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Switch from Chrome to Firefox

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Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#351

Post by behringer »

bdamm wrote: post #332
behringer wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's firefox' problem how exactly?

Because if firefox hadn't nuked the user's config we wouldn't be talking about how to recover that config. Any time the advice is "restore from backups" then the product has exhibited a poor user experience. And this isn't because of some hardware failure, this is just the software bungling an update flow, with no special notice to the user or any obvious way to recover.

Or it was an OS bug, or sunspots, or cosmic radiation... There's a reason people have backups.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#352

Post by soulofmischief »

JoshMnem wrote: post #202
soulofmischief wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get me wrong-- on the Firefox side of things, it's been the user experience of the browser itself which has been suffering. Every single update since Quantum has made things worse. Three days ago I opened up Firefox to find out all of my settings had been nuked, 200+ tabs, themes and extensions lost, about:config reset, search settings reset (hello again Google) etc. I'm still fuming mad about this. I don't fee…

It might just be the nature of computers. A similar thing happened to me on Chrome during a recent update. I was using it as a backup browser and lost everything there when Chrome stopped working. I deleted it from my laptop and haven't missed it at all. I now use multiple Firefox profiles to work as alternate browsers. If you go into your profiles directory is the old profile still there? It might have just created…

The nature of a stable computing environment is not to randomly delete user data.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#353

Post by SilasX »

MrRadar wrote: post #333
SilasX wrote: post #189

Um, Firefox does the same sorts of thing. A) Want to use unsigned addons to play around, or tweak your existing ones[1]? Nope, even if you allow them in about:config, you can't; you have to use a special development version and update it separately. B) Want to customize your keyboard shortcuts? Sorry, that's not safe, you have to use a crippled API that won't take effect until a given page loads. C) Want to control y…

> A) Want to use unsigned addons to play around, or tweak your existing ones[1]? Nope, even if you allow them in about:config, you can't; you have to use a special development version and update it separately. Signatures were mandated for add-ons because there was a plague of malware (or near-malware, such as third party anti-virus software) silently installing add-ons that broke Firefox in various ways. If the end-u…

No, there wasn't. No malware was being spread en masse this way. It was an entirely fictitious threat, as it would have required convincing the user to enter a confusing part of the app (about:config) and correctly change a setting.

I can accept that there might have been a malware problem when signatures weren't the default requirement, but that's not the change I'm talking about, where they ignore a user's explicit preference that they're okay with unsigned add-ons.

Remember, Chrome allows you to turn off this setting by just flipping a switch into dev mode. Where's the torrent of compromised Chrome browsers from this vector?

>I don't think asking power-users to use Nightly/"unbranded" versions of Firefox to load unsigned extensions is something you should count against them.

It is when that version doesn't get the same updates and has to be maintained separately.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#354

Post by chaghi »

nneonneo wrote: post #236
neogodless wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, profiles are useful for separating "who I am." Whether that's my personal life and my professional life, or if it's me or my spouse using the same computer. Containers are useful for separating "who I am to my providers." As far as Facebook is concerned, I am a Facebook user, but I don't use Amazon or Google. But Amazon thinks I'm an Amazon user that doesn't use Facebook or Google. You can accomplish t…

You can definitely have two profiles open simultaneously - on MacOS, this is achieved with “open -n Firefox.app --args -P [profile name]”; on Windows, “firefox -no-remote -P [profile name]”. Admittedly, that should _really_ be exposed in the UI somehow, but at least it means you can wrap up the command in a handy desktop shortcut (e.g. one that says “my Firefox” and one that says “her Firefox”).

> Admittedly, that should _really_ be exposed in the UI somehow

Go to about:profiles, click the "Launch profile in new browser" button under the profile you want.

Yes, it's not obvious, and the UI has a lot to be desired if you want to explain the feature to some non-techie, but you no longer need to close the other Firefox instances in order to launch a different profile. I think this was added a couple releases ago.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#355

Post by loudtieblahblah »

SilasX wrote: post #189

Um, Firefox does the same sorts of thing. A) Want to use unsigned addons to play around, or tweak your existing ones[1]? Nope, even if you allow them in about:config, you can't; you have to use a special development version and update it separately. B) Want to customize your keyboard shortcuts? Sorry, that's not safe, you have to use a crippled API that won't take effect until a given page loads. C) Want to control y…

At least when Firefox has a misstep, it's scope is a lot smaller.

Taking a swipe at adblocking, obscuring where you're "logged into the browser" are IMHO - much bigger deals.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#356

Post by mtgx »

unsignedint wrote: post #312
rc_kas wrote: post #293

Does anyone have a single thing that Chrome does that FF does not? For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone uses Chrome. But if anyone has information on Chrome that I do not, please let me know.

Here are ones I find useful myself: - TRR (Trusted Recursive Resolver -- e.g. DNS Over HTTPS) - Add-On supports on Android - Multi-Account Container (although this is more of Add-on)

He was asking for the reverse -- what does Chrome offer extra?

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#357

Post by rkangel »

What is the actual performance story these days? Last time I tried Firefox (soon after they were making a fuss about Quantum) I was fairly disappointed. I'm including performance of the Android browser here (because they work in concert as far as I'm concerned).

Also, what pain am I going to hit with DRM and online video? I use the usual suspects - Amazon, Netflix, Youtube.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#358

Post by BlueTemplar »

holtalanm wrote: post #285
rocqua wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far does the DMCA reach in europe? It feels like we need some reverse engineering of widevine.

an open-source implementation of DRM that is compatible with widevine would be a step in the right direction.

Is it patented ?

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#359

Post by loudtieblahblah »

superkuh wrote: post #286
gubbrora wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox leaves a lot to be desired, but is still miles better than Chrome.

Those aren't your only two options.

might as well be.

everything else is based on Chrome/Chromium.

Nothing else, other than Firefox, lets me customize in the way Firefox does either. As a security conscious person, this matters.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#360

Post by chaghi »

neogodless wrote: post #299
nneonneo wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can definitely have two profiles open simultaneously - on MacOS, this is achieved with “open -n Firefox.app --args -P [profile name]”; on Windows, “firefox -no-remote -P [profile name]”. Admittedly, that should _really_ be exposed in the UI somehow, but at least it means you can wrap up the command in a handy desktop shortcut (e.g. one that says “my Firefox” and one that says “her Firefox”).

OK - I hadn't come across that. I actually have the shortcut on my desktop that prompts you to pick a profile if you don't have any windows open already. I'll have to see if I can tweak the shortcuts to open each one! Thanks!!

Yust a heads up: you can open different profiles simultaneously using the about:profiles page, see my other reply.
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