A couple of friends posted a while back on a message board I belong to, saying that they’d downloaded the most recent version of Firefox and that it was causing them trouble, and asking if anyone else had had a similar problem. I hadn’t yet downloaded the update, but assumed they were just overreacting. It’s easy to yell at Firefox for things but I’ve always been very pleased with it.
Then I downloaded the update myself and realized that they were right. Within five minutes after I had downloaded it, it froze. I restarted it and it worked for a while, then froze again. I restarted it again, and then it froze when I tried to quit it — after the window had closed, and then went on to suck up a remarkable amount of processor power for being, y’know, frozen; it actually jammed up my computer to the extent that other programs began sticking.
This has gone on to happen every time I’ve since opened it.
It’s possible that it will be fixed on the next update and all will be well in Mozilla-land again; however, I decided to take this opportunity/excuse to download Google Chrome for Mac and see what all the fuss was about. Here are a few random thoughts after a month or so of use.
First — OK, yes, it does seem faster.
I’d been running across ads on Hulu for months touting Chrome as being faster, “like getting a new computer.” I didn’t really believe it. But Chrome (though it benefits from comparison with Firefox’s current relative stickiness) actually does seem to be a bit of a leap forward; it’s very responsive and doesn’t generally stick up.
However…
Second — it doesn’t like being left open for long periods.
Of course — I shouldn’t be leaving anything on for the length of time that I do, but I’ve found that after Chrome has been running for a long time, it suddenly stops being able to handle sites with major scripts, particularly e-mail sites like G-Mail. Which is odd, because I never ran into this problem with Firefox no matter how long I had it open. It’s entirely possible that this is a problem unique to my computer/user style, but it’s something that’s happened a few times.
Third — Not having a title bar is really weird.
Google Chrome does not actually have a title bar — instead, the tabs are in the very top area of the screen, above the address bar and bookmarks. It actually took me a while to realize this, but when I did, it was one of those “That’s why this is weird!” moments. While the actual titles of the pages are of course all displayed in the tabs, the lack of a title bar is also annoying on a more interface-oriented level in that it makes it slightly (just slightly) more difficult to grab the screen and move it. There’s less room to grab and it’s a slowdown. As with most interface issues, it’s not a huge issue, but it is there.
Fourth — most of the themes are annoying.
I know this is petty, but I have not yet found a theme in the theme library that did not bug the hell out of me in some fashion, particularly, the pencil-sketch one, which is so hard to use it’s almost laughable. There’s also some error wherein the graphic which is supposed to go at the top of a bookmarks dropdown slides partway down the list and half-intersects with one of the list items; I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem, but it makes it a little hard to read.
Fifth — it has add-ons too!
This actually took me a depressingly long while to realize, but Chrome’s rising popularity means that it is actually pretty well-stocked in this department by now (the benefits to Macs being serviced later, I suppose). In particular, I was pleased to find that the Chris Pederick Web Developer Toolbar is now available for Chrome as well, which was extremely important during my use of Firefox and is actually (in my opinion) slightly sleeker for Chrome. It’s present as a dropdown menu rather than an extra toolbar and is just generally a more comfortable interface, so if you’ve gotten used to add-ons in Firefox, this shouldn’t be a turn-off for you.
Overall –
Visually, it’s got its ups and downs. Interface-wise, it’s got its ups and downs. However, Google Chrome is, in my experience, slightly sleeker, slightly faster, and, at least for the duration of Firefox’s current slip. Final recommendation: not an overwhelming leap forward, but a pleasant enough user experience and well-worth checking out.