Need something other than Chrome and IE that has decent plugin support.
Why do you use Firefox?
81–90 of 121 posts
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#82No 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…
>No processes From my understanding, the initial rollout of multi-process has a single render process (in addition to the main browser process). There are ongoing experiments to determine the optimal number of processes, so it's likely to increase soon. In the future you can force this to 1 by using the "dom.ipc.processCount" pref if you don't want your process manager to resemble Chrome.
That's correct. Firefox currently uses one main browser process, one content process (for all tabs), and a plugin sandbox process. Multiple content processes (aka "e10s-multi") are coming soon, currently two content processes are the default in Firefox Developer Edition (53) and Nightly (54). More content processes will be added, though the Firefox team is quite aware of the concerns about memory usage. The next step will probably be four content processes plus a ServiceWorker process.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis/Multiple_content_proce...
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#83- not owned by a corp - I am used to the way the software feels (the way it hangs up or freezes... but at work I use Google Chrome because of the proxy and being used to it in that specific place it's firefox I can't stand... with the exception of the company issued laptop on which I installed firefox (no proxy)). Psychosomatic ? Very much, yes. - free software - I like the logo and the name (I am a minotaur and phoe…
> I am a minotaur and phoenix early adopter and moz before that
Interesting, I had never heard of Mozilla Minotaur before. I can't find many details online, other than it was a new mail client before Phoenix was renamed Firefox. Was Minotaur an early version of Thunderbird?
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#84In approximately this order:
1. Trust and privacy issues (limited phoning home, separate search/address bars, etc. plus generally promoting a more open Web)
2. Stability and reliability (in the sense that things continue to work over time)
3. Gets updates (but doesn't force them unexpectedly)
4. Large and flexible add-ons ecosystem (and I'm already familiar with it)
5. Momentum/habit
In practice, 1-3 rule out Chrome as my everyday browser choice, while 1 and 3 rule out IE, so today Firefox basically wins by default on my Windows 7 PCs.
If Mozilla rearranges or breaks too many things and if it's then no longer possible to have a secure version of Firefox without getting those other changes, most of the above points will become deal-breakers for Firefox as well. In that event, I'll mostly likely switch to something like Pale Moon for my own use and just keep the big names around for testing.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#85Goodwill, as I like Mozilla much more than Google. I kind of dislike the Chrome UI, but that's a minor point. A lot of FF is hare-brained, though. E10S solved the unresponsive UI for me, but for the life of me, I don't know how to enable it on my touchscreen Dell. There is no indicator in preferences that tells me whether it is on or off and no button to simply force it. Javascript-heavy websites tend to burn through…
I spoke with a Firefox dev, I was told that due to accessibility settings, multithreading with touchscreens wouldn't come until the current Beta build is released to stable. Technically it should already work on the beta build but it doesn't seem to work for me.
AFAIK, accessibility support, including touchscreens, should be enabled in Firefox Beta 52 now:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Schedule
In the meantime, you can force Firefox to enable multiprocess, even if you have a touchscreen by creating a new about:config pref "browser.tabs.remote.force-enable" = true.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#86I'm trying it out for a while, having mostly used Chrome in recent years. Perhaps oddly it's climate change that has prompted this. Where I live each summer is hotter than the last, and Chrome's persistent high cpu use this year has been making my macbook worryingly hot. Safari is more efficient but lacks many useful extensions. Firefox is pleasing so far. The laptop is far quieter and cooler. I've found all the exte…
Which keyboard shortcuts do you miss from Chrome?
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#87Firefox's address bar is much more intelligent than Chrome. The moment i type a keyword it shows me the sites i visited from the past that has this keyword. Firefox also supports flick gesture from my Wacom tablet on my Windows machine to scroll up/down webpages.
I thought I was the only one - chrome's address bar is unusable for me.
Chrome's address bar is almost obsessed with considering everything you type into the bar being a Google search.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#88For me it's a combination of extensions and philosophy. Philosophy is pretty clear, but extensions that I find necessary are: Tree Style Tabs (Chrome does not have a good replacement, I've tried them all) DownThemAll LastPass with better functionality Mouse gestures (this is HUGE for me, I want to be able to lazily browse with my mouse when I please, open/close and switch tabs with just a right-click and a flick)
The Tree Style Tabs author is quite active[1]. I knew, he had a really great, and funny, site[2] for XUL lovers out there.
I was about to make a snarky comment about how filthy rich should he be, based on how TST is always praised everywhere, so I went to look for a donation button to link to my planned snarky comment.
I didn't find any donations button, so I dug a bit more and found this[3]: 'I am an incumbent IT engineer, but apart from my company's work, I'm serializing articles in the manga format entitled "Cis Tube Girls" in the monthly magazine on Linux related technology called Nikkei Linux.'
Seriously, check this comic: http://system-admin-girl.com/about/
I love Firefox, Tree Style Tabs, Google Translate, and the Internetcetera. I love you Piro, thanks!!!
[2] http://piro.sakura.ne.jp/xul/xul.html.en
[3] https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#89Might be worthwhile having a survey asking what browser HN users use most of the time (I use two, but one dominates quite a lot; neither are FF).
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#90Generally speaking, I use Firefox because I've always used Firefox. At no point have they ever done something that's made me upset enough with my browsing experience to jump platforms entirely. It's familiar, it has the extensions I need and it hasn't buggered up in any significant way that I uninstalled it from frustration.
It's the same for me: I've used it since it was Netscape 2. I've used the single-digit Mozilla milestones (the ones that crashed if you opened more than one window, or if you looked at them funny). I've survived the "flamey bird renaming" era. I'm simply used to the way it works. Yes, it has changed, but any change has been gradual.
Also, on Android it has the uBlock Origin extension, which with its ability (in advanced mode) to block images and Javascript helps keep the data consumption low (and make the sites load faster).