When Google Chrome came out, I was inspired. I read the comic and thought to myself, “This is awesome. This is what a web browser is meant to be.” So I switched. I’ve been using Chrome as my default browser since it came out, and I’ve only been using Firefox for FireFTP and a couple of finicky sites that don’t work perfectly under Chrome.
Chrome is slick and fast. It made me feel cool to be using it, because it’s Google and it’s a geeky thing to do. It also made me feel good about myself to be using it, because I was supporting design principles I believe in.
Today I switched back to Firefox. Here’s why.
1. Add-ons. Tab Mix Plus (Duplicate Tab!), Greasemonkey, Adblock Plus, DownThemAll, All-in-one Gestures (Right-drag to go back a page!), Googlepedia, Word Count Plus, the Remember the Milk extension, FireFTP, and many more.
Each one of these add-ons makes my life a little simpler and a little more pleasant. I’ve been getting by without them. But I’m breathing a sigh of relief now that I’m using Firefox again. I’ve been choosing the browser that was better in principle instead of the browser that’s better in practice. Today, I don’t need the browser that best supports good web development standards. Today, I need the browser that best supports me getting my work done efficiently and happily.
2. Compatibility. There are a few sites that don’t work perfectly with Chrome, like the registration for AmazonConnect, Neilsen BookData, and the pop-up window at the Kitchen Table. I sometimes ended up having both browsers open when I visited one of those problematic sites. But I’ve encountered zero sites that work with Chrome but not Firefox, so I won’t ever be using Chrome again, unless I really can’t remember a password I created during the last few months. (;
Chrome made me feel cool.
Firefox makes me feel happy and productive.
It’s like I’m dumping my glamorous, glitzy, Gucci-wearing girlfriend for a woman who wears overalls and has some dirt on her knees, but knows how to wrestle a pig to the ground, solve differential equations, paints watercolors in her spare time, can kick you in the face with her mad Krav Maga skills, and does a little sysadmin work on the side.
That woman is hot.
I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting you, baby. I’m back.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I did the same thing a while ago. I *LOVE* Chrome’s speed and the ideas behind it, but I just can’t live without NoScript.
And hey – don’t knock Foxie’s looks: she may not be a supermodel, but she’s got plenty of bells & whistles.
Pace,
Great post. I never did Chrome simply because I have a mac. But even so, moving away from Firefox would have been a very hard sell for me – for the reasons you stated.
John
Pace,
I too get seduced by the sexy new web toys, then go slinking back to what works. You are so right that the day to day productivity is more important. Now if I can just remember that when I see the new toys mentioned.
I turned around much faster. I read the comic, went “waoh this is awesome”, downloaded Chrome, booted it up, went “woah this is a really fast web browser”, went to some pages, saw some ads, went back to firefox and didn’t look back.
Overalls are hawt.
Just sayin’. :)
(And, well, they’re comfortable.)
As far as I can tell, all the problems you described aren’t features of Chrome that aren’t present in Firefox, they’re problems with a brand-new beta release browser that aren’t present in one that’s in version 3. So I’d take your choice mostly as a reflection of where you are on the early adopter scale (pretty far out, is my guess, but in this weird new world of nightly builds and multi-year public betas, everyone has their limits). Now that I think about it, it’s an interesting conundrum. The people who’d be most willing to heavily test a browser like Chrome are also the ones who will be most hindered in their daily lives if they’re using an unreliable browser. It sounds like you made the sensible choice.
I haven’t had to think about the issue myself; they’re still dragging their feet on a mac release. Huh, I wonder if that could be a strategic decision, based on the idea that Mac users aren’t as tolerant of unreliable software.
Um, most of the firefox extensions you mentioned don’t work in FF4 and have similar counterparts in chrome. Maybe its time to switch back?
I’ve heard that many of my issues with Chrome have since been fixed, but what I’m lacking is a clear reason to bother switching.