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Why do you use Firefox?

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Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#61

Post by oxide »

I've switched back and forth over the years.

I'll never switch again.

I prefer noscript to scriptsafe, I refuse to browse without a whitelister. I like the fact that the mobile version supports the extensions I see as vital.

Chrome has one thing going for it, market share. which is why I keep Chromium installed for when I can't log into citibank to pay a bill, etc.

Also, when I was a teenager without my own computer, my mother used to think Firefox was a virus. She'd tell me "uninstall that mozzarella foxfire virus IMMEDIATELY!"

that always makes me laugh.

I guess Mozzarella Foxfire hasn't burnt enough of their goodwill to scare me off for good the way Google has.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#62

Post by wvenable »

> vast majority of users could switch to Chrome and get all the same extensions with almost identical functionality

I'm surprised this isn't a more worrying point!

> In fact it's insulting to all those contributors who work so hard on Firefox to say that extensions are the only thing keeping them from switching to Chrome.

But that's your most distinguishing feature. Ok, you have the stats to show that most people don't even notice. I think that's more insulting than us diehards who are actually using your product to its fullest. I love Firefox for the power it gives (extension) developers. Now you're telling me is that you're putting in a lot of work towards taking something away that I've used for over a decade. Don't expect those diehards to be happy about it.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#63

Post by laktak »

I don't understand Chrome's split personality (Chromium). While you could theoretically get a version that is disconnected from Google, does one actually exist?

There is also this issue [1] that's been open since 2011 that won't let me implement an extension similar to something like "Self destructing cookies". Looks like it doesn't align with Googles interests.

[1] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=78093

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#64

Post by replete »

Because Firefox Add-ons allow more browser-enhancement than Chrome.

An example - TileTabs. Not only can you show any number of tabs in a grid like layout one one screen (so helpful for work), but it can compress them all into just one tab.

Chrome's extensions are allowed an icon in one of two places.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#66

Post by rwallace »

I would prefer to use Chrome because of the process per tab model, but the second time a Chrome update started the browser intermittently crashing, I ran out of patience and switched to Firefox as my primary browser.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#67

Post by oftenwrong »

jitl wrote: post #41

- TreeStyleTabs - Vimperator The Chrome alternatives for both of these do not compare well. Cvim, vimium, etc lack a lot of depth like .vimperatorrc (a config I can track in Git!). The TreeStyleTabs alternatives in Chrome require a separate sidecar window in Chrome! This mikes window management a nightmare. Sigh.

cVim does have a cvimrc file. You have to use the `configpath` and `localconfig` settings.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#68

Post by kibwen »

omash wrote: post #37

I could switch to Chrome but I have Firefox set up already and know how it works. I sincerely hate the Firefox developers for breaking addons constantly and now making it so I can't even edit addons without a painful signing process. Addons in Firefox seemed more powerful in the past but I'm confident WebExtensions will remove this advantage.

> I sincerely hate the Firefox developers for breaking addons constantly

Exhibit A for why it's a good idea to allow addons only through a specified addons API (i.e. how Chrome does it): your users won't hate you merely for daring to make normal changes to your codebase.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#69

Post by threepipeproblm »

kibwen wrote: post #59
threepipeproblm wrote: post #16

I think the argument misses the point. Most of the people who are using Firefox without extensions are doing so because someone who likes the freedom of the browser -- including the ability to run all current extensions -- suggested it. >> In fact it's insulting to all those contributors who work so hard on Firefox to say that extensions are the only thing keeping them from switching to Chrome. The ability to run ext…

> why are they stopping with that mentality? Because, in practice, officially giving unfettered access to Firefox's internals to third-party developers makes changing anything in the Firefox codebase a potential quagmire. It's taken five or six years for electrolysis to begin seeing the light of day, and that's because such a drastic rearchitecture of the browser ended up breaking basically every popular addon in the…

That was well said. But at the end of the day doesn't it remain an argument that users shouldn't be able to run the extensions that have been freely available, aka "we know better than you." Breaking Firefox to turn it into the browser they wished they had made will be disastrous, I'm afraid. It seems to me there are any number of "middle paths" (or dual paths) that Mozilla could take, but they don't want to do anything to jeopardize their consolidated user base.

Re: Why do you use Firefox?

#70

Post by zerocrates »

mybrid wrote: post #21

No processes. No hangouts. No index service started without asking. Chrome on Windows is a pig. Back when I was using it then nonstop then 25% of CPU usage was pegged to Chrome. I gave up trying to manage Chrome and switched to Firefox. Recently Firefox said they were moving away from threads to processes. I think that's a mistake. Killing Chrome was a pain at times because when it does hang all the child processes h…

What does Firefox do with profiles that isn't supported by Chrome's "persons" or whatever they're called?

The extensions, histories, settings, etc. are separate in different Chrome profiles, I'm not sure what more I'd want them to do.

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