I’ve been a proud Firefox user since, well, it wasn’t called Firefox. For a long time, it was the clear leader in the browser market. When version 2 was too outdated to use, and version 3 was buggier than ever, I switched to my OS’s native browser—Safari.
I’ve been pretty happy with Safari for a while. It is speedy, has a great UI, and just oozes excellent typography (something that I have not ignored.) Lately it’s been forgetting my saved passwords which has been frustrating to say the least. At work I use Chrome quite a bit, and I enjoy it. Chrome is (blazingly) fast at JavaScript heavy apps that I use all the time (like Gmail or Google Reader.) I’m also digging the single input search/address bar. But with both Safari and Chrome the lack of quality add-ons is killing me, and I start longing for my trusty Firefox again.
Does anyone have some advice for a user who’s lost his path in the second iteration of the browser wars? Should I forgive Firefox for it’s crashes of old? Is it time to try something else, like Camino or Opera?
2 Comments
01/05/09
Dan, i think this is the plight of all web developers. I am constantly switching between chrome and Firefox. if they would make firebug for chrome(which I’m not the first to say) I think we’d all be a lot happier and developers everywhere would be rejoicing in the streets.
01/05/09
I agree. I think Chrome wasn’t truly ready for prime time yet. If it had a couple of good plugins, I’d be all for it… oh, and it doesn’t work on anything other than windows! I know there is Chromium for the Mac, but it’s at best an early Alpha release.
Dan Bowling is a web designer in Missoula, Montana.
Copyright © 2007 Dan Bowling. All rights reserved.