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

robert.ocallahan.org

141–150 of 343 posts

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

#141
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. Sett…

I dumped Chrome, stopping 'Googling' and moved to DuckDuckGo, installed uBlock Matrix so I could block as much of Google as possible (damn you reCaptcha), but it's gmail that's the tie-in. Changing email address is super hard.

As for Android, I took the easy option - switched to iOS. I'd have preferred a third choice, but there's nothing viable at the moment.

It's hard going but worth it for the privacy, and I agree it's not realistic for those not fully into tech.

The world needs more choices for browser, more choices in mobile too. At least there's a few options for computing devices - Windows is a horrible privacy hole IMO, Apple and MacOS is a premium option but seems more private and secure, then there's Google (no comment). Linux can be a huge time sink and hard going but having run it on both desktop and laptop it's a good choice - but for the expensive commerce softwares that only run on Mac or Windows thanks to companies that make 'pro' offerings... for me its Adobe, Capture One, Reason - none of which offer Linux variants or work on Wine properly.

Part of me wishes the EU to legislate more, but that's horrible in other ways.

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

#142
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've stuck with it and preached it and told people why Google is just going to repeat IE's history with Chrome, and my tech friends still mostly use Chrome. There is something about A) what everyone else is doing, and B) inertia, that is just too difficult to overcome without some sudden significant change.

The single biggest advantage of Chrome is that it's bundled as the default, non-removable browser on the largest mobile OS in the world: Android. And nearly all those people then expect to use the same browser on laptops and desktops and even here it is often pre-installed by OEM. If Firefox had somehow had this clinching advantage in an alternate reality, they would be the Chrome now. The actual performance and tech…

I would hope Mozilla will eventually retire Gecko and switch to Servo.

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

#144
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…

Chromium is better than Firefox

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

#145
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, Mozilla has made missteps with Pocket and Mr. Robot. These are forgivable in my opinion. At least this steps are somehow understandable. What I‘m really miffed about is their partnership with Cliqz. If Google is the devil then Cliqz is Beelzebub. I don‘t understand what they were thinking...

Support for Cliqz integrated functions in Firefox is ending. If you would like to continue using Cliqz, please install the free Cliqz add-on.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cliqz-recommendations-f...

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

#146

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…

At least brave works, Firefox has been completely useless for me on anything but Windows and Android since the quantum update. It drains battery like nobody's business or screws with UI elements when no one asked it to.

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

#148
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…

You missed Webrender. I switched over the firefox a month ago from chrome. While I had tried doing that a few times over the past few years, i came back to chrome because honestly there was not much difference and chrome just feels like home. This time around I had switched to try out a new tech called 'webrender'. Webrender takes a completely different approach to rendering and compositing, instead of maintainting l…

Any pointers on how to do it?

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

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An alternative is an open source version of a browser from an advert company, with anti-features hopefully being kept in check by diligent maintainers. To which nobody will listen and who'd have zero power in the standards committees, as unfortunate as it may be.

What's the difference between having zero power and having some power but always caving when it's important for the open web with the excuse that if you hadn't you would lose users and have no say the standards committees?

I get your frustration, I felt the same particularly after the DRM fiasco, but at least in Firefox it's not enabled by default. I'd say that is an important difference.

More importantly, I think what's important is that there exist multiple browser engines because that forces Google to at least compromise somewhat, (agree to WebAssembly instead of just DartVM for example), not run completely unchecked, even if I agree with your core premise and I think Mozilla should fight a lot harder than it often does.

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

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's their own service.

It wasn't when they first did it.

I am aware. But the difference is Google wouldn't care and Mozilla at least did something, even if it wasn't removing the extension.
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