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Why I’m done with Chrome

blog.cryptographyengineering.com

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Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#261

Post by esprehn »

skndr wrote: post #120

For those who've switched over to Firefox recently and find Youtube inexplicably slow, it's "because YouTube's Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated Shadow DOM v0 API only implemented in Chrome." [0] The YouTube Classic extension will speed things up: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-class... [0] https://twitter.com/cpeterso/status/1021626510296285185

fwiw if you read the rest of that thread on Twitter it explains that Youtube is not using Shadow DOM v0, the slowness is likely related to polyfills for HTML Imports, and the next version of Polymer no longer uses those to resolve issues like this.

Also Chrome is actively removing the web standards that didn't end up being adopted broadly: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/m/#!topic/bli...

So YouTube will end up just as slow in other browsers unless they upgrade to a newer polymer that uses the broadly implemented standards.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#262

Post by Stratoscope »

ethbro wrote: post #213
Endy wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, a brick wall doesn't stare at you blankly. Nor does it argue back arrogantly and defy you that whatever Google wants is best.

I stopped using Chrome when I wanted to have downloads automatically save to the desktop (no dialog). Turned out, there was a 2 year old open bug on the missing feature, in which Google UX engineers repeatedly argued allowing the save location to be changed was counter to the desired user experience. I switched to Firefox the next day and haven't touched Chrome since.

Was that a long time ago? Chrome has supported the option of a fixed download location for many years. I don't remember it ever not having that option, in all the time I've used it.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#263

Post by aphextron »

MarkMc wrote: post #236
aphextron wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They’ll keep doing stuff like this until it reaches some publicly unacceptable limit Which as we know from things like Facebook, that limit will never be reached. These things are far too opaque for the general public to understand or care about. Even we software engineers barely understand the scope of what Google is capable of. It's going to take a principled stance from within the industry to push back against t…

> These things are far too opaque for the general public to understand or care about. Or perhaps your preference is a minority opinion, and most people will trade privacy for convenience even when fully informed and aware of Google's behavior

>Or perhaps your preference is a minority opinion, and most people will trade privacy for convenience even when fully informed and aware of Google's behavior

That's kind of my whole point. Regular people don't really understand the implications of what's possible with all this data even when you tell them exactly what's happening, and so they gladly give it up in the name of convenience. They don't realize it has value, and is dangerous in the hands of bad actors when aggregated in large amounts. It's going to take people on the inside growing a spine and standing up for the rights of all users over advancing the monopoly on private data for whatever web based surveillance apparatus they're currently being paid to work on.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#264

Post by adjkant »

lbriner wrote: post #60
aphextron wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They’ll keep doing stuff like this until it reaches some publicly unacceptable limit Which as we know from things like Facebook, that limit will never be reached. These things are far too opaque for the general public to understand or care about. Even we software engineers barely understand the scope of what Google is capable of. It's going to take a principled stance from within the industry to push back against t…

I'm not sure that's true. Facebook numbers have been falling for a while and I'm sure part of that is backlash over privacy abuses. https://www.recode.net/2018/2/12/16998750/facebooks-teen-use...

And yet it's rising significantly when it comes to Instagram where they are employing the exact same business model.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#265

Post by woah »

ethbro wrote: post #213
Endy wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, a brick wall doesn't stare at you blankly. Nor does it argue back arrogantly and defy you that whatever Google wants is best.

I stopped using Chrome when I wanted to have downloads automatically save to the desktop (no dialog). Turned out, there was a 2 year old open bug on the missing feature, in which Google UX engineers repeatedly argued allowing the save location to be changed was counter to the desired user experience. I switched to Firefox the next day and haven't touched Chrome since.

They can't just put in every random feature that anyone shows up and suggests.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#266

Post by newscracker »

Time and again [1] we've seen that a company's need to make money from user profiling and user data trumps broader privacy protections and wellness of its user base. Whenever these two seem to be in conflict and the company seems to be avoiding privacy intrusions out of benevolence, the truth is that the convergence is yet to happen. This is just a matter of when, and not if.

The broader public either doesn't understand this well or the companies take these decisions to cause fatigue and resignation among the public. The end result is that effectively nobody will care about these unless people who care (like the ones here, as one among many groups on the web) take some time to dissuade others from using these applications/platforms (be it Chrome or WhatsApp or Facebook or anything else).

An ungoogled Chromium is not the solution for this because maintaining a fork that stays true to other advancements takes a lot of effort and time, and in this case cannot be relied on either (unless, as someone pointed on another post here about ungoogled Chromium, you take the trouble of building it yourself every time spending hours).

For now, evangelize Mozilla Firefox and push anyone you know who uses Chrome to move out. Even if Google makes changes to this tracking feature because of backlash, it will only be a temporary holdout.

[1]: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/what-facebook-and-what...

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#267

Post by cbo100 »

joshuamorton wrote: post #129
djrogers wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, previously if you logged in sync was enabled - TFA and googles own privacy policy explain this quite clearly.

I'm pretty sure you could still turn it off while remaining logged in.

Nope, clicking "Turn Off" under sync says:

> This will sign you out of your Google accounts.

And sure enough, it signs you out of gmail and the browser. So it's sign in to the browser, or no gmail for you.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#268

Post by strictnein »

Still shocked that all of this junk ended up being a version of Chrome that some of the Chrome leads were hyping on Twitter as something they were super excited to be releasing.

Nothing in it has been an improvement.

Re: Why I’m done with Chrome

#270

Post by [deleted] »

shawnz wrote: post #244
torstenvl wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there would be a seperate log-in process for Chrome versus every other google service Chrome is not a Google service. It is a web browser. It should act like one.

Is that just your opinion, or do you genuinely believe most Chrome users see it that way?

[deleted]
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