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Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

forbes.com

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Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#41

Post by jekrb »

jnwkw wrote: post #21
riamu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is a terrible, Apple-like version of WebKit. The last viable windows version of Safari was abandoned 8 years ago, so please nobody use this browser.

Safari is the fastest browser I've ever used on mobile. It also supports ad blocking. Calling it "terrible" simply does not resonate with me. Chrome is slower and Firefox on mobile is a joke.

Have you tried Brave browser on mobile? It's quite fast and blocks ads.

A couple issues with Safari I've seen since it's slower to adopt web standards:

- buggier websites from devs who don't have iPhones. Since there are some quirky inconsistencies with how webkit handles css vs other browser rendering engines it's easy not to catch those quirks if you don't have an iPhone to check them with. And once users point them out, it's a pain to fix without a physical device.

- a smaller web feature set than chrome/Firefox. For instance, Safari doesn't allow localstorage while in incognito. I think it supports serviceworkers and webrtc now but it took years to get them.

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#42

Post by willtim »

jnwkw wrote: post #21
riamu wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is a terrible, Apple-like version of WebKit. The last viable windows version of Safari was abandoned 8 years ago, so please nobody use this browser.

Safari is the fastest browser I've ever used on mobile. It also supports ad blocking. Calling it "terrible" simply does not resonate with me. Chrome is slower and Firefox on mobile is a joke.

Firefox on mobile has improved enormously since Quantum. It works well enough to ditch Chrome.

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#43

Post by sanxchit »

bad_user wrote: post #35
chank wrote: post #34

Tried out Firefox again a few days ago. Still prefer chrome. If add blocking becomes an issue with chrome, I'll definitely make the switch because of that and just hate it or go back to safari and hate it just as much

What don’t you like about Firefox? Speaking as a FF user I have a hard time using Chrome too. In other words you get used to what you use and FF is a decent option.

Not the original commenter, but Firefox has noticeably poorer performance on my MacBook pro 2018, especially on react-heavy sites like the AWS Console or Twitch.tv

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#44

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

ljm wrote: post #15
the_duke wrote: post #3

Great to see mainstream media picking this up and giving Firefox some exposure. With Microsoft switching to Chromium, Firefox is now the only viable (cross platform) alternative. FF gaining back a solid amount of market share is critical for the browser ecosystem in the future. (Personally I switched back to FF after the first Quantum release, which brought performance back on par with Chrome. On mobile, the ad block…

I hope to see Firefox eventually providing an embeddable framework, considering that Chromium isn't just monopolising the web browser space... it's spreading into desktop applications through Electron. Left unchecked, Google will manage to poke its fingers into every pie within reach. It seems like the ideal solution of using the OS's native web toolkit hasn't been successful so far. So the next best offering (aside…

I regret XUL was abandoned - it was a great idea, but much ahead of its time.

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#45

Post by ycgeu »

willtim wrote: post #42
jnwkw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is the fastest browser I've ever used on mobile. It also supports ad blocking. Calling it "terrible" simply does not resonate with me. Chrome is slower and Firefox on mobile is a joke.

Firefox on mobile has improved enormously since Quantum. It works well enough to ditch Chrome.

No it doesn't. For example to tap a link you have to tap it directly, links don't have a halo around them to make them easier to tap. Tapping things like the [-] buttons here in HN is very hard. It's stupid shit like that that makes it unusable for me. I don't believe for a second the developers of Firefox for Android use it every day and haven't fixed that. And if they don't dogfood what hope is there for that software?

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#46

Post by [deleted] »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #33
bambax wrote: post #17

The state of the debate is unsatisfactory. Google employees such as Justin Schuh are aggressively defending the move on tech/security principles and denying commercial motivations, while uBlock Origin dev (Raymond Hill) says the change will cripple or kill uBO on Chrome and evil motives are its raison d'être . It's good that mainstream media articles raise the awareness of the issue, but a good technical discussion b…

I've also seen privacy issues cited, and I don't understand the argument at all, since a read-only, async API will remain, so privacy isn't improved.

[deleted]

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#47

Post by jekrb »

dijit wrote: post #13
the_duke wrote: post #3

Great to see mainstream media picking this up and giving Firefox some exposure. With Microsoft switching to Chromium, Firefox is now the only viable (cross platform) alternative. FF gaining back a solid amount of market share is critical for the browser ecosystem in the future. (Personally I switched back to FF after the first Quantum release, which brought performance back on par with Chrome. On mobile, the ad block…

I think safari is more cross platform than IE, since you can run safari on macOS and Windows. But IE only runs on Windows. EDIT: I have been informed that it's not cross-platform since 2012. My bad.

The canary version of Microsoft Edge now works on macOS (but that's because Edge switched to running chromium)

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#48

Post by fouc »

chris_wot wrote: post #26

Man, the backlash against Google is extreme. It's much faster than the backlash against Microsoft back in the day - at least, that's my feeling. Note I'm not saying it's not well deserved!

The backlash has been happening for awhile now. Lots of concerns about google in the last couple years.

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#49

Post by AsyncAwait »

jnwkw wrote: post #30
kekebo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're on iOS it would make sense since Apple is only allowing it's own webkit as browser engine, forcing chromium and firefox to be disfigured versions of what they are on other systems. When I was working more frontend (~1,5 years ago) no browser would cause more work and trouble for us than Safari on iOS (we didn't have to support IE9 and lower).

Nah I'm talking about Chrome and Firefox on Android. They are both worse than Safari on iOS. Also I understand that Safari might've created some pain for you as a frontend developer, but frankly I don't care. I'm an end user and I only care about how fast and secure the browser is. And Safari wins there, it's not terrible by any measure for the end user.

> Chrome and Firefox on Android. They are both worse than Safari on iOS

I realize that this is subjective, but Firefox Focus has been my preferred mobile browser, regardless of if I have Safari available, (iPad), or not, (Android). In fact having desktop addons on Android has been great.

Re: Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox

#50

Post by kstenerud »

chris_wot wrote: post #26

Man, the backlash against Google is extreme. It's much faster than the backlash against Microsoft back in the day - at least, that's my feeling. Note I'm not saying it's not well deserved!

Actually, it's far more muted than the backlash against Microsoft was, in public as well as by government officials. The memes were far more mainstream in nature [1]. Hell, even my non tech-savvy parents were aware of it and worried by it. In fact, Chrome's success owes a lot to the public backlash and antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft.

[1] http://www.tjscafe.com/tjs/gallery/billborg.htm

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