Switch from Chrome to Firefox • Hacker News Board

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#441

Post by ambicapter » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

pixelrevision wrote: post #339

ambicapter wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about source mapping I believe. I've only used it in Chrome but I've heard only Chrome has it as good as it has it. Honestly, it's a lifesaver if you're doing frontend stuff (and you're not one of those people who poo-poo's debuggers).

lol why on earth would someone poo poo a debugger?

There was a post recently about some CS OG who stated at some point that print statements was all you needed and using a debugger was counter-productive to your understanding of the code.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#442

Post by PascLeRasc » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

I really want to switch to Firefox. I don't need it to be better-performing than Chrome on my work PC or Safari on my home machine - I want to support free software. But Firefox's text just looks bad, like really bad. On both a retina Mac screen and 24" 1080p monitors on Windows at work, the fonts look pixelated and blurry, like there's something around the edges of the characters. Contrast seems off too, much lower than Chrome or Safari presents text, which makes it hard to read. PDFs in the browser are especially awful to look at. Has anyone else had this experience and found a fix?

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#443

Post by 333c » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

neilsimp1 wrote: post #296

DaveWalk wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You raise very good points. The shortcuts thing has made me miserable for years. Surely the coders of Mozilla appreciate a good set of shortcuts, like in whatever IDE they write their code in!

It kinda drives me nuts that Ctrl+num changes to that tab number on Windows, but on Linux, it is Alt+num.

Cmd+nun on Mac :)

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#444

Post by alias_neo » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:40 PM UTC

troels wrote: post #402

marricks wrote: post #15

Google will keep locking down Chrome and using corporate talk to hand wave it away, only recourse is to leave. First it’s “sign in” with obtuse ways to turn it off. Then block Adblocking, once again with obtuse ways to disable... the end goal is pretty obvious, get the majority of Chrome users to turn on ads and tie their real names to their Chrome browser. Of course let “power users” (who’ll turn that crap off anywa…

I wonder if that might backfire. I've been using Chromium for a while now, but whenever I need to see video, I copy paste the url over to Firefox. At some point, I'm going to be bothered enough to just switch permanently to Firefox.

Now's the perfect time, it will even import all your stuff (see the link in OP).

Make the switch.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#445

Post by SilasX » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

MrRadar wrote: post #437

SilasX wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm referring to native malware abusing admin privileges to install extensions without the user's consent, not users deliberately installing malware extensions themselves. This was particularly bad in the XP/Vista era (I know I had to remove some rogue extensions from my relative's computers during that time). If the signature check were a flag the malware would just disable it at the same time it installed the exten…

>I'm referring to native malware abusing admin privileges to install extensions without the user's consent, not users deliberately installing malware extensions themselves.

Ah, so a vector that required code signing doesn't protect against.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#446

Post by staticassertion » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

SilasX wrote: post #353

MrRadar wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Hi I work on a security team that hunts for malware. Malicious extensions are a huge threat - totally happens for Chrome in particular, and I've even seen malware package old versions of browsers to get around the modern defenses.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#447

Post by dheera » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

I'd like to add that Firefox on mobile supports plug-ins, and Chrome on mobile does not. This means that you can run an adblocker, or other UI tweaks of your liking, on mobile, where ads hurt (both the UI and UX) the most.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#448

Post by lucb1e » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

happytoexplain wrote: post #314

lucb1e wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would have taken you less long to duck/google that than to type that comment, so I feel like I'm missing your point. Did you mean to emphasize that you don't mind sharing data with Google, or was it really just asking about if firefox sync exists?

Please don't discourage people from asking questions directly to other humans. Google results can be surprisingly obtuse, and no matter how much information has been written about something, there are always cases where the clearest and fullest answer for a given individual comes from a direct response - and even if that's not the case here, people certainly don't need more excuses to shy away from asking questions.

(Relevant username :) )

Fair enough, I'll consider that next time such a situation comes up.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#449

Post by mikeryan » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

magnamerc wrote: post #230

marricks wrote: post #15

Google will keep locking down Chrome and using corporate talk to hand wave it away, only recourse is to leave. First it’s “sign in” with obtuse ways to turn it off. Then block Adblocking, once again with obtuse ways to disable... the end goal is pretty obvious, get the majority of Chrome users to turn on ads and tie their real names to their Chrome browser. Of course let “power users” (who’ll turn that crap off anywa…

I've only come across widevine for Netflix content. Are there others that require widevine?

It's usually going to be around any studio produced content Broadcast or Movie. YouTube TV uses it for live broadcasts. The Studios require DRM as part of their content licensing. PlayReady is the other primary DRM competitor.

Re: Switch from Chrome to Firefox

#450

Post by unsignedint » Thu, May 30, 2019, 6:42 PM UTC

wmeredith wrote: post #363

jwr wrote: post #161

I don't understand why Mac users use Chrome. Safari seems to be out of fashion: people just assume that it should not be used for some reason, even though it is actually a great browser. I use Safari for both my own browsing and for development (a fairly large ClojureScript application), and it is by far the best browser on the platform by all measures (speed first and foremost). The only place where Safari falls sho…

If you use an iOS device, Safari is awesome. The integration between all your hardware devices syncing passwords, tabs, bookmarks, reading list, etc. kicks ass. That’s all not to mention its excellent built-in privacy features and that it’s really really fast.

I would argue experiences of alternative browsers on iOS is somewhat artificially hindered...

Not that I'm saying Safari is bad browser, but on iOS you can't really set other browser as your default browser, browsers can't use their own engines, etc. etc.