Switching to Chrome browser

My buddy, SKye, has prevailed upon me finally, and I’ve begun the transition to using the Google Chrome browser instead of using Firefox.

Yes, I feel like a traitor.

Yes, I’m still wondering at exactly which point of this conversion process I’ll be asked to drink the kool-aid, get the group secret tatoo, and lose my soul.

My early attempts to use Chrome were frustrating. It has a very minimalist application overhead, which is kind of the point, I think, but it was disconcerting. And my bookmark strategy — Delicious.com — isn’t quite as well integrated in Chrome as it is in Firefox.

The biggest loss is the lack of a native bookmark keyword feature. My key locations, I simply made keywords for: “wadmin” to go edit this blog; “iw” to hit my company’s intranet; etc.

But I’m overcoming those shortcomings, some by adding Chrome extensions, and some by changing my approach.

I think the gain is worth it. The speed is measurably faster. I also get more screen real estate  with less room taken at the top by the application. And so far, all my apps work great in Chrome.

And while SKye is using Chrome on Windows, I’m using it on Linux just fine. Google even has it set to ready installation on my favorite distro, openSUSE.

Now, I just gotta convert SKye to linux, then we’ll be set!