I use it because I don't want google to snoop on my browsing habits, and Firefox is the less shitty FOSS browser to my knowledge.
Why do you use Firefox?
101–110 of 121 posts
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#102Firefox is fully open source, does what I want it to. Syncs where I want it to if I choose to sync it. Allows me to run extensions on my Android device (Chrome doesn't). Is more customizable. And it works better portably (not installed into ProgramFiles running from a USB device or synced cloud folder).
Chrome on Windows locks all your saved passwords, extensions, and extension settings to your current OS. If you upgrade to a new PC and copy your APPDATA over, Chrome will unceremoniously delete all your passwords and extension data with no warning.
Chrome on Windows also allows any website to download infected DLLs to the local machine's download directory without prompting. If you then download a trusted digitally signed installer and run it from that download directory, it'll use those infected DLLs unless it specifically hard codes their locations (newer versions of NSIS are safe from this, older versions of NSIS - which are much more common - are vulnerable).
IE and Edge... no thanks.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 anyth…
> 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 I'm unsure what you're arguing here. Their goal is not to abandon addons for the sake of abandoning addons. On the contrary, Mozilla has been sweating blood for years to strike a balance between 1) making the vast architectural changes that will keep them competitive with other…
>> that will keep them competitive with other browsers
I understand that is the hope. In reality it does represent a step away from the approach that has made Firefox popular. I would say it's a guess, at best, that Firefox is suffering because it is not moving towards a Chrome-like model fast enough... versus that Firefox suffering because of the move towards a Chrome-like model.
As far as "striking a balance", no that would be something like allowing users who want to keep older extension models do so by agreeing to a dialog box, and then offering to turn such extensions off in case performance problems actually arise.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#104Technically I feel Firefox is good enough, it supports the browsing I do.
From a non-technical PoV, I use it because I feel that Mozilla genuinely care about their users, their privacy and making a better WWW experience.
Chrome on the other hand gives the impression having one single purpose, harvest as much user-data they possibly can while protecting their business interests. Although I understand it, I don't agree with it and don't think it'll be good for an open and free internet in the long run.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this not available under Chrome for some reason? Or was it not available when you made your switch (or original browser choice)?
NoScript is mentioned in the article as not being available on Chrome, and I've heard that Chrome ad-blockers still show ads. Google being an ad company, I wouldn't expect them to allow particularly thorough ad-blocking.
I'm not one to defend Chrome, but the functionality of uBlock Origin you get on Firefox is the exact same as what you get on Chrome. Same filters available and everything.
If you still see an ad in Chrome with uBlock Origin installed, it's likely that the filters haven't updated to block that particular ad yet. Moreover, you'd likely see the same ad when browsing with the equivalent Firefox.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which keyboard shortcuts do you miss from Chrome?
Two which spring to mind: (1) Email link. It has a menu item (File -> Email link) but no shortcut. Perhaps worse, the standard OSX means of adding a shortcut to a menu item (via System Prefs -> Keyboard) doesn't work with firefox. An assigned shortcut will very briefly flash the menu name, but doesn't then select the item. (2) Chrome has a general dialogue for assinging keyboard shortcuts to extensions. As firefox do…
Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't currently support OS X's custom keyboard shortcuts for menus other than the Firefox application menu.
I found a Firefox extension to customize keyboard shortcuts (ported from a Chrome extension). Unfortunately, the extension doesn't work in Firefox 51 or later (due to some unfortunate version checking logic in the extension itself). I left a message on the extension page, so perhaps the developer will update their extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shortkeys-cus...
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two which spring to mind: (1) Email link. It has a menu item (File -> Email link) but no shortcut. Perhaps worse, the standard OSX means of adding a shortcut to a menu item (via System Prefs -> Keyboard) doesn't work with firefox. An assigned shortcut will very briefly flash the menu name, but doesn't then select the item. (2) Chrome has a general dialogue for assinging keyboard shortcuts to extensions. As firefox do…
Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't currently support OS X's custom keyboard shortcuts for menus other than the Firefox application menu. I found a Firefox extension to customize keyboard shortcuts (ported from a Chrome extension). Unfortunately, the extension doesn't work in Firefox 51 or later (due to some unfortunate version checking logic in the extension itself). I left a message on the extension page, so perhaps the…
Thanks. I'll keep an eye on that extension.
Do you happen to know if there's a bug logged for the custom keyboard shortcut lacuna? And/or for there not being a preset shortcut for emailing links? (Yes I'm being lazy here and will look myself if you don't know).
The above two were top-of-mind examples, but, particularly with extensions, the lack of keyboard shortcuts does add quite a bit of friction to FF use for me. Perhaps not enough to send me back to Chrome (though today it cropped up often enough that I was tempted).
Another example is I haven't found a satisfactory way to add a link to Pinboard from the keyboard. There are a bunch of Pinboard extensions, but the one I like best so far (https://github.com/Cito/Pinboard-Pin) doesn't support shortcuts. In Chrome I would have been able to add my own.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 I'm unsure what you're arguing here. Their goal is not to abandon addons for the sake of abandoning addons. On the contrary, Mozilla has been sweating blood for years to strike a balance between 1) making the vast architectural changes that will keep them competitive with other…
>> that will keep them competitive with other browsers I understand that is the hope. In reality it does represent a step away from the approach that has made Firefox popular. I would say it's a guess, at best, that Firefox is suffering because it is not moving towards a Chrome-like model fast enough... versus that Firefox suffering because of the move towards a Chrome-like model. As far as "striking a balance", no t…
I still think you're underestimating the difficulty here. This would effectively involve keeping a fork of Firefox in-tree, and trying futilely to keep those two implementations bug-for-bug compatible.
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#109No 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…
> Recently Firefox said they were moving away from threads to processes. I think that's a mistake.
It's the only reason I'm still on Chrome/Chromium. I like my exploding processes to be in a sandbox, but that's just me. It's been 10 years since Vista RTM'd and Firefox lagging behind IE. Still a bigger wonder is that the same company is also behind Rust - if you care about security why not put your browser in a sandbox first?
Re: Why do you use Firefox?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
We may be the 1% or some other fringe but this is also my reason. Except for the UI, Chrome is generally ahead. It's not insulting to Firefox contributors. Competing with Google is hard.
I came here to make sure that Tree Style Tabs was represented, and I see that it's already been mentioned several times. Why wouldn't Chrome build this in? It seems like they could grab a decent number of power users that way — and presumably make some of their other users happy along the way. I will note, however, that because of TST on Firefox, I keep way more tabs open there than in Chrome (20x, I'd guess). Based…
I can imagine that's the case. Chrome with just moderate number of tabs open (under 100) already becomes unusable, both from UI and performance perspective, while Firefox many times worked fine for me with thousands.