Switching sides, not tabs
Why did I even used a Mozilla?
A late call? Well, turns out that I was reading a blog from a wonderful and inspirational coder Lydia Hallie. She’s mostly into web development so, my mind drifted back to the moment when the first time I used a browser other than, well, Microsoft’s very own dead Internet Explorer. I’m talking about more than five to six years back. That browser was Chrome. And now I’m on Firefox. Why?
So you don’t trust Google?
That’s not the case. I still love Google and its products more than any other tech company in the world. It was not just that Chrome became a habit (I somehow figured out how to start it when I log in to my PC). I have used that web browser for more than five years simultaneously without caring about any new browser releases. Without caring how many decibels of sound my laptop would make. Without caring if it was really the Chrome browser that hogged up almost 80% of my system’s RAM. You know where I’m getting in?
Funny thing is this that within the first few weeks of using this new browser, I felt that Google had scored a clean sweep knock by launching this product. It was fast, somehow light (again, at that time), stable and was easy to use even with its powerful extensions. Little did I knew that this software was not the one and can’t be the only browser that I needed. It has steadily got worse. Like, really worse.
How can you say that?
I know Chromium users and some web developers will say that. That’s perfectly okay. I’m not saying that Chrome is bad. I’m saying that it’s not the browser that I expected it to be years after falling in love with it.
See that screenshot above? I used to do it daily after one or two months of (almost) daily use. Still, couldn’t improve my sick Chrome. Even the updates were applied timely. No effect on performance. At this point you might be thinking what did he browsed on the internet? To start with, I used to watch movies online, some YouTube videos, and then some random tech articles. That’s it. I never played an online 3D game which would use more of my system’s memory. Here’s the trick. Do you even know that opening up up-to 7–8 tabs on an average and then switching between them was the most horrible experience I ever had with it. If you’re one of those who now hate Chrome for its bad design or performance then you must watch this video.
It’s already known that Chrome is so much popular right now compared to other browsers but that doesn’t mean that it is and will be the best. Over the time, I had several common issues with the beloved software. To name few, there were crashing tabs, memory leaks, abruptly high CPU usage and I’ve even heard of system lockups and instability of the device! Man, this was really like a super bad dream. Bad part was that I never considered any other browser for my work. I just had in mind the Google Chrome is the best browser available. Though in between I tested out Apple’s Safari for Windows and Opera but they quickly failed to impress me. My love was about to shift. This time it was about the quantum!
Why Firefox?
Before I jump in and talk about why did I choose this Mozilla stuff, check-out these:
Which web browser lets you have links with your favorite and thought provoking podcasts? The IRL podcasts from Mozilla has become one of my favorite thing to listed while blogging or coding. I don’t know how I manage to both listen and type correctly together, but I think it just works! Host Veronica Belmont will share with you some of the internet’s most unimaginable and really cool stuff with her magical voice. I’m sure that if you start listening to them, you’ll start loving what Mozilla can do or Firefox! You’ll listen about some of the most common terms like net neutrality to more independent feels types like free speeches. The best part? Even if you are to skip (by getting really bored) them, the nest time Firefox launches, it’ll throw you a link information just like the image. Even if you think you’re wasting your ear’s power to listen those no-music speeches, you can always read the whole podcast as a blog.
Obviously, you may end up (sometimes) with these pop-ups kind of things:
But that’s perfectly okay with me. I don’t feel like, “Eww, what kind of company asks for money from its users in that way?” Understand that Mozilla is a global non-profit company. Stress on the term made bold in the previous sentence. That should make sense. They need donations so that a browser like Firefox could be nurtured the same way internet was. We all know that hacking, spamming and other terms ending with ‘-ing’ are digging a hole between a user’s privacy and the browser. We need something strong to fill that hole so that it should never be said as a ‘hole’. Giving donations is not a bad thing or an issue of someone’s status, this will only make a change. A good change and a better internet that we all love and know.
Okay, enough of those non-technical stuff, time to jump in Firefox! Why I’m writing this on my second most loved browser?
- More battery juice: All Chrome lovers will always say that it’s the fastest of them all and that’s true (maybe). This doesn’t mean that the CPU cycles that Google’s browser takes are less. Chrome uses more CPU than Firefox. If we’re to rely on the software giant Microsoft’s data (that was apparently generated to show that their Edge is the best), Firefox uses approximately 31 percent less power than Chrome in real-world usage. And that’s not only because Microsoft says it. When I used to write for an hour on Chrome, it would such out battery juice like a pro and now, the clever fox isn’t much interested in battery flavors!
- Tabs, tabs, tabs and more tabs!: Probably the most underrated and most used feature of today’s web browser is to open multiple tabs in one session. Let me tell you, Chrome was a nightmare to use and the clever fox is really a pro here! When, it’s about multiple tabs, you can rely on Firefox.
- Open-source love: Chrome users might yell at the moment by shrieking in my ears. “Chromium is open-source!” Well, the true mentality of being an open-source software will remain to folks at Mozilla. Mohamed Mansour, a Quora user says,
I have contributed code to the Chromium project for over two years . . . but lost motivation because of how closed that platform became. Yes it is open sourced, but it is guarded by a big organization where most of its discussions and future direction are done internally inside their organization.
Not much to say. It explains why I said Mozilla being more open-sourced as compared to Google’s Chromium.
4. Road-map? Delivered: When I first visited this web-page I was in awe. I haven’t in my wildest dreams thought that a company would make it’s software’s future improvements public. Obviously, it’s influenced by contributors and community members.
Firefox is Mozilla’s expression of our manifesto and mission; it represents our vision of a people-centric Web experience, as well as a platform that makes it possible to do amazing things with the Web.
5. Privacy. And some strong privacy: Apart from giving us the lectures on their IRL podcasts about what a privacy means to Mozilla and its users, it’s (probably) the only browser which doesn’t collect crucial user’s information as opposed to Google in their Chrome. The State of Mozilla report, Firefox privacy policy and Mozilla’s call-to-arms are some links which you must check-out before complaining anything related to privacy to the non-profit. Well, if you enter private window in Firefox, you’ll be much happy to see this:
Bottom-line
The thing is, that Chrome is not a bad browser, but has become quite heavy on our machines (unless we have huge RAM space). Firefox will quite simply give you the actual freedom you need to have while surfing the internet. This will surely become more clear when you’ll actually use both Chrome and Firefox on a single machine and will end up loving the latter just like I did.
Whatever the browser you may choose, one thing is clear that Firefox will have your back!
Wish you all a Happy New Year! Have a great 2018.!
