TechHui

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I've left the Firefox train and am now riding the Chrome super express

When Chrome first came out being a web developer I absolutely hated the idea of having to support another browser. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try out the new Mac Beta that was made available and I was very impresessed mainly by one thing -- speed. Chrome is just lightning fast compared to Firefox. Just take a look at this screenshot of my machines processes and compare the amount of CPU and memory Chrome and Firefox are using. HUGE difference.



Sure, it doesn't have all the nice extensions that Firefox has but give it some time. I've made the switch and it's already cut down a huge amount of time I used to waste waiting for Firefox to boot up and do it's thing.

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Replies to This Discussion

Hi Brian, If you are comparing Firefox to Chrome when using multiple tabs this will almost always be the case, but for a good reason. Chrome runs each tab and window in a separate process with full process isolation. This means one bad web app can't bring down your other web apps. To achieve process isolation you can't have any shared state, so you need more memory.
It doesn't have all of them, but it does have lots of extensions. I've switched, and only use FF for compatibility checking and small problem sites.
I also find Chrome a better development environment, as it just has a more stable feeling to it. For me using Firefox is like driving a Toyota Camry VS a 4x4 Chrome Ranger :)

both of which have viable web surfing applications. I see mostly no need to use Safari, since it is Mac only. Same goes for IE.

Since Chrome is still pretty young, I use FF/Chrome combination to accomplish various tasks. Chrome has very nice Developer Tools, where I especially like page loading/startup measurements.

Overall, I'd say as Chrome gains maturity, it will be more preferred amongst developers. I am also really curious to see Chrome OS in action, as it will finally put to the test Sun's Network is the computer vision..

As for memory usage, I find that leaving FF for too long makes my computer sluggish. Chrome, on the other hand, behaves normal, though I do try to minimize the number of open tabs.
I use 20-60 tabs all the time. The bigest issues to me is speed, and it's quite a bit quicker with all the tabs than FF.

Brian Russo said:
I like Chrome but it uses more memory than Firefox. Loading up the exact same sites from a clean start..

Chrome uses 149 megs, Firefox is using 115M. This is with 4 tabs each showing techhui, cnn.com, facebook, and gmail.

Which is consistent with my use in the past; chrome always uses more memory. I would say Chrome is generally faster though; albeit on the page loading front. I leave browsers open all the time so how fast they start up isn't a factor for me.
I worded that poorly. What I meant was, its more efficient on a per process basis, but it requires more processes because each tab enjoys process isolation.

Brian Russo said:
I know Dan, but who doesn't use multiple tabs? That's like saying a car comparison when driving isn't important or something ;)

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