Chrome… has it got better?
Discussion
Always had a love hate relationship with Chrome. Unfortunately I'm fairly embedded in the Google ecosystem, I use Gmail and Google Calendar daily, and I use Chrome on my work machine as it makes staying logged in to all these services nice and simple (along with YT etc.)
I did however delete Chrome from my personal laptop (MBP) and iPhone a long time ago due to the fact it was using up so many resources, application was huge and constantly using a lot of CPU.
This was probably 5+ years ago now and I've been just using Safari ever since.
I kind of want the benefits of browser syncing across devices again, and wondered if Chrome had got any better from an efficiency perspective?
Alternatively, what browsers are people using that sync nicely between OS and iOS?
I did however delete Chrome from my personal laptop (MBP) and iPhone a long time ago due to the fact it was using up so many resources, application was huge and constantly using a lot of CPU.
This was probably 5+ years ago now and I've been just using Safari ever since.
I kind of want the benefits of browser syncing across devices again, and wondered if Chrome had got any better from an efficiency perspective?
Alternatively, what browsers are people using that sync nicely between OS and iOS?
Hi,
I've always used safari, not least because of the syncing across iOS devices but I changed to Chrome a few months ago as I couldn't find a reliable adblocker after AdBlock stopped working well (from what I understand Apple made changes to safari which caused the issues). I don't have any issues with Chrome (mac) although I tend to use Safari on my iPhone.
Tim
I've always used safari, not least because of the syncing across iOS devices but I changed to Chrome a few months ago as I couldn't find a reliable adblocker after AdBlock stopped working well (from what I understand Apple made changes to safari which caused the issues). I don't have any issues with Chrome (mac) although I tend to use Safari on my iPhone.
Tim
Funk said:
For contrast - I'm using Chrome on the PC and it's using just 560Mb of memory with 5 tabs open...
Even opening an extra 15 tabs it's only using 1.5Gb total. How many tabs do you have open at a time?
14 tabs and just over 1 GB on PC.Even opening an extra 15 tabs it's only using 1.5Gb total. How many tabs do you have open at a time?
Are you running an ad and script blocker? I'd bet that will drop the RAM usage significantly.
captain_cynic said:
Funk said:
For contrast - I'm using Chrome on the PC and it's using just 560Mb of memory with 5 tabs open...
Even opening an extra 15 tabs it's only using 1.5Gb total. How many tabs do you have open at a time?
14 tabs and just over 1 GB on PC.Even opening an extra 15 tabs it's only using 1.5Gb total. How many tabs do you have open at a time?
Are you running an ad and script blocker? I'd bet that will drop the RAM usage significantly.
Please support browsers other than Chrome. Google's hold over the internet is overwhelming, and the last time one company had too much influence, we ended up with Internet Explorer and a severely crippled internet for a decade.
Firefox is pretty much the only independent browser out there now, and received an overhaul last year that made it massively quicker. It's very good.
I also use Brave which is brilliant, albeit still using the Chrome engine underneath.
Firefox is pretty much the only independent browser out there now, and received an overhaul last year that made it massively quicker. It's very good.
I also use Brave which is brilliant, albeit still using the Chrome engine underneath.
durbster said:
Please support browsers other than Chrome. Google's hold over the internet is overwhelming, and the last time one company had too much influence, we ended up with Internet Explorer and a severely crippled internet for a decade.
Firefox is pretty much the only independent browser out there now, and received an overhaul last year that made it massively quicker. It's very good.
I also use Brave which is brilliant, albeit still using the Chrome engine underneath.
I didn’t realise that about Brave. Will stop using it then. Firefox is pretty much the only independent browser out there now, and received an overhaul last year that made it massively quicker. It's very good.
I also use Brave which is brilliant, albeit still using the Chrome engine underneath.
Anyone tried Brave with https://github.com/brave/sync/wiki/Design ?
Really the only reason I use Chrome is the sync feature for bookmarks, passwords are in lastpass so might give it a go.
Really the only reason I use Chrome is the sync feature for bookmarks, passwords are in lastpass so might give it a go.
Barring firefox, which is a perfectly good browser, what other alternatives are there that are modern and usable, which aren't based on the chromium engine? I'd struggle to name more than a few;
Safari (Apple only)
Lynx (I do use this sometimes!
)
IE (Harhar)
Brave, Vivaldi, Opera and Edge are all now on or moving to Chromium..
Safari (Apple only)
Lynx (I do use this sometimes!
)IE (Harhar)
Brave, Vivaldi, Opera and Edge are all now on or moving to Chromium..
Yeah, pretty much every desktop browser (and loads of desktop and mobile apps and other things) runs on the Chromium engine. Microsoft recently announced they were giving up doing their own thing and Edge will use it too.
I'm not sure where Safari on OSX is but Safari shares a lot of its base with Chrome too, leaving Firefox as the only major browser that operates without Google's involvement.
It should be noted that Chromium is quite not the same thing as the Chrome browser, however. Chromium is the rendering engine that Chrome also uses. I don't think using Chromium necessarily means you have Google's eyes on you.
I'm not sure where Safari on OSX is but Safari shares a lot of its base with Chrome too, leaving Firefox as the only major browser that operates without Google's involvement.
It should be noted that Chromium is quite not the same thing as the Chrome browser, however. Chromium is the rendering engine that Chrome also uses. I don't think using Chromium necessarily means you have Google's eyes on you.
Thanks for all the replies, some very interesting stuff.
Bit more background, my work machine is running 24gb ram and my laptop 16gb ram so not the slowest machines. I use Chrome at work with Adblocker and also The Big Suspender – so although I have a lot of tabs open (roughly 30 at the moment), only 4 of them are active and the rest are suspended.
Google eyes was the other reason I'm a bit apprehensive about continuing with Chrome, although is there ever a time we're not being watched these days… whether it be keywords in emails or search behaviour etc
Interesting about the Firegfox overhaul, I used to use FF back in the day a lot but changed for some reason, can't remember why now.
Bit more background, my work machine is running 24gb ram and my laptop 16gb ram so not the slowest machines. I use Chrome at work with Adblocker and also The Big Suspender – so although I have a lot of tabs open (roughly 30 at the moment), only 4 of them are active and the rest are suspended.
Google eyes was the other reason I'm a bit apprehensive about continuing with Chrome, although is there ever a time we're not being watched these days… whether it be keywords in emails or search behaviour etc
Interesting about the Firegfox overhaul, I used to use FF back in the day a lot but changed for some reason, can't remember why now.
Kewy said:
Thanks for all the replies, some very interesting stuff.
Bit more background, my work machine is running 24gb ram and my laptop 16gb ram so not the slowest machines. I use Chrome at work with Adblocker and also The Big Suspender – so although I have a lot of tabs open (roughly 30 at the moment), only 4 of them are active and the rest are suspended.
Google eyes was the other reason I'm a bit apprehensive about continuing with Chrome, although is there ever a time we're not being watched these days… whether it be keywords in emails or search behaviour etc
Interesting about the Firegfox overhaul, I used to use FF back in the day a lot but changed for some reason, can't remember why now.
I have five browsers on my desktop, mainly to check my websites, to see if they appear the same on each. It's largely pointless nowadays as everything seems to be based on chrome, Edge being the only one that is worthwhile trying. Even that is going to change to chrome based I'm told. Whatever happened to browser choice?Bit more background, my work machine is running 24gb ram and my laptop 16gb ram so not the slowest machines. I use Chrome at work with Adblocker and also The Big Suspender – so although I have a lot of tabs open (roughly 30 at the moment), only 4 of them are active and the rest are suspended.
Google eyes was the other reason I'm a bit apprehensive about continuing with Chrome, although is there ever a time we're not being watched these days… whether it be keywords in emails or search behaviour etc
Interesting about the Firegfox overhaul, I used to use FF back in the day a lot but changed for some reason, can't remember why now.
I stick with Chrome as a browser in the main, with an occasional flurry into Opera when I don't want things synced. I used to like FF but have dropped off using it, and that's without thought, so probably a good idea.
I'm going to try Chrome OS on a laptop, via a USB stick. Not sure why, but it might be fun. There was rumour about a new Chromium operating system 6-8 months ago, something Like Fuscia?, but I've not read anything about it since.
Derek Smith said:
I have five browsers on my desktop, mainly to check my websites, to see if they appear the same on each. It's largely pointless nowadays as everything seems to be based on chrome, Edge being the only one that is worthwhile trying. Even that is going to change to chrome based I'm told. Whatever happened to browser choice?
I stick with Chrome as a browser in the main, with an occasional flurry into Opera when I don't want things synced. I used to like FF but have dropped off using it, and that's without thought, so probably a good idea.
I'm going to try Chrome OS on a laptop, via a USB stick. Not sure why, but it might be fun. There was rumour about a new Chromium operating system 6-8 months ago, something Like Fuscia?, but I've not read anything about it since.
Fuschia is supposed to replace Android & ChromeOS eventually so you will basically run fuschia on Phone/Laptop/Desktop etc. Think its probably still another 2-3 years away. I stick with Chrome as a browser in the main, with an occasional flurry into Opera when I don't want things synced. I used to like FF but have dropped off using it, and that's without thought, so probably a good idea.
I'm going to try Chrome OS on a laptop, via a USB stick. Not sure why, but it might be fun. There was rumour about a new Chromium operating system 6-8 months ago, something Like Fuscia?, but I've not read anything about it since.
I ran a preview of it on my Pixel XL 2 a while ago and its far from ready.
Edited by AJB88 on Tuesday 15th January 09:42
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