1y ago

Should I use chromium based browsers or firefox?

Chromium has better features, but with google announcing its plan to 'drm the internet' I 'm not sure if it'd be a good idea.

125 comments

What better features? Firefox has pretty much everything nowadays, and is as fast as Chrome.
- From the comments I'm noticing a trend
  Google Chromecast issues
  Not allowed to do background effects in Google meet
  and from personal experience:
  issues using the store to update add-ons on Google docs
  can't authenticate desktop Google drive
  I use a lot of Google products, but avoid Chrome because of nonsense like this. Firefox works fine for everything else EXCEPT certain Google products. Feels intentional
  
  100% intentional. If you spoof your browser signature most work just fine
  
  Google Meet background effects actually work in Firefox if you spoof Firefox user agent to Chrome, I kid you not.
  
  I have the same experience. At my last company they only used Google meet so I had chrome on my computer just for meetings and nothing else.
  
  The only time I use chromium is to attach a debugger to GWT (yes, the "G" stands for Google). It runs like absolute trash in Firefox.
  Everything else runs better in FF.
- This is exactly why companies spend money on marketing, people remember these ideas and internalize them as their justification long after it stops being true. And Chrome being fast hasn't been true for a long time.
  
  It still wins most benchmarks, so it's technically true. Although not really enough to matter on desktop where it's millisecond differences
- Native procedural dark mode, Developer CSS Overview, browser extension file access.
  I use Firefox exclusively except for when the second one is useful. I really wish Firefox had those three though.
- It doesn't have translations. I use it anyway, but it's a minor inconvenience as I live in a foreign country.
  
  Translations might be coming soon
  https://9to5linux.com/firefox-118-enters-beta-testing-with-the-built-in-translation-feature-for-websites
  Done locally on the device, so no risk of personal info going to some company
  
  I use an extension for translations and it works just fine
- Chromium browsers have only 1 feature I need: access to the Chromecast API. I have 3, Firefox can't connect to them and the last 2-3 times I tried the listed 3rd party methods (fx bridge, etc), I could never get it to work.
  Were it not for that, I'd be back on Firefox.
  
  That's part of why I avoided getting new Chromecast devices 😄
  
  I had a similar need, and it prevented me from moving to FireFox for a long while. Luckily, I did manage to get fx_cast to work, and it's been flawless ever since. In fact, I'd say it work more reliably than Chrome's casting!
  
  Have you tried setting browser.casting.enabled = true in Firefox's about:config settings?
- Edge's vertical tabs and grouping. Every solution on Firefox feels half-baked.
  
  I use the tree style tab extension for that.
- On Android tablets, most non-Firefox browsers support a tab bar, and tablet optimised UI. Firefox is just a giant stretched phone layout. I like to use the same browser on all platforms so I can sync tabs, so Firefox being crap on my tablet rules it out for my other devices too.
  
  I uae Fennec, which is a better (but just okay) android browser from f-droid based on firefox. It has firefox sync. Just fyi.
- Firefox always memory bloats out on me. Mobile app crashes.
  I switched to Brave then moved to Vivaldi. I'll revisit if FF gets more stable.
- even more you can import google addons into firefox ( right now only in nightly builds but it works )

I'll give you one reason where Firefox blows chrome out of the water: multi account containers:
Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you keep parts of your online life separated into color-coded tabs. Cookies are separated by container, allowing you to use the web with multiple accounts
That way you can seamlessly have multiple accounts for a specific site open side by side (for example, your work and your personal mail with the same mail provider). Especially amazing if you're an IT contractor who works for multiple clients.
- Yeah it is also good for a bit more privacy on the internet. I have separate containers for Amazon websites, Google, banking etc. Even more powerful tool if you pair it up with a VPN - can have different VPN locations on each container so break up attempts at tracking and profiling you across the web.
  
  Yup, and there are dedicated extensions to manage them individually paired together with noscript. I have one of each for the couple major sites I occasionally use to contain all their tracking.
- This is one feature I literally can't do my job without. Used to have 3 separate browsers installed + opened at the same time for all my various Azure accounts till FF saved the day!
  
  This!
- Hi fellow IT contractor, thanks for sharing! That is awesome. Just installed and works like a charm. I was using Chrome profiles for this, but having all in one window is much easier.
- As an employee of an MSP, Firefox containers are a lifesaver. No more incognito mode every time I need to check another client's Office 365!
- This is super useful for any sort of development work - you basically get unlimited, separate private windows that you can log into stuff separately.
  I use it for multi account switching on Reddit, I still do a lot of scam bot fighting over there and being able to easily switch between several users is really helpful.

Firefox
- All day every day

I've been using Firefox at home for as long as I can remember. I've not found anything I can't do with it yet.
If something doesn't work you can always try it in edge of something either way.
- Firefox doesn't support background effects in Google Meet so i can't blur my background during my daily work meetings. That's the only reason i still have to use Chromium browsers
  
  Did you try agent spoofing (which probably won't work in the future because of this). This sounds like things Microsoft (and now Google) does to make their product look better.
  
  Why do you need to blur your background?

Firefox! This is the way!

I generally install chrome to people who have no idea what they are doing. But since you are tech-savy enough to be in the fediverse, I'd recommend firefox without a second thought.
- I generally install chrome to people who have no idea what they are doing.
  Why? It's not like Firefox is more complicated for the end user than Chrome.
  
  True. However, when something goes wrong with an ignorant person's machine, they are quick to blame it on the "unconventional" choice someone else made.

Do not use any Chromium based browser. Full stop.
If you are on Mac, I recommend Orion (Webkit based, but Mac only ATM).
For every other platform, including Linux, Firefox.
Honestly, Google has gotten so aggressively evil I'd strongly recommend cutting yourself off from all their products entirely. Consider Kagi instead of Google search and Proton instead of GMail. Other offerings also have alternatives that won't spy on you, steal your information, or treat you like both a criminal and a product instead of a customer.
- At first i was hesitant with kagi, like: Why would i pay for a search engine? Then i realized, on the others i am the product anyway, so privacy vs little bit of money. So i am a kagi user now! At the same time, kagi will keep getting better and better (just checked their blogs how much they upgraded in a year.)
  TL;DR: Anone who sees this, give kagi search a try!
  
  Same boat! I did their free trial, was genuinely impressed with their search results, and now I have a family subscription. I can control what my kids see too, which is a plus.
- Orion is available on iOS and iPadOS as well, and I second Kagi search
- I recommend Brave search, it's an independent index so you get different results. Then you can add !g to search Google and get something else, you get more coverage
  It also has an AI summary that's often good enough to give you answers without clicking links, which I like

Firefox

If you want to have choice in the future you should go with Firefox. Google is close to (or maybe already did) make Chrome equivalent of the Internet Explorer.
The better thing to what was with IE is that majority of websites still work fine in Firefox and people who stick to Chrome just do due to mostly ignorance.

Firefox with containers for day to day use. Chrome for google docs. Safari for sites where I don't want to have to go through the login process every time I open a page.

I went to Firefox as soon as manifest v3 got announced, rather do it sooner rather than later.

Firefox if you take the time to harden it. You can also use librewolf which is hardened OOTB.
I only find Chromium useful for very browser-intensive things like browser games
- Can you explain what has to be hardened?
  
  better privacy
  
  You need to do a lot of stuff like disabling telemetry, installing addons like ublock origin as well as making a few tweaks in about:config just to name a few.

Firefox is a much better choice than most other browsers

Honestly, its personal preference, there's different forks of each, base Firefox is good, if you want a more private fork try Fennec or Mull. With chromium the only two ive heard good privacy things about is Brave and Cromite (a fork of Bromite, a project that looks like it got discontinued as there hasn't been an update since last December). Honestly try both and see which you prefer.
Sorry, I just assumed you were asking about android specific apps. For Apple, Safari is decently private, Apples strong suit is that everyone knows Apple hate sharing things, so while you can't be sure about how much apple collects, you know they're not giving data to 3rd parties. For computer I'd say base Firefox, (or Librewolf if your okay with the lack of auto updating) or Brave.

Unless you really like things like CSS Overview and Sleeping Tabs and the intuitive extension bar you should switch to Firefox. It has container tabs and is a lot more resource efficient.
- Is it, though? They seem very comparable to me these days.
  That, and I'm pretty sure one of the multiple extensions I use to make Youtube watchable has a memory leak, because I do end up having to restart it periodically.
  And yeah, I do miss the automatic tab grouping feature, trying to replicate it is such a hassle on Firefox.
  Crucially, though, I still main Firefox despite all that, so... I guess that's my vote.
  
  Tbf I don't think I'd hold YouTube's enshittification against Firefox. Google is very active in trying to ensure users see adverts on YouTube on all platforms, which makes it hard for any extension to stay ahead.
  
  I'm pretty sure one of the multiple extensions I use to make Youtube watchable has a memory leak, because I do end up having to restart it periodically.
  It's an extension, so has nothing really to do with the browser. That's on par with one star reviews on Amazon because the package was delivered damaged.
  
  I've never encountered such issues and when they do happen they're very random and not "periodically". I have no idea what you mean by "automatic tab grouping" but that did remind of two more features I miss from chromium which I've added.
  To me my CPU usage has definintly gone down after switching to waterfox. Edge kept crashing periodically for me.
  BTW, do you use any other extensions besides Enhancer, Annotations Restored, SponsorBlock and DeArrow?

Firefox, but if you do need a chromium based browser try ungoogled chromium

If you need to use a chromium based browser, I recommend Eloston's ungoogled-chromium

Also, I forgot to mention this, but Google didn't really support WEI yet. It's all from two engineers' private opinions, though it's also strange that they haven't made an official statement yet.
- Sure, let's test the waters and keep deniability. It's called a weather balloon.
- Even just the fact that Google could force something like WEI on to everyone should be a wake-up call though.

I use Firefox on high privacy settings but that breaks some sites so, when necessary, I use Iron. Iron is a less spy-y version of Chrome which has all the same apps (and a handful of its own).
- If Iron is built on Chromium, which its website says that it is, it will be affected by Google's upcoming changes.
  
  I wasn't suggesting the OP should use Iron instead of Firefox. I was pointing out one drawback of (locked down) Firefox and noting a slightly better alternative to Chrome which has all the functionality and less of the spying.
  My choice is to use both because a very small proportion of sites won't work with Firefox on high privacy settings. Sites which force me to use lower privacy standards are used (quarantined) in a separate browser.

Librewolf (Firefox fork) for personal and Iridium (Chromium based) for work.

I go for firefox. If a particular site is broken in there I open edge just for that task and I'm done with it

Absolutely. Vivaldi is great. I prefer it to FF. They definitely won't incorporate DRM changes unless it's completely not modifiable from the chromium core, and if they do how big a deal is it to change browsers? Switch then.

Why not both? If anything, what (truly) makes Chromium-based browsers stand out is cloud gaming (since it forces you to use em. While firefox is a no-go).

After using Firefox for nearly a year, I am using Google Chrome again and it feels much more snappier/fluid, and also uses less power compared to firefox (power draw is often near idle or outright idle), font rendering seems better on Chrome too. Only issue is that it doesn't support hw video decoding (vaapi) on wayland, but I just use MPV for that. Firefox does support vaapi even on Wayland but it's outrageously less efficient than mpv.

Personally, i'd day neither. Mozilla is on Google's payroll, so if you're trying to battle Google's monopoly, it won't matter if you pick Firefox or Chrome (or any forks or derivatives)
If you need to pick, i would say Firefox, and Librewolf if you want a browser which is more privacy friendly and has saner defaults.
If you want to battle the monopoly, you should pick a browser that's not based on Gecko, Blink or Chromium. Something like Ladybird, BadWolf, LuaKit or Lynx if you're into that
- Mozilla gets Google's money only because Google wants to avoid antitrust charges, so they have to help keep Mozilla alive as competition. It doesn't mean Mozilla is in Google's pocket or has any strings attached at all.
  
  How isn't Mozilla in Google's pocket, if the only reason they're still around is because of Google funding them?

There are a lot of articles exposing each option. Personally I prefer chromium based browsers because they support full site isolation (sandboxing) of each tab.
- I tried googling about Chrome containerization of tabs and found nothing. Can you elaborate?
  In fact, searching "chrome tab containerization" only results in discussions asking if there's a way to use something like firefox's containers on chrome. -
  
  Also isn't that what Firefox containers do?
  It's not per tab, but I don't see how that would be useful. I add specific topics and then make / destroy the containers as needed.
  It's already annoying enough logging into the sites per container, I can't imagine doing that every time I open a tab.
  
  It's one of the main features of Vivaldi
  
  I was talking about site isolation which is nog available in all of Firefox versions, my apologies!
- Do you mean sandboxing? Isn't this just Firefox's project Fission, which is already implemented?
  
  It's done for Windows, in work on Linux and android as far as I know. Android is really bad , Linux so so . I use Firefox on Linux but not android. mainly since you get both chromium webview and Firefox , but Sandboxing an issue as well.

125 comments