Is Chrome Evil?

[cosmichobo]

G'day,

A hardly innocuous subject title, I know... but... Is Chrome evil?

Google is of course evil, taking over the world, etc etc etc. But then so is Apple in that regard, so... oh hell, is Apple evil?

Strike that...

Early 2009 iMac, 10.9.2, 4GB RAM, running Firefox 26.0 (have tried to upgrade, but it just sits trying to download, and goes no where)

I'm currently using Firefox, but what I often notice is that after a while (day, few days) its CPU usage goes through the roof, and it has to be restarted. And... in this age of non-restarting computers, it's just... annoying.

Safari's never done it for me for some reason... And I gather Internet Explorer and Netscape are dead... so... that leaves evil Google's Chrome.

As the new boy on the market, does Chrome cut it? Does it report back all my activity to Google (any more/less than any other browser)? Can it butter toast?

Cheers,

cosmic

 

[maflynn]

Why do you think its evil?

Its an application, which has no consciousness.

I'm not fan of google, but chrome is a good browser and I use it along side Safari.

If you're worried about it, or think its evil, then don't use it. There are plenty of web browsers out there, including firefox, and safari.

 

[Kissaragi]

Neither google nor chrome are evil, if you think they are then I suggest you reconsider what evil means.

 

[robvas]

I used to do development and have all three open every minute I was at my iMac. I have had to re-start every browser on the market. They all have memory leaks and they all have quirks. Firefox, Safari, Chrome...

 

[AlabamaSlammer]

only reason I think Chrome might be evil is how it kills the battery on my MacBook Pro.

 

[S.B.G]

Evil? No, not by definition anyway.

If you don't like Chrome or how it runs/works, choose a different browser.

 

[maflynn]

only reason I think Chrome might be evil is how it kills the battery on my MacBook Pro.

Chrome and rMBPs don't seem to mix for what ever reason.

 

[MagicHAM]

Chrome is an application, it doesn't have thoughts, feelings or emotions like the people who use it. It just sits and waits to be executed via the applications folder or the dock bar every day. Sometimes it does get executed, sometimes it doesn't I have it on my mac Mini and I think it's a pretty decent browser, sometimes it handles websites such as Google Maps better then Safari. I have to use the Maps app a lot (and I haven't upgraded to Mac OS 10 Mavericks yet, my Mac Mini isn't compatible)

Nonetheless, I am quite perplexed by your question "Is Chrome Evil?" In what way does it make evil to you as a mac user? (Sorry just read your reply about the battery) - Well how much extensions do you have installed? Couldn't that be why?

 

[66318]

"evil" is indeed the wrong term here as others have pointed out. Google Chrome is an embodiment of what Google is. Which for me personally is why I don't run their browser daily. I do use it when a site I need to use demands Flash, due to it's sandboxed approach to that particular plugin.

Google's principals are about engineering first, big data and what can be done with it. Their main revenue source is advertisements.

Thus they push out a browser that is very engineering focused. One that silently updates it's self to be up to date to run Google's other properties well. Thus generating ad revenue to sustain Google. The updates also help keep things secure, to try and ensure people they can trust their data to Google. Privacy options are buried, and default to ad tracking friendly settings. Google has it's own priorities, one of which is to be available on as many platforms as possible, again for ad revenue reasons. This leads to sometimes less then optimal performance or less usage of OS specific features.

Apple's principals are about good design, with the engineering to back it up. They don't have an interest in big data across the board, but have some interest when it comes to shopping for media. Their main revenue source is people buying their hardware.

I personally run Safari since it's going to be up to date with my OS. Currently the big win here is a browser that supports App Nap the same day 10.9 came out. Chrome 36 (currently in beta) is adding this soon, right before we get a developer glimpse at 10.10. I also prefer Safari's privacy stance out of the box of blocking 3rd party cookies.

 

[jeremysteele]

As the new boy on the market, does Chrome cut it?

It came out in 2008. Hardly "the new boy".

6 Years is an eternity in the tech world.

Safari's never done it for me for some reason... And I gather Internet Explorer and Netscape are dead... so... that leaves evil Google's Chrome.

Netscape's last release was 2008ish - and IE has been dead on mac since 2003. So, yep.

Chrome and rMBPs don't seem to mix for what ever reason.

Assuming you're referring to the battery drain issue?

I used to do development and have all three open every minute I was at my iMac. I have had to re-start every browser on the market. They all have memory leaks and they all have quirks. Firefox, Safari, Chrome...

Amen to that. Personally I find Firefox to be the biggest culprit when it comes to instability and leaks... but safari isn't far behind.

I can usually run chrome for quite a few days without major leaks; however I don't have many extensions installed on it either - just LastPass and a few custom tools. Whenever I install extra addons I find those increase issues dramatically.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Now that you mention it....

 

[maflynn]

Assuming you're referring to the battery drain issue?

No, it has in the past caused stability issues, crashing the computer. I don't know if newer releases have resolved it, but since it has caused problems for rMBPs I don't have it on my laptop. I use it for other computers just not my rMBP.

 

[CylonGlitch]

This is my own personal experience, but I had Chrome on my MBP along with Little Snitch. That thing would alarm Little Snitch all the time that it became annoying. Since I almost exclusively used Safari I removed Chrome and thought all was well and good.

Then I found that there was another piece of software that Chrome installed that would report back things that I was doing. I figured out that every time I would open certain applications it would connect to google and transfer something. This little app was hidden away somewhere and was NOT removed when removing Chrome.

I refuse to use it now. There are others that work well without the spying. Chromium and Iron are two; both run Chrome extensions and are very decent browsers.