Chrome versus Firefox

[Fulvio]

Something weird is going on. And, Google Chrome is associated, somehow with this. I, hardly ever, use Chrome, nor is it used by anyone else, but my antispyware detected a thread associated with Chrome. The antivirus program detected a virus in wiki.html, which is part of Chrome Data. Today, I did another antispyware run, and instead of the usual one or two threats (usually, tracking cookies), it found 37 of them, mostly in Chrome.
I am afraid that Chrome will have to go, even if not guilty. I don't have to time to figure this out.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[James]

You right... it's weird. And I'm betting that Chrome is not the culprit. I've never experienced any of this, Fulvio, nor have I heard anything from Leo Laporte who uses Chrome as his default browser. If there were a problem, Laporte would have included it in his daily podcasts.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:5.0a2) Gecko/20110521 Firefox/5.0a2

[Fulvio]

At this point, I have removed Chrome, deleted Firefox Portable, which would not even start, but readded it, but with new Data (bookmarks, no extentions, and little else.
So far, so good. I am going to reinstall Chrome, but with no extentions. Basically, a clean install.

Oh forget it! I started the reinstall, and walked away for a minute. When I came back, I saw a screen two third black, one third blue, with Welcome to Google Chrome. No writing, nor anything to give me a hint that the installation was successful. I had to close manually that page, and I saw a Chrome shortcut on the Desktop. I clicked on it, and nothing happened. So, I uninstalled, again, Chrome. And, it will stay away from my computer.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110420 Firefox/3.6.17

[James]

Interestingly enough, I use FileHippo Update checker and it indicated that my beta installation of Chrome needed updating. Well... I tried to update it and got nowhere. Then I thought: Oh... maybe I'm supposed to uninstall my current version of Chrome but leave my profile intact and THEN re-install the latest version. Well.. I did that and when the latest version of Chrome appeared I had lost everything... bookmarks, extensions... everything. Needless to say, I uninstalled Chrome and that is the end of that little experiment with the Google browser. I'm back to Firefox and that is that.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:5.0a2) Gecko/20110522 Firefox/5.0a2

[Fulvio]

James,
I have had Chrome from the day I heard of it, and became interested, enough, to consider replacing Firefox. And, this happens. At least, I did a clean install, so I was expecting to find any of the old data. This is a wacky experience, which I reported to their developers.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110420 Firefox/3.6.17

[James]

I had hopes for Chrome too, Fulvio. But what really irritated me about Chrome was the update experience and the fact that it dumped my entire profile when I uninstalled an older version to install the latest. That pretty much sealed Chrome's fate with me: GONE. I'm back to FF 4 and that will have to satisfy me. If I really "need" another browser for a particular page, I'll open IE9.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[iJohnE]

I had hopes for Chrome too, Fulvio. But what really irritated me about Chrome was the update experience and the fact that it dumped my entire profile when I uninstalled an older version to install the latest. That pretty much sealed Chrome's fate with me: GONE. I'm back to FF 4 and that will have to satisfy me. If I really "need" another browser for a particular page, I'll open IE9.

Why even bother opening it? Just use IE Tab.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/534.24 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/11.0.696.68 Safari/534.24

[James]

Good point, John. How did you get so smart?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[iJohnE]

Good point, John. How did you get so smart?

Google. Not from this seemingly useless public education I am receiving.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/534.24 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/11.0.696.68 Safari/534.24

[Fulvio]

I have used IE Tab since it, first, became available. Having the good old XP, I have no chance to open IE9.
My IE8 shortcut is out of sight and out of mind. IE8 opens only when some websites open it, even though Firefox is my default. Chrome was one of those sites, which opened IE8 after I uninstalled it (both times).

John,
it is not the edution system which matters, but, rather the "educatee" (new word?). The spell checker gave me several other options, including educate e

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110420 Firefox/3.6.17

[Antony]

If I really "need" another browser for a particular page, I'll open IE9.

James, you can always try Safari.

Fulvio,
I thought it was the "educator" who matters.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110420 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.11 Firefox/3.6.17

[richard mitnick]

I had hopes for Chrome too, Fulvio. But what really irritated me about Chrome was the update experience and the fact that it dumped my entire profile when I uninstalled an older version to install the latest. That pretty much sealed Chrome's fate with me: GONE. I'm back to FF 4 and that will have to satisfy me. If I really "need" another browser for a particular page, I'll open IE9.

James, while FF is my default, my second browser is SeaMonkey, not IE.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14

[James]

Hi Richard.

I'd never go back to a suite like Seamonkey. To me, that would be like turning the clock back a decade or more. After Netscape 9 bit the dust I was solely in the camp of stand-alone browsers and e-mail clients. And as of a year ago, I've given up on a stand-alone e-mail client for web-based e-mail entirely (i.e. gmail). As for IE9, I honestly have no issues with it. It serves me just fine "when" I need to open a page that Firefox will not open. Otherwise, Firefox is my browser 99% of the time. Thanks anyway.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[richard mitnick]

James, I only ever used the browser.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[James]

Hi again, Richard.

I would see no real advantage to carrying that "extra" baggage. In truth, I actually don't like the GUI for SeaMonkey. It's too top-heavy for me. I like the cleaner, more modern look of Firefox, IE9 and of course Chrome "if" it would behave more like Firefox.

Once FF 5 gets out of beta and a few of the extensions that I care about are upgraded, I'll update my version 4.

Hey, Richard... I don't assign any rightness or wrongness to a person's choice of browser. I see some members here get really bent out of shape if someone chooses a certain browser from the "evil" empire. I don't give a flying leap about that sort of stuff. I use what works for me (just as you do) and Firefox remains my browser of choice. Lean... fast... with as little as possible added on. That's my personal taste. And I don't like skinning nor adding personas. The only extensions I add are: vertical tool bar (love it), WOT (web of trust), Last Pass (wouldn't be without it), Ghostery and Adblock Plus. That's it for me. Nothing more and hopefully nothing less.

Take care.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1