Samsung working with Mozilla on new mobile rendering engine

[s44]

This is good news. Samsung has consistently offered the best optimizations to the native Android browser.

 

[lothar]

This is good news. Samsung has consistently offered the best optimizations to the native Android browser.

Firefox browsers(both mobile and desktop) were memory hogs when I used them.
Sounds like bad news.

Samsung was perfectly fine doing it on their own using the Android browser. They don't need Firefox.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Firefox on the desktop has been using less memory than Chrome for 10 versions now that it's reached version 20 (versus Chrome's version 26 lol).

It's still a memory hog on Android though but at least it's smoother and more responsive than Chrome (which is actually a bit of a memory hog too). Both suck though. You should use either the stock browser or Opera Mobile.

 

[s44]

Samsung was perfectly fine doing it on their own using the Android browser. They don't need Firefox.

Except Google has abandoned Browser.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Except Google has abandoned Browser.

Which is very unfortunate since for some reason Google doesn't seem to be able to make Chrome behave. It uses more memory, is less responsive and doesn't auto-size text properly like Browser and Opera Mobile does (Firefox fails in this regard too).

It's as if they didn't bother using any of the expertise from the Browser coders at all.

 

[lothar]

Except Google has abandoned Browser.

Android Browser is open source.
Samsung doesn't need Google to further it's development. The fact that Google has abandoned Android Browser is irrelevant.

 

[lothar]

Firefox on the desktop has been using less memory than Chrome for 10 versions now that it's reached version 20 (versus Chrome's version 26 lol).

It's still a memory hog on Android though but at least it's smoother and more responsive than Chrome (which is actually a bit of a memory hog too). Both suck though. You should use either the stock browser or Opera Mobile.

For me, on desktop:
Opera >>> Chrome >>> Firefox >>> IE >>> *.*
I boycotted using Opera ~3 years ago due to their BS regarding the European commission nonsense. Their browser was the best but I don't support all the BS they've been doing to the European Commission on Microsoft IE bundling, Windows browser lottery, fining Microsoft, and other crap.

For mobile:
Dolphin HD >>> Samsung's stock AOSP browser >>> Opera Mobile >>> Other AOSP browsers >>> Chrome >>> Firefox >>> *.*

 

[lopri]

Are these browsers are front-end of Android's native browsers?

Light Browser
Lightning Browser

 

[lothar]

This to me is the better news:
http://arstechnica.com/information-...-its-own-way-forking-webkit-rendering-engine/
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...ing-the-engine-into-new-project-called-blink/

 

[ChronoReverse]

For mobile:
Dolphin HD >>> Samsung's stock AOSP browser >>> Opera Mobile >>> Other AOSP browsers >>> Chrome >>> Firefox >>> *.*

I've demoted Dolphin HD (assuming Jetpack is used because otherwise it's just a skin on top of the AOSP Browser, so it'd be just above par) to below the AOSP Browser for my personal usage because they broke text wrapping in many situations.

I value speed, smoothness, UI and functionality (not in order of importance) and it's unfortunate that they broke functionality when they boosted speed with Jetpack.


Because of this, it's still Opera > AOSP > Dolphin >>> Firefox > Chrome for me. Chrome for Android is terrible. Even Firefox at least can claim to be very smooth and responsive while featuring addons.

 

[jacktesterson]

I use Lightning Browser - Smooth, Light and Fast.



Desktop, I use Chrome and Opera. (Opera at work due to its built in note functionalities)

 

[ChronoReverse]

I use Lightning Browser - Smooth, Light and Fast.

Are these browsers are front-end of Android's native browsers?

Light Browser
Lightning Browser

Lightning browser is just using the native AOSP renderer. Not 100% sure about Light but it's slower so maybe it's using its own built-in instance of webkit (it's definitely using webkit).

 

[NikolaeVarius]

AOSP browser is best browser.

It's fast, smooth, and it has quick controls, which may be the greatest thing ever created. No matter what browser I use, I always miss quick controls.

 

[Mopetar]

This to me is the better news:
http://arstechnica.com/information-...-its-own-way-forking-webkit-rendering-engine/
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...ing-the-engine-into-new-project-called-blink/

Lot's of interesting news in the browser space this week.

Honestly I think Mozilla is partnering with Samsung just to stay relevant. Desktops are slowly decreasing in importance, and Chrome has overtaken Firefox there anyway. Samsung has a huge customer base that Mozilla can tap into.

Samsung is just looking for ways to differentiate itself from the rest of the Android handset makers (or possibly to have a club to hold over Google's head) so it makes sense for them too.

Google just wants to do their own thing without having to ensure that they're not breaking anything in Apple's code and it's likely a pain when each company has their own way of doing things.

 

[Red Storm]

I use Lightning Browser - Smooth, Light and Fast.



Desktop, I use Chrome and Opera. (Opera at work due to its built in note functionalities)

I tried Lightning on my Note 2, no go. It works for the most part, but it does not seem to listen to the mobile or desktop preferences. Would not do desktop mode. Otherwise it seemed fast, and the full screen was nice. I have become used to the stock browser's gesture controls though.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Honestly I think Mozilla is partnering with Samsung just to stay relevant. Desktops are slowly decreasing in importance, and Chrome has overtaken Firefox there anyway. Samsung has a huge customer base that Mozilla can tap into.

What? On desktop, Firefox is still leading Chrome by a hair. http://www.netmarketshare.com/

If anything, Chrome has declined a few points while Firefox held steady.

 

[Mopetar]

What? On desktop, Firefox is still leading Chrome by a hair. http://www.netmarketshare.com/

If anything, Chrome has declined a few points while Firefox held steady.

Depends who you ask and where the data comes from. Other stats have Chrome passing Firefox well over a year ago.

Also, the desktop share is going to become less relevant over time. It doesn't matter of Mozilla had 90% of the desktop share if in in 10 years mobile usage will completely dwarf it.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Last year a few stat sites showed Chrome finally passing Firefox to great fanfare only to recant the report shortly thereafterwards with less pomp. Netmarketshare is one of those sites.

Some specific sites (like Arstechnica) have larger Chrome usage, but overall Firefox is still at worse on par.

 

[drift_shifter8]

This might actually be a good thing. I'll just wait and see what develops.

 

[jacktesterson]

I tried Lightning on my Note 2, no go. It works for the most part, but it does not seem to listen to the mobile or desktop preferences. Would not do desktop mode. Otherwise it seemed fast, and the full screen was nice. I have become used to the stock browser's gesture controls though.

Odd - I've never noticed this issue. I will try to duplicate it sometime.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I've never been impressed with Chrome as a browser. I use it now at work only because it's lighter on memory than Firefox.

However, the URL bar still pisses me off from Day 1. In using it as a search bar, any browser does that. However, in terms of pulling up browser history, I can't get Chrome to do it properly. For example I read XDA Forums a lot and the thread title is "[ROM][Official][4.2.2] CyanogenMod 10.1 Nightlies for the Nexus 4 (mako)"

However when I type "mako" I see that page show up briefly in my URL bar before half the options change to search for "mako" on web and some other site with "mako" in the URL that I went to before (http://www.get.cm/?device=mako). God I read this XDA thread everyday and you can't figure out that I want to go there?

With that said I think Chrome's getting better though. At least the desktop version. It doesn't just show Google search results all the time now and figures I want to invoke browser history.

I remember for a few years now I've been loading firefox just to pull URLs and then copy them over to chrome because it sucks so bad at pulling my browser history through keywords.

Like wtf is with the options in Chrome? The first 4 are meaningless to me. At least I'm not getting search options.

Ok, moving on to mobile, Chrome isn't that great at all. It runs slow, doesn't format text the best, memory hog, etc. The Ingress map runs so horribly on Chrome (part of it is Google's fault for designing such a poor website) that other browsers like AOSP and Dolphin work much better (but some functionality is compromised). In fact it runs so badly on Chrome, I typically run it on Safari on my iPhone so I can Ingress on my phone while looking up the map on the iPhone. Yes. Safari runs the Ingress map way better than any Android browser I've tried. That's sad.

 

[Mopetar]

Last year a few stat sites showed Chrome finally passing Firefox to great fanfare only to recant the report shortly thereafterwards with less pomp. Netmarketshare is one of those sites.

Some specific sites (like Arstechnica) have larger Chrome usage, but overall Firefox is still at worse on par.

Several others have listed Chrome as higher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

And they're not just specific sites either.

 

[Mopetar]

However, the URL bar still pisses me off from Day 1.

That's probably my greatest annoyance with it as well. Almost every other browser that I've used will start pulling up history as a top option, whereas Chrome will usually default to a search term. My guess is that Google, as a search company, figures that's what people are more interested in.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Several others have listed Chrome as higher: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

And they're not just specific sites either.

Yeah...

StatCounter, Wikimedia and W3Counter have Chrome with a larger share than INTERNET EXPLORER.

I think I'll discount their results as representative of the web as a whole.

That's probably my greatest annoyance with it as well. Almost every other browser that I've used will start pulling up history as a top option, whereas Chrome will usually default to a search term. My guess is that Google, as a search company, figures that's what people are more interested in.

Pretty much the reason I use Firefox to this day. Not only does it pull history as well as shuffling results based on how often I choose a site based on my typed keywords, Firefox also lets me DELETE entries simply by pressing delete.

 

[Red Storm]

That's probably my greatest annoyance with it as well. Almost every other browser that I've used will start pulling up history as a top option, whereas Chrome will usually default to a search term. My guess is that Google, as a search company, figures that's what people are more interested in.

Err, Chrome definitely does pull up history and then search terms when you start typing. That's one feature I enjoy and use every day.