It’s been a while since I last considered web browsers. I wrote this post in 2008 about which browsers I was using. And in 2011 I wrote this post about KDE Browsers. So that’s at least 9 years since I wrote about browsers. What is my current situation?

Well, on Linux I bounced back and forth between Firefox and Chrome, depending on which one was getting better performance. At this point, for what I do, Firefox is the winner for me. I use it on my laptop and desktop and it gets things done without getting in my way. I don’t necessarily have the most modern GUI setup because it tends to keep your GUI settings as you upgrade. This is what it looks like:

Google’s new Chrome Web Browswer has been all over the news today.  See this general one here.  Or this one mentioning how it’s supposed to be a Microsoft killer.   This one talks about how blazingly fast it is.  (I agree!)  And, finally, this one talking about how Google is becoming more evil with the release of this web browser.   I decided to take it for a spin and cut through the hype.

On first startup, I thought - hmm this browser looks a bit bubbly.  Reminds me a bit of MSN Browser in the late 90s.  Then I suddenly noticed something - no top bar on the browser!  Where’s the File, Edit, Tools, menu so common to Windows programs?  Even the tabs are right up in the titlebar window.  But you know what?  I like it - more room for viewing my websites.  Tabs load up ridiculously fast.  And the little things are so nice - like how there are animations when you create the tabs.  They slide out from the left.  Or when you close a tab, all the ones to the right of it slide over to the left.  It’s pointless eye candy, but I love it!  It really adds to the experience.