Not gonna lie, it felt good to be back on a browser that started it all. Privacy driven, customizable web browser that puts you first as the developers like to put it. But that’s not why I finally switched back after years of using Google Chrome.
Back in the day, I like most people used Intenet Explorer that came bundled with our Windows XP. A teacher at university suggested that we should try another web browser called Opera. It was a paid product with a free ad-supported version that I used. It was fast but full of ads and did not work great with some of the websites that I used to frequent namely Gamefaqs.com.
After getting fed up with incompatibility I decided to switch to Firefox. Greatest decision I have ever made. Browsing the web felt good and modern. I could customize it with themes and add-ons to enhance the experience even further. All was great until one day Google decided to make a web browser of their own and thus came Chrome.
I tried it and kinda like the minimalistic design but it was a barebones browser with nothing special to offer except a tiny increase in speed. Months passed and I kinda started using the browser more and more. Moila slowed down Firefox updates that mattered and the browser became old and dated.
By the time Mozila figured what was up Chrome overtook the marketshare. Firefox was refreshed a few times but made no significant splash. Until came Quantum. Suddenly the browser we all remember became fast and stylish again. Chrome, on the other hand, became bloated, slow to start and resource-heavy on old machines.
Firefox Quantum was great again but switching back wasn’t that simple. Chrome was the dominant browser and thus most of the websites were tailored to its engine. Evernote was running the old version on anything that was not using the Chromium engine. Opera and now Microsoft Edge abandoning their own engines did not help at all. Yes Vivaldi Browser is great and I even used Opera exclusively for a while but the engine itself felt heavy on my 2008 Macbook pro.
Firefox, on the other hand, is a very light browser but has everything I need including great themes and plugins. And while its not as light as Safari on Mac, its lightyears faster than Chrome. It is also thundering fast on new hardware. The Android version also looks and feels great. I know officially made the switch.
The data breach monitor is the icing on the cake. Yes, some websites may still prefer Chrome but if more people made the switchback this will quickly change. Firefox was the king of plugins and website preference and it can again. It is after all the last engine standing against Chrome. Competition is good and we all should support privacy driven products, especially great products like Firefox. Give it a try, you won’t regret it.
