Post

@Gargron

I have to admit, the performance of a Chromium-based browser compared to Firefox is abysmal. I don't have that many tabs but it lags a lot and the browser constantly puts tabs in hibernation to save memory--something I've never needed with Firefox. So all of you Chrome users live like this? No wonder RAM is in high demand.

UgoogledChromium is lighter on memory than both firefox and vivaldi.

It also is quiet, aka not transmitting your anywhere unless you tell it to do so.

@Gargron Have you tried the Gecko-based Zen Browser? It was started in Spain.

@Gargron That’s always been the nagging issue with Chromium-based web browsers, and it’s why Safari is still, since I started using it in 2008, my default browser. I use Vivaldi as my secondary browser.

@Gargron I could never understand the RAM discussions about Firefox and Chromium. For me: Firefox with one tab open (about:addons) uses 1 GB of RAM, and with one additional website tab open, it jumps to 1.5 GB. Vivaldi with 41 tabs only uses 1.7 GB of RAM (but I don’t know how many of those 41 tabs are hibernated - at least 7 are not)

@Gargron Now take that information and couple it with the fact that a lot of business apps are now Electron-based. The only thing worse than running out of memory because of Chromium is running out of memory because you have 3 wholly separate instances of Chromium running with no shared resources.

@Gargron It honestly sounds like you should just use Zen.

@Gargron Out of curiosity, did you check Helium vs Chromium? I was wondering if you noticed a difference tho I am quite pleased with Firefox (let’s see if I still am if they stuff AI weirdness in it…)

@Gargron I've tried Chrome on and off for many years.
Never managed to get on with it.
Most of the plugins don't work right and barely any privacy/adblock plugins work at all.
Pages would render only half way a lot of the time, other times IE would load instead and show the xml of the page that the link to download something would use.

@Gargron unfortunately ram usage is only part of the equation. Especially on mobile, Firefox (and/or Waterfox) regularly scroll terribly, break sites, or just load extremely slowly. As a web dev it's also frustratingly slow at implementing new standards. I want to use something other than Chromium, but it's becoming rather difficult.

@Gargron Although Brave is based on Chrome, it is a completely different browser. By default, it blocks ads and much more, and it doesn't lag even with 100 tabs open. You just have to try it. And in addition, there is the Duckduckgo.com search engine.

@Gargron it’s Firefox’s lack of modern standard support and worse dev tools that keep me away

@Gargron such a shame Firefox stopped being a real alternative. It has a better core, but they are just afraid doing it differently than Chrome for some reason

@Gargron Really? @Vivaldi is actually the snappiest Chromium browser I have tried. It's certainly not slower than Firefox on my machines.

@Gargron my experience with chromium-based browsers (including vivaldi) is rather flawless. Something must be off.

@Gargron
Remember when Chrome a breath of fresh air performance-wise?

@Gargron I can't daily drive a Chromium browser; it feels weird. I have custom user.js and policies files for Firefox. When I place both in the right directories, I don't need to change a thing in the settings.

https://github.com/fahim-ahmed05/dotfiles/tree/main/browser/firefox

@Gargron

the performance of a Chromium-based browser compared to Firefox is abysmal.

Absolutely not, pls compare with UngoogledChromium.

You can install UBlock from
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases as an unpacked extension.
Switch on developer mode in the extensions page of Ungoogled.

No need to let play store track you

@Gargron Huh. I open a bunch of tabs first thing each morning (like 90+ in one window and some fewer in another) and Vivaldi is MUCH faster than FF ever was.

@Gargron I cannot really compare as I use Vivaldi as my primary browser with lots of tabs left open.

I use LibreWolf differently normally in private browsing mode for searches, route planning or reading the news.

Especially where a website makes you choose between accepting tracking or logging in.

I have other browsers installed for single uses - Chromium for Wire IM and nothing else.

I have noticed that the Helium browser (not using Helium services) feels much faster than Chromium.

@Gargron psst, try waterfox

@Gargron I keep it even simpler than this. I use the browser that uBlock devs recommend. And it's been Firefox every time.

@Gargron I will say it’s far better compared to normal chrome or even chromium, so they have done *some* optimization. would love to see it adopt an alternative engine like Servo once that becomes viable for usage!

@Gargron When chrome first introduced tab hibernation, i noticed immediately and foiund the needed flags to disable that bullshit.

I only use chrome as the work computer browser, but that "feature" made my work day miserable.

@Gargron I never have any issues with my chromium based browsers

@Gargron what do you think about ecosia?

@Gargron still on Firefox here, same experience with Chrome, memory management is abysmal

@Gargron Ungoogled-Chormium is pretty lightweight with optimization.

@Gargron LibreWolf is firefox based, doesn't currently have AI, and supports uBlock (I think it may come by default but I install it a weird way so I'm not sure).

Can't tell you about the rest of it. Not sure if it not having AI is just a face thing or not, but I never have to look at it (except it's in all the search engines now too and librewolf clears preferences that turn it off by default).

@Gargron On Windows 10/11 on different PCs and CPUs, I can't see any difference in daily use between Firefox and Vivaldi. Maybe Edge is a little snappier but nothing dramatic.
As already noted you can disable the hibernation feature in the settings.

My own experience is opposite — Firefox doesn't feel as smooth as Vivaldi. But I'm also kinda privileged because I have way too much RAM :D

@Gargron
You can disable memory saving mode in your browser settings, which is located in the "Performance" category.

@Gargron

Chrome / Chromium is a resource hog. I hate it and try to never use it

I've got major issues with Mozilla and Firefox

@Gargron

As I remember, you can disable it. Check the settings. I've never had this problem: on old PCs Vivaldi works much better than Firefox.

@Gargron in my experience, Vivaldi feels very sluggish compared to other Chromium browsers. Not saying you made the wrong choice or that you should use something different, just adding my own experience fwiw.

@Gargron LibreWolf is right there no?

@Gargron another vote for Zen browser. Has the Firefox rendering engine, a user interface inspired by Arc, and absolutely no AI whatsoever. It also works with Firefox sync so your FF profile should carry over flawlessly. Give it a shot.

@Gargron I have been using Vivaldi now for some years. I did try Firefox recently but its really lagged behind.

However for me, Vivaldi has a great productivity integration. We spend lot of time in browsers and having my mail, calendar and other things like that in one place does save me time.

It was my main reason to choose it.

@Gargron have you looked into Librewolf or Zen browser ? If your MacOs while unfinished Orion is a pretty fast and pretty private

@Gargron Vivaldi is the only Chromium browser I've experienced that on. It definitely feels like the most bloated. I've been using Helium but it doesn't support DRM so no Netflix but otherwise it's the lightest and fastest Chromium browser I've tried.

@Gargron Never had this issue, but I do have lots of RAM. You can customize the settings for this memory saver feature https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/12929150?hl=en#zippy=%2Cturn-memory-saver-on-or-off

@Gargron couldn't you use a Firefox fork? Zen Browser perhaps?

@gargron
You can try this for Firefox

https://toot.community/@corbin/115888621237358712

@Gargron
I had been using Firefox on my Android phone because, unlike mobile Chrome, it runs extensions I want, UBlock Origin and Privacy Badger. But I hate the new AI focus of Firefox. Vivaldi doesn't allow extensions either.

About 10 days ago I switched to the Waterfox browser, a Firefox fork, and love it. It effortlessly let me sign in to my FF account and transferred my bookmarks. Extensions: no problem. It's run flawlessly. Not a hint of AI.

@Waterfox
#Vivaldi_browser
#FireFox

@Gargron Aye, high RAM use is the main misgiving I have about my own preferred Chromium-based Qutebrowser. (The other that, despite being a substantial piece of software, it's written in a scripting, rather than system programming language.)