Why I Switched from Chrome: Real-World Benefits and Migration Guide to Puma

Why I Switched from Chrome: Real-World Benefits and a Practical Migration Guide to Puma

Hook: If you’re a developer or IT admin fed up with Chrome’s resource bloat, opaque cloud sync, and the challenge of keeping local-AI workflows private, this is for you. In 2026 the browser landscape shifted: local AI in the browser is real, and Puma is one of the fastest-growing choices for privacy-first, on-device LLM features. Here’s a battle-tested, step-by-step migration guide that preserves profiles, extensions, developer workflows, and—most importantly—your local AI setup.

The why: Why devs and IT teams are choosing Puma in 2026

Late 2025 to early 2026 saw a surge in browsers prioritizing on-device AI. Security, performance, and offline AI capabilities drove adoption across engineering teams and regulated environments. The top reasons I moved off Chrome:

• Local AI by default. Puma’s emphasis on running models and prompt logic locally reduces cloud telemetry and latency for prompt-heavy developer workflows.
• Smaller memory footprint. Puma’s mobile-first engineering and streamlined background services reduce RAM and battery use on dev laptops and phones.
• Privacy and control. On-device models + explicit model selection means sensitive corpora don’t leave your machine unless you choose so.
• Faster prototyping of AI-powered tooling. Local embeddings, snippets, and custom prompt libraries accelerate code search, unit test generation, and offline documentation crawlers.

Overview: What to expect during migration

This guide covers three target audiences and scenarios:

• Individual developers switching personal setups (desktop and mobile).
• IT admins migrating teams—mass export/import strategies and policies.
• Engineers preserving and porting local AI artifacts (models, embeddings, prompt libraries).

Key constraints to know up front: mobile Puma apps and desktop builds may not mirror Chrome’s feature set 1:1 (extensions, remote debugging, and profile format differences can exist). Always validate on a small pilot group before enterprise-wide rollouts.

Step 0 — Plan and test (do this first)

1. Create a migration checklist with required items: bookmarks, passwords, cookies (if needed), extensions or equivalent functionality, local AI data (prompts, models, embeddings), developer tools and remote-debugging workflows.
2. Pick a pilot group (1–5 users). Test the full migration, measure feature gaps, and collect compatibility notes. See modern onboarding patterns in developer onboarding to streamline pilot training.
3. Decide the migration approach: manual (recommended for small teams) or automated (scripts, MDM/endpoint tools for large teams).

Step 1 — Preserve browser profiles and bookmarks

Bookmarks are the simplest thing to bring over, and they’re a good sanity check after migration.

Export bookmarks from Chrome

1. Open chrome://bookmarks -> Menu -> Export bookmarks.
2. This creates an HTML file that any browser can import.

Import into Puma

1. In Puma, open the Bookmarks manager and choose Import -> HTML file.
2. Verify folder structure and reorder as needed.

If you prefer the command line (desktop):

# Example: copy Chrome "Bookmarks" file on Linux
cp ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Bookmarks ~/backup/chrome-bookmarks.json
# You can convert or parse this JSON with jq for scripted imports

Tip: Keep a copy of the exported bookmark HTML in your team repo—useful for scripted onboarding.

Step 2 — Move passwords and logins safely

Passwords are the part that introduces the most friction. The safest, most transparent route is to use a password manager as an intermediary.

Recommended flow (individuals & small teams)

1. From Chrome, go to chrome://settings/passwords -> Export passwords. This generates a CSV (stored locally temporarily).
2. Import the CSV into a reputable password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password, LastPass). Use the manager’s CLI for automation (Bitwarden CLI demo below).
3. From Puma, use the password manager’s extension or native integration to fill logins. If Puma supports direct CSV import, import only from the manager or verify CSV format first.

Automation example with Bitwarden CLI

# Import CSV into Bitwarden vault (example)
# 1) Login with BW CLI
bw login you@company.com
# 2) Import CSV into a temporary collection (desktop)
bw import bitwarden path/to/chrome-passwords.csv --collectionid 
# 3) Sync and verify
bw sync

For enterprise migrations, export from Chrome centrally is rarely possible due to encryption and policy. Use your SSO and password manager rollout to enforce credential migration.

Step 3 — Replace or migrate extensions and extension-like workflows

Extensions are the stickiest issue—Chrome’s extension ecosystem is vast, but mobile Puma and privacy-first browsers take a different approach. Treat extensions as features, not files: find equivalent tools or use PWAs and native apps where possible.

Audit extensions and map replacements

1. List installed extensions in Chrome: chrome://extensions -> Developer mode -> Export list (or use a short script to parse the extensions folder).
2. Classify extensions by function: password manager, adblocker, devtools, session manager, editor/clipboard, integrations.
3. For each function, find a Puma-native option or an external tool (e.g., use a system-wide adblocker or a PWA for Slack/Asana).

Dev extensions and remote debugging

Developer-focused workflows often depend on DevTools extensions and remote debugging. Two strategies:

• If Puma exposes a remote debugging or CDP (Chrome DevTools Protocol) endpoint, you can connect tools like Puppeteer, Playwright, or a browser-based DevTools client. Test by launching Puma with a remote-debugging port and connecting a client.
• If Puma does not support CDP, use alternative workflows: run headless Chromium for automation, and use Puma for everyday browsing. Keep the automation and tests unchanged, but switch the interactive browser.

Example Puppeteer connection (if Puma supports a Chrome-like executable path):

// Node.js (conditional) - launch puppeteer with Puma executable
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
(async () => {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    executablePath: '/path/to/puma',
    args: ['--remote-debugging-port=9222']
  });
  const page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  console.log(await page.title());
  await browser.close();
})();

Note: Only run this if Puma exposes a Chromium-like interface. Otherwise keep running browser automation against a supported automation browser.

Step 4 — Preserve sessions and cookies (optional and advanced)

Session cookies are sensitive and often encrypted—direct copying can fail across OSes or when the browser uses a different profile key. Approaches:

• Re-authenticate: Best-practice: sign in again and use SSO or 2FA for accounts—it’s more secure and avoids brittle cookie hacks.
• Session export extensions: Use Session Buddy or similar to export open tabs and sessions as URLs, then re-open in Puma.
• Profile folder copy (advanced): If Puma is Chromium-based, copying the profile folder (Bookmarks, History, Preferences) may work. Strictly test on a disposable account first.

Step 5 — Preserve local AI: prompts, embeddings, models

This is the most important section for developers. Your local AI artifacts are the work you’ll lose if you only copy bookmarks. I separate this into three categories: Prompts & prompt libraries, embeddings & local search indices, and local model files.

Prompts and prompt libraries

Most modern local-AI browsers (including Puma’s mobile app) provide a way to export/import prompt collections via JSON or clipboard. Best practices:

• Use the browser’s Export feature (Settings > Prompts > Export). If unavailable, copy and paste prompts into a JSON file or a Git repo for versioning.
• Store prompts under version control when they’re part of team workflows—commit them to a private repo with access logs.

Embeddings and local search indices

Embeddings are often specific to the model and vector store. To migrate:

1. Export the vector index if Puma exposes an export (Vector DB > Export > Format like FAISS or Annoy or a JSON of vectors). See playbooks on site search observability for guidance on preserving indexes and recovery strategies.
2. If not available, re-index your documents using the same pipeline and model locally to preserve vector similarity behaviour.

Local model files

If you run downloaded models on-device, make sure you back up the model files and any license keys. Model directories are typically large—use rsync or an external drive:

# Example rsync backup of model folder
rsync -avh --progress ~/puma/models/ /mnt/backup/puma-models/

On mobile, prefer the app’s export or cloud backup feature. On Android, advanced users can extract app storage via an enterprise MDM or with adb if the app provides export endpoints.

Security note: Treat local models like sensitive software assets. Maintain provenance and comply with license terms. For a focused look at supply-chain risks and defenses, see a case study on red‑teaming supervised pipelines.

Step 6 — Mobile specifics: Android & iOS migration

Puma’s strength in 2026 is its mobile local-AI experience. Here’s how to move from Chrome Mobile:

Android

1. Install Puma from Google Play.
2. Open Chrome > Settings > Bookmarks > Export (or use desktop export and transfer the HTML to your phone).
3. Use Chrome’s Settings > Passwords > Export to CSV and import into your mobile password manager that Puma supports.
4. Use Puma’s Import options or manually add bookmarks and PWAs for quick access.
5. For local AI artifacts, use the app’s built-in export features. If you need a full app-data dump for enterprise provisioning, use your MDM or an ADB-based workflow under a managed device profile.

iOS

1. Install Puma from the App Store.
2. Use desktop exports for bookmarks and passwords, then import via iCloud Keychain or a third-party password manager that integrates with iOS.
3. For prompt and model backups, rely on Puma’s export or cloud backup (encrypted). iOS restricts direct app file extraction without special enterprise tooling.

Step 7 — Security hardening and policy settings (IT admin checklist)

When you rollout Puma to a team, follow these prioritized hardening steps:

• Enforce managed password manager integration and disable CSV imports for end users where possible.
• Restrict local model downloads by policy if your org prohibits unvetted models—use your MDM to control storage or whitelists.
• Configure update policy to ensure Puma gets security patches fast.
• Network controls: route telemetry and model update traffic through corporate proxies for visibility if required by policy.
• Audit logs: enable logging for prompt export/import and model downloads when available; see playbooks on collaborative tagging & edge indexing to capture provenance.

Troubleshooting & compatibility notes

• Pages render differently: If CSS or JS differences appear, use the browser’s UA string setting or feature flags. Some web apps perform feature-detection against Chrome; report these to the vendor.
• Extensions missing: For missing Chrome extensions, identify server-side or cloud-native alternatives (bots, integrations) or run a Chromium build for those edge cases.
• Devtools gaps: Keep a small Chromium install for debugging or CI automation if Puma’s devtools are missing features you need.
• Local AI mismatch: If embedding results change after migration, re-index content with the same model and hyperparameters to recover parity.

Case study: My migration workflow (real-world, condensed)

Here’s how I migrated my personal dev laptop and phone in a weekend:

1. Exported bookmarks and passwords from Chrome to a temporary directory.
2. Imported passwords into Bitwarden, verified logins on a few critical sites.
3. Installed Puma on desktop and mobile, imported bookmarks, and installed Bitwarden integration.
4. Exported my prompt library from Chrome’s local AI plugin (JSON) and imported into Puma’s prompt manager. Re-ran prompt-based workflows and validated output parity.
5. Backed up local model files to an encrypted volume, then re-pointed Puma to the local model folder.
6. Kept a lightweight Chromium build for CI and remote debugging where CDP was required, while I used scripted helpers inspired by micro-app playbooks like Build a Micro-App Swipe for quick tooling.

2026 trends—and what they mean for your migration

As of early 2026 several trends affect browser migrations:

• Local-first AI. More browsers and apps ship with on-device LLM support. Expect improved model compression and runtime performance—good for offline dev workflows; hardware benchmarking such as the AI HAT+ 2 shows where on-device performance matters.
• Regulatory scrutiny. Privacy and explainability are increasingly enforced; migrating to a browser that explicitly supports local AI simplifies compliance for many teams.
• Enterprise tooling. MDM vendors and browser vendors are producing more hooks for secure model distribution and policy control—leverage these in large rollouts.

Final checklist before switching fully

• Back up Chrome profile folder and exported artifacts to secure storage.
• Confirm password manager sync works with Puma on all devices.
• Verify that your critical extensions have Puma-compatible alternatives or fallback strategies.
• Export and test local AI artifacts (prompts, embeddings, models) and keep a verified recovery plan.
• Pilot with a small group and measure key metrics: memory, CPU, page load, local model latency, and devtools compatibility.

Actionable takeaways

• Use a password manager as the migration bridge—it removes the pain of encrypted password blobs.
• Treat extensions as features—map them to Puma-native solutions, PWAs, or external tools.
• Back up your local AI artifacts—prompts and vector indices are the highest value assets to preserve.
• Pilot first—run a small migration to identify blockers before a full rollout.

Closing — Should you switch?

If your priority is lower telemetry, local AI capabilities, and an efficient mobile-first browsing experience, moving from Chrome to Puma is a practical and defensible choice in 2026. The migration requires planning—passwords, extensions, and local models are the main work—but with a clear checklist and a small pilot you can preserve your workflows and gain the benefits of on-device AI and tighter privacy controls.

Ready to migrate? Start with one device, export bookmarks and passwords, and import them into Puma. Back up your local-AI files first. If you’re an IT admin and want a migration playbook we can adapt for your environment, I’ve created a downloadable checklist and scripted helpers—get in touch or drop a comment below and I’ll share them.

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