Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone

Illustration for article titled Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone


Illustration for article titled Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone


Illustration for article titled Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone

On her first pass, Asian Angel explains:


  3. Restart portable Firefox.




Illustration for article titled Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone
Illustration for article titled Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone

Fabulous work, Asian Angel!

Turn Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone



Honestly, this whole concept is ridiculous.

I also wish LifeHacker would give up it's love affair with Chrome and be more objective.

Think about this for a couple minutes.

You're going to take a slow browser and make it slower by adding things to it to make it look like a browser that's less functional, just because it's the latest fad?

Yeah, that makes sense.

What's that?

You're lost by the fact that I called Firefox slow?

Oh no!

How could he?!

Yes, that's right.

I called Firefox slow.

Look at the performance comparisons completed on this very site.

Opera was first or second on every single test.

Now, add to that fact that Opera has had things like tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, better cache management, tab screenshots, speeddial, profile synchronization and a dozen other features built into the main program right from the very start, and then you realize that you're really comparing Toyotas and Ladas to a Ferrari.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that Opera has had most of these features years before anyone else even thought of them.

I will however, mention that Opera also has a basic e-mail program built directly into the browser, as well.

Who else has tried this, so far?

Oh that's right.


Don't get me wrong, I am a Firefox fan too, but here's the best part.

If you are a Firefox user, take a look at the plug-ins you have installed.

First, they slow down the browser, which the performance tests didn't take into account and the article fully admitted this.

Second, what do they do?

Chances are that you have at least 2 or 3 that add features designed to mimic the very features built into Opera by default.

So, let's do a real comparison, shall we?

Take Firefox, chrome it up, if you want.

Then add an e-mail plug-in.


Yeah, I thought so.

Next, add the following plug-ins, in order to make it act just a wee bit more like Opera, albeit still lacking:

add bookmark here3




new tab button on tab right

WOT (web of trust)

Now do a speed comparison.

Oh, oh, that's right.

It's a hog.

It takes up hundreds of megs of RAM and slows to an absolute crawl.

Try the same thing with Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer.

What's that?

You can't?

Yeah, you got that right.

Now open Opera.

Oh, will you look at that.

Lightening fast and it didn't need any plug-ins to increase it's functionality.


I think we have a clear winner.

(Yes, the opinions expressed in this comment are obnoxious, abbrasive and overbearing. That's exactly what I was going for. LOL)