Live data from Hacker News

Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

apnews.com

51–60 of 99 posts

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#51
post #48
post #6

OK so now I'm considering switching my primary work browser to Safari instead of Chrome (I use Firefox for a lot of my general/personal browsing already). The one thing holding me back is development tools. Which has better devtools, Firefox or Safari? (I've tried both several times but always ended up running back to Chrome...)

>Which has better devtools, Firefox or Safari? Firefox for sure. You can install dev tools extensions (like https://github.com/vuejs/vue-devtools ) + Fx has more features to begin with

Not to mention Firefox Developer Edition in general: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#52
post #7
post #2

>"Apple and Mozilla are able to push the boundaries on privacy because neither depends on advertising. Google makes most of its money from selling ads." I am curious will Google at some point push back on Mozilla's efforts here? Isn't the placement of Google search as the default search engine in Firefox a significant source of funding?

Isn't there relationship already problematic? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/20/firefox-g...

Old news.

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/11/14/firefox-features-go...

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#53
post #6

OK so now I'm considering switching my primary work browser to Safari instead of Chrome (I use Firefox for a lot of my general/personal browsing already). The one thing holding me back is development tools. Which has better devtools, Firefox or Safari? (I've tried both several times but always ended up running back to Chrome...)

I really wish I could use FF for dev, but until they add a "resend XHR" option (vs/ their "Edit and Resend"), it's unusable. I need immediate "resend" and never, ever, edit.

Second deal-breaker with FF is the bug whereby you cannot edit/resend XHR at all with filters enabled: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1432724

Without filters, the list in the "Network" panel is next to useless.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#54
post #6

OK so now I'm considering switching my primary work browser to Safari instead of Chrome (I use Firefox for a lot of my general/personal browsing already). The one thing holding me back is development tools. Which has better devtools, Firefox or Safari? (I've tried both several times but always ended up running back to Chrome...)

I'd highly recommend running the Firefox 63 beta, they've (finally) fixed some longstanding macOS performance issues and it feels significantly faster than previous releases.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#55
post #24

The biggest draw to Chrome is the dev tools. The debugger especially is on par with Visual Studio, may be better, and smooth (too smooth actually, especially the scrolling) whereas Firefox chokes 90% of the time as if it were created by novices. For instance, the break point never works, and if it does, the variable values are undefined. I am using v60 but this has been happening for many versions now. I have never f…

> I am not sure how much of this is out of genuine concern for the users... Does it matter as long as it benefits the user?

On a philosophical level, yes, intentions matter, not just here but in general. There are ample scenarios where wrong intentions lead to positive results, and they are rightly criticized.

As for this point you have highlighted, its just a comment, thinking out aloud, and not worthy of dissection or having a discussion about.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#56
post #6

OK so now I'm considering switching my primary work browser to Safari instead of Chrome (I use Firefox for a lot of my general/personal browsing already). The one thing holding me back is development tools. Which has better devtools, Firefox or Safari? (I've tried both several times but always ended up running back to Chrome...)

I use Firefox AND Chrome for work. Chrome for development with the dev tools (I don't really mind if Chrome is phoning home to google with URLs like `localhost:8080`, and my local dev sites certainly aren't setting tracking cookies.

I use Firefox with the new Container Tabs feature for everything else (email, JIRA, etc), which is particularly nice as you can have multiple accounts from the same SAAS site open in the same window.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#57
post #32

When I'm logged into google I get aggressive recaptchas on other sites I can't solve, so I've moved to the google container plugin https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai...

Interesting, I would have thought there would be less. Any guesses as to why that is? My perception is I encounter them more frequently when browsing a VPN. I would be curious if anyone else has experienced similar. I think the pervasiveness of the Google recaptcha is one of the biggest scourges of the modern web. I understand the importance of utility of course.

You'd think there would be less, and this is not via VPN.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#58
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are a few reasons. 1. Ad blockers have a performance impact. 2. As blockers don’t have the number of uses that the browsers have, so I have seen websites routinely request to turn them off. However if the protection is built into the browser sites cannot ask users to switch to a different browser, they have to figure something out or suck in less data. 3. It’s also a vote against Chrome and Facebook telling them…

And you'd have to trust the ad-blocker in addition to trusting the browser maker.

Not if you are using iOS or MacOS with Safari. The ad blocker you install just sends a list of blocking rules to Safari and then Safari implements them. The ad blocker can’t intercept your browsing history.

Re: Apple, Firefox tools aim to thwart Facebook, Google tracking

#60
> To get the protections, you’ll have to break your habit of using Google’s Chrome browser, which by some estimates has more than half of the worldwide browser usage. Safari and Firefox have less than 20 percent combined.

This point is key here. I switched to FF about 6 months ago and every time I'm showing something to co-workers they will usually remark how unusual it is that I'm not using Chrome. Chrome is the de facto engineer's browser and for good reasons to boot. Here's hoping FF catches up and becomes that some day.

Post reply on HN