Okay, I’ve downloaded Chrome. Now what?
You use it
Import your bookmarks from the other browser you’ve been using, duplicate whatever add-ons if you use any, and surf the web like you would any other browser.
If I do that, what’s the advantage Chrome has over Firefox or IE?
There is no advantage. Truly savvy users just telnet in and use manual HTTP commands. Try that.
I moved (finally) from IE to Chrome a few months ago. The main difference is that it doesn’t suddenly start using 3 gigs of RAM for no damn reason.
It’s often faster, it’s simpler, search is integrated into the address bar, and tabs are multithreaded so if one site crashes, it doesn’t crash the whole browser. There are lots of cool add-ons. Most of these advantages also exist in Firefox, they’re pretty same-same. Not sure if they’ve been realised in more recent IEs, I stopped at IE7.
I aint no savy user. I’m so unsavy I’m nor sure if you are yanking my chain or not??
I am.
Disable Javascript, install Ad Block, and enjoy Chrome.
What were you expecting? Chrome is a web browser. It does more or less what every other web browser does, but in a slightly more customisable and less clunky way.
I really don’t understand “browser wars”, or even OS wars. They seem to me just something geeky people do to find some sort of tribe allegiance. I’m happy to use a Bosch washing machine or an Indesit washing machine. I’m also happy to use Firefox or Chrome or IE or whatever. They all do the job more or less indistinguishably.
Firefox leaked memory like mad when I used it last. Maybe they fixed that.
IE has always been just terrible. It’s bloated and doesn’t actually conform to standards.
There are specific and articulable reasons why a person might prefer one browser over another. They are not entirely interchangable.
I casually let slip that I browse with Chrome and the ladies are all over me!
You’re right, not exactly the same. Firefox still leaks memory like mad and IE still doesn’t conform to standards. But IE has address bar searches now and if an individual tab crashes, it doesn’t take the whole browser with it. I also find that it handles Flash better than Firefox.
But for the most part, they’re interchangeable.
I wondered where they all went.
???
Profit!
At one time installing Chrome (and other thnigs) was followed by a whack-a-mole game to kill no-I-didn’t ask-you-if-I-can-run-all-time-but-I’m-going-to-anyway googleupdate.exe, which had a number of tricks to restart itself after you’d killed it.
They may’ve addressed that since, I use the googleupdate-free Chromium, and stay away from other Googleware.
What’s wrong with google update?
Not only that, but as an Android user, Chrome syncs my tabs, browsing activity, extensions, etc. across devices. Besides the fact that IE has been playing catch-up in a number of areas, while also not being the best browser, I’ve just found Chrome to have more advantages past casual use, including the more intuitive, and better UI, combined with better web apps.
I also can’t stand the fact, that while you have multiple tabs open in IE, they also appear in your taskbar…what’s the point of having a tabbed browser, if they’re not consolidated into one instance?.
If you’re running on low resources already (like my old laptop) it would fucking suck when Google Update would randomly start doing its thing while you were in the middle of something else. It was hard to make it stop. I put Chrome on my old laptop because I needed something light, and I thought it was light, but it forgot to mention that it was bringing it’s 500-lb friend Updater along.
If you are running an old laptop with low resources, I would imagine a lot of new software sucks.