Hacker News Reader

Comment by gcr | Hacker News Reader

Ahh, Firefox is finally catching up to Opera. ;)

This is a cheap, troll comment but it summarizes my views on Firefox. For a browser that started out in Linux, the lack of decent start times, page render times, and the same old tired Firefox 3.x interface in Firefox 4 is a huge slap in the face.

Now that Chrome will only load Flash on demand (and performance and stability of Linux Flash in Chrome is hugely improved as a result)... there is literally no reason for me to use Firefox 4.

For me, Firefox Sync and Zotero are the two must-haves that Chrome doesn't match at all. Firefox Sync goes so far beyond any other sync tool I've ever seen, it's incredible. Likewise, Zotero's browser-level integration is immensely helpful in research. There are, of course, other reasons why I like Firefox, but those two are what render Firefox essential.

Chrome’s sync does more and more all the time. What does Firefox Sync do for you? Genuinely curious.

The big one is syncing of passwords and preferences in an encrypted manner. It means that I can nearly transparently switch computers while still using secure randomly-generated passwords for each site. Last I checked that was not supported by Chrome Sync, but if I'm out of date with that, I'd love to know.

Yes, it does password and autofill sync now.

Does Google know about your passwords?

You can enable client side encryption. At this point you'll have to give chrome a password the first time it wants to sync, but google wouldn't know your passwords.

On a related note: what exactly is the business value for google to abuse your trust and misuse the passwords you've given them in the course of non-client-side encrypted password sync?

> On a related note: what exactly is the business value for google to abuse your trust and misuse the passwords you've given them in the course of non-client-side encrypted password sync?

No one else in the world knows my passwords. Period.

So use the client side encryption.

Chrome Sync does everything that Firefox Sync does, but Zotero looks (really, really cool, but sadly) unsupported. There always seem to be those few extensions that haven't been ported over that a lot of people use. I understand that. I'm just fortunate that the few extensions I use have fantastic Chrome ports.

There's been some talk of making Zotero stand-alone to deal with that kind of issue, but that's enough of a project I think it will be a while still. In the meantime, a Chrome port doesn't make much sense in some ways, as it'd wind up duplicating effort with a stand-alone port. In the short term, an unfortunate blow for data portability...

Chrome Sync does everything that Firefox Sync does

I really don't think it does. For one, it doesn't encrypt your data client-side so that Google won't know about it.

I use both and love both browsers but as a developer I still find it frustratingly hard to use chrome without having firebug or an exact clone of firebug. (I am hoping someone says there is a firebug equivalent for Chrome)

Firebug is aiming for full functionality on other browsers in the future. Sadly not ready yet :) http://blog.getfirebug.com/2010/10/24/firebug-metamorphosis/

That is exciting to hear, but it seems like it is ways away unfortunately. Thanks for the link.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com