Friends, Chromans, ...

The Chrome browser has come a long way since I first blogged about it. Then, I was not going to move completely over from Firefox since Chrome was missing a working extension system, and I needed my javascript fix via Greasemonkey to handle some badly designed websites that I used regularly.

Things have evolved quite nicely since. I now use Chrome as my primary browser on my work laptop (running Windows, sadly). The Chrome extension system is stable - I haven't faced any issues so far. All my badly needed extensions - Lastpass being the primary one - now have Chrome versions. Greasemonkey isn't even required - Chrome automatically converts most userscripts into extensions. I downloaded Facebook Fixer directly off userscripts.org and it works quite well with Chrome.

Chrome extensions are a breeze to write. Simple HTML and CSS are all you need to know, and just enough javascript if you need some logic in your extension. In about a days work (mostly a few minutes caught here and there on breaks over a week), I managed to learn how to create extensions, and managed to cook up an extension that accelerates many of my common work tasks using some simple organization and light automation. I can see myself coding a lot more now.

Once Chrome gets extensions stable on Linux, it'll move on to being my primary home browser as well.

It's been some time since I loaded Firefox on my work machine, and the startup time of the browser amazes me when I do - how did I ever manage to wait that long for the browser to start?

It's instructive that Firefox stormed into the browser world on the strength of its speed and simplicity, and is now being spurned by a whole lot of users because it lacks just that - speed and simplicity. Over the years, it's turned into something else altogether. Moral of the story: stay true to your basic strengths.

I wish the firefox project reinvents itself to give Chrome some competition though. Competition is always good in the FOSS space. So, dear firefox, do as Polonius advised:

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man