Why doesn't Linus like Chrome?

[hazeyez]

In all LTT's videos whenever the opportunity comes up to mention a browser, @LinusTech is always speaking propaganda against Google Chrome. Why?

 

And if not Chrome, which is the meta of all browsers? Why?

[AskTJ]

Don't think he hates chrome. Could you link a video?

[captain_to_fire]

I'm not sure about Linus but Luke definitely doesn't like Chrome and prefers Firefox. When Luke is the one hosting the show, he uses Firefox for the most part.

 

[wasab]

IE sucks balls. The last time I used it was windows vista days and that thing was just horrid. Loading all the time, freezing the system and whatnot. So many bars everywhere and annoying pop ups spamming advertisements. It probably picked up shit tons of malware cuz of how insecure that thing is. 

 

Edge also sucks balls. That thing is as simple and boring as a mobile browser. I want my chrome extensions and apps/themes from the chrome store.

[hazeyez]

52 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

Don't think he hates chrome. Could you link a video?

@AskTJ i'd really have to go through all his videos - i don't remember specifics but I've seen him mention it at least 3 times already. 

 

hopefully the man himself @LinusTech will grace us with his presence here and explain!

[aezakmi]

Safari is the ultimate browser

 

/s

[Centurius]

I've been watching his videos for half a decade now and never got that impression, in fact the times we do see an internet browser it is exclusively Chrome nearly always.

 

Opera is the superior browser though.

[hazeyez]

12 minutes ago, Centurius said:

I've been watching his videos for half a decade now and never got that impression, in fact the times we do see an internet browser it is exclusively Chrome nearly always.

 

Opera is the superior browser though.

@Centurius I do like Opera, not many people know about it!

[Techicolors]

17 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

Safari is the ultimate browser

 

/s

Safari is at its best on macOS. using Chrome or Firefox hammers battery life 

[TetraSky]

27 minutes ago, hazeyez said:

@Centurius I do like Opera, not many people know about it!

Many people know Opera(in the tech sphere anyway), but I, like many others, stopped using Opera when it made the switch to Chromium, losing a ton of features that were used by power users(some eventually made a comeback... but way too late) and then it was bought by a Chinese consortium, so hello potentially privacy issues.

 

Now I'd say Vivaldi is the replacement for those who used to like Opera. (it's also made by the same dude that originally founded Opera)

[PlayStation 2]

Chrome is genuinely annoying in a number of aspects.

For one, VP9 (the codec Google is shoving down everyone's throats through YouTube) doesn't even work well with the browser. It chokes like hell on an R7 1700X.

Second, RAM usage. It's gotten better, but it's still not great compared to even Microsoft Edge in my experiences, much less Firefox.

Third, hardware usage. It's just not efficient in a number of regards and it only gets worse with browsers built around the Chromium core. Sincerely, a Vivaldi user.

[Zodiark1593]

55 minutes ago, Techicolors said:

Safari is at its best on macOS. using Chrome or Firefox hammers battery life 

Edge is also quite good on battery life and RAM, both being kind of important on my 2 GB 2-in-1.

[Guest]

Chrome is bad and quantum is leaps ahead. 

[Professor Dingledore]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

RAM usage. It's gotten better, but it's still not great compared to even Microsoft Edge in my experiences, much less Firefox.

I'm gonna call BS on this. Or at the very least say your experience is outdated. I tested Chrome, Firefox and Edge on my PC shortly after 1803 (or is it 1804) was released. I was actually looking to switch browsers, so this isn't me trying to be a Chrome fanboi. Opening the same sites on all three browsers. Chrome was the most efficient in terms of memory usage with Edge consistently at the back of the pack. I opened 10 tabs per "window" and it wasn't until I got to 30 tabs / 3 windows that Firefox finally closed the gap. If the trend continues Firefox is only more efficient when you have 30+ tabs open. That doesn't fit my usage as I rarely have more than 15 tabs total open.

 

Despite the fact Chrome was more memory efficient, the whole experience was very eye opening for me. Edge in 1803 is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was. I'd actually like to use it as my default browser but it's just not there yet. It has a clean UI that I prefer to Chrome's. I like the flyout for bookmarks etc. It's reading view is much nicer than what I use in Chrome with the Mercury reader plugin, but I found it doesn't do enough to stop popups/pop-unders. Chrome and Firefox, even WITHOUT plugins do a far better job of this. I have sites on my own lan that Edge doesn't like to open the uTorrent WebUI is one. Edge also cripples Disqus. It's half the speed of Chrome and it's even worse if you install the uBlock Origin plugin.

 

Firefox... The test I mentioned above was the first time I'd used it since long before the Quantum refresh. It was far superior to what I remember. it was really easy to import all my Chrome passwords and bookmarks. It just took a tiny bit of monkeying to get the bookmark bar the way I wanted. I couldn't find a Firefox equivalent for several plugins that I use regularly. The UI is nicer than Chrome, but not as good as Edge IMO. I'm glad the second search box is gone but hate that the address bar doesn't fill the entire width between the two groups of icons. I also despise the way Firefox organizes bookmarks. If it's not on the bookmark bar, it's more clicking to get to.

 

Long story short. None of the big 3 truly sucks and none of them are vastly superior to the other 2.

 

Edit: Thought I should also disclose that the memory usage tab test I mention above was done on a fairly new machine with 32GB of RAM so paging to disk was never an issue even with all the browsers open at once. Users with 8GB or even 4GB or less may see different results.  

[HunterAP]

21 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

I'm not sure about Linus but Luke definitely doesn't like Chrome and prefers Firefox. When Luke is the one hosting the show, he uses Firefox for the most part.

 

Luke's said on WAN show and his own twitch streams that he sometimes switches between Chrome and FF. A little while after FF Quantum came out, Luke said how it got just as slow as pre-Quantum, so his current browser choice is up in the air.

[Guest]

I’d consider more browsers but google chrome has all the free google services I use neatly put together & I typically only have 1-3~ programs running at once when I’m doing stuff. Otherwise everything is closed. 

 

I get the ram thing but it’s not a huge deterrent as most people I know have at least 4 gb. 

Edit: still waiting on hearing Linus say anything negative about chrome.