Firefox 5 vs Chrome 12

Note : It’s is a very old article comparing the two popular browser Firefox and Chrome. Lots of things have changed since and Now, I may not agree with my past self. 🙂 And, I recommend Mozilla Firefox,  for an open Web. It’s the browser that respects user’s privacy and freedom.

Mozilla Firefox vs 5.0 is the latest version released on 21th of this month. Google has also released (on 7th of this month) the newer version of Google Chrome i.e chrome vs 12.0 (beta version of chrome 13.0 is available but stable will be released later). Both of the browsers now uses rapid development cycle so we will get fresher version within next two to three months. In the end of this post, I’ve attached a poll for your opinion, so don’t forget to get your opinion counted, select the browser that you think is the best one.

As you know, Firefox and Chrome, both are free and open source web browsers. Google has developed chrome from another open source project – ‘chromium’ while Firefox has evolved from the earliest graphical web browser – Netscape Navigator. Both of the browsers are dominating the browser market, both are good and supports a number of features; despite of that, this post aims to compare some innovative features of both from different point of view such as – features, performance, stability, security, speed etc. After all, these are just my opinion, if you think something is wrong or you don’t except it, feel free to express it through comment(s).

Firefox 5.0 versus Chrome 12.0 – which is better ?

#1  Features :

Firefox 5 has arrived with lot of changes and features such as ‘Do not track’, which allows users to control – how their behavior and data are being tracked or used on the internet. Firefox 5.0 has focused on adding social and useful features (such as PDF Viewer, Sync etc,) related to common desktop users that was already available in its competitor web browsers such as Chrome. Features can be easily added by means of plugins – and Firefox has a number of useful plugins available free to use.

Important features of Firefox 5.0

  • Do not Track
  • social sharing options
  • pdf viewer
  • mp3 player
  • small home icon
  • colored search (engine) bars
  • improved sync feature
  • multiple account login

On the other hand Google chrome has also added a lot of new and exciting features in vs 12.0. It has already most of the features implemented, what Firefox got now, Google has continuously trying to add cutting edge – innovative features to chrome. eg HTML 5 performance/support, hardware accelerated 3D CSS (which allow developers to create better animation effects in the browser, e.g in browser based games) etc. Plugins are available but the number is very less and it’s not so useful as compare to Firefox, despite of having better plugin architecture than Firefox. Firefox Wins in this case.

Some important features include –

  • malicious file download protection
  • hardware accelerated 3D css support
  • improved screen reader support

#2  Performance :

Firefox performs well in Windows and Mac based OS but it sucks when it comes to Linux based operating system, After the major release of Firefox (I mean after version 4.0), we expected better performance on Linux distros such as Ubuntu or Fedora, but things got bad, surely it’s not better than before. If you will use any plugin, then the performance is extremely bad.

On the other hand, Google Chrome rocks on Linux based OS as well as on Windows and Mac. The performance is quite well as compared to Firefox, on Ubuntu or other Linux based operating system. Chrome Wins!

#3  Stability :

Firefox often hangs if a number of tabs is open (specially on GNU/Linux) wile Chrome is stable. So Google Chrome is far stable than Firefox. Chrome wins in this case.

#4  Security :

Both are secure but chrome had added some special features to protect users from downloading malwares or other infected files. Firefox seems better!

#5 Speed :

Firefox has improved speed a lot, because speed is the most dominant factor while choosing the browser for common purposes. Firefox supports HTTP pipelining which can improve the browsers speed a lot but it may cause instability, while chrome doesn’t support this. Google Chrome is fast from the beginning! Google chrome has added some advanced functionality such as Pre DNS fetching (The links pointed (from the current page) to other domain names are resolved before the user clicks on that link), Loading pages before the completion of URL in address bar etc, to improve the surfing speed. Chrome Wins!

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77 Comments

  1. As much as I prefer Chrome, I’ll stick back to Firefox.
    Don’t get me wrong. Chrome is Fast but lately I’m getting Video lag spike only from Chrome

  2. I think if you want splitscreen use (which you want you only might not have discovered it), you stay with firefox, because chrome hasn’t got one decent.

  3. I’ve been having issue with the download speed with Chrome. While it browsers fast when i download something, the speed is very slow 10kbps when in FF its about 20-30kbps(my connection is 384kbps) with DAP which integrates nicely in FF i get 50kbps which is my max download speed. Every where ppl complain of Chrome being slow on downloads! 🙁 

    I prefer a complete browser where I can do all my stuff on, now it seems FF has me….

  4. chrome is simply the best performer.but firefox is more fun.chrome is for efficiency.but with the chrome web storenow out there, firefox will have to think a bit.

  5.  A long time Firefox user, I just downloaded version 5 and found Google Toolbar doesn’t work with it. So I downloaded Google Chrome and — I don’t get this — Google Toolbar doesn’t work with any version of Google Chrome, only with Firefox and IE. So I’m stuck!

    Help/tips welcome.

    1. google chrome address bar functions as a google/yahoo/ask searchbar, doing away with the separate Google Toolbar.  You can change which engine to use in the settings button menu.  Just type into the bar and dont put www or .com and it will automatically search google for those search terms

    2. I’ve been on the ‘net since before it was the Internet (look up Arpanet). I’ve used every browser since Mosaic. I have never found a need for an auxiliary tool bar (like Yahoo! or Google or Norton). Cannot figure out why folks waste screen space and memory on these troublesome items. Just my 2 cents.

      1. Completely Agree!! In fact browsing is pain with Toolbars!.. A month ago, I was testing page rank for some pages, I had installed the Google Toolbar on my Firefox (of course in Ubuntu), and within few minutes I removed it (because it f*cked up the browsing Fun!)

      2. do you ever realized why there’s a toolbar from just about any online service provider, HINT: Google is the reason.

  6. For 2-5 i think Mozilla is better in Chrome after you use it 10 times it slows down starts to show the web pages messed up and to fix this for chrome you have to clear history but that only slightly fixes the issue. Mozilla cache and history isn’t a problem. For performance if you add a plugin in Mozilla it might have some problems in starting up Mozilla but Chrome  takes too much space if you look in the Processes in Task Manager.

  7. Chrome: I AM BETTER THAN YOU FIREFOX!
    Firefox: NO! I AM!
    Internet Explorer: *Eats Glue*

    Huh, so that’s how my web pages get so stuck.

  8. Personally, I don’t like the whole feel of Chrome. Yes, it may handle the scripting faster than FireFox but I’ve always liked the whole feel of Firefox. Not to mention all the add-ons available for FireFox. Besides, think about it. Do you guys wanna support the big fat cats at Google, or support a non-profit organization?

  9. Chrome has been made only for collecting data by Google.
    Google could not do it by other web browsers because they offer easy cookie disabling (cookie files are one of the way of tracing You).
    When You install Chrome Google is giving You special number and from that time they will be tracing You (Chrome trace You in the different way that reading cookies files – even when You turn cookies off in Chrome they will trace You in different way).
    Remember – Google will  never earn anything from Chrome because advertisements are presented on web pages and not on the interface of Chrome – Chrome has been made by Google only for collecting data reason. It is against dignity of human beings to analyze them as the machines – than is why I do not use it. If You are beta male and treat Google as Your owner You can use it – it is just a matter of good taste.

  10. Chrome has been made only for collecting data by Google.
    Google could not do it by other web browsers because they offer easy cookie disabling (cookie files are one of the way of tracing You).
    When You install Chrome Google is giving You special number and from that time they will be tracing You (Chrome trace You in the different way that reading cookies files – even when You turn cookies off in Chrome they will trace You in different way).
    Remember – Google will  never earn anything from Chrome because advertisements are presented on web pages and not on the interface of Chrome – Chrome has been made by Google only for collecting data reason. It is against dignity of human beings to analyze them as the machines – than is why I do not use it. If You are beta male and treat Google as Your owner You can use it – it is just a matter of good taste.

     

  11. Well, I can’t deny the fact that Chrome IS better, but I preferred to keep using Firefox cause I don’t want to give more credits to that bloody monster, aka Google.

  12. Well the power behind firefox is the community behind it, Google being a corporate can never replace firefox with chrome. Google always degrades a product, seriously quality is on decline, youtube quality is declining, adwords shows spamming and phishing ads, accounts are never reliable, Google may give you surprise by disabling your complete account a morning, what worries is that there is no dedicated customer care. Google is in business only because of its search, which i admit is best. Google is almost on Microsoft’s track. Google is the evil.

  13. Found this page simply looking for speed tests between the two newest versions. Jesus Christ these answers are comedic gold. Especially linux experi’s and Mati8’s.

  14. Now I use firefox 12 and avant browser 169!
    The latest version of firefox is faster than chrome 12! Avant browser can
    instead of chrome! It has built webkit core and I can add chrome’s extensions
    in it .cool
     

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