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Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

robert.ocallahan.org

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Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#61

Post by bigbugbag »

gtirloni wrote: post #42
Yoric wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what people don't know can't hurt them, right? More seriously, there is a battlefield on the web. Since the demise of Opera, Firefox is the only mainstream browser left standing that actively attempts to not violate your privacy. This doesn't mean that Firefox developers don't need to work on ways to make Firefox the best browser – incidentally, Firefox in January 2017 is orders of magnitude better than Firefox i…

Firefox was always my default browser since ever but 2-3 years ago I switched to Chrome full time. Every month or so, I try Firefox again with all the websites I care about, check how fast it feels, the JS performance, etc and, while it's pretty good, Chrome still is/feels faster. My tests are pretty subjective at times but I never find a huge reason to switch from Chrome (privacy issues aside). Each time I think I'v…

It's been a while since there's no significant performance difference between the biggest web browsers. I'm curious about the websites you care about, would they be tied to google in any way ?

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#63

Post by fivre »

jasonkester wrote: post #10

Why not just say "Good Riddance?" From a pragmatic perspective, the fewer browsers we as developers need to support, the better. There has never been any meaningful standardization between browsers. Even "modern" browsers are all different enough that you need to test and code specific paths for each of them unless you stick to trivial things. Personally, I want the same thing I wanted back in 1996 when I started thi…

sgoraete v mussornom pozhare, ty prescriptivist web developer scum. da, da, my've all heard the philosophers babble about "oneness" being "beautiful" and "holy". But let me tell you that {this} kind of oneness certainly isn't pretty and if you're not careful you*ll will scare the bejeezus out of your an self.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#64

Post by screwt »

abhpan27 wrote: post #13

People choose firefox over IE because firefox was better. People choose chrome over firefox and IE because chrome is better. Want to beat google? create better. Not negativity.

True. But also the pendulum of which is better (Firefox vs Chrome) has swung back and forth a couple of times since Chrome first came out and overtook FF. At this point though most people are just using whichever was best N years ago, and haven't thought to compare recently.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#65

Post by [deleted] »

exergy wrote: post #54
sarreph wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I think we've seen throughout societal history that if you want to affect change you have to do it through the path of least resistance for consumers; this means creating a better browser experience that people use not because they want to revolt, but because they gain utility from doing so.

Can I ask something? For me Firefox IS better. Chrome on Android doesnt seem to support extensions (so no uBlock), doesn't have reader view, and would highly prefer it if I signed in. Orfox and Firefox both do not have these issues. Even on desktop, I prefer Firefox (although mostly due to higher familiarity with it). Does Chrome really have some killer feature that I'm not seeing? I can't seem to figure out where ex…

[deleted]

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#66

Post by Inconel »

pyrale wrote: post #8

At this point, it's not anymore about customer choice, the problem is systemic. Serving Google with the same kind of antitrust Microsoft got would be highly deserved and beneficial, but unfurtunately google made the political investments that Microsoft lacked. Which means we get to hear officials say Google is indeed in a situation deserving the antitrust, but it's fine "because their products bring value to customer…

Genuine question from someone not well versed in this topic but interested in learning more, can you give me some examples of what Google is doing that is abusive of their monopoly power, particularly as it relates to Chrome?

I'm aware of some of the issues involving Android licensing/bundling of apps but not well informed on other aspects.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#67

Post by blackoil »

jonchang wrote: post #49
g00gler wrote: post #37

Why should I use Firefox, or any other browser, from a standard consumer prospective? Let me preface this by saying I am open to a new browser, especially one that is always in "incognito" and doesn't share sessions between tabs/windows. My favorite is Lynx but that doesn't always work . Facebook & Messenger for Android is pretty much spyware and they have over 1B downloads each, so that takes spying out of the discu…

> Why should I use Firefox, or any other browser, from a standard consumer prospective? Because your techie friends tell you to. This moved people off of IE6 to Firefox and this is what initially got people to move to Chrome from Firefox. Google's muscle on its web properties did the rest. Even you admit that Chrome is only marginally better on all benchmarks. For me, it's worth it to help your non-technical friends…

People listened to the real benefits in terms of speed, tabs and UX while moving from IE, not to the rheotric about freedom, OSS etc. Do we have any such reasons now?

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#68

Post by rtpg »

redditmigrant wrote: post #55
g00gler wrote: post #37

Why should I use Firefox, or any other browser, from a standard consumer prospective? Let me preface this by saying I am open to a new browser, especially one that is always in "incognito" and doesn't share sessions between tabs/windows. My favorite is Lynx but that doesn't always work . Facebook & Messenger for Android is pretty much spyware and they have over 1B downloads each, so that takes spying out of the discu…

Choosing linux at the time when you had to compile drivers, apply patches before you could get a monitor properly running was also not very user "standard" from a consumer perspective. But that spirit of trying out a piece of software that gives your more freedom, or allows a more open ecosystem to thrive is and will always be a good reason. Browsers and mobile OSes are two places where I think even we as developers…

I still feel like Chrome being called closed is in pretty bad faith.

Chromium holds almost all of Chrome and is open source. Multiple (!) alternative browsers are based on this.

You could argue against the WebKit monoculture, but that's a different topic. The browser ecosystem has never been this open

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#69

Post by vegabook »

Firefox is my default browser but I have Chrome handy too in case I have to use Google Docs (things like Copy paste don't work properly in Firefox). I find that Firefox is maybe 50% slower than Chrome on initial load, but thereafter, I can't tell the difference. I really cannot see how an extra second or so of load time for a software product that one uses all day every day (ie you probably load it only once), represents a material performance difference. I think Chrome at this point is much more about inertia, and it is entirely reasonable to argue that we need competition and to request for people to use Firefox. Moreover I find Mozilla to be quite credible on its Firefox roadmap; after all, they invented a whole new, advanced, programming language, just for Firefox, and there's a lot of noise coming out of Mozilla on its various strategies IMO (including the logo, for example) which suggests to me that the organization is dynamic and has a strong future. Therefore I'm supporting Mozilla, and it's essentially costing me nothing, while hopefully doing a small bit to prevent a dangerous hegemony from forming.
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