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It’s time to give Firefox another chance

techcrunch.com

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Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#231

Post by SwellJoe »

Arubis wrote: post #30

Boy, I _really_ didn't want to swap to Chrome. I'd held on through about a year ago, even despite knowing it was slower, a memory hog, and so on; at least this way, _someone_ on my team was viewing our site in FF and would notice discrepancies. I hated to let Google manage yet another aspect of my life. But as some point, too much was too much. Unable to bear vanilla, Google-owned Chrome, I ended up in (closed-source…

I haven't crashed nightly (I'm running the developer edition nightly) in months, but I've seen some rendering bugs since they rolled in the overhauled bits. Not as much as one might expect from a bunch of new parts, though. The quality of Firefox is just generally very high.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#232

Post by Myrmornis »

Can someone explain the difference between the process / thread architecture of chrome and firefox desktop apps and the implications of this difference? On MacOS Chrome appears as many processes named Chrome helper or something, whereas Firefox appears as a single process with many threads. Given that the two are trying to solve the same problem and are so superficially similar, is the difference in architecture surprising?

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#233

Post by KGIII »

kenhwang wrote: post #60
eridius wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can assume Google is tracking a ton of data beyond just what Google searches users do. Firefox users who pick Google as the search engine are still giving a lot of info to Google, but less info than Google would have had if the user was using Chrome.

You can also turn off search suggestions for the address bar so it only sends things to Google when you search. It's still giving search information to Google, but that's much more preferable to sending literally everything you type in the box.

Privacy is a tricky thing and a bit of a spectrum.

I will happily give up some information in exchange for a service that I like. I'll happily give Google my search history, including typos in the search bar, in exchange for them tailoring my responses.

Why? The difference in results is huge. I don't need to specific that I'm looking for Linux answers, math functions, or scientific results. Google knows this, it has learned it from the many years of data that I have given them. Searching anonymously makes my search much less productive and less efficient.

At the same time, I don't want Google watching me poop. I'm okay with then knowing some things, but not others. I've been pretty open with Google, knowingly so, just to get these tailored responses and, to me, they are worth it.

There's still lots of things I don't tell Google. There are still lots of companies that don't give me anything I value, so I don't willingly give them information. It's a sliding scale and needs recipricocity from the business entity, I expect a return from my giving up information.

It's also a very individual choice and best decided at the individual level. I give Google info, but I'd never say someone else should have to. I think it possible to optimize for just that.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#234

Post by [deleted] »

freehunter wrote: post #223
JamesFM wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to go off on you because this is a larger issue then your comment but seriously, can we hold this discussion to a higher standard? Prove to me that Google is tracking me through Chrome. Link me to an article with proof of collection. Most of us our developers here, surely we can apply some more rigor to this conversation then “we know Google is doing this because it’s Google”.

There are an awful lot of green user names lately shutting down conversations using things like "citation needed" or "prove it" on subjects where it's completely inconsequential or the conclusion is obvious. Everyone can easily see how old your account is and the devs of HN made it that way on purpose. Apologies if anyone here isn't willing to bend over backwards for the demands of an account that wasn't even created…

[deleted]

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#235

Post by nevster »

So torn by this.

I've always been a Firefox user and one of my favourite addons is Tab Groups. Unfortunately it will stop working with 57.

I'm really keen to update to 57 but until Tab Groups gets updated I'm going to be sticking to 56.

Please someone take over the dev!

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#236

Post by paulryanrogers »

ferongr wrote: post #165

I'd like to, but on Android Firefox is lightyears behind Chrome in many ways (including performance), and I get too much utility out of password/history/bookmark syncing between various devices to switch.

Xmarks is still around, albeit less capable than fully integrated Chrome

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#238

Post by ATsch »

digi_owl wrote: post #177
ATsch wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, for me at least, it's not a viable option. Firefox on android still feels significantly more sluggish than chrome. Plus, googles questionable business practice of embedding chrome into many apps, while making opening links very fast, adds another three clicks to someone not using chrome.

Best i can tell, Firefox is doing something on Android during first (cold?) launch that just chugs the storage. The really problem source is that all this is stored in the cache dir for the app, and that can and will be flushed at irregular intervals. This resulting in Firefox doing it over again next time it is launched.

Well, my issue was mainly with render speed. The delay between scrolling and the site actually rendering in is the issue.

Re: It’s time to give Firefox another chance

#239

Post by KGIII »

Jerry2 wrote: post #206
sf_rob wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that it's likely because Apple has much more leverage and their major source of funding isn't their browser. I could imagine a world where ad-based services started blocking/paywalling Firefox user-agents. Hopefully now that Apple has opened the door Mozilla is safe to walk through too.

You actually think that websites would ban Firefox' user agent?!?

That depends, really. Firefox usage is barely in the double digits and has been steadily declining for quite a while. If it becomes a hassle, then maybe. I'd expect them to boot Safari users first. We will have to see how it goes.
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