Ubuntu 13.10 May Ditch Firefox for Chromium

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

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Canonical has indicated that a switch of browsers may be in the offing soon. It’s expected that with the release of Ubuntu 13.10, the default browser will change from Firefox to Chromium, but the issue is far from settled with the pro’s and con’s from users still being weighed.

Ubuntu Touch will be arriving soon, and it will be important for the desktop and mobile platforms to share as much code as possible — and to offer a familiar user experience.
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About time. Hope it goes through.

*inb4 datamining tin-foil-hatted google-h8 posts*
 
Such a bad thing to give users the option to use FireFox or Chromium? What's with OS's married to one idea?
 
Ashbringer said:
Such a bad thing to give users the option to use FireFox or Chromium? What's with OS's married to one idea?
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Both are available already. It's simply replacing Firefox with Chromium as the default included browser for a fresh install. Why is that so hard to understand?
 
That would save me a step. Getting rid of FF is one of the first things I do after installing *buntu.
 
I never understood the Chrome hype.

I've been using Firefox since the early days and other than the memory leaks back in v2 I've never had a real problem with it. Great addon library, too.
 
I don't understand the Chrome Hype either. I tried it.. It sucked. Went back to FF.

Is Ubuntu going to turn into GoogleOS?
 
And in other news, Ubuntu's user community shrinks by 50%, leaving only 2 people who are going to bother downloading the ISO and one of them will be doing it by mistake while trying to get something entirely different out of BitTorrent. :p
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
And in other news, Ubuntu's user community shrinks by 50%, leaving only 2 people who are going to bother downloading the ISO and one of them will be doing it by mistake while trying to get something entirely different out of BitTorrent. :p
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Very funny... :rolleyes:
 
people think FF is sluggish because of all the pluggin. And yes, it can be quite sluggish with firebug on.
 
Ghettobox said:
Both are available already. It's simply replacing Firefox with Chromium as the default included browser for a fresh install. Why is that so hard to understand?
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No, I mean as a choice when you're installing it. Something like.

Check off which web browsers you wish to install.

  • Choices
  • FireFox
  • Chromium
 
This decision makes sense to me. On the desktop, I think both Chromium and Firefox are equally good and it comes down to personal preference. For a mobile experience Chromium wins right now and hence why they are changing the default.
Firefox is still a few clicks away for those that prefer it.
 
Dalingrin said:
This decision makes sense to me. On the desktop, I think both Chromium and Firefox are equally good and it comes down to personal preference. For a mobile experience Chromium wins right now and hence why they are changing the default.
Firefox is still a few clicks away for those that prefer it.
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I think it has more to do with Firefox being much slower on Linux. I remember seeing benchmarks that showed Firefox in WINE was faster then native Firefox. That was some time ago, so who knows if it's faster now.
 
Ashbringer said:
No, I mean as a choice when you're installing it. Something like.

Check off which web browsers you wish to install.

  • Choices
  • FireFox
  • Chromium
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Well Ubuntu at least is pretty slim for an install iso 12.04 still fits on a single CD. They are finally just now getting to the 1gb area for an iso. Plus if you've never installed it, they have worked really hard to get the install to a dead simple process with minimal input needed. I guess I'd ask why would you want to add more crap to the iso, rewrite the installer? It's a 25mb download...and to be honest Firefox runs like ass in linux anyhow.
 
Isin't Chromium basically a hacked version of Chrome, can they actually legally do that? Have not used it myself, but assuming they got rid of all the cloud BS and allow to store favourites and stuff on my computer so I can back it up myself, I would not be against it.

I guess FF will still be an option to be installed separately though right?
 
Red Squirrel said:
Isin't Chromium basically a hacked version of Chrome, can they actually legally do that? Have not used it myself, but assuming they got rid of all the cloud BS and allow to store favourites and stuff on my computer so I can back it up myself, I would not be against it.

I guess FF will still be an option to be installed separately though right?
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Chromium is the open source version of Chrome, NOT hacked, lol

also you've always been able to store favorites wherever you want with Chrome....
 
goodcooper said:
Chromium is the open source version of Chrome, NOT hacked, lol

also you've always been able to store favorites wherever you want with Chrome....
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Ohhh so it's a whole different browser? For some reason I always thought it was Chrome, but hacked. Last time I tried to use Chrome it insisted I login with google before letting me do anything like use favorites. Uninstalled and went back to Firefox.
 
First thing i do is remove FF and put on Chrome anyway on ubuntu. FF is pretty close to bottom tier of browsing at this point.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Ohhh so it's a whole different browser? For some reason I always thought it was Chrome, but hacked. Last time I tried to use Chrome it insisted I login with google before letting me do anything like use favorites. Uninstalled and went back to Firefox.
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Your reading comprehension leaves a bit much to be desired.

The page you saw was to log in to sync your Chrome settings, it DOES NOT prevent you from being able to save favorites if you don't sync.
 
techrat said:
Your reading comprehension leaves a bit much to be desired.

The page you saw was to log in to sync your Chrome settings, it DOES NOT prevent you from being able to save favorites if you don't sync.
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yep first thing you do is press skip for now (unless you want to keep the browser bookmarks between windows, mobile and linux synced)

in the long past it used to keep on asking every start up was quite annoying, it only asks once now

main benefit using chrome on linux is its the only browser that has up to date flash player on linux

but I am not to fond of linux but that's me (but I am also not fond of windows 8 as it finds me new ways to be annoyed at it when trying to do simple settings tasks)
 
Red Squirrel said:
Ohhh so it's a whole different browser? For some reason I always thought it was Chrome, but hacked.
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Chrome is "mostly" an open source project. I say mostly, cause only Chromium is open source. Google's Chrome is Chromium, but with flash and Google stuff added. So in a way, using Chromium will allow you to avoid any of Google's tracking.

If you can live without the built in flash and pdf viewer, Chromium is probably superior to Chrome. It's compatible with the same plugins as Chrome too.
 
likeman said:
but I am not to fond of linux but that's me (but I am also not fond of windows 8 as it finds me new ways to be annoyed at it when trying to do simple settings tasks)
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I've warmed up to Linux since I started using KDE full time, though with heavy customization. It's managed to balance out what I preferred most from Windows and the flexibility inherent to Linux itself. Aside from some apps that still have no usable Linux equivalent or games that play better with more horsepower, I almost never touch my Windows desktop now. And this is coming from someone who stayed on Windows XP until last year.
 
i started using ubuntu a few months ago. Firefox is a fine browser, but google chrome app store is really user friendly and has tons of things my kids like. Not to mention citrix receiver works without having to spend 2 hours reading tutorials how to get citrix to work in ubuntu.
 
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