Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

robert.ocallahan.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 343 posts

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#31

Post by jf- »

I think I’m now at the point of jumping aboard this movement away from google. Not because their services are bad (they objectively are excellent) nor even because of privacy concerns (though they are legitimate), but because of the argument put forward in the OP: google are taking over everything. There is far too much power concentrated into the hands of a single company.

As an individual there is not much that I can do about this, but what I can do is to use google products and services as little as possible, and to support smaller, independent alternatives.

I think this has been posted on hn in the recent past, seems like a reasonable jumping-off point: https://medium.com/@ricst/de-google-your-life-now-82fad3ec0f...

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#32

Post by takluyver »

izacus wrote: post #16
welly wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can, just not the Firefox rendering engine. As frustrating as that is, perhaps if more iOS users picked firefox as their "browser" then maybe Apple would take a hint and open up allowing other rendering engines. Although I'm not holding my breath. I'm an Apple user in as far as I have an iPad Pro and a Macbook Pro, I certainly don't hold Apple in as high regard as I used to do but those two products are superb eve…

Not using the Firefox rendering engine means you're effectively using Safari for rendering sites and not helping ecosystem diversity. The renderer is still WebKit controlled by Apple, not a Firefox browser controlled and built by Mozilla.

I don't have an iOS device, but presumably Firefox on iOS still integrates with Firefox Sync, so it may reinforce using 'real' Firefox on a laptop or desktop.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#33

Post by ballooney »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #23
nindalf wrote: post #9

Just so we can avoid rehashing the discussion whenever a post encouraging the use of Firefox is posted. - Yes, Mozilla is still the better browser when it comes to privacy. - Yes, Mozilla has made missteps with Pocket and Mr. Robot. - Yes, it is slow/resource heavy on certain Macs with non-default resolutions. Yes, Mozilla is working on a fix. - Yes, it has become really fast for most users after Quantum improvements…

Chrome has better security unless you want to keep yourself secure from prying by Google.

Would someone who actually _knows_ the answer (I know this will not deter the HN-reckon but worth a try) be able to comment on if/why this security gap exists?

Is it something fundamental to the different design choices, is it just which has had more test/resources thrown at it, and is the closing of the gap practical and/or on a roadmap?

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#35

Post by kuroguro »

sametmax wrote: post #2

And it didn't work. Some people were aware of this. A few took the time to read/discuss/think about it. A minuscule fraction of passionate people acted on it. And the rest of the world took the path of least resistance, as usual. People don't shape society willingly. They mostly let life happen to them. Even when you see them protesting, it's the consequence of an emotional reaction and a group effect, not the reflec…

Recently finished moving away from most google stuff. Seeing how they are slowly grabbing more and more user data really scared the shit out of me (android location gathering, auto logging in to chrome from gmail, syncing all password data etc).

Swapping the browser was the easy part. Not using google search and moving away from my gmail address that I've had since gmail was released were harder habits to break.

Setting up a google-less android (lineageOS + microG) was a real PITA for a few weeks as I kept running into new problems and things not working properly. I don't see how anyone not into tech could pull it off.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#36

Post by glogla »

nindalf wrote: post #9

Just so we can avoid rehashing the discussion whenever a post encouraging the use of Firefox is posted. - Yes, Mozilla is still the better browser when it comes to privacy. - Yes, Mozilla has made missteps with Pocket and Mr. Robot. - Yes, it is slow/resource heavy on certain Macs with non-default resolutions. Yes, Mozilla is working on a fix. - Yes, it has become really fast for most users after Quantum improvements…

> - Yes, it is slow/resource heavy on certain Macs with non-default resolutions. Yes, Mozilla is working on a fix.

On some of them. I use Mac with non-default resolution and I have no issues.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#37

Post by sametmax »

js8 wrote: post #15
sametmax wrote: post #2

And it didn't work. Some people were aware of this. A few took the time to read/discuss/think about it. A minuscule fraction of passionate people acted on it. And the rest of the world took the path of least resistance, as usual. People don't shape society willingly. They mostly let life happen to them. Even when you see them protesting, it's the consequence of an emotional reaction and a group effect, not the reflec…

As a long time Firefox user, let me offer a different perspective. Upgrading any application is a chore, and you never know what will break or whether you lose your data. People don't want to do it, and yet they are forced to do it by companies (and open source is even worse). So if you can avoid it, you avoid it. I'll leave up to you to decide if Firefox haven't destroyed its own market share by confusing changes to…

Most people don't even know what an URL is, so I don't think they even think about their browser that hard.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#38

Post by matt4077 »

kanwisher wrote: post #20

Brendan Eich has moved out to make BAT. Lets support that instead. Firefox can die and new things can take its place

"Brave" is a morally bankrupt hustle gnawing at the foundations of civil society; it is a bro-wser spawned by a disgruntled has-been consumed by his ego's unwillingness to accept that his bank account does not reflect his former social standing. It is the rare "creative" endeavour motivated solely by a drive to destroy, and to get rich & even in the process.

Also it's just another Chromium skin, so it wouldn't change anything.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#39

Post by bad_user »

Note this advice is true for email services as well. Pay for and use an alternative now, or later you won't get the choice.

Google is hellbent on locking people into their ecosystem. One such move is the promotion of AMP: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/13/amp-for-email-is-a-terribl...

Speaking of email and browsers, the Gmail app on top of iOS presents the user with a choice between two browsers:

1. Safari

2. Chrome, which on iOS is a reskinned Safari, but with Sync and controlled by Google obviously

But when Safari is selected they actually open links in an app Web View. Which does not share sessions and cookies with Safari. And their reskinned Chrome doesn't do Safari's content blocking either. Firefox on iOS doesn't do that either, but at least Firefox has its own tracking protection.

Speaking of Chrome on iOS, they give the user the choice to switch search engines, supposedly, however they only list Yahoo and Bing as alternatives. No DuckDuckGo or Qwant or the ability to add your own.

Android still allows users to switch their web browser or to use an alternative app store, but I wonder for how long. I mean they disallow users to uninstall their apps. My guess is that they are afraid of locking Android down more due to fines from the EU.

Sadly what made Google great several years back was openness. But times are changing.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, or Later You Won't Get a Choice (2014)

#40

Post by kkarakk »

welly wrote: post #8
izacus wrote: post #3

How will avid Apple users on this website choose Firefox as a browser on their iPhones and iPad computers? EDIT: To clarify, mean the rendering engine (so we keep the ecosystem diversity), not the reskinned Safari. Reskinning Safari with Firefox branding does nothing for WebKit web monoculture.

We can, just not the Firefox rendering engine. As frustrating as that is, perhaps if more iOS users picked firefox as their "browser" then maybe Apple would take a hint and open up allowing other rendering engines. Although I'm not holding my breath. I'm an Apple user in as far as I have an iPad Pro and a Macbook Pro, I certainly don't hold Apple in as high regard as I used to do but those two products are superb eve…

>Apple would take a hint

never gonna happen

Post reply on HN