF because I LIKE Chrome.

      Your fourth point is meaningless again because people have not left FF for a browser that does the same exact thing.

    4. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by couchslug · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "The ones who should be worried about this are not Microsoft. Rather, they are Mozilla. "

      If they cared, they'd change. They don't.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    5. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by harperska · · Score: 2

      The "no we won't listen to what users want" mentality also spread to their handling of bug fixes. I know one datapoint doesn't make a pattern, but a former coworker of mine submitted a bug report to the FF team, and the response was something along the lines of "FF is open source. You're a software developer. Why don't you submit a patch yourself rather than just complaining about it." Never mind the fact that said former coworker was a web developer, and even a pro at HTML/CSS/Javascript may know when a browser feature is broken but won't have a clue how to fix it.

    6. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You clearly didn't read the last paragraph of the GP's comment. It explains the situation very clearly. Since your reading comprehension is a bit crippled, I'll extract the relevant sentences for you:

      If Firefox is just going to be a poor imitation of Chrome, and inferior in many ways, then why the fuck don't people just use Chrome? Well, that's what's happening.

      When your choice is between Microsoft's shitty clone of Chrome (IE 8+), Mozilla's shitty clone of Chrome (Firefox 4+) and the actual Google Chrome, you might as well just use Google Chrome, merely because it's not as shitty as the others. That in no way implies that it behaves how the user actually wants it to behave, however.

    7. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by bmhowe · · Score: 2

      I know this is an old datapoint, but I *had* submitted patches back in the days of Mozilla (right before the FF split), and they weren't even accepted. It's a pretty exclusive club, and getting your patch applied is far more work than actually writing the patch.

    8. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by BZ · · Score: 1

      Can you link to the relevant bug, please? That sort of thing is not OK...

    9. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mozilla had their most successful years before Firefox 4. It has been all downhill since then.

      I was about to post a thread "why is Chrome better than Firefox?" I've been using FF forever at both home and work, and don't see any particular reason to change. But I've never upgraded from v3 (current version: 3.6.24), despite occasional nags from Mozilla that I'm missing out on the latest features.

    10. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by asavage · · Score: 2

      Maybe I am an anomaly but I find on both my work and home computer Chrome uses substantially more memory than Firefox. My work computer is a few years old and and has many extensions while the chrome installation has no extensions. My home computer I bought in November and has 5 Firefox and 1 chrome extension installed. I am at home and have both Firefox and chrome open and they have been open for several days. In Firefox I have 17 tabs open and chrome 21. Chome is using 904MB and and 1.3GB of virtual memory. Firefox is using 355MB and 369MB of virtual memory. My work computer sees the same thing. Chrome using about 3x the memory as Firefox under the same usage.

    11. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

      that's pretty dumb. i was looking for some reasons you listed as like "oh yeah, hes right on that".
      and im just wondering "is that a plot from Googlers to up rank this AC comment?" instead.

      Each point is wrong. if they were to follow ANY of the one listed, it would be their doom, but for real this time.

      What they gotta do:

      1) have a F* working update process. no screens. no nagging. no extensions breaking. just painless upgrade. that should have been done BEFORE rapid release even. but hey, its actually in progress
      2) asynchronous UI. and its working in fennec.
      3) have a few true innovations that make a difference (not UI changes that no one care about, seriously, the new statusbar, url bar, etc is fine, just like its fine in chrome). For example the side tabs on android tablets are awesome.

    12. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by kangsterizer · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you can link to the bug right? Yes? No? How convenient!

    13. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I posted this on last week's "omg chrome is awesome" story, but I will say it again.

      The only computer I have is a single core p4 with a gig of ram, I have firefox 8 and aurora on it. I notice no "slowness" or memory leaks. So you can switch back to firefox any time.

      If you're posting from some six core gaming beast with 16 gigs of ram and complaining about firefox being slow, you can go fuck yourself. If you're saying you want to keep a facebook window open while you game while working on your essay before getting back to editing a video, you can go double penetrate yourself.

      I could take the limited capabilities of my crappy hardware and run a few youtube 360p videos and some stupid javascript heavy websites using Chrome, but the difference is, I wouldn't blame Chrome for crashing or taking up too much ram. Chrome is only doing what I told it to do. It's not Chrome that makes things slow, it's webmasters trying to jam as many menu rollovers and ads and videos and comment and voting into a page as possible.

      Any speed given by technological progress is immediately negated by dumbass developers. doesn't matter if they're wrting anti-virus or a webpage. mo' RAM, mo' problems.

    14. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really about the performance. On my netbook it is actually much better - even though it takes about a second more to startup than Chrome/ium, I find a 1GB of RAM good enough for running a rather heavy music player (large music collection), FF (with at least 20 to 30 tabs at any given point) and office software. FF's performance was terrible at 3, 3.6 improved it slightly although left memory problems. However FF8 is quite lightweight, and the alphas are not actually bad - the most stable thing, I've yet to crash it.

      So the point about performance is old - but you remain correct about people not coming back just like that.

    15. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by aitan · · Score: 1

      First, bring back the fucking menu bar and the status bar by default!.

      Go to the Firefox button, Options and check Menu bar. For the status bar, install the status-4-ever extension

      I also thought at the beginning that not having the status bar would mean a lack of UI that I will miss very much, but the fact is that I only really need it while I'm hovering a link and in those cases it automatically pops up, so I'm perfectly happy of not having those pixels wasted.

      If you look at other comments, people still complain that there's still too much UI in Firefox, and all the browsers have been focused on cleaning up the UI. There's no reason to keep the same metaphors and UI elements than 20 years ago, browsing the internet should be easy and focused on that: browsing the web, not looking at the UI of the browser. I don't mean that the current trends are perfect, but rejecting any changes doesn't help us to move forward; of course sticking to a very old version and then jumping to the latest one will mean lots of changes but staying updated helps to take the changes little by little.

      An example of something that I don't like/understand about the current Firefox is that Panorama thing. It could be useful if it could handle all the Firefox windows and tabs, but instead it just allows to group the tabs inside a window and hide the rest so I did test it a little and then forgot about it. The problem might be that someday they fix it and start behaving really well but I will miss it because they introduced it in a broken state and so I no longer have any interest about it

    16. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by makomk · · Score: 1

      You're not the only one. Chromium pretty much always uses more memory than Firefox in my experience - it's just harder to tell because Chromium splits its memory usage between a whole bunch of processes and there's no easy way to get a summary.

    17. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now that FF has a UI that is exactly as bad as Chrome, there is no reason for me to continue using it. I might as well switch because at least Chrome is fast.

    18. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Macthorpe · · Score: 1

      Your first two points kinds are meaningless since people have fled FF for a UI exactly like the one that you claim is a reason that they left FF.

      Actually, the way I see it is that people who stayed with Firefox stayed because of the way Firefox did things. So, by moving their UI and release schedules to a Chrome-like situation, why would people stay with Firefox? They've taken away everything that people stayed with Firefox for and made none of the performance improvements that Chrome brings to the table. They've basically made their browser into a crap version of Chrome.

      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    19. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Shawndeisi · · Score: 1

      That is actually exactly the case. Since Chrome came out, FireFox has slowly been aping Chrome's features. When Chrome first came out, I hated it. Despised, in fact. FireFox was my browser on all of my machines. Gradually, FireFox started adopting every feature in Chrome that I found infuriating. A few months ago, I said fuck it. If FireFox wants to look like Chrome, I may as well run Chrome and get all of the performance of Chrome. If FireFox quit all of the dumb things that it has been doing in pursuit of Chrome, I would go back to FireFox. If it keeps trying to be Chrome, I WILL JUST USE CHROME.

    20. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by toddestan · · Score: 1

      When your choice is between Microsoft's shitty clone of Chrome (IE 8+),

      Actually, that would make Chrome a poor copy of IE7.

    21. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by jesup · · Score: 1

      a) that was a long time ago
      b) you didn't say 'why' - the quality/performance/etc bar for patches to pass for a browser (now) used by 400m people is pretty high - but that bar is very similar for internal developers (employees or not). Back in the Netscape days, new Netscape employees would frequently get annoyed that they weren't just able to check their code in; they had to get reviews and then have someone with checkin privs do it, just like any other contributer.
      c) some patches make user or web-visible changes that aren't agreed to
      d) some bugs (when they get serious look in patch review) aren't ones we'd agree are bugs, or fixing them would cause other problems.

      n.b. I work for Mozilla now, and in the pre-FF days I was a 3rd-party mozilla contributor and release 'driver'

    22. Re:Mozilla needs to get their shit together. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Firefox has the best memory footprint of any browser now, according to some tests I saw recently.

  43. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by abhi_beckert · · Score: 3, Informative

    With a stock firefox that's true.

    But throw in a few popular third party extensions, and leave FireFox running for a day or two. It will start consuming all your available RAM and a good chunk of virtual memory too (growing more and more the longer you leave it open).

    With other browsers, memory consumption is rarely even noticeable. I can leave safari running for *months* and it'll happily sit on around 200MB with my usual 15 or so tabs. And yes, I do have a bunch of third party extensions installed. Pretty much the same ones I had when I was using FireFox every day.

  44. Examples please... by bogaboga · · Score: 1

    There are things that I like about Chrome and over the past couple of years Firefox has really pissed me off with their never ending bonehead design decisions...

    Please provide some examples. I my case, the problem is with Chrome: The inability to rearrange the tabs the way I see fit.

  45. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by furbyhater · · Score: 1

    After letting Firefox run for about a week, it's taking up 720 MB with 10 open tabs.
    At times I had over 30 open tabs, and it still took less than 1.5 GB.
    That may sound like a lot, but why not make use of the 4 GB + of RAM most PCs have nowadays?

    The only wishes I am making to the Firefox team are the following
    - make the 64-bit Linux version perform competently
    - slower release cycle, stability over features

    They totally nailed it whit the extension mechanism, so all they have to do is to offer a rock-stable, fast base system and people can mix and choose extensions to get the features they want. That's perfect. Don't get lead away from the right path!!!

  46. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 2

    What has happened to Opera! Opera has always been in the lead
    {argument Here} I'll download and use the 64bit version, thank you.

    It's just so many sites don't work with Opera anymore
    http://i39.tinypic.com/ke8ztj.jpg directv.com for one.
    Opera is not only being overlooked but rejected by many. I notice you've
    been mod'ed down, even here...

    Battlefield 3 requires Firefox or Chrome, folks can't understand why
    I don't care for those browsers, and I can't understand why I can't use Opera.

    I've used Opera forever, since way back when. I've used Internet Explorer intentional one time.
    I tried to download a game (Win95), the game installed itself instead. I had met ActiveX and
    never trusted I.E. since, using Netscape prior to Opera. Firefox and Chrome are alright, Opera is just more...Mature.

    I notice Firefox finally has a "paste and go" in address bar context menu, Opera has had
    it for years, just little things like that.

  47. The real new - chrome vs firefox by Cyko_01 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here is the real news - chrome (all versions) near tied Firefox (all versions ) in November and as of December has clearly overtaken it for the position of second most popular browser

    1. Re:The real new - chrome vs firefox by Cyko_01 · · Score: 1
  48. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by laffer1 · · Score: 1

    install firebug at least. Chrome has those features built in.

  49. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, my primary measure has been if I leave it open on Friday, how will it react on Monday when I get back. And on that FF has failed like horribly, both Chrome and IE respond much faster. Using process explorer it seems Firefox is busy reloading a billion stack pages which a) it'd has no reason using anyway and b) even if it did, just load the few I need and display those. Maybe I'm hitting some kind of issue that leaks memory like shit, but at least that's what I find. I haven't filed a bug because honestly I don't know WTF to file the bug on, I just switched to Chrome. If I got too paranoid about what Google is doing, I'd get Chromium.. but FF is really fucked up and I don't know what'd bring it back, it'd certainly be no quick fix.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  50. I'm reading this by drwav · · Score: 1

    on Opera Mobile on my Asus Transformer because the stock Honeycomb browser is way way too buggy and crashes frequently.

  51. unfortunately, all those bits don't allow you by decora · · Score: 1

    to write complete, coherent sentences that are understandable by other people.

  52. this explains a lot by decora · · Score: 1

    about firefox. and about life in general.

  53. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've had quite the opposite experience with both your anecdotes.

  54. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The most important factor.....

    Chrome FEELs faster and cleaner.

    Its all about user experience....

    Nuf said.

  55. here's a crazy idea by decora · · Score: 1

    stop visiting 'hacker sites', 'torrent sites', 'download sites', and 4chan.

    1. Re:here's a crazy idea by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      When the browser tries to dictate what websites you go to, then the web browser is faulty.

      --
      It's been a long time.
  56. IE 9 still not available for Windows XP by tepples · · Score: 2

    Microsoft said only Windows Vista and Windows 7 would be auto-updated to IE 9. Windows XP, with over two years of extended support remaining, would get only IE 8. The latest versions of Chrome and Firefox run on Windows XP, unlike IE 9.

  57. Not all Windows versions can play H.264 by tepples · · Score: 1

    The underlying operating system can't necessarily play H.264. The vast majority of X11/Linux distributions can't. (It's an apt-get away on some distros, but only if the user clicks OK to a dialog box to the effect of This is illegal, you know.) Nor can Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Business, or Windows 7 Starter.

    1. Re:Not all Windows versions can play H.264 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Windows 7 Starter

      What are you talking about? It can.

    2. Re:Not all Windows versions can play H.264 by tepples · · Score: 1

      I thought the media codec support was included only with Home Premium and higher editions of Windows 7. I stand corrected. But that still leaves Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Business, and the operating systems that were on netbooks until very recently.

  58. pleasepleasepleaseplease by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please, please, please! If I use chrome will you let me in your club of best browser? I feel so outside and want browser friend happyness win

  59. Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by tepples · · Score: 1

    If MS pushed hard on IE 9

    They are. It is in Windows Update

    Not if you still use a PC that came with Windows XP. "Pushing hard on IE 9" can't happen until XP's end of life in 2014, so Microsoft is pushing hard on IE 8. Yes, I understand that by 2014, web developers will be clamoring for Microsoft to push hard on IE 10. But IE 10 will require Windows 7, so that can't happen until Windows Vista is EOL'd in 2017. (Source: Windows lifecycle fact sheet)

    1. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only very old pcs, big corporations, and a few small businesses use XP. In the US only 1 out of 4 people even still use it. Many of my clients are migrating next year to Windows 7. By next year it will be very small in all but the largest enterprises and of course China which still sells brand new PCS with XP because it is easier to pirate. But that doesn't concern me as I do not make Mandrin websites.

      XP is old, insecure, and ancient. As SSD and USB 3 starts becoming standard the problems of XP will be more apparent. 70% of all exploits that are Windows related are XP based. TCO is just too high to keep XP around.

      XP should have a negligible affect on IE 8 usage by next year and only has a little sway currently. It is not worth Microsoft's time to rewrite the whole XP kernel to support IEs security features on a 10 year old operating system.

    2. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by tepples · · Score: 1

      Are netbooks manufactured prior to the late 2009 release of Windows 7 considered "very old PCs"? These Windows XP netbooks were still on the shelves into 2010.

    3. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      That was obviously considered a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic question.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    4. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by anonymov · · Score: 1

      In the US only 1 out of 4 people even still use it.

      :D

      IOW, "Who cares about 40-50 million XP users?" And it's only US. Or in web development context "Why should I care about 40-50 mil potential (US) customers, when I can have shiny and pretty HTML5 page?"

      Sadly, no. The reality is that XP share is declining, but not as fast as we'd like to see. With Win7 released two years ago it still just barely overtook WinXP in 30-something% range. And even after the EoL XP users won't just disappear overnight.

      My only hope for all the developers out there is that Win8 won't be a flop and Win7 with IE9 doesn't become new WinXP/IE8 for decade.

    5. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      IOW, "Who cares about 40-50 million XP users?" And it's only US. Or in web development context "Why should I care about 40-50 mil potential (US) customers, when I can have shiny and pretty HTML5 page?"

      Does not compute. You just declared that 100% of American XP users are running IE6, 7, or 8, in spite of the fact that you are posting on a slashdot story about Chrome overtaking IE.

      I mean WTF??! Do you always stop thinking when your religion comes up? Dork.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    6. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by anonymov · · Score: 1

      > You just declared that 100% of American XP users are running IE6, 7, or 8, in spite of the fact that you are posting on a slashdot story about Chrome overtaking IE.

      If you didn't fail reading comprehension so bad, you'd notice that article speaks about Chrome overtaking IE8, not all of the IE.

      But OK, I stand corrected, it's not 40-50M, it's _just_ 8-12M. For US. Really, why should you care for them, right?

      > Do you always stop thinking when your religion comes up? Dork.

      Ahaha, oh wow, that's new. You're kinda incoherent, but I guess you just called me MS fanatic? I'd expect from my comments history to be called google shill, but MS?.. Well.

      Same to you, pal. Go on nitpicking and go ballistic when you feel your religious senses are offended, because, really, weighted counterarguments are overrated, right?

    7. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretending that you thought that he meant that you were an MS fanatic is quite telling.

      Internet Explorer isnt bad enough for you? You over-stated the numbers by 500%, which would have thrown any estimation-based sanity check. We know that you didnt check your numbers, even by simple estimation, and there really are only two reasons why that would be.

      You claim that you arent a zealot, but then that must mean that you were carelessly throwing out liberal numbers in order to take a cheap shot at an Anonymous Coward.

      Lets take you at your word and accept that you take cheap shots at people using made up numbers, because the karma-whoring cheap shots are more important to you than intellectual honesty, veracity, or integrity. Yes, thats much better than being a zealot. You win.

    8. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      I bought a netbook in 2010 with Windows XP on it. Are Microsoft going to pay me to upgrade? If not then I probably won't be.

    9. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by anonymov · · Score: 1

      I don't get what you're trying to say, dude, but, damn, you're trying. I'm deeply moved by your words.

      I fully agree with you that chopping off an arm up to the elbow is much better than chopping it all the way up to the shoulder, and really, why would someone but zealots and karma-whores care for all them luddites with WinXP and ancient browsers.

      Go on, you've won my heart.

    10. Re:Can't push fully on IE 9 until 2014 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      The reason IE 6 dropped *FAST* between 2007-2008 was because websites stopped supporting it. IE 6 had 20% marketshare just a few years ago. Then Facebook, myspace, and other sites started displaying messages with banners to help people upgrade. Between 2001 - 2007 people kept using it as everyone kept catering too it. Business use is important yes but IE 6 is near worthless but all but a few sites by 2009 when the last batch migrated away.

      So yes, leaving HTML 4 behind is pretty simply. Just display the banner and have other players stop supporting it and Chrome and Firefox migrations will continue. Infact, most of Chromes growth came from IE according to statistics. If you go to google it is advertised and many clueless users who are afraid to upgrade tried it out and WHAM free.

      Corporations are terrified of this but once an intranet is an open standard they no longer have to worry about tie. That needs to end. IE 8 is decent so I do not mind it sticking for awhile. But if flash is gone HTML 5 will have to take over so it will be interesting to watch. I just do not want to be using HTML 4 still by 2019. That would blow

  60. Famicom by tepples · · Score: 1

    Does this mean that you have to install it multiple times on a family computer

    Chrome doesn't even run on a family computer. I don't know of any web browser that runs on a family computer. And even if by "family computer" you mean a PC shared by all members of one household, there are vocal opponents to PC sharing on Slashdot who think it's normal for each member of a household to own a separate PC.

    1. Re:Famicom by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Do you truly try to be an asshat?
      He obviously meant a computer shared by the family, since we're not talking about a game system invented in the 70's.
      As far as your idea that the vocal opponents to computer sharing have some sort of global say, let me just say... who the fuck cares.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    2. Re:Famicom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does this mean that you have to install it multiple times on a family computer

      Chrome doesn't even run on a family computer. I don't know of any web browser that runs on a family computer. And even if by "family computer" you mean a PC shared by all members of one household, there are vocal opponents to PC sharing on Slashdot who think it's normal for each member of a household to own a separate PC.

      Shut the Fuck Up...

  61. AppLocker, but it interferes with homework by tepples · · Score: 1

    I wish there was a setting that would trigger a UAC prompt whenever you attempted to run an executable that was not owned by an administrator account.

    Yeah, it's called "Software Restriction Policies" on Windows XP or "AppLocker" on Windows 7. But be prepared for it to interfere with your son's or daughter's computer science homework done in Visual Studio.

  62. Are you reading this on Chrome? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, yes I am.

  63. Practice what u preach by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps u need 2 learn or learn 2 read and to pratice what you preach (sentences begin w/ capital letters). Posting from a smartphone here so excuse the abbreviations (like u for you etc.):

    to write complete, coherent sentences that are understandable by other people. by decora (1710862) on Saturday December 17, @08:31PM (#38412806) Homepage

    Note the bolded t? It should be capitalized and not a fragment like you've posted. Some critique of yours when you yourself cannot write properly. Also, if u don't like his posts don't read 'em. Mostly if the technical information in them's too much for the likes of a grammar checker english teacher wannabe troll on forums.

  64. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by cbhacking · · Score: 1

    I once hit a case where I was glad my browser was a single 32-bit process, because that meant when it started leaking RAM like crazy, it only managed to use up 2GB before it couldn't allocate more working set, and therefore didn't burn up all my physical RAM. This is not a good thing to ever be happy about...

    --
    There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  65. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Firebug is great for developing, but is the single biggest cause for most of the Firefox memory usage horror stories.

  66. An unashamed Firefox fan by Readycharged · · Score: 0

    Gotta love Firefox, I leave tabs open as a reminder of stuff I gotta do (even hibernating my PC with them still open), and the last time and the last time I had to do a proper PC shut down Firefox asked, "Are you sure you want to close 108 tabs?" I didn't realise I had that many open. There's no way any version of IE or Chrome could have coped with that quantity of open tabs. The CPU would have gone haywire. I guess it helps that I don't overload Firefox with lots of add-ons

    1. Re:An unashamed Firefox fan by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Just tested on OSX with no other active applications
      Chrome with CNN.com loaded into 150 tabs - CPU 80% idle (changing from 95 to 80% randomly)
      Memory: 6.35GB used.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  67. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As usual apk shows trolls here on /. only have weak mod downs instead of proving his points wrong. The trolls must think others only see +1 or better posts (wrong).

  68. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by hedwards · · Score: 1

    Except that there's no reason to have a pure 64bit system at this point. Loading everything as 64bit to avoid loading up 32bit libraries is just plain silly.

    If you genuinely are only loading them for a few apps, there's absolutely no reason why they can't be unloaded when not in use. In practice though you end up using more memory with 64bit programs whether or not there's a perceptible difference in performance. And if you're loading more 32bit programs then you're probably going to be saving enough RAM to make it worthwhile.

    I'm not really surprised that some idiot opted to mod me down, there's a lot of folks around here that know less about computing than they let on.

  69. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by rev0lt · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the problem is when the browser actually needs more memory. I usually have between 100 and 200 tabs open in firefox, and the memory limit (and the memory leaks) are annoying. Firefox is a memory hog (and here usually dies of memory starvation sooner or later), but interestingly enough, there is no stable 64 bit release for windows. I hate Crome's interface, but it is now my main browser, because it behaves so much better than firefox.

  70. Iron by Ogre332 · · Score: 1

    SRWare Iron has become my browser of choice. Essentially, Chrome with all the tracking crap ripped out.

    --
    Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip. - Homer Simpson
    1. Re:Iron by UBfusion · · Score: 2

      I used to like Iron a lot too (the portable version) until in a recent Slashdot comment somebody pointed to a debunking of it at http://chromium.hybridsource.org/the-iron-scam. I must admit at first I was a bit disappointed, but then I said to myself "welcome to the wonderful world of FOSS".

  71. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by rev0lt · · Score: 1

    Firebug is the only major reason why I still use Firefox, and for years I've had a VM just for running firefox+firebug, because in my main machine, it was almost impossible to use if too much tabs are open. I find myself using more and more Chrome's tools for development, but it's not up to par with firebug yet, specially javascript debugging. But it is fun to reinstall firebug every damn time I restart firefox, because there's a new browser version and they changed plugin compatibility one more time.

  72. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by Waccoon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've done a lot of experiments with Firefox memory usage and extensions, and I've concluded that memory usage depends less on extensions and plugins, and a lot more on what sites you visit. I tend to surf image gallery sites, especially those that use a lot of JavaScript (such as Deviantart). After only 10 minutes of surfing, memory usage usually goes up to 500MB. After just an hour, not a week, I'm up to the 700MB mark. It might be the JavaScript, or it might be due to surfing through a hundred megs of images within an hour.

    I just updated from 3.6 to 8.0.1, and I've seen memory usage go up quite a bit, even without extensions. Given all the hype about lower memory usage, and fixed memory leaks, I was surprised. Firefox is indeed faster, but memory usage is even worse than ever.

    Why care about memory usage? The problem is that Firefox has always had issues with freezes every 10 seconds or so, and I presume it's due to garbage collection. The more memory Firefox uses, the longer the freezes are, resulting in interrupted browsing, typing, and lost mouse clicks. I ended up downgrading back to 3.6. The freezes actually lasted longer in 8.0.1 because the browser uses more memory. Until Mozilla adds some wait states into their memory manager, or otherwise fixes the regular freezes, I won't upgrade beyond 3.6.

  73. Re:Your /. peers DISAGREE w/ u (proof inside) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Moddin apk down when he posted facts vs decora's off topic crap's weak.

  74. Chrome is the default browser on Android by chromaexcursion · · Score: 1

    survey NEVER took source machine into account! D'Oh!

    1. Re:Chrome is the default browser on Android by Z_God · · Score: 2

      Maybe we can expect a version of IE for Android soon? :D

  75. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by rev0lt · · Score: 1

    Here here. I usually reboot my main machine once a month (and that's when Chrome is shutdown), but Firefox will happily crash/be unresponsive/whatever probably a dozen times during that period. If I see a video and it's choking, I already know - its time to kill firefox again. And the funny thing is, I hate Chrome's interface. That stupid menu, the lack of titlebar, the lack of statusbar, the annoying habit of shrinking the tabsize until you ca't actually read the tab's name, the bugs in the tab interface when you are out of screen (I actually use the keyboard to navigate trough tabs!), it makes me want to hit someone. But compared to firefox, it's awesome. It actually works. It doesn't suck up my memory like there's no tomorrow. I can close (or kill) misbehaved/buggy pages without bringing down the whole browser. If Chrome ever gets something like a full-featured firebug, I probably won't use firefox ever again.
    The funny thing is, I use Firefox since it was called Phoenix, the unbloated stripped-down fork of Mozilla Navigator. How things have changed...

  76. Re:Misleading (no, you are) by Corson · · Score: 1

    "But IE6, IE7 and IE8 could be three different browsers. They only have the name in common and the amount of work arounds needed." -- Not from a user's standpoint.

  77. In totally unrelated news... by supersat · · Score: 2

    Microsoft is now planning to auto-update most IE users.

  78. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by sa666_666 · · Score: 1

    You're speaking of why a 64-bit system isn't needed at all, not why you wouldn't use a 64-bit browser. If someone is using a 64-bit system and has a valid need to do so, then one or two remaining 32-bit apps will indeed use more RAM for the 32-bit libs that are completely redundant save for the few apps that use them. Basically, if I have 1000 64-bit apps installed in a 64-bit system, it seems silly to keep 32-bit libraries around for one or two apps. Better to get rid of them as soon as a 64-bit version is available.

    Now if you want to argue that (as you say) a 64-bit system isn't needed, that's really a separate discussion, and not one you can make without knowing the specific requirements of the user.

  79. Chrome by GEEKS+RULE!! · · Score: 1

    I'm using chrome. I find it to be a pretty nifty browser actually. As for internet explorer, (Sorry to all the Internet explorer users) IT SUCKS! The popups are annoying and still appear even though I have popup blocker turned on.

    --
    When life throws questions at you, Google has the answers.
  80. Switched to Chrome from FF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have used Firefox exclusively for many years until several weeks ago when I gave Chrome a try out of curiosity. I switched immediately and have not looked back.

  81. cool by akihironihongo · · Score: 0

    that's great! chrome rocks

  82. 3 things that can speedup FireFox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1.) A BETTER VERSION OF IT (faster) -> http://waterfoxproj.sourceforge.net/

    2.) Don't load too many addons into it (yes, you probably KNOW this, but it can't hurt to mention).

    3.) Run it from a SSD/RamDisk/RamDrive (& set its history, cache, & other data to point there also! I.E.-> Use faster hardware, & ramdisks/ramdrives have FAR faster seek/access than std. mechanical HDD's do).

    * Just some ideas that MAY help you in this complaint of yours:

    "Firefox feels so much slower than Chrome, Opera, and even IE these days." - by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17, @07:52PM (#38412612)

    APK

    P.S.=> Good luck - & I truly DO *think* you'll like "WaterFox" (1st link above) - it IS noticeably faster than std. builds of FireFox, AND, it works with plugins (@ least the ones I use, NoScript + AdBlock) + it has 64-bit versions too... apk

    1. Re:3 things that can speedup FireFox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off APK, nobody gives a cunt's whisker what you think.

    2. Re:3 things that can speedup FireFox by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      1.) A BETTER VERSION OF IT (faster) -> http://waterfoxproj.sourceforge.net/

      From the FAQ page (BTW, this actually belongs on the home page):
      Waterfox is basically a 64-Bit version of Firefox. The Firefox source code is taken and compiled to run specifically for 64-Bit Windows computers.
      So it's Windows only. I don't need to read further.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    3. Re:3 things that can speedup FireFox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1.) A BETTER VERSION OF IT (faster) -> http://waterfoxproj.sourceforge.net/

      a quick question: how do we know that the compiled version is really what it claims to be ? I mean: how do we know the person (MrAlex) distributing the pre-compiled version didn't change something in the code so that it becomes a malware/backdoor/trojan.

      I understand that I could download the source from mozilla and compile it myself with the same flag as the guy does on sourceforge to get an actual clean version, but still this recommendation of yours is worrisome from the security point of view.

  83. Because the interface is fabulous, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    best of the browsers out there. You are lost.

  84. I've been using chrome since its inception. by idbeholda · · Score: 0

    Until other browsers crash less than Chrome, I won't be using them. It may take up slightly more RAM than I like, but it crashes maybe once every 2-3 months. I can also leave dozens of tabs open and not have to worry about memory leak issues. I also don't have to wait inordinate lengths of time for the browser to start up. When other browsers can perform these basic tasks, I'll give them a second (or in some cases, third or fourth) chance.

    The only time I've ever had Chrome lock up is when certain sites have so much crap littering the page that ANY browser would choke on it.

  85. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by kangsterizer · · Score: 2

    Chrome includes flash and a pdf viewer and both are binary. Also a terminal client, native code implementation, yada yada. if anything chrome's "bloated"

    But the asynchronous UI is good. Fennec (Firefox for mobile) adopted *FINALLY* a truely asynchronous UI and let me tell you: it rocks. pure and simple.
    I just wish this will happen on Desktop too. That's the one thing to steal from Chrome (albeit it's a different technical implementation of it).

    It basically means UI never blocks, nothing ever feels laggy.

  86. These stats seem irrelevant, if not inaccurate. by cochito · · Score: 1

    We would all like to see the average internet user be weaned off of IE. But how viable are StatCounter statistics? They have 3 million sites in their network, sites that I have never read or visited. Their network seems to consist mainly of individually-run content providers, most of them stagnate.

    I would say Wikimedia's stats are much more relevant and precise. It seems like these browser statistics articles just want to believe Chrome is *this* popular, when in actuality it may not be.

    I support about 30+ clients (some Fortune 500s) and the demographic is primarily U.S. On some sites, I see Safari usage is more than Chrome and FF combined. By the most non-bias sites*, browser usage appears: IE (primarily IE8), Safari (including mobile), Chrome, FF. From my stats, I can only deduce that Safari is heavily used in the U.S., and Chrome and Firefox not as much.

    If you care to and can share, what are your stats?

    *The non-bias sites are primarily larger tourism resorts since I presume they are being visited by home/personal computers which represents their personal browser preference than company policy.

    1. Re:These stats seem irrelevant, if not inaccurate. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ~50% Firefox
      ~30% IE
      ~10% Chrome
      ~10% Rest

      That's in Germany.

  87. I expect better from Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if Slashdot has made this a big deal simply so they can get people to use browsers that don't have ABP? because, let's face it... this story is really a piece of trash based on a joke someone called "data analysis."

  88. A Typical Conversation At Work by Secret+Agent+Man · · Score: 1

    Here's how a typical conversation would go about a browser-specific issue. "Hey, does this new feature have any browser-related issues?" An IE response: "Only in IE 7. 8 fails gracefully and still works." A Firefox response: "Well, it doesn't work in Firefox 4, 6, or 7." A Chrome response: "Well there's an issue in Chrome." When Chrome updates, it does so eloquently. It does not cause random issues that occur in previous versions only, nor does it make us care about version numbers at all. It's no surprise it's helping to suck away at the other two markets (at least from a web developer's point of view). Firefox is causing the same headaches that having multiple versions of IE has caused.

  89. I need PDF support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I only switched to Chrome because Firefox no longer has in-line PDF support. I need it to do my work and they refuse to provide it. Too bad for them.

  90. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by Iskender · · Score: 1

    I usually have between 100 and 200 tabs open in firefox, and the memory limit (and the memory leaks) are annoying. Firefox is a memory hog

    Heh, I suspect that *you* are the memory hog here if you "usually" have 200 tabs open. =)

    I believe you when you say Chrome works better for you. But performance with 200 tabs open has no (direct) connection to marketshare in any way.

    Actually I'm not that interested in arguing, but rather want to ask how you manage to actually open/need/use that many tabs?

  91. Many tabs by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    Tree view tabs, even opening a ton of sites only go down half way then it is empty space to the bottom...

    Heh. I always need the tree collapse capability, or the tab list scrolls. I've currently got 150 tabs, according to Session Manager. Thanks to BarTab, most of them aren't loaded at any given time. I suppose you could say I'm using tabs like bookmarks, and in a way, you're right, except this alleviates the need to go to the separate thought-space of bookmarks.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
  92. Yah, it's that important by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    I can't imagine you always browse in a fashion that is requiring that much tab organization.

    Actually, yes, I pretty much do. The web is made of links, and tree tabs let me arrange tabs as I surf the web. Take Slashdot. I'll have a tab for the home page, a tab for each story discussion, a tab for each sub-thread that I want to show more comments for, and a tab for each comment I'm replying to. Elsewhere I've got Facebook and its subtabs for things happening there. If I'm watching a Youtube video, I'l often see "Related" videos I want to watch, and then *those* have related videos -- each gets a subtab. I routinely have well over 100 tabs open. I think I've got around 150 right now, at home.

    I really do mean it when I say I find the web isn't usable without tree tabs. It'd be like using a browser without a "Back" button. Possible, but incredibly tedious.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
  93. Indeed by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    Read my comments elsewhere in this subthread, and you'll see some of the other things I do with tree tabs. I really do find it incredibly useful and powerful, to the point where anything else is like a kid's-toy-version of the web. The only drawback is when I sit down at a computer that *doesn't* have these features, I'm hampered.

    The other two extensions I live and die by are:
    * BarTab - Unload tabs that you aren't using
    * Session Manager - Save/restore tabs between browser sessions

    I will warn you, that once you try out these things, you likely won't be able to surf the web happily without them.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
    1. Re:Indeed by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      bartab is now available as an experimental flag in about:flag.
      Save/restore tabs between browser sessions?? chrome probably invented this!

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  94. Point, but I'll take what I can get :-) (N/T) by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    Point, but I'll take what I can get. :-)

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
  95. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by rev0lt · · Score: 1

    But performance with 200 tabs open has no (direct) connection to marketshare in any way.

    Yeah it doesn't. And I really hate Chrome's interface and their many many bugs and shortcomings with many tabs opened. But it still beats firefox in about every vector. I want a stable 64 bit firefox release for windows for years. I use IE (for online banking mostly), Firefox (now mainly because of Firebug since they started the rolling release nonsense), Chrome (as my main generic browser) and Opera (as an "alternate" generic browser). By my experience with chrome, I don't need a 64 bit browser, as long as I can use the keyboard to navigate trough tabs.
    My work requires me to be fluent in different technogies and environments, so I always have a ton of tabs related to some specific product segment, some tabs related to whatever I'm working on at the moment, and some tabs related to whatever I was working yesterday. One day it maybe a samba issue, other day maybe it's a specific postgresql optimization. Right now I have postgresql's C# references, Magento API references, some programs to test/analyze/review, some Zend Framework 2.0 documentation, a OpenBSD PF examples and documentation, iSCSI FreeBSD documentation, some x86 assembly stuff, some 8052 microcontroller assembly, some pages with the CR2 format (Canon Raw Format), a font editing program, and some new/unknown DNS servers I picked up from a Slashdot story a while ago, This resumes the ~90 tabs I have _right now_ on chrome, at home. I have almost as much opened at work.

  96. I read it on Firefox by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Truth be told, I read it on Firefox, though I also have Chrome running. In fact, I do my "throwaway" browsing on Chrome and "serious" browsing on Firefox. Chrome not being able to bookmark all tabs to a folder is a serious deficiency that prevents me from saving sets of links that are the result of possibly lengthy research. Another constant annoyance is Chrome saving all files to Downloads instead of giving me the option to open. This litters my Download directory with lots of junk, a problem I do not have with Firefox. And Chrome cannot be trusted to remember its open tabs after an unexpected shutdown (such as a reboot).

    --
    Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
    1. Re:I read it on Firefox by pointybits · · Score: 2

      Chrome not being able to bookmark all tabs to a folder is a serious deficiency that prevents me from saving sets of links that are the result of possibly lengthy research. Another constant annoyance is Chrome saving all files to Downloads instead of giving me the option to open.

      Bookmarking all tabs is right-click on any tab, Bookmark All Tabs. Prompt for download location is a setting in Tools, Options, Under the Hood.

    2. Re:I read it on Firefox by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

      Thankyou. Know how to convince Chrome to just open a pdf instead of storing it in Downloads?

      --
      Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
    3. Re:I read it on Firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chrome not being able to bookmark all tabs to a folder

      Erm, in Chrome: Bookmarks > Bookmark All Tabs, then pick a folder

      Chrome saving all files to Downloads instead of giving me the option to open

      Settings > Under the Hood > Downloads > Ask where to save each file before downloading

      Chrome cannot be trusted to remember its open tabs after an unexpected shutdown (such as a reboot).

      Anecdotal, but I've never had Chrome forget any of my tabs (incognito windows/tabs excepted, of course)

    4. Re:I read it on Firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your usage is similar to mine, but I did want to add that Chromium at least will put tabs into a folder on a save.

    5. Re:I read it on Firefox by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

      Chrome cannot be trusted to remember its open tabs after an unexpected shutdown (such as a reboot).

      Anecdotal, but I've never had Chrome forget any of my tabs (incognito windows/tabs excepted, of course)

      Easy to reproduce. 1) Crash 2) Restart 3) Crash again before restoring Chrome's remembered pages 4) Restart 5) Where are my pages?

      --
      Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
    6. Re:I read it on Firefox by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

      Chrome saving all files to Downloads instead of giving me the option to open

      Settings > Under the Hood > Downloads > Ask where to save each file before downloading

      That does not solve the littering problem, it just moves it. Firefox gives me the option to open or save. If I choose open then I can save later via the opening app. If I decide not to save then the download (actually stored in /tmp) just vanishes. That is what I want and need, and not what Chrome provides.

      --
      Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
  97. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I try to divorce myself from Firefox. I have managed to stick with 3.6 because 4 is of a$$ and unless 5 fixes 4 I'm not about to change. I try using Chrome and to some extent Safari. Safari is my default browser to Apple.com. Chrome I just can't seem to get into. I find myself back in Firefox every time.

  98. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by sbrown7792 · · Score: 1

    For some reason whenever I need to use firefox to test a site or something, whenever I close it, I find that about 3 hours afterwards, its taking up about 2gb of ram. I have to kill the process manually. This happens without fail. So yes, when it is freshly opened it may be better. But 3 hours after you close it, you shouldn't have to worry about it using up any ram, let alone 2gb.

  99. Biggest = best! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The more popular a thing is the best it must be, right? :)

    Like Microsoft, McDonalds...um...ignorance is popular to...

    *Posted from Firefox...on Linux...*

  100. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by kermidge · · Score: 1

    Why not have more RAM?

    Assembling a desktop with 8 gigs RAM is trivial and affordable, ditto for slapping 8 gigs in a laptop. All my CPUs since '06 have been 64-bit, as have been all the operating systems (apart from some vm stuff.)

    And yes, I'm glad Opera has come out with a 64-bit version. While FF is my system default, I've been using Opera for most browsing for since version 4-something. I've tried Chrome four times now, and so far each time I remove it after a week or two. I do like having some reasonable choices - I can find browsers I prefer to use, and other can do so as well.

  101. Posting this from a GECKO-based browser, SeaMonkey by D,Petkow · · Score: 0

    I love SeaMonkey (ex Mozilla suite) and i would never ditch it for chrome or whatever other browser because of my beloved SeaMonkey :)

  102. I call bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Third, fix the really fucking horrible memory and CPU consumption that Firefox has exhibited for years now. This alone is one of the major reasons why people use Chrome. It's not that they like Chrome, but rather they just don't like how Firefox consumes so much fucking memory even after short browsing sessions, and even when using a fresh installation with no extensions or add-ons installed yet. It's even less pleasant when Firefox feels so much slower than Chrome, Opera, and even IE these days."

    Lets see Firefox 1 process 89 megabytes after 15 minutes of browsing and cashing......Chrome 5 separate processes with a total of 87 megabytes after 2 minutes of browsing.

    Get your facts straight and do some real research or do not go around spreading complete bullshit and fud!

  103. Chrome FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why yes, I am using Chrome, on a Mac to be exact. Though, I use it on my Linux and Windows installations as well.

  104. I'm not helping the stats much by Daetrin · · Score: 2

    I use pretty much all the browsers.

    Firefox: Usual generic browser with NoScript on.
    Chrome: My Google+ games account, YouTube and Topless Robot (since half the links on there are YouTube videos anyways.)
    Internet Explorer: My "private" G+ account.
    Opera: My Google Apps email account.

    Along with making it easy to log into different Google related accounts without worrying about fiddling with settings, it makes it easy to switch tasks quickly based on the icons in the taskbar.

    I probably ought to do some research and figure out something else to replace the IE slot with though. It feels kinda embarrassing to be using IE for anything at all on a regular basis =P

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:I'm not helping the stats much by UBfusion · · Score: 3, Informative

      Excuse me for enhancing your worst fears, but if you are using IE for your "private" (and supposedly sensitive) stuff, IMHO you must be doing something wrong. Please find the time to do this research and act accordingly as soon as possible.

  105. FF ignored speed for too long by wdef · · Score: 2

    I used to use Firefox all the time. But I like fast software (I'd be using Dillo if it could handle modern web needs) and FF just seemed to get bigger, slower and more bloated all the time and no-one at Mozilla cared. Then Chrome came out and wiped the floor with Firefox: it opened much faster (still does) and had the faster experience I was looking for. I immediately switched to Chrome/Chromium along with many other people. Firefox then improved the responsiveness of their browser considerably but they'd already lost some key market share.

    A lot of desktop application coders, including some notables I used to work with, do not seem to care about the sluggish responsiveness of their frankenstein creations until someone jumps up and down and hits them with a big stick. Cases in point: Gnome, KDE and other monstrosities, massively endowed with alleged "features". On Linux I use fast light software where possible. I always enjoy watching applications and windows open instantly on five year old hardware. Posting from Chrome on Mac now.

    1. Re:FF ignored speed for too long by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

      It's not browsing speed that is my main issue with Firefox. And if I really want browsing speed I choose Opera instead.

      But one reason for Chrome to get up on the ladder is that it's today bundled with a lot of other softwares which means that you may get it even if you don't want it. (not very different from how IE acts) while Firefox never have been seen bundled with any apps that I have seen unless the app itself required it.

      One thing that I like Firefox for is all the available add-ons like Firebug and AdBlock Plus. They may be available in versions for Chrome too.

      And all browsers do have their quirks.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  106. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uhh, yes there is. Edit urlfilter.ini , or try http://www.fanboy.co.nz/

  107. Re:HOSTS do same & more, 4 less by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

    Fuck off you predictable, useless waste of space.

    --
    ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
  108. Re:You'd laugh @ LAYERS of defense I use then by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

    No - we laugh @ you! How can someone be so hopelessly deluded? Only apk knows for sure!

    --
    ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
  109. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

    Why a separate VM? Wouldn't a separate Firefox profile suffice?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  110. Re:Your /. peers DISAGREE w/ u (proof inside) by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

    You are so far beyond pathetic I think we'll need a new branch of science to accurately define your lameness.

    Or rather, we would, if anyone cared.

    --
    ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
  111. Re:Thanks Trax (they downmodded U 2) by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

    Oh fuck off, fuck off FUCK OFF ALREADY!!

    --
    ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
  112. Chrome isn't spying on anyone by gottabeme · · Score: 2

    The SafeBrowsing stuff does keep SQLite files, but the one I see in my Chrome profile is only 5.1 MB. My Firefox urlclassifier3.sqlite file is 44 MB. My Chrome's "History" file is 151 MB. I'm on Linux.

    I don't trust Google completely, but I'd be very surprised if Chrome were snooping on files all around the system. In fact, I just used strace to record every file accessed by Chrome during a quick session in which I launched it and shut it down, and the only files it accessed that weren't strictly related to the Chrome profile or the desktop environment were files that I downloaded with Chrome in the past--and those were only stat accesses, to see if the files still existed. The total size of all files accessed in my home directory was 378 MB, and the entire ~/.config/google-chrome directory is 522 MB. This is Chrome 16.0.912.63-r113337 on Kubuntu Natty.

    In this case I think your paranoia is misplaced. Chrome is probably the safest contemporary web browser one can use.

    --
    "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
  113. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by makomk · · Score: 1

    Because you have more RAM to use and don't want your browser to suddenly die when it hits the 2/3/4 GB limit?

  114. Not suprising by belgianguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While the comparison might be somewhat apples-oranges, I do think Chrome deserves credit for upgrading the majority of its clients to the latest version, independent of OS version and without hassling its users about it. In contrast to this, Internet Explorer has artificial ceilings installed, older versions of Windows cannot upgrade past a certain version and I believe Apple has similar policies towards the use of Safari. Chrome imposes no such 'sanctions' on its users, which I think is a great way to adapt the way we use the Internet to its ever faster evolution.

    Although I don't understand the resurfacing argument that IE6 is mainly kept alive by corporations. Would that not contradict some sort of evolutionary process? Those unwilling to change should be left behind, just because advances in web technology could provide advantages to internal applications of competitors, so if they decide not to upgrade, the competition should decide it for them. But this seems not to be the case. So my bet is that the majority of IE6 users probably come from bootlegged vanilla XP installations with (surprise-surprise) automatic upgrades turned off in regions like China.

    And then there once was Firefox, in its heyday the only alternative to The Microsoft Way. Now, it tries to maintain a release schedule that is only rivaled in speed by some out-of-whack neutrinos. Somehow its upper management got deluded into thinking they needed to mimic their new-found rival to stay relevant. While that sentiment has some truth to it, the way it was executed hurt their core user base more than they could siphon off users from either IE or Chrome. Because people who like Chrome, will use Chrome. And not something that desperately chases Chrome, but fails to address other critical issues in the process.

  115. Tabs on the side by jones_supa · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately Chrome removed the (experimental) side tabs feature in the last update so I'm back to Opera now.

    The tree tabs idea for Firefox looks quite interesting though, I think I'm gonna give it a shot.

  116. Assumptions much? by Peter+Harris · · Score: 1

    Hey chill out man. It's far from clear that the GP is not a website developer. I mean, probably not, but it's not implied by the content of his post.

    If you are one, then I don't understand your objection to what he wrote. Presumably you too would like 100% W3C compliance to be the norm, and not have to bother with all that IE-specific shite. If you can write standards-compliant code and the latest IE copes with it OK (and earlier IE that don't are in the ridiculously small minority that you can ignore), then I think you would both be in agreement that it's not a bad thing.

    If you're implying that this will never be the case and IE will always be both obtusely non-standard and absurdly market-relevant then I think your position is reasonable but I personally don't think both of those conditions can remain true indefinitely.

    I used to do web development back when IE5 was a thing and almost nobody used Firefox or saw the point of web standards. Have we come a long way since then or what?

    --

    -- What do you need?
    -- Gnus. Lots of Gnus.
  117. RAM disks are useful to non-SSD users too by UBfusion · · Score: 1

    I decided to lose a mod point to add that since I upgraded to 8 gigs of RAM, I run all my browsers (not just their cache) from ramdisk. I have setup a 1 gig ramdisk, I copy to that one my "master" portable installations of FF8 (and FF9 for making comparisons) and run my browsers exclusively from ramdisk.

    This technique has the additional advantage that FF's cache is also on the ramdrive and from what I have seen this offers me the fastest possible browsing experience. When the cache and browser bloat grows too large, I delete this copy and make a new one. In addition, all temporary files (downloads, installations, things to unzip/unrar etc) are also processed in the ramdrive, thus reducing the overall fragmentation of my hard disks. Finally, the technique has also security benefits, since all my browsing history and cache are safely erased every time I reboot or wipe the ramdrive.

    The only drawback is that when FF extensions are updated, I have to update my master copy too, which is a small price to pay for always having access to a "clean and mean" FF copy every time I desire so. If you are the type that adds new bookmarks all the time, just copy bookmarks.html to the "master" installation before shutdown.

    To sum up, I think that everybody will benefit from using a ramdrive, not only those using SSDs.

    1. Re:RAM disks are useful to non-SSD users too by Arker · · Score: 1

      This isnt actually a good strategy for speed (although the security benefits are there if you dont mind working that way,) unless you are running an OS that isnt actually making effective use of a good part of that RAM to begin with. If your OS knows how to use that RAM, it will be keeping your browser in memory anyway when it's being used, but will also be able to free that memory up to hold something else when you move on. You're just keeping it from being freed. You probably have enough memory you would never notice the difference either way of course.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  118. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by UBfusion · · Score: 1

    If you close a program and it insists remaining in memory for 3 hours without the process being killed, you definitely have either an OS issue, or some exotic plugins/addons combination issue. For example, from my experience I regularly see that FF has a particular difficulty unloading flash from its memory (running x64 here).

    To troubleshoot the issue, and to avoid installing/uninstalling Firefox all the time, use the portable version from portableapps.com and keep a clean master copy of it somewhere. Then copy this installation somewhere else and use that one to start adding your usual addons to pinpoint the problem.

  119. I switched to Chrome from IE - for WebGL support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MS has failed to adapt to this game changing tech - Until there is a WebDX, I'll keep using Chrome.

  120. "Argue with the numbers" (not a "1st" 4U either) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good luck, you'll NEED it: Just like when you RAN on points on HOSTS files I did before here Sardukar:

    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2356916&cid=36938204

    and here too, on the same topic (HOSTS files points I put out you couldn't disprove):

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2356916&cid=36938240

    * You? You're pitiful - all you ever have is trolling, name-tossing, & RUNNING (the 2 links above prove that much, in addition to your b.s. now)...

    (No arguing with those links, or this "attempt @ trolling" myself again on YOUR part, worm... what you're doing now? It's FAR from a "1st" for you, and you'll just run away again, troll...)

    APK

    P.S.=> Same goes for the 1st fool decora for his wisecracks here too -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38412806

    ... apk

  121. Sardaukar86: "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isn't a "1st" from U: You've tried trolling me 3x now -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38415680 ...

    * ALL YOU EVER "RESORT TO", IS YOUR TROLLING OFF-TOPIC NAME TOSSING/ADHOMINEM ATTACKS DIRECTED MY WAY, & guess what? Heh... they're literally illogical in debate you know!

    APK

    P.S> You're welcome as per usual, to disprove points I stated here in regards to computer sciences topics though - of course, you'll NEVER be able to disprove those points I put out, & all you'll EVER HAVE is your off-topic illogical adhominem attacks instead (pitiful, lol)... apk

  122. Disprove my points on HOSTS then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You've failed trying it 2x before after all, shown here -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38412576

    (So, you might as well make it a 3rd "FAIL" for yourself again, right?)

    APK

    P.S.=>

    "Fuck off you predictable, useless waste of space." - by Sardaukar86 (850333) on Sunday December 18, @04:41AM (#38414888) Homepage

    LMAO - "Such an INTELLIGENT reply" (lol, NOT!): You're nothing more than a pitiful off-topic illogical adhominem attack utilizing troll... Once more - See the link above? You're once again MORE THAN WELCOME TO DISPROVE POINTS ON HOSTS FILES I POSTED (good luck, you'll NEED it, because you've failed @ it 2x before, shown in the link above)...

    ... apk

  123. 1 thing's 4 SURE: I.M. Laffin' @ U (again) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For the 3rd or 4th time now, since you attempt to troll me on HOSTS file data I put up? You always RUN from disproving points I post on them... why's that Sardaukar86, you troll??

    * Proof of that statement's shown here -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38412576

    APK

    P.S.=> "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat" regarding that link above - As You've failed trying disproving my points on HOSTS files I post on /., & 2x before after all!

    You? You ALWAYS, without fail, RUN from disproving points I make on HOSTS files on this website... always!

    At least your consistent (consistently an off-topic adhominem utilizing troll, lol!).

    (So, you might as well make it a 3rd "FAIL" for yourself again, right?)

    You're nothing more than a pitiful off-topic illogical adhominem attack utilizing troll... Once more - See the link above? Good luck - you'll NEED it (because you've already "struck out" on that account 3x already in the past)... lol!

    ... apk

  124. Sardaukar86: "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're MORE than welcome to disprove points I put up here http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38412366

    Of course, once more (as I have said a few times in response to your weak off-topic illogical adhominem attack trolling posts here, and more in the past)?

    * This is NOT A "1st" FROM YOU - You've done this before this exchange today, 2x, & FAILED HUGELY:

    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2356916&cid=36938204

    and here too, on the same topic (HOSTS files points I put out you couldn't disprove):

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2356916&cid=36938240

    (You? You're pitiful - all you ever have is trolling, name-tossing, & RUNNING (the 2 links above prove that much, in addition to your b.s. now))...

    APK

    P.S.=> Of course, you can't DO that, because you've tried 2x before in the past, failed, & resorted to your "usual" of off-topic adhominem attacks (proof in the 2 links below, & several more in THIS VERY EXCHANGE TOO, no less):

    WITNESS "THE INTELLIGENCE" OF SARDAUKAR86 (lol, not - profanity laden off-topic illogical adhominem attacks galore today, due to his technically illiterate "FruStrAtiOn" no doubt, lol):

    http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38414922

    http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38415680

    http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38414888

    http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38414906

    & more - all off-topic + many profanity-laden wastes of posting space on /., by "Sardaukar86" (the off-topic illogical adhominem attack utilizing troll, lol)...

    ... apk

  125. Off-topic illogical adhominem attacking trolls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like you, shouldn't use the word "think" (you aren't capable of it yourself's why, lol).

    APK

    P.S.=> Case-in-point/E.G.:

    "Fuck off APK, nobody gives a cunt's whisker what you think." - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18, @04:23AM (#38414818)

    Well... @ least I CAN THINK, whereas yourself by way of comparison, illustrate that the concept of "thought" is far, Far, FAR beyond your ken - period!

    (ALL your "kind" online has, is off-topic illogical adhominem attacks, usually laden with profanity...)

    ... apk

  126. android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the default browser for my tablet and phone like many other users. That sounds familiar to some other os.

  127. Linux is doing "so well" lately (lol, NOT) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Security-wise (NOT): Proof of that statement's from 2011, this yr., w/ THIS LIST of current info. next in that regard (& note - WaterFox's team doesn't EVEN BOTHER w/ Linux, the "3rd class citizen of OS", lol):

    KERNEL.ORG COMPROMISED:

    http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/08/31/2321232/Kernelorg-Compromised

    ---

    Linux.com pwned in fresh round of cyber break-ins:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/12/more_linux_sites_down/

    ---

    Mysql.com Hacked, Made To Serve Malware:

    http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/26/2218238/mysqlcom-hacked-made-to-serve-malware

    ---

    Linux's showing in CA's breached recently too? Ok:

    http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=StartCom.com

    http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=GlobalSign.com

    http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=Comodo.com

    http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=DigiCert.com

    http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.gemnet.nl

    The list of CA Servers BREACHED that RUN LINUX (StartCom, GlobalSign, DigiCert, Comodo, GemNet)... per these articles verifying that:

    http://itproafrica.com/technology/security/cas-hacked/

    &

    http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/site-dutch-ca-gemnet-offline-after-web-server-attack-120811

    ---

    Toss ANDROID (yes, a Linux since it uses a Linux kernel) in also, since it's being "shredded" on the mobile phone security-front rampantly for years now?

    You get the picture...

    * TOP THAT ALL OFF W/ DUQU ROOTKIT/BOTNET BEING SERVED FROM LINUX SERVERS, PER THIS ARTICLE (very recent):

    http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/11/30/1610228/duqu-attackers-managed-to-wipe-cc-servers

    APK

    P.S.=> Linux Security Blunders DOMINATE in 2011, despite all /. "FUD" for years saying "Linux = SECURE" (what a crock of shit that's turning out to be, especially on ANDROID)

    ... apk (yes, a Linux since it uses a Linux kernel)

    1. Re:Linux is doing "so well" lately (lol, NOT) by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      I don't use Linux because of the security (my computer is behind a firewall with zero open ports; I'm not browsing from a server anyway, and the data I care about is in my user account). I use Linux because of the usability (yes, for me Linux is more usable than Windows). For security on browsing, I use Firefox with appropriate extensions (esp. NoScript and RequestPolicy).

      Oh, and all your lists are not Linux breaches anyway. If you run insecure software, it will be a security risk on any operating system. For example an SQL exploit is completely system agnostic (and even web server agnostic). Next you'll tell that Linux causes spelling errors because people writing on Linux machines make spelling errors.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  128. Chrome incognito browsing broken.. not safe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Chrome incognito.. not really. Just happened upon this in my chrome internals:
    chrome://net-internals/#dns
    The DNS cache includes address that I only visited during an incognito session. They may disappear after a chrome restart (I haven't tried yet). However, should ANYTHING be kept from an incognito session.. HELL no. Screw chrome.

  129. thats very impressive, however. by decora · · Score: 1

    "* "Breaking even" on mem usage I'd like to think @ this point... but it's really for the future I want "all 64-bit" here in programs I use, mostly!"

    What does that mean?

  130. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by purpledinoz · · Score: 1

    The problem is, your OS allows you to run for a week without restarting. Switch to windows, and your Firefox memory problem will go away.

  131. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by caution+live+frogs · · Score: 1

    Why do you leave the program open for months? I mean, does it really take that long to fire it up again? Does it not remember and auto-load the last tabs you had open when relaunched? Do you never install updates requiring a reboot? Honestly interested in what you are thinking here - I can't understand why one would want to leave ANYTHING open for that long. I close things out when I am done for the day. If I want to reopen the same tabs, I bookmark them and relaunch or let the program reopen them for me. Even knowing that Lion reclaims memory from "inactive" apps I see no reason to leave anything running if I am not still using it.

  132. Reply to perryizgr8 by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    I'm gonna bring in your comments from #38415244 so we can have the conversation in one place.

    try side tabs in about:flags

    I don't seem to have that option. Chrome 16.0.912.63 (build 113337), which is the latest google-chrome-beta in Google's APT repository.

    its quite nice, but its not completely tree style :(

    I bolded, italicized, and double-starred "full" for a reason. People have offered me lots of "kinda sorta not really" solutions -- you saw the list I posted, I presume. I call them "critical features" because they're deal-breakers for me.

    bartab is now available as an experimental flag in about:flag.

    I don't seem to have this one, either.

    Save/restore tabs between browser sessions?? chrome probably invented this!

    Um... save/restore tabs was around in Firefox before there *was* a Chrome. Session Manager is just an extension that gives me more control over it. And checking the release notes, it was first released in 2006. Chrome was first released in 2008. So the Session Manager extension is also older than Chrome.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
    1. Re:Reply to perryizgr8 by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      I restarted my chrome after about two weeks and side tabs is gone! Guess they removed it. Sucks :(
      But Firefox on my laptop is almost completely unusable. With tree style it becomes even slower. I'll just try to change my lots of tabs habit.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  133. Whoosh by tepples · · Score: 1

    by "family computer" you mean a PC shared by all members of one household

    He obviously meant a computer shared by the family

    That's what I said. The opening was a joke.

    As far as your idea that the vocal opponents to computer sharing have some sort of global say, let me just say... who the fuck cares.

    Those who moderate up their comments care.

  134. Re:Bloat? What Bloat? by rev0lt · · Score: 1

    I just made me feel real dumb :P Yeah, I could have runned it as a separate profile.

  135. Worst Advice Ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IE has a history of being a non-standard, bug-ridden piece of crap. All the people I know (software engineers) use Firefox on Windows. Only Flash and Acrobat Reader are worse than IE.

  136. Coporate IE 6 Usage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Never, ever underestimate the stupidity-levels of corporate management. Tens of thousands of middle managers were proud to have an "internet-enabled" corpo application about five years ago. And certainly they never bothered to check whether it was actually conformant to plain HTML; JS and CSS. They saw it running inside IE6 and that was all they cared. For 99% of these people, IE6 *was* the "internet".
    Now they have each spent something between 100k to 20M dollars on their IE6 apps and they don't want to spend money to make these applications truely HTML/CSS/JS compliant. That means they have to dictate IE6 for their corporation.

  137. Still ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By misrepresenting the numbers like this, they're just taking a page from Microsoft. They're just fighting fire with fire. If Microsoft comes back with some publicity shedding some truth on the topic, then we can hold them to that standard the next time they want to show us some numbers. That will be a true victory.

  138. Spell check by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now if olny they'd fix the desgustingly bad speel check

  139. Means exactly what it states by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Explained it here -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38412690

    I.E.-> With the size trade-off in larger pointers and memory address ranges (but they cost more memory & are larger in 64 bit apps vs. 32 bit apps etc.)

    However:

    * MAIN POINT - Going "pure 64-bit", you don't have to load up WoW64 libs either (for 32-bit) in Windows 64 bit editions to run them (in addition to running the 64 bit ones).

    (That's a gain/loss trade off on memory consumption/usage)

    APK

    P.S.=>

    "With the exception of a couple areas you're not likely to see any improvements in performance" - by hedwards (940851) on Saturday December 17, @07:33PM (#38412494)

    Databases do, Exchange Servers do, Terminal Servers do... the list goes on, today, where the more RAM you have & can access (For especially avoiding diskbound accesses onto std. mechanical slower HDD's)...

    ... apk

  140. Question: Were the systems listed running Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In this link here http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38416010

    ?

    * Waiting for your answer, as to what OS was online in those breaches, per my subject-line above - That's all...

    APK

    P.S.=> They were ALL BADLY "breached" - very, Very, VERY BAD ones no less!

    ---

    A.) The sourcecode repository for Linux itself no less

    B.) Then the CA's too

    C.) ANDROID does the rest!

    ---

    All that recently in 2011... All that, despite YEARS OF HEARING "Linux = SECURE, Windows != SECURE around here on /. - that's all I am saying...

    ... apk

  141. You can examine code yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I understand that I could download the source from mozilla" - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18, @01:17PM (#38417794)

    You could examine the code yourself to determine that (IF you program)... IF you're willing to go to that expense & time, and there you are. Better than what you're stating below in fact, imo @ least (& Yes, I code).

    ---

    "and compile it myself with the same flag as the guy does on sourceforge to get an actual clean version" - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18, @01:17PM (#38417794)

    Right - then you'd be able to see the comparison in buildsizes, hashes, & more to make a determination (IF you want to go this far about it, & it's easy enough to do IF you have the compiler same too).

    ---

    "but still this recommendation of yours is worrisome from the security point of view." - by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18, @01:17PM (#38417794)

    Not really - you have options above... but, I can tell you, point-blank, on Windows 7 64-bit (& I have no reason to lie about it), it's faster than FireFox's "Nightly Builds" (which I ran for years now before WaterFox)...

    APK

    P.S.=> To each his own, but afaik @ least? SourceForge's been PRETTY RELIABLE & CLEAN over the years too, as to what gets hosted there projects-wise (are they perfect? Don't know, but WHO is or has been on that account as far as ANY SITE that houses files!)...

    ... apk

    1. Re:You can examine code yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really - you have options above... but, I can tell you, point-blank, on Windows 7 64-bit (& I have no reason to lie about it), it's faster than FireFox's "Nightly Builds" (which I ran for years now before WaterFox)...

      APK

      P.S.=> To each his own, but afaik @ least? SourceForge's been PRETTY RELIABLE & CLEAN over the years too, as to what gets hosted there projects-wise (are they perfect? Don't know, but WHO is or has been on that account as far as ANY SITE that houses files!)...

      ... apk

      yeah alright I dont doubt it's faster. it's just very not usual for myself to find a project on sourceforge with just binaries and nothing else so I found it a bit suspicious. but probably that sourceforge is doing some audit on the program it distributes.

      anyway I'll keep a combo of normal FF -for some extension I use- and chromium -faster- for now.

  142. Re:Question: Were the systems listed running Windo by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

    That question is as irrelevant as the question whether you are writing your posts from a Windows computer is to your awful post formatting.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  143. You didn't answer the question: Try this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Were systems running Windows breached here? http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38416010

    ?

    (YES or NO will do... thanks!)

    * Waiting for your answer, as to what OS was online in those breaches, per my subject-line above - That's all...

    APK

    P.S.=> Systems there in the link above? Heh - They were ALL BADLY "breached" - very, Very, VERY BAD ones no less!

    ---

    A.) The sourcecode repository for Linux itself no less

    B.) Then the CA's too

    C.) ANDROID does the rest!

    ---

    All that recently in 2011... All that, despite YEARS OF HEARING "Linux = SECURE, Windows != SECURE around here on /. - that's all I am saying...

    ... apk

  144. UR avoiding a YES or NO answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Question: Were systems running Windows breached here -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38416010

    ?

    * YES or NO will do for your answer...

    (Thanks!)

    ---

    (Per your last post: By the way - the subject here's NOT MATH, so... get on topic!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I never realized how difficult it is to get "penguins" to answer simple YES or NO questions when they are confronted with them (not, lol!) vs facts such as I posted from reputable sources (lmao)...

    Especially when the "best they've got" is writing style critiques, minus a PHD in English of course to their names also -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38419088 AND RUNNING AWAY FROM SIMPLE YES OR NO ANSWERS, as shown above , lmao...

    ... apk

    1. Re:UR avoiding a YES or NO answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Question: Were systems running Windows breached here -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38416010

      ?

      * YES or NO will do for your answer...

      Your actual implicit question, the one you actually think you're asking is: "Were systems running linux breached here because they were running linux ?" The answer to that question is NO (see, we can answer YES or NO)

      But you want us to answer YES. Don't deny it, you did it before: asking one question and taking it as answer for another unrelated question. It is common place for you

      So we won't answer your question as long as you don't admit that you're trying to twist our answer to match another question. If you certify that your question IS NOT "Were system running linux breached here because they were running linux ?", then we will answer to the question "Were system running linux breached here ?"

      That's were math (statistics to be accurate) is part of the subject, contrary to what you think. You assume that correlation (linux) is causation (hack), which is a well-known logical fallacy, which clearly and factually (I know you love facts) shows that either you suck at math or you are not writing in good-faith. You could also try to prove mathematically that correlation == causation and then we'd talk

  145. and nobody even bothered to check the source... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    according to :http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-daily-20110901-20111210-bar
    chrome has overtaken IE9 (barely), and not IE8.
    in fact it's not even halfway there.
    the article also stated : Free web analytics company reports IE 8 still leads in US but Chrome 15 is number one in UK

    The UK.

    last time i checked, the world was bigger than the UK.

  146. HOSTS files speedup ANY browsers 4 websurfing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HOSTS files also SECURE YOU FAR BETTER too (and get you your money's worth you pay for online speed + bandwidth in a few ways)

    E.G. #1 - The words of a security expert, Oliver Day (SECURITYFOCUS) will speak for me on that account:

    A RETURN TO THE KILLFILE:

    http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/491

    ---

    "The host file on my day-to-day laptop is now over 16,000 lines long. Accessing the Internet -- particularly browsing the Web -- is actually faster now."

    ---

    "From what I have seen in my research, major efforts to share lists of unwanted hosts began gaining serious momentum earlier this decade. The most popular appear to have started as a means to block advertising and as a way to avoid being tracked by sites that use cookies to gather data on the user across Web properties. More recently, projects like Spybot Search and Destroy offer lists of known malicious servers to add a layer of defense against trojans and other forms of malware."

    ---

    "Shared host files could be beneficial for other groups as well. Human rights groups have sought after block resistant technologies for quite some time. The GoDaddy debacle with NMap creator Fyodor (corrected) showed a particularly vicious blocking mechanism using DNS registrars. Once a registrar pulls a website from its records, the world ceases to have an effective way to find it. Shared host files could provide a DNS-proof method of reaching sites, not to mention removing an additional vector of detection if anyone were trying to monitor the use of subversive sites. One of the known weaknesses of the Tor system, for example, is direct DNS requests by applications not configured to route such requests through Tor's network."

    ---

    There you go!

    A.) HOSTS work vs. the "KAMINSKY DNS FLAW" & DNS poisoning/redirect attacks, for redirectable weaknesses in DNS servers (non DNSSEC type, & set into recursive mode especially)

    AND

    B.) HOSTS work vs. problems in the TOR system as well (that lends itself to anonymous proxy usage weaknesses I noted above also)

    PLUS?

    Well, you'll also get to sites you want to, even IF a DNS registrar drops said websites from its tables as shown here

    Beating Censorship By Routing Around DNS -> http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/09/1840246/Beating-Censorship-By-Routing-Around-DNS

    & even DNSBL also (DNS Block Lists) -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSBL

    As well - DOUBLE-BONUS!

    ---

    Going to "continue the trend" of letting others speak for me on HOSTS files next too...

    15++ SLASHDOT USERS EXPERIENCING SUCCESS USING HOSTS FILES QUOTED VERBATIM:

    ---

    "Ever since I've installed a host file (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) to redirect advertisers to my loopback, I haven't had any malware, spyware, or adware issues. I first started using the host file 5 years ago." - by TestedDoughnut (1324447) on Monday December 13, @12:18AM (#34532122)

    "I use a custom /etc/hosts to block ads... my file gets parsed basically instantly ... So basically, for any modern computer, it has zero visible impact. And even if it took, say, a second to parse, that would be more than offset by the MANY seconds saved by not downloading and rendering ads. I have noticed NO ill effects from running a custom /etc/hosts file for the last several years. And as a matter of fact I DO run http servers on my computers and I've never had an /etc/hosts-related problem... it FUCKING WORKS and makes my life better overall." - by sootman (158191) on Monday July 13 2009, @11:47AM (#28677363) Homepage Journal

    "I ac

  147. Numbers Games by nick_davison · · Score: 1

    "IE8 has recently jumped from near 1:1 parity with Chrome 14 to many dozens of times its market share! Even IE6 is decimating it!"

    Amazing what selectively picking your browser versions and only looking at the one statistic that seems impressive will do.

  148. IE auto-update by ahadley · · Score: 1

    If this is true http://www.favbrowser.com/internet-explorer-will-auto-update-itself/ then the internet may be a happier place, and IE 6 and 7 a thing of the past... Let us hope!

  149. Answer my SPECIFIC question (Yes or No) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    QUESTION: Were systems running Windows that were breached here -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2579684&cid=38416010

    ?

    APK

    P.S.=> A simple YES or NO will do... apk

  150. On the contrary... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm reading this using IE.

  151. What version??? by Occams · · Score: 1

    I just downloaded and installed Chrome, and nowhere in that process did I discover what version it was. Even in the "About Chrome" link of the tools menu it does not tell me.

    --
    Heavy is the head that wears the tinfoil hat.
  152. Re:I could care less: Opera64's out 4 Windows! by Sj0 · · Score: 1

    I swear I can feel 32 bit applications thunking down when I run 64 bit OSes. In fact, it's one of the reasons I still use a 32-bit OS.

    --
    It's been a long time.
  153. Re:HOSTS do same & more, 4 less by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LMAO he predictably KICKS YOUR ASS every time.