Firefox, or Chrome?

I am a long-time Firefox user, starting with version 0.7 when the browser was called "Firebird". It has been my default browser, for the most part, ever since. Earlier this year, I had given Chrome, or its open-source counterpart, Chromium, a short run as my default browser, but I eventually reverted back to Firefox. According to a recent report, Chrome is expected to unseat Firefox as the number two browser by the end of this year. That gave me cause to sit back and reflect upon my reasons for staying with Firefox, having given Chrome a fair shot at being my full-time browser.

I had a few compelling reasons to switch to Chrome and Chromium earlier this year. Chrome was lightweight and fast, with very quick startup time. It had a simple interface and a nice look. And it had built-in capabilities for synchronizing my bookmarks between computers. It was primarily the speed and synchronization that caused me to jump ship.

When I had made the switch, I was unable to abandon Firefox completely. Firefox remained my primary browser for development purposes. The Firebug extension is something upon which I rely heavily for web development projects. Although Chrome has some of these features built-in, I found that they just didn't match up to Firebug, particularly in the area of developing Ajax applications.

I found that Chrome had excellent startup speed compared to Firefox. But once the browsers had started, I perceived Chrome as perhaps a bit faster, but not terribly noticeable if at all. In evaluating the two, I really had to think about how much startup time meant to me. My browser typically remains open the entire time I am using my computer, so what's a few seconds at the outset?

There are a whole set of "apps" emerging for the Chrome browser. I took a look at some of them, mainly out of curiosity. But I am a firm believer that browser-based applications should run in any standards-compliant browser. I don't want to be dependent on some application that only runs in a particular browser. That's a step backward, in my opinion.

There is one feature that Chrome has and Firefox lacks; "Close Tabs to the Right". I used that quite a bit while I was a Chrome/Chromium user.

Chrome has built-in Flash support, but I did find it to be buggy at times. Perhaps that's just the 64-bit Linux version, as that is where I experienced difficulty with it.

I eventually found my way back to Firefox, and that's where I am now. The startup speeds have improved with recent releases, and I do my development work (which is a significant amount of my time) in that browser anyway. Bookmark synchronization is now built-in, and it satisfies my needs nicely. I like it, it's familiar, and it works well. Its add-on system gets me a few nice additional features, and it keeps me productive.

I am not at all surprised to see Chrome doing well. It's a good product. But the reasons I found compelling when I began using it just don't seem so compelling now. I like the work the Mozilla Foundation has done, and they continue to improve Firefox. Having used both browsers, I simply like Firefox better. That's not to say my opinion won't change in the future; it very well may. But for now, I'm a Firefox user, and I am not like to change any time soon.