This is not a reliable test of any piece of software. Let me reiterate, this is not a condemnation of a piece of software as a whole, only as a piece of software used by me and by my computer. In this case my macbook.

Today Google announced the Beta availability of Chrome for the Mac (and Linux).Now, I’d already been using builds of Chromium for the Mac released by Google. I liked Chromium in Alpha, but let’s face it, it was Alpha. I’m not saying Chrome Beta is better, I haven’t given it a good run through.

However, this post isn’t really about Chrome (well, not really though it leads to it). It’s about Firefox on my macintosh. I have truly had it, given up, thrown in the towel, decided to call it quits. After watching Firefox chew threw my battery as it runs up cpu cycles and disk runs with 10+ tabs open for the last many months, I decided the Beta release of Chrome was good enough for me to switch default browsers.

Now, your mileage may vary, but so far, no Firefox crashing, no Firefox eating through my memory. For the record I have VMWare Linux VM running, 6 applications, 10 Chrome tabs, 3 Safari Tabs and memory hungry Komodo IDE that I code in and I still have 1.2 GB of memory freed and a good solid 3 hours of battery on my 3 year old macbook.

Yes, I championed the cause of Firefox, but I’m done for now, the peace of Chrome has settled around here for this Christmas at least.