Why I Ditched Google Chrome: My Journey to a Better, Faster Browser

If you looked at my Windows taskbar, you would have seen a pretty standard setup: File Explorer, Task Manager, the Microsoft Store, and... Chrome. Four of them, to be exact. Three were different profiles for my daily workflows, and one was Chrome Beta acting as my primary window to the web.

I’ve been running multiple Chrome profiles for years without a hitch. But recently, my computer started struggling. If I had one profile open, everything was fine. But the second I opened a second profile, my entire PC would completely freeze up for 3 to 5 seconds. It wasn’t just the browser window—my entire system locked up, even if I was in the middle of a game or working in another app.

My PC isn’t a dinosaur, either. It’s got a solid setup:

• CPU: Intel i7 9th Gen

• RAM: 32GB DDR4

• Storage: SATA SSD

• GPU: RTX 2070 Super

This system is still incredibly capable, so why was a simple web browser bringing it to its knees? I decided to dig in, and what I found shocked me.

The Culprit: Chrome's Silent 4GB Local AI

If you go into your Chrome Settings, head over to System, you might notice a feature called On-Device AI.

To see what this actually does under the hood, I navigated into Chrome's installation directory on my drive: User Data > Opt Guide On Device Model

Inside, I found a folder containing a massive file named Weights.bin. This is a local AI model downloaded directly by Chrome onto your machine, and it takes up nearly 4GB of space!

While on-device AI is great for privacy, spinning up 4GB language models across multiple browser profiles is an absolute resource killer for older (but still great) hardware. While I could have simply disabled the feature, it got me thinking: Is it time to find a better, lighter, and more exciting default browser?

I wanted something modern, spicy, and non-Chromium. Naturally, my search led me to the world of Firefox-based browsers. Here are the two main contenders I tried.

Contender 1: The Much-Hyped Zen Browser

The first stop on my journey was Zen Browser.

I had tried Zen back when it first launched, and even though it is still technically in beta, the community reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. People are absolutely loving it.

The Good:

• Beautifully Clean: The default homepage is incredibly minimalist. No cluttered news feeds, just pure, uninterrupted space.

• Fast and Smooth: Navigating around felt snappy, with zero hiccups.

The Dealbreaker:

• Forced Vertical Tabs: Zen is designed around a vertical tab layout. Personally, I’m a traditionalist—I don’t keep dozens of tabs open, so I prefer standard horizontal tabs.

• No Easy Way to Switch: I checked the settings and even tried to install a custom user CSS patch from GitHub to force horizontal tabs, but because Zen is updated so frequently, the code was broken and outdated.

If you love vertical tabs, Zen is a masterpiece. But for me, I didn't want to relearn how to browse the web just to keep my PC from freezing.

Contender 2: Floorp Browser (The Winner!)

Next, I looked at Floorp. I had made a video on Floorp a long time ago, but when I checked back, I was thrilled to see it is still actively maintained, stable, and available across Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Why Floorp Stole the Show:

1. A Mature, Traditional Layout: Out of the box, Floorp looks and feels like a classic browser with standard horizontal tabs.

2. Unbelievable Customization: Through the "Floorp Hub" settings page, you can customize almost everything. You can switch styles (like the gorgeous Proton design), choose between horizontal, vertical, or multi-row tabs, and even pin web panels to a handy sidebar.

3. Mouse Gestures: This is an absolute game-changer. By holding down the right-click button and drawing simple lines, you can easily go back, forward, reload, or close tabs instantly.

4. Seamless Transition: It supports Firefox Sync, meaning I didn’t have to create a new proprietary account to sync my bookmarks and settings.

Because of this incredible flexibility, Floorp instantly became my new default browser. I officially pinned it to my taskbar, pushing Chrome to the sidelines.

One Small Observation: The RAM Question

There is one minor detail I'm keeping an eye on. Historically, Chrome was known as a memory hog, but modern Chrome has gotten incredibly efficient.

In my testing:

• Chrome (utilizing Windows 11's Efficiency Mode) ran 14 background processes using only about 300 MB of RAM.

• Floorp ran 9 background processes but sat at around 700 MB of RAM.

This is a common trait among Firefox-based browsers, which don't always utilize the same aggressive memory-sleeping features as Chromium. However, considering I have 32 GB of RAM, I would happily trade a few extra megabytes of memory to avoid the massive system-wide freezes that Chrome’s local AI was causing.

What Do You Think?

I’m going to run Floorp as my daily driver for the next few weeks to see how it settles into my workflow.

But now I want to hear from you! What browser are you currently using on your setup? Have you noticed your PC struggling with Chrome's newer background updates?

I’ve also made a video on this topic — you can watch it below.

https://youtu.be/_1MBnbOiEvg

Check out my other posts, I post useful tutorials and tech tips, maybe you will find something useful 😉.