Chrome/Chromium... Some Commentary About These Browsers

[V.T. Eric Layton]

As some of you may know/remember, I'm not a big fan of Chrome/Chromium. I usually have a stock installation of Chromium (unGoogled version) on my systems as a back up browser, but rarely ever use it. My primary browser in Windows and Linux has been Mozilla's Firefox for longer than Firefox actually existed.  Previous to FF, there was only Mozilla Browser (currently still available as "Seamonkey" in most Linux distributions).

 

Anyway, due to some recent serious crashing issues that I've developed in FF 121.0.1, which is so bad that it's making Firefox useless to me, I've had to switch over to Chromium. This last few days I've been tweaking and customizing Chromium to get it to where I can stand to use it. Chrome/Chromium is defintely NOT Firefox. I guess I'm spoiled after using FF for so many years, but there are just things that it does so much better than Chromium-based browsers seem to be capable of doing.

 

One of my biggest complaints about Chrome/Chromium was always the very, very poor quality of its font rendering. Fonts are thin and gray in Chrome compared to the thick/black fonts I'm used to seeing in FF. Well, I resolved that issue, I believe. I found an extension for Chromium called A+ Font Rendering Enhancer... and WOW, does this think make a difference! It thickens the fonts and renders them BLACK, instead of that pale gray carp in Chrome/Chromium. I'm loving this!

 

There are still some minor things I don't like about Chrome/Chromium, but I'm dealing with them. I just found out a few moment ago that my inline speel chonker doesn't work in Chromium. That's strange.

 

Chromium is my current default browser until the next update of Moz FF comes out. I'm hoping upgrading FF will fix the crashing issue. I've tried everything to fix FF,  to no avail. Maybe the update will fix? One can always have hope.

 

Oh, and for folks out there like me, who aren't too thrilled about being connected to All-Things-Google like some Borg automaton, there's a way to install extensions onto your (unGoogled) Chromium without having to log in to the Chrome Web Store -> read about it HERE. Oh, and don't tell Google I told you about this.

 

Have fun!

[V.T. Eric Layton]

And as long as I'm whininig and birching about Chrome/Chromium...

 

Some further comments about Chrome/Chromium...

 

In Firefox for decades now there has been an option to "protect" the login cookies of certain sites so that you did not have to relogin each time after you closed Firefox and cleared all browsing cookies. It's a very COOL and sensible option for a browser to have.

Why is it that Chrome doesn't seem to have any means at all for protecting login cookies from specifically chosen sites? That's just STUPID. This forces the user to NOT be able to dump cookies on closing the browser because they will also dump their login in cookies for their special sites.

 

Who decided this for Chrome? So, in order to stay logged in beyond shutdown in Chrome, the user has to keep tons and tons of garbage cookies on their browser because they cannot selectively save/protect login cookies for their special chosen sites. How totally ridiculous that is.

 

How did this browser (Chrome) ever get as popular as it is? It amazes me. Half the carp on this browser doesn't work propery (spell check, cookie management, font rendering is especially attrocious, etc.). And yet, Google foists this stuff on you just like Microsoft foisted that piece of feces Internet Explorer on you all those years.

 

I'll be very glad when I cure this crashing bug that I've been experiencing in Firefox this last version (121.0.1). I can't wait to go back to using it. Anyway... enough ranting for the moment. 

 

[sunrat]

Can you go back to FF ESR version? 115.6.0esr works well in Debian for me.

You can get Cookie Auto Delete extension for Chrome. Whitelist the cookies you wish to keep and it deletes the rest at restart.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/cookie-autodelete/fhcgjolkccmbidfldomjliifgaodjagh

I've been using CAD in FF since before FF had its current more fine-grained cookie management. Works well for cookies but I check settings and remove other saved site data occasionally too. Recommended.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Sure. I can even drop back to FF 121.0.0. I didn't have the crashing issue until I upgraded to the latest. What bothers me, though, is the fact that I cannot seem to fine any others online who are experiencing this issue... meaning it's something on my system, and probably NOT FF's fault.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I've figured out Chrome's business plan, by the way. Instead of desiging and building a feature-filled, stable and secure browser, they decided to just code up and toss out this bare bones application and then depend on voluntary labor to create and offer extensions that provide all the necessary enhancments to make the browser a useful tool. I'm learning that "extensions" are the trick to a good Chrome/Chromium experinece.

 

Wish I could find a decent cookie manager for Chromium that would PROTECT login cookies from being deleted on browser closing. That would be a wonderful thing. I would then be able to do as I do in Firefox and dump ALL cookies on closing each time, yet saving (protecting) the login cookies of certain sites. This way I would still be logged in tomorrow when I start the browser up again.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I reverted to the older (not randomly crashing version) of FF just a few moments ago. Now, I can go back to using FF and leave ol' Chromium alone for a while.
 

I'm sure FF will be putting out a new update any day now. I'll skip to the new update once it's been released. Hopefully, that'll be the ended of the tab/browser crashing.