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Comment by brundolf | Hacker News Reader

I've been using Firefox/Safari on my personal devices for a couple years now, but as a web developer I unfortunately can't not use Chrome at work because of its dev tools. I try to test on other browsers when I have time - I've always made a point to push for supporting at least Firefox, as an organization - but when I'm iterating I really just need the Chrome tools. Firefox's tools always remained one or two steps behind, and now that they fired their dev tools team I assume they won't even be doing that, soon.

The same goes for Google Search/DuckDuckGo. I use the latter on my personal devices, but when I'm tracking down a problem at work I just need the thing that's going to work the best.

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I agree about DDG, but not dev tools.

I used to think they weren’t as good, but they are good. And I think I’m a pretty serious dev tools user.

BUT, if you want to keep using Chrome dev tools that doesn’t mean you can’t switch to FF. Just de-personalize Chrome (clear you history, sessions, settings etc) and then you’ll stop using it. Say you’re developing and open a new tab to search something on SO: you won’t be logged in on SO. Same goes with any site. So you’ll instantly realize you’re using Chrome to browse and hop over to FF instead.

Seems like a lot of work but it’s not. Maybe I drank the kool aid but I now feel naked browsing with Chrome and try to avoid it as much as possible. I think the important thing is to stop using Chrome for personal browsing.

I disagree about DDG :). For work-related searches I'm really satisfied with the results and I find answers quickly. I would even go as far as to say that it works better for me than Google's search. I experienced it the other way around. When using DDG for personal use or results about local things I often tend to use the Google bang as Google has the better localized results.

I use Firefox as my daily drive, and I still don't get what's so special about Chrome's dev tools, I test on Chrome and open the dev tools but I prefer Firefox overall. It's a damn shame they fired the Dev Tools team however, that is not a visionary move on Mozilla's part.

Depending on your IDE, you can make it just open Chrome when you boot up web projects. That's what I do, but I do normal browsing on Firefox, it helps keep distractions away even. Leaving Chrome with only work related things.

Some of it may just be familiarity, but it always seems like there are little things that aren't all the way there. Some of the CSS property selectors aren't as rich, last I checked the profiling tools weren't as powerful, that kind of stuff. Things you could live without, but I feel a certain amount of responsibility when I'm on the clock to not hamper my productivity by using a tool that isn't the best one available.

Some things this is still true, other things I don't think I could go back to chrome devel tools, it just feels weak and old by comparison now.

> I unfortunately can't not use Chrome at work because of its dev tools

Why? I’m a full time developer at a Fortune 100 company and I have no issues just using the Firefox dev tools. I literally never use the Chrome dev tools. Though, this might soon change now that Mozilla has laid off the dev tool team.

Did they really fire their devtools team?? I'm sorry, I missed that earlier.

You should share how Safari and Firefox handle URLs, rather than feeding into everyone's reactions

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