Game’s up.

I tried. Then I tried some more, and after that a bit more, but now it’s over.

The purpose of a web browser is to make life easier, not to waste my time making me try to love it.

Chrome does not make my life easier.

So I will not be using it for a while.

A History: Timmy and Chrome

First, Windows wouldn’t work, and I couldn’t use it. I was getting really excited though–there was the comic (which came out of the BLUE!). Then the Ubuntu Forums thread. Then my friend’s one and only blog post, a positive (but well-supported) review. Never mind the general internet buzz surrounding it–that’s a given.

Then Windows was restored, and I actually tried the thing. I kinda hosed it, but I was trying to be optimistic. It was new, it was unextended, heck–it was still in Beta! So even while while completely slamming it, all I could think of was, “Don’t worry–it’ll improve.” And I was sure that it would…eventually.

A few months later…

• It’s out of Beta.
• Extensions are almost here.
• It has users. From the Google Blog:

In just 100 days, we have reached more than 10 million active users around the world (on all seven continents, no less) and released 14 updates to the product

• It’s still terrible. Yes that’s my opinion. But it’s other people‘s too.

So I think the time has come to stop coddling Chrome, and instead make it play with the big boys. You know where I stand on Chrome vs. Firefox. Comparing it with IE is trickier–one’s an awesome presentation of a terrible idea, the other’s a terrible presentation of an awesome idea. Opera and Safari users are too ingrained into their browser choice to care (ditto for Flock) and Epiphany, Konqueror, Kazehakaze, Dillo, et al. are *nix-only. Has Chrome gotten a victory in that? No.

So hopefully Google, geniuses that they are, will make a totallyawesomepieceofsweetness for Chrome 2, and the Browser Wars will turn into a pair of great, open source browsers taking potshots at an overly competitive old guy, with the browser equivalents of the Green Party flitting about in between (Opera, etc.)

Unfortunately, “hopefully” is nowhere near the same as “currently” So I’ll catchya later Chrome.

Much later.

I’ve been making an honest effort to use Google Chrome.

Really, I have.

It seems like such a better idea–one process per tab, faster Javascript, easy interface, incognito mode, integrated search from address bar–it’s positively beautiful on paper.

Put I just can’t accept it as a ‘serious’ browser.

To help you understand this, let me walk you through a typical weekend Firefox session:

Open Firefox, all the tabs I was looking at last time are up. Finish reading/digesting them, and close them as I finish. Check my mail, Twitter and Facebook, writing when necessary. Check the stats for this blog, as well as my ad performance. Read everything new on Google Reader, and if I want to read some more, do a bit of Stumbling. If a new term comes up in Reader or SU, look it up on Wikipedia. Write a post for this blog or my other one, if I have the time, and maybe check the Programming section of the Ubuntu Forums–either I learn something or I can help someone out. If I still want something to do, then I open up either my C or wxPython tutorial, and start learning.

Now let’s consider Chrome:

• Open up the tabs from last time: Check.
• GMail/Twitter/Facebook: Check.
• Blog info: Check.
• Reader: Check.
• StumbleUpon: Fail.
• Wikipedia: Fail (this will be explained.)
• Blogging: Check.
• Ubuntu Forums: Check.
• Programming tutorials: Err…I program in Ubuntu, and use Chrome in Windows, so Fail.

Besides StumbleUpon (and Wikipedia(?)), everything looks fine. So what’s the problem?

Ease of use.

But Timmy, Chrome is ridiculously easy to use–Google has long been famed for its superior design, interface and usability!

So I present my humble list of Five Usability Fails on Google Chrome:

1. The Omnibar. I think Google’s trying to one-up Firefox 3′s Awesome Bar with this. I think they failed. FF does a superior job of searching ALL parts of a URL and putting the MOST relevant one on top. I have mastered the <Down><Enter> hand flick. Chrome tries, but it seems to weigh the first part of the URL a LOT more. Take this blog–I access it frequently, and in Firefox always used “Ran…” to do so (it found Rannsaich mo Inntinn) Even though I acces it a lot in Chrome, Google puts Rand McNally (rand.com) as the first result. I haven’t even been there! This is just Google outsmarting itself.
2. The search box. Chrome doesn’t have one. Fail.
3. Number two cheated. If I want to search Google in Firefox, I hit <Ctrl><K>. If my cursor is in the location bar, I hit <Tab>. If I want to search Wikipedia, Ninjawords, or BibleGateway, I use <Ctrl><Arrow Keys>. This is exceedingly easy and fast. What’s more, if I’m Feeling Lucky (say I want the Wikipedia page on Agile Programming), I just type “wiki agile programming” into the location bar, hit enter, and BAM! there it is. This has about a 97% success rate. Good enough for me. Chrome, on the other hand, only lets you use ONE search engine, and you can NEVER feel lucky. What’s more, to access ‘real’ webpages (see #1) you have to scroll through the search entries in the drop-down list.
4. Chrome. As in, the decoration around the browser, not the browser. I feel like Firefox provides a lot of power with its UI–navigation, bookmarks, tabs, extra third-party toolbars, menus, etc. If I feel cramped for screen space, guess what? I hit <F11> and it all goes bye-bye. Chrome is stuck in this middle ground of having less power than FF’s complete chrome, and less screen space than FF’s fullscreen. Why can’t Chrome have a fullscreen too? I have no idea. Feature request!!!
5. Tab layout. Call this minor, but it really bugs me. I have grown fully accustomed to new tabs being opened at the far right. Maybe it’s just the way my brain works, but I’d much rather see things chronologically instead of topically. I’m probably crazy, but the fact that Chrome opens links in adjacent tabs drives me cuckoo. They could at least make it optional….

I know that I could learn to live with a lot of these, but why? Firefox works fine for me, and I see no reason to change.

First of all, I’d really like to thank you. MS Office is, in my opinion, the best office suite on the market. Windows has made many contributions to home computing–first and foremost instilling the concept that computers are for everyone–not just socially deprived nerds. Though Windows remains a fairly effective way of getting things done, I decided to switch to GNU/Linux this summer for reasons of my own. I really like the view from there. That said, I’d like to ask after some basic features implemented in Windows that are standard (as free, open-source software no less) in GNU/Linux.

*Updating. Updating Windows is a painful process–the OS itself tends to pop up unexpectedly, chew up needed bandwidth, and restart at inopportune moments. What’s more, individual pieces of software must all be updated individually. This is, quite frankly, a pain in the neck. It can’t be difficult to integrate ONE, all-inclusive, non-intrusive updating utility. Yes, it might be an extra step for application developers. No, I do not sympathize with them. Please do this.

*Workspaces. Workspaces aren’t a very big deal…but they’re darn handy. Yes, I know I can download them for Windows from your “PowerToys” section, but there is no good reason they’re not included on a vanilla install. And I can’t really think of a reason it doesn’t include transition effects when you move between them.

*Themes. I believe there are 3 legal themes for Microsoft Windows XP. This has got to stop. Yes, I like blue. No, I don’t like it that much.

*Sensible administration privileges. I really like the concept GNU/Linux has which is that programs run on the lowest permission level they can. This is instrumental in stopping spyware. I feel unsafe when I’m logged in as a Windows administrator. Is that the attitude you want?

*Filesystem. Ext* (especially Ext3) is better than NTFS. No defragmenting, more reliable, please switch. There is no shame in this.

*Open document formats. Both releasing all of your own document formats, and adapting MS Office to include Open Document files. Natively.

*System resources: Why is it that my Ubuntu installation runs faster than a friend’s Vista installation…with 8 times the RAM, and ~double the processor? And functionality is debatably the same, to boot.

*Internet rendering: I know you can convince IE to pass the Acid3. It’s OK to shamelessly copy & paste Firefox/Chrome’s source code, that’s what it’s there for.

Please take these suggestions (and I’m sure there are more that I have yet to think of) into consideration. For the good of your product. For the good of your company. For the good of your millions of users. Please.

With warm regards,

Timmy Macdonald

Second of all, I’m contemplating starting a new ‘syle’ of post–handy tips. They’re meant to be concise bits of usefulness. Yes, yes, yes, this one isn’t very concise, but I consider it an extenuating circumstance They should have two parts–the [Background:], for…um…background information, and then another part which is the real tip.

That was way too long-winded. Sorry.

At any rate, here’s the real post:

[Background:]

A lot of people use the command line to install packages. Add/Remove is incomplete, Synaptic is slow, and the command-line is awesome.

I find myself using Apitude a lot more than apt-get, for the plain and simple reason that it’s a lot easier to make up commands. sudo aptitude install thunderbird works, sudo apt-get thunderbird doesn’t.

I always kind of got frustrated by the fact that after thinking for a while, I would need to type in ‘Y’ to confirm that I wanted to use disk space. (I suppose I can see the rationale for that feature, but it is annoying)

[Meat:]

To make Aptitude not ask you if you’re OK with the disk space it’s going to use, and the dependencies that have to be installed, use the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install yourprogramname

Where yourprogramname is the name of the program you want to install.

But there’s still more word processors–Abiword and Zoho Writer. Observations:

• Abiword is the fastest of the three ‘desktop’ entries. Even more so if you’re already running GNOME (with its GTK+ libraries)
• Abiword has an interface that looks remarkably like Word 2003.
• Abiword doesn’t excessive amounts of auto-formatting–which I like, since frequently Word/Write and I don’t see eye-to-eye on how things should be.
• Zoho has a slight edge over Google Docs in features–but loses a lot in speed. Typing lag, anyone?
• Abiword feels more ‘polished’ than Write. Don’t ask me how, but it just does.
• Abiword doesn’t seem to have outline numbering. Which is a shame.
• Abiword doesn’t support built-in drawing.
• Write does.
• Write actually does a much better job of imbedded pictures than Word.

Summary:

If you have the money (and proprietary immunity), Word remains king.

If you don’t have the money, or have a thing about open-source, then:

Use Abiword for general stuff. It does normal things faster and better than Write.

Use Write if you need the extra features it provides. You probably don’t, but it’s there.

As far as the online ones go, use Google Docs for online stuff. Zoho has a few more features, but it’s probably not worth it unless you’re some kind of extreme online power-user. And I can assure you that you’re not.

I don’t see any benefit to using the offline versions of Google Docs/Zoho over the other three. Unless you knew you were going to have Internet at the beginning and end of your document-writing session, and knew that you wouldn’t in the middle. Or something. Go figure.

I’m kind of developing a love for the bullet form of review, since it keeps things concise. Also note that this is not very technical, it’s just what Timmy-the-end-user likes and dislikes.

• I used IDLE for about five minutes. I didn’t like it. Don’t ask why, it’s the same feeling I had when I tried KDE. The gut-reaction, pseudo-phobia, I-can’t-deal-with-this moment. I’m sure it’s great, I just don’t like it. Case closed.
• Geany is definitely…bigger than gedit, and it’s written with an eye to programming, not text editing. As such:
• Geany: When you open a new document, it has a nifty GPL license already put in.
• Geany: It has the all-powerful ‘Execute’ button, which is definitely faster than executing it with the Terminal.
• Geany: I’m not quite sure how sound the ‘Execute’ button is, it seemed a bit buggy to me, but that may just be a hallucination.
• Geany: When you type an if/while/for/etc., it’ll automatically indent. Which is kind of cool.
• Geany: Speaking about those, it has the ability to ‘fold’ ifs/whiles/comments/fors. So you can just minimize them into one line to save screen real estate. Which is also kind of cool.
• Geany: There’s variable auto-completion. So if you have variable user_input, just type in user, and a menu will show up asking if you want to autocomplete. It’s actually really intuitive.
• Geany: Wikipedia calls it ‘cross-platform’. So it runs on every major OS except for Macs.
• Both: They both have syntax highlighting.
• Both: They both have tabs.
• gedit: gedit’s lighter/faster/smaller.
• gedit: gedit has plugins (read: Stinkin’ AWESOME!!. So with plugins (easily addable from Edit=>Preferences|Plugins), some of the highlights are that you can:
• gedit: Have a Python interpreter chilling in the bottom of your screen. Which is HANDY.
• gedit: Mass indent/unindent (Nice if you add or remove an extra level of control flow)
• gedit: On the lame side, you need to have a Terminal running to execute your entire program. Though you should be executing less often with the interpreter.
• gedit: Since we’re on the lame side: It only runs in ‘Unix-like systems’. Sorry, Windows people! (I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of workaround, though that’s outside of the scope of this post)

Conclusions:

Don’t use IDLE (haha, just kidding. But I really don’t have anything else to say about it).

Use Geany if you want to feel like the editor knows what you’re thinking (variable autocompletion, auto-indenting), or if you execute your program like crazy.

Use gedit (which I personally prefer) if you want speed, an interpreter, or handy tools (aka plugins).

Really though? They’re both great, I’ve used them both, and the easiest way of knowing is to code in both of them and make an executive decision.