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Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

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Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a heavy Firefox+addon user, but I just don't use phone browser enough to even bother using addons. (And Firefox for Android is pretty bad otherwise, unfortunately.)

Since I refuse to install apps on my phone for services I use that have websites, I'm a fairly heavy phone browser user.. so being able to adblock, block arbitrary JS (noscript), and kill tracking cookies is wonderful. > And Firefox for Android is pretty bad otherwise, unfortunately I disagree. Why do you think it is "pretty bad"?

Scrolling feels really off (non-native) to me, at least on Android - e.g. it coasts at a noticeably lower velocity than other apps after a sharp flick.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#122

I'd like to use Firefox. I've tried it out several times the last year. It's okay. Unfortunately, I always end up going back to Safari. Despite the performance improvements, Safari still feels like a faster, smoother browser. Firefox is still pretty ugly, too. On macOS, it feels chunkier and less natively integrated. Safari's "omnibar" is superior to Firefox's. Safari actually suggests web sites, which I use all the…

I agree about the performance on OS X. I still find myself trying to figure out which tab is pegging the CPU and about:performance is not helpful. Another nice feature Safari has that I rely on is "show all tabs". Yes there are various "works in progress" trying to replicate the old tab groups / panorama functionality but I find them lacking or incomplete. Mozilla really hasn't done anything to improve the many tabs…

What specs are your device? On a mid-2012 non-Retina MBP with a regular HDD, Firefox Quantum made my laptop feel like an entirely new machine. It was significantly faster than Safari, nevermind Chrome.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#123
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really want to use Safari, but for me the deal breaker is the fact that Safari doesn't seem to block pop-ups properly. Yes, they've changed it in the latest version. I have Block and Notify option selected in Privacy tab. But many popups still go through -- sometimes they open in a new tab, sometimes in a new window. Is there a way to fix that? Also, is there a Tree Style Tab alternative for Safari?

The worst thing about Safari is the “Do you want to receive notifications from this website?” pop-up that appears every time you hit some random notification-supporting website for the first time. There has got to be a better way to implement notification subscriptions than this annoying pop-up.

Website push notifications shouldn’t be a thing. Way too ripe for exploitation.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#124

I'd like to use Firefox. I've tried it out several times the last year. It's okay. Unfortunately, I always end up going back to Safari. Despite the performance improvements, Safari still feels like a faster, smoother browser. Firefox is still pretty ugly, too. On macOS, it feels chunkier and less natively integrated. Safari's "omnibar" is superior to Firefox's. Safari actually suggests web sites, which I use all the…

Not to mention the inability to integrate with iCloud Keychain. I have over 500 passwords that work across every app on my phone, my computer, and tablet. That’s a big switching cost for me. Add to that the performance/stuttering that I still seem to get even with Quantum’s improvement, and I can’t see myself switching from Safari anytime soon.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a heavy Firefox+addon user, but I just don't use phone browser enough to even bother using addons. (And Firefox for Android is pretty bad otherwise, unfortunately.)

Since I refuse to install apps on my phone for services I use that have websites, I'm a fairly heavy phone browser user.. so being able to adblock, block arbitrary JS (noscript), and kill tracking cookies is wonderful. > And Firefox for Android is pretty bad otherwise, unfortunately I disagree. Why do you think it is "pretty bad"?

> so being able to adblock

Firefox Focus is my go to browser on Android, and it has ad blocking built in (as well as cookie / history erasure).

That said, have you tried installing Blokada from FDroid? It sets up a local VPN on your phone and routes all network traffic through it, blocking all ads in all apps. It's astonishing how many ads and trackers your phone would otherwise download in a week.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#126
post #10

Just my personal $0.02: 1. The biggest thing keeping me tied to Chrome over any other browser is the extension support. Extensions are second class citizens in any other browser. This is partly because other browsers keep overhauling their systems and deprecating old software which discourages extension developers, and mainly because (as an extension developer) why would you code for browser X when you can get more u…

> Extensions are second class citizens in any other browser.

I'd say Firefox's support for extensions is better than Chrome's, even after the change to WebExtensions. The author of NoScript, for example, thinks Firefox has the best environment for add-ons:

https://hackademix.net/2017/11/21/noscript-1011-quantum-powe...

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#127

I'd like to use Firefox. I've tried it out several times the last year. It's okay. Unfortunately, I always end up going back to Safari. Despite the performance improvements, Safari still feels like a faster, smoother browser. Firefox is still pretty ugly, too. On macOS, it feels chunkier and less natively integrated. Safari's "omnibar" is superior to Firefox's. Safari actually suggests web sites, which I use all the…

I completely agree with you. However, I tried containers in Firefox and miss them so much when using Safari.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#128

Being visually nearly indistinguishable from chrome hasn't really worked in its favor. (quick, which is which: http://9ol.es/double-browser.png ). Probably north of 95% don't know about or understand licensing differences or differences in rendering engines or core architecture. Interfaces and obvious features with compelling narratives are what matter because that's how the user engages with the product. Asking user…

I'd kinda agree. As described in Zero to One, to convince shift users to adopt, you need a product that is an order of magnitude superior to the incumbent. Incremental changes or parity mostly won't cut it. A browser would have to be radically innovative or better to gain share which is difficult considering the services Google has hooked into it.

Mozilla did this (below) once, about 15 years ago when knocking IE from it's 95+% 2004 marketshare, they need to find a way to do it again:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - R. Buckminster Fuller

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#129

I'd like to use Firefox. I've tried it out several times the last year. It's okay. Unfortunately, I always end up going back to Safari. Despite the performance improvements, Safari still feels like a faster, smoother browser. Firefox is still pretty ugly, too. On macOS, it feels chunkier and less natively integrated. Safari's "omnibar" is superior to Firefox's. Safari actually suggests web sites, which I use all the…

We all have wants, but I can't blame FF for not pursuing them if the numbers in the link can be believed. Safari has a much smaller adoption rate than even FF, so it could be argued FF are doing more things right. On a link about desktop browser adoption, I don't see the value of complaining about FF issues compared to a lesser adopted browser or comparing to a mobile browser on an OS that doesn't allow real browser competition anyways.

Re: Firefox desktop market share now below 9%

#130

Why is it that not more people use Safari? On a MacBook Pro it is not only faster but your battery life lasts noticeable longer. Not to mention the Safari engineers' stand on privacy as compared to Google Chrome...

Why would I use a proprietary web browser when good open source ones exist?
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