Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

[Guest]

I'll use Chrome with IE and FF as my backups until something better comes along. Then I will use that.

 

As mr. moose states, while popular I don't believe Chrome has the weight to monopolize the market either on desktop or mobile.

 

As for Chrome's memory usage - I have 16Gb in my desktop and 12Gb in my laptop and 2Gb on my old Galaxy Note 2.  Not having enough memory hasn't been an issue, however it goes leave an uncomfortably large footprint and seems determined to be always on in the background which I absolutely hate.

 

But until a browser comes along that is as adaptable and seamless and as compatible as Chrome then I will stick with it.  IE11 is fantastic in terms of looks and speed, if it had the profile integration of Chrome it'd be amazing, but then it'd also start being a memory whore.  IE11, for me anyway, does not perform well with 10+ tabs open, especially when those pages contain Flash or Shockwave elements.  Granted Chrome isn't amazing here but at least it's just that particular thread that crashes.

[mr moose]

I am pretty sure you are getting Korea and Japan mixed up. Samsung won against Apple in Japan which is actually not what you'd expect since they hate Korea. Samsung also won in Germany (in the end) and in the UK. The case in UK even went as far as to make Apple publicly apologize on their website (which they did such a poor job of they had to remake it). If a US based company only win their lawsuits in the US but loses everywhere else then I do find it a little suspicious.

I am ashamed that you used this thread to bash Google while defending Apple. You're picking the greater of two evils. Even though I agree that Google has started to put restrictions on Android, making more apps closed source and so on, it's still far more open than iOS has ever been.

 

I was just reading up on some old court cases, I did not know that apples file storage and menu system for their ipods was designed by creative.

[LukeTim]

Is this really a news story or review?

Either way, I don't really appreciate somebody trying to frighten me into switching browsers. Especially not with some barely substantiated speculation about conspiracy.

I will stick with Chrome until there is an alternative that does all the things I appreciate Chrome for doing.

[LAwLz]

I will stick with Chrome until there is an alternative that does all the things I appreciate Chrome for doing.

What things do you appreciate Chrome for?

[AxelRantila]

Mate, i did, up until a coupla months ago i was using chrome, then I switched back to FF and realised holy shit, chrome uses the same ram, is the same speed and doesnt have as many extensions. Thats my personal experience, things differ machine by machine, but in all honesty this article is simply asking you to reevaluate and try it, because it could probably work better for you and for everyone in the future.

 

 

Ill be honest, the only reason i ever tried chrome in the first place was the hatsune miku ad. Chrome wouldn't be where it is today without google's domination of ads on the internet and also it's cash thrown towards tv ads.

Well, things certainly vary by machine (Chrome is a liiiitle bit faster on my current laptop) but I personally think that synchronizing bookmarks across several devices (including smarthphones) works more smoothly in Chrome than Firefox.

[LukeTim]

What things do you appreciate Chrome for?

 

Mostly the syncing of add-ons and bookmarks... though I really like the developer tools too, they are super useful sometimes.

I know Firefox has a login system and I can sync stuff, and I have signed up for that, but the last time I tried to use it on a new machine it was annoying because it is too anal about security. IIRC, I couldn't just login with an email and password, I had to get a code from a trusted machine or something... And I couldn't remember which machine was my original trusted machine...

I'm quite interested in the Chromecast feature, as well...

[Techhog]

No, you're smart for not using Chrome. Unfortunately it has a 20% market share and you'd only be a hipster if you used Firefox before it was cool.

You do realize how pretentious you are for telling everyone what browser to use, right?

[LAwLz]

Mostly the syncing of add-ons and bookmarks... though I really like the developer tools too, they are super useful sometimes.

Firefox has syncing as well, and Firefox has very powerful developer tools. Maybe even more so than Chrome (it is definitely the case for addons).

 

I know Firefox has a login system and I can sync stuff, and I have signed up for that, but the last time I tried to use it on a new machine it was annoying because it is too anal about security. IIRC, I couldn't just login with an email and password, I had to get a code from a trusted machine or something... And I couldn't remember which machine was my original trusted machine...

Well I just tried it on my tablet (fresh install, haven't used Firefox on it) and I just had to type in my email and password and it started syncing. No trusted code needed or anything like that.

 

I'm quite interested in the Chromecast feature, as well...

Yeah it seems like Chrome is the only browser that can do that. Not sure if it's Google locking it into their own echo system Apple style or if it's just that nobody else has bothered making it.

If it's the former then I see it as one reason to not use it. If it's the latter then we can only hope it gets added soon.

I found this. Mozilla is working on it.

[LukeTim]

Firefox has syncing as well, and Firefox has very powerful developer tools. Maybe even more so than Chrome (it is definitely the case for addons).

 

Well I just tried it on my tablet (fresh install, haven't used Firefox on it) and I just had to type in my email and password and it started syncing. No trusted code needed or anything like that.

 

Yeah it seems like Chrome is the only browser that can do that. Not sure if it's Google locking it into their own echo system Apple style or if it's just that nobody else has bothered making it.

If it's the former then I see it as one reason to not use it. If it's the latter then we can only hope it gets added soon.

I found this. Mozilla is working on it.

 

 

Well, I am impressed. I'll give Firefox a go tonight. It has been a while. I've not used Firefox's dev tools for a while, either, so they probably have improved them by now.

[Lynx]

already using Firefox as my main browser.

Yeah, in term of stability i could see that Chrome is better, but Firefox add-ons are much better than chrome, also some minor thing like opening a new tab it's better in Firefox.

about this google rules everything, if it's because they're better than any alternatives, than offer something better than google product.

[Techhog]

already using Firefox as my main browser.

Yeah, in term of stability i could see that Chrome is better, but Firefox add-ons are much better than chrome, also some minor thing like opening a new tab it's better in Firefox.

about this google rules everything, if it's because they're better than any alternatives, than offer something better than google product.

Watch out, you're going to be called a fanboy for this post.

 

It is true, though. I mean, there are exceptions like YouTube (and soon-to-be Twitch, which I'm extremely pissed off about, and honestly would have been enough to make me give up Chrome and Android in anger if I weren't stuck with Gmail), but in general, they have competitive offerings and compelling reasons to use them. They did earn their success.

[RH00D]

I currently exclusively use Internet Explorer 11 and Firefox, if there's something that doesn't work just right in IE (or I need a certain add-on to do something) then I hop over to Firefox. I also have Bing set as my default search engine in both browsers, which actually works just as well as Google now. I do not miss Chrome at all, and the only Google service I actually use is YouTube, because there are no real alternatives.

[SuperfastJellyfish]

It's not really ambiguous.

Chrome (not to be confused with Chromium) is closed source, tracks you and is in general pretty restrictive. On top of that Google is doing some very anti-competitive things to favor Chrome over other browsers.

 

I think it's pretty hypocritical for people to detest the use of software like Chrome for its lack of openness when they almost indefinitely use other pieces of closed source software in conjunction with closed source hardware that they can never know the underlying intentions and operations of on a very regular basis.

 

tl;dr unless you're Stallman, you're a hypocrite.

[murratri]

Don't let the aliens win, use Safari.

[CatCloud]

But you're willing to give up the internet's freedom to Google for that?

Thats what Apple is trying to do. Not Google. ones you go Apple your stuck. Google is more flexible IMO.

[Mclegendary]

Chrome is too anti competitive and firefox sucks. I use maxthon. 

[Builder]

I am pretty sure you are getting Korea and Japan mixed up. Samsung won against Apple in Japan which is actually not what you'd expect since they hate Korea. Samsung also won in Germany (in the end) and in the UK. The case in UK even went as far as to make Apple publicly apologize on their website (which they did such a poor job of they had to remake it). If a US based company only win their lawsuits in the US but loses everywhere else then I do find it a little suspicious.

I am ashamed that you used this thread to bash Google while defending Apple. You're picking the greater of two evils. Even though I agree that Google has started to put restrictions on Android, making more apps closed source and so on, it's still far more open than iOS has ever been.

Look mate, I've said before that neither side is going to be convinced here. However, I found evidence that conflicts with your statements.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/samsung-wins-korean-battle-in-apple-patent-war-1.1153862

 

We're both sort of right about Korea.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.,_Ltd.#German_courts

 

I don't know what you're talking about. You seem to have your story partly reversed. They had wins in South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US. Australia was overturned on appeal but they won initially. Samsung won in South Korea too. They lost in Japan and Britain. The world seems to be divided on whether or not Samsung infringed, and at least a few countries in the EU granted injunctions banning the sale of infringing devices. They did not "lose everywhere else," in fact they won in more countries than they lost in.

 

I'm not quite sure how Apple is evil aside from that, (if you consider it to be evil) they've recently been very charitable and have issued strong statements regarding the diversity of their workforce. If you could please enlighten me on why, I would be happy to listen.

[Builder]

Thats what Apple is trying to do. Not Google. ones you go Apple your stuck. Google is more flexible IMO.

How is Apple taking over the internet? Google controls all access to it. Apple devices do play nicely with other devices, however Google is trying to lock you into Chrome if you wish to fully utilize its web products. 

 

Apple lets you use iTunes and iCloud whether or not you own any devices. They are both equally accessible on Windows and OS X, and it doesn't matter what browser you use iCloud in.

[cubercaleb]

Obviously, if you want your iTunes music, you have to sync it with iTunes. If you want your Google Music music, you have to sync it with Google Music. That was a piss poor analogy, you must be really grasping at straws. You don't even need a computer to sync iTunes. It's called iTunes Match or iCloud if you don't have any ripped CDs.

 

How are they the opposite of a closed system? They are in the process of locking down Android, lord knows Chrome is a disaster (that's why we're here) and they're starting to make it so you need Chrome to use certain features of their otherwise platform independent web apps.

No, If I want to sync my music onto my Nexus 7 all I have to do is plug it in, select the files from their directory, and plop them into the music directory of my Nexus. No app needed. With iOS devices you have to install itunes to get music or movies on that device, and itunes is fucking slow as hell on windows. Also, using a iCloud requires you to either buy the media on iTunes, or have it wirelessly sync from your computer with iTunes installed. I don't want to install itunes, no do I want to lock my media down to Apple. I have all my music in CD form because then I can rip them to my computer in FLAC format, which currently Amazon, iTunes, and Google do not offer. On top of that iTunes does not work on Android or Windows based phones, so buying content on itunes is almost useless. Where is the Windows Phone or Android itunes app? Ohh right, it doesn't exist.

 

I find ironic that to bitch about Google being closed, yet you go on to preach about how amazing the most closed ecosystem of products are (Apple). It just seems a bit backwards, and to me you seem arrogant. I will continue using Google products because they work, they are open enough for me to like the and their services work across all devices (something Apple can't say). The ability to switch between devices and pick up on my last chrome session from another device is great, and yes I know Safari can do that but guess what? Safari is OSX and iOS exclusive!!!! Chrome works on all devices and doesn't require me to by some stupid overpriced product to use it, same thing applies with Play, Youtube, Gmail, Docs, Chrome Cast, which you can stream to from any device, and so on. On top of that I have had less problems with Chrome than Firefox, Firefox always seems sluggish on any device I put it on, pages load slower with a slower start up, and it performs slowly with lots of plugins. Yes it takes less resources, but that is to be expected when Firefox uses one thread while Chrome runs the core application, all the plugins, extensions, and tabs on their own threads. Yes it takes more resources, but it means it doesn't choke everything down to one single thread, allowing it to perform better on multi core CPU's with more RAM, on top of that because everything in chrome runs on its own thread the program is less likely to crash because if a plugin crashes the rest of the browser remains intact, only needed a page refresh to get that plugin up again. I have never notices Chrome becoming unresponsive, whereas I have noticed Firefox become unresponsive whenever trying to load up more than 10 tabs at once giving me the "this application is not responding, want to close it?" pop-up box.

[Eniqmatic]

Wow, some interesting posts in here.

 

There were quite a few posts that I felt the need to reply to on my journey through this now 14 page thread, however it would take a long time for me to find them all again now. 

 

So, some main points. Whilst I will admit that I am a fan of Google and the things they do, I do try to remain unbiased and try to look at both points of view. I'm also more than happy to point out when there is a problem with how they have done things. 

 

I saw mentioned around a few posts about Google locking you into their "ecosystem", and whilst I do agree that there is an "ecosystem" when using Android, I wouldn't say you are "locked" into it. Apple is a much better example of this. For instance, whilst signing into Google on your Android device for syncing is helpful, it's not essential. You can skip this. The phone will function perfectly well. I say Apple is a much better example of locking (only allowed to use iTunes to manage phone for example), however, what's wrong with this anyways? In my opinion, if you like the idea of being locked into an ecosystem where you can sign into your apple account to use apple products which work very nicely together, then good for you and go for it. If you don't, then look at another product. No reason to publicly bash a company because of the way its designed it's products. It doesn't make sense. Contrary to many of the posts in this thread, no one is forcing you to buy the products. Don't like the way a company does things, don't buy them. Simple. There are always alternatives.

 

There is also the original post subject of "Don't let Google take over the internet". I'm sorry but it comes close to one of the most ridiculous posts I've seen. It's a shame as reading your other posts you seem to have at least some intelligence about you. Once again, Android is so open for tweaking that they wouldn't be able to enforce everyone to use Chrome, Windows isn't obviously made by Google so they couldn't enforce Chrome there, and speaking of Windows/Microsoft, do you not remember Microsoft getting in trouble by "trying to enforce everyone to use IE"? I don't actually agree with the outcome of that, I don't see how they were trying to enforce IE on everyone as it's not like they blocked other browsers from being installed, and IE could always be uninstalled but that's for another topic. So, do you think that Google would get away with not allowing the use of any other browser, when MS got in trouble for just installing IE as default?? No. As for only allowing Chrome to use certain Google services, I also highly doubt they would be allowed to get away with this either, but if they did, simply stop using the products if it bothers you that much? For me, it personally doesn't bother me as I prefer Chrome to anything else (although I don't find IE too painful these days, and Firefox would be my second choice). But remember, there are always alternatives. 

 

Your title is actually pretty contradictory, you say "Choose Firefox now..", what about those who like IE or any other browser? 

 

I personally prefer Chrome mainly due, to the synchronization (yes I know Firefox does this too) with my Android devices, I like the overall look and feel better, it's very stable and does everything I need. One of the main reasons for not using Firefox is you have to fiddle about to get Active Directory pass through to intranet sites. Why fiddle with something which takes a minute or two when I could have Chrome do it right out the box? Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Firefox in any way and appreciate it's just a different implementation they have opted for.

 

I hope everything can be read and processed and perhaps replied to in a mature manner, I've stated my views and opinions without attacking anyone, I'm more than happy to hear the views of others and have a discussion in a an adult fashion, unlike other posts in this thread. 

[LAwLz]

already using Firefox as my main browser.

Yeah, in term of stability i could see that Chrome is better, but Firefox add-ons are much better than chrome, also some minor thing like opening a new tab it's better in Firefox.

about this google rules everything, if it's because they're better than any alternatives, than offer something better than google product.

How is Firefox better at opening a new tab?

 

 

I think it's pretty hypocritical for people to detest the use of software like Chrome for its lack of openness when they almost indefinitely use other pieces of closed source software in conjunction with closed source hardware that they can never know the underlying intentions and operations of on a very regular basis.

 

tl;dr unless you're Stallman, you're a hypocrite.

It's a good thing you made a TL;DR. That sentence was pretty long so it was nice to see a summary of it.

Sure I use Windows and I am not ashamed to admit it. My drivers are closed source, and so is my BIOS and many of the other programs I use. I do value open (and especially free as in freedom) software to some extent though. When you got two fairly good alternatives competing against each other (like Chrome vs Firefox) then that can be a deciding factor for me. Stop with the black-and-white thinking.

 

 

 

Look mate, I've said before that neither side is going to be convinced here. However, I found evidence that conflicts with your statements.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/samsung-wins-korean-battle-in-apple-patent-war-1.1153862

 

We're both sort of right about Korea.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.,_Ltd.#German_courts

 

I don't know what you're talking about. You seem to have your story partly reversed. They had wins in South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US. Australia was overturned on appeal but they won initially. Samsung won in South Korea too. They lost in Japan and Britain. The world seems to be divided on whether or not Samsung infringed, and at least a few countries in the EU granted injunctions banning the sale of infringing devices. They did not "lose everywhere else," in fact they won in more countries than they lost in.

 

I'm not quite sure how Apple is evil aside from that, (if you consider it to be evil) they've recently been very charitable and have issued strong statements regarding the diversity of their workforce. If you could please enlighten me on why, I would be happy to listen.

Oh I didn't know they had been sued in Korea as well. My mistake.

They didn't lose the cases where they were being sued in Japan, for example this one. They lost when they tried to counter sue. The same goes for the UK. When Samsung got sued they counter sued with some of their own patents, but the courts usually found them to be FRAND.

 

You can't really say you're not "quite sure how Apple is evil aside from that" because that is a huge part, and yes it is evil. I have posted the reasons why I hate Apple many times in LTT. I don't feel like discussing it again.

 

 

 

Yes it takes less resources, but that is to be expected when Firefox uses one thread while Chrome runs the core application, all the plugins, extensions, and tabs on their own threads. Yes it takes more resources, but it means it doesn't choke everything down to one single thread, allowing it to perform better on multi core CPU's with more RAM, on top of that because everything in chrome runs on its own thread the program is less likely to crash because if a plugin crashes the rest of the browser remains intact, only needed a page refresh to get that plugin up again. I have never notices Chrome becoming unresponsive, whereas I have noticed Firefox become unresponsive whenever trying to load up more than 10 tabs at once giving me the "this application is not responding, want to close it?" pop-up box.

Firefox runs plugins in a sandbox and in their own process as well. That's why for example Flash crashing does not affect the rest of the browser (yes, even in Firefox).

[cubercaleb]

Firefox runs plugins in a sandbox and in their own process as well. That's why for example Flash crashing does not affect the rest of the browser (yes, even in Firefox).

 

Was not aware of this. However I still find that Firefox is a bit more crash happy than Chrome on the devices I have installed it on. I get a lot less "this app has become unresponsive and must close, close it now?" messages with Chrome. funny thing is, I usually have 50+ tabs open at once with over a dozen plugins and extensions. That with 6GB of RAM and two monitors driven by a 550Ti I don't even know how it manages. Usually I do have memory usage problems when I also am running some sort of editing program or game, but I never had these problems before adding my second monitor. I guess adding that second monitor made me close down stuff less often because now I can just move the window over and do two things at once.  

[Builder]

-snip-

I use Windows and OS X equally. So, coming from a guy that uses both, (Linux and BSD too but those are tertiary to this point) OS X is less locked in. I think it would serve you well to venture outside Windows land for awhile. It will broaden your horizons and perhaps you will lose many of the misconceptions you have on the subject.

 

I convert my FLAC to ALAC when I need to, then it syncs with iOS devices. There are solutions to all of the problems which you describe, Google Music can take your iTunes library and sync it to your Android device for example. Please do your research before going on such a rant again.

 

-snip-

I don't think you read the entire article if you're saying IE is a suitable alternative. IE has absolutely zero open source parts and has been trying to lock you in to the Microsoft ecosystem from the very start.

 

Yes, it's such a shame I don't like Android, because obviously only smart people like Android and only stupid people like iOS. You have a very dichotomized view of the world that unfortunately I think you will find I do not fit into.

 

It's too late to change your opinion if you can't realize that Google already controls most of the internet. They control who gets discovered on the internet, and they control who gets ad space too. If they wanted you dead, they could make you disappear from their search and ads overnight and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. They already are in the process of censoring their competitors and other sites they don't like, see RapGenius and vivint. The reason I think Google would get away with it is that they already are getting away with it. Essentially nobody else's search is worth using (though I personally prefer DDG, the results are often less accurate) and so they have a monopoly on it.

 

Google's entire business model is based off of collecting your data and using it to sell you. If you're not paying for anything, you're the product. Chrome is designed specifically to collect absolutely everything about how you browse the web, which ads attract you the most, how long you spend on different sites, etc.

 

That's what I don't like about Chrome. It's locking you in to an ecosystem by preventing you from using other features of Drive like offline in other browsers as well. They don't give a shit about "openness," their goal is money. They've just realized that open source is an attractive marketing tool for geeks like us and sure enough, we've flocked to it in droves. Firefox has always and will always be completely open source, and Mozilla's success does not hinge on how much data they can collect about their users' browsing habits.

 

Oh I didn't know they had been sued in Korea as well. My mistake.

They didn't lose the cases where they were being sued in Japan, for example this one. They lost when they tried to counter sue. The same goes for the UK. When Samsung got sued they counter sued with some of their own patents, but the courts usually found them to be FRAND.

 

You can't really say you're not "quite sure how Apple is evil aside from that" because that is a huge part, and yes it is evil. I have posted the reasons why I hate Apple many times in LTT. I don't feel like discussing it again.

Frankly if you're going to call Apple evil for litigating over patents, you have to call Google and Samsung evil for copying it in the first place. As I said before, (and which you seem to ignore) they won their cases in most of the countries that they sued in. When Samsung countersued, they lost everywhere except Japan and the UK. Apple won everywhere else, with Korea having a Samsung win too and Australia overturning its initial ruling.

 

You tried to paint it as if they had lost everywhere except the US, when really they won in quite a few countries. The world has not decided whether or not Samsung infringed, there are a large amount of countries on both sides. (granted, more think that they did, but who's counting?) 

 

You don't have to hate me just because I like Apple products. We're really quite similar in many regards. I don't like Google either, even though you may trust them more. I value internet freedom and privacy, just like you do. I am passionate about open source software, just like I believe you are.

 

Personally I think I might have liked Android better if Danger hadn't been bought by Google. The Sidekick was one helluva phone, and I think it would have been amazing had they continued developing it. But honestly as it stands it just seems like tweakable iOS to me, and since I've been using iOS since day one, I don't see the point in switching just for the sake of tweaking. There are a lot of extremely innovative Android OEMs, like Blackphone and HTC and LG, I just don't think Samsung is one of them.  They kind of go tit-for-tat with Apple, because honestly, why else would they release the S5 in exactly the same colors and with a fingerprint sensor? Two weeks after the 5s was released Samsung was already assuring everyone how similar their next phone would be, to hold off on buying an iPhone because the S5 would have a 64-bit processor and fingerprint reader and come in gold too.

 

Samsung doesn't try to be unique, but they hide that. Xiaomi is much more shameless about it. Frankly I think if you're going to copy you should go all the way, otherwise you just end up with the half-assed plastic POS that Samsung makes.

[Eniqmatic]

I don't think you read the entire article if you're saying IE is a suitable alternative. IE has absolutely zero open source parts and has been trying to lock you in to the Microsoft ecosystem from the very start.

 

Yes, it's such a shame I don't like Android, because obviously only smart people like Android and only stupid people like iOS. You have a very dichotomized view of the world that unfortunately I think you will find I do not fit into.

 

It's too late to change your opinion if you can't realize that Google already controls most of the internet. They control who gets discovered on the internet, and they control who gets ad space too. If they wanted you dead, they could make you disappear from their search and ads overnight and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. They already are in the process of censoring their competitors and other sites they don't like, see RapGenius and vivint. The reason I think Google would get away with it is that they already are getting away with it. Essentially nobody else's search is worth using (though I personally prefer DDG, the results are often less accurate) and so they have a monopoly on it.

 

Google's entire business model is based off of collecting your data and using it to sell you. If you're not paying for anything, you're the product. Chrome is designed specifically to collect absolutely everything about how you browse the web, which ads attract you the most, how long you spend on different sites, etc.

 

That's what I don't like about Chrome. It's locking you in to an ecosystem by preventing you from using other features of Drive like offline in other browsers as well. They don't give a shit about "openness," their goal is money. They've just realized that open source is an attractive marketing tool for geeks like us and sure enough, we've flocked to it in droves. Firefox has always and will always be completely open source, and Mozilla's success does not hinge on how much data they can collect about their users' browsing habits.

 

 

 

A lot of contradictory statements. However, your first statement mentions IE is not open source. Whilst that is true, so? Why does it need to be? There are many other browsers out there, IE was the first that came into my head. Don't like IE? Use another. You missed the point. 

 

I'm in no way suggesting that you should like Android. I'm of the opinion that everyone should use what they PERSONALLY prefer. You like iOS, good for you. Who am I to tell you it's wrong? iOS works for your needs, Android works for mine.

 

You say Google controls most of the internet, but that's not true. They don't control the internet. They CAN control what people see on the internet, if they are using Google search. They can't force Google search upon people. If Google was so set in it's ways on controlling what everyone sees on the internet, why did they argue about the "right to be forgotten" where they were forced by a governing body to remove links? They argued that it was censoring the internet and they are in fact correct. Why would they say that to then go back and do as you suggest? They can control the adverts as you say, because people pay for the adverts, don't be silly. And so what if they tailor adverts to your search history? They aren't forcing you to by the products they display, it's not even their own products. If they do censor their competitors, why haven't they censored Apple from the results, or Bing for search, or Microsoft?

 

Chrome doesn't lock you into an ecosystem. How is Apple any different in that you have to use iTunes to be able to get anything onto the iPhone? Is that not an ecosystem? Once again, why does everything need to be open source? You would be naive to think that Mozilla doesn't collect any data about you, it's inevitable. You also forget about how much Google gives away for free. 

 

It seems quite clear that you've set out on a personal vendetta against the company for some apparent reason. 

[ZeroBreaker]

Well, things certainly vary by machine (Chrome is a liiiitle bit faster on my current laptop) but I personally think that synchronizing bookmarks across several devices (including smarthphones) works more smoothly in Chrome than Firefox.

 

Personally think?

Have you used firefox's variant? Please make it clear if you have - it is just about as seamless as google's approach, the difference being it is a specific firefox account rather than an all purpose google account, which is a boon for some, a downside for others but doesnt affect me at all.