Google Just Gave 2B Chrome Users a Reason to Switch to Firefox • Hacker News Board

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

#101

Post by wayneftw » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:38 PM UTC

The_rationalist wrote: post #78

All of this "debate" is pretty absurd. Yes the webrequest v3 proposal seems problematic for scripts /malware / crypto / ad / etc blockers. This is consensual. Chromium is open source and has those two main actors: opera and Microsoft. Almost everybody seems to consider chromium in the debate as a proprietary software owned by Google. And thus argue to switch to Firefox. Let's be clear, when you look at the technical,…

There is a very loud but relatively tiny minority of developers that work for/with and/or support Mozilla in some way, who actively take part in brigading on HN to try and sway your opinion. Any time anybody complains about a better browser, you'll see someone promote Firefox and bring a few hundred of their friends to up-fnord their story to the front page or down-fnord dissenting commenters.

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

#102

Post by wayneftw » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:40 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #98

wayneftw wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather use (and build for) any WebKit browser over Firefox, so I'm hoping Microsoft Edge does not implement the "Chrome extension manifest v3" and that they release Edge for Linux ASAP. Aside from my feelings about the technical qualities of their products - Mozilla is clearly not more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft either since they put non-removable ads and tracking extensions directly into Firefox and lo…

Citation? I've never heard of that.

Look up Firefox Pocket and Firefox Gab/Dissenter.

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

#103

Post by aioprisan » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:42 PM UTC

wayneftw wrote: post #93

zzzcpan wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With Microsoft switching to Chromium, Firefox is now the only viable I'm not sure I understand your point. Is there a public statement from Microsoft that they are following Google on this? I don't know what Microsoft is going to do, but nothing stops them from keeping the API fully working. And if Firefox was based on Chromium too, nothing would stop Mozilla from keeping the API working either. Although I expect s…

I'd rather use (and build for) any WebKit browser over Firefox, so I'm hoping Microsoft Edge does not implement the "Chrome extension manifest v3" and that they release Edge for Linux ASAP. Aside from my feelings about the technical qualities of their products - Mozilla is clearly not more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft either since they put non-removable ads and tracking extensions directly into Firefox and lo…

That's a bold accusation and would make the case that there's no real difference between Chrome and Firefox, can you point to the evidence that supports this?

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

#104

Post by blisterpeanuts » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:43 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #98

wayneftw wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather use (and build for) any WebKit browser over Firefox, so I'm hoping Microsoft Edge does not implement the "Chrome extension manifest v3" and that they release Edge for Linux ASAP. Aside from my feelings about the technical qualities of their products - Mozilla is clearly not more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft either since they put non-removable ads and tracking extensions directly into Firefox and lo…

Citation? I've never heard of that.

Firefox (as well as Chrome) has blocked the Dissenter add-on because it supposedly violates their community standards.

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

#105

Post by iforgotpassword » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:44 PM UTC

The_rationalist wrote: post #78

All of this "debate" is pretty absurd. Yes the webrequest v3 proposal seems problematic for scripts /malware / crypto / ad / etc blockers. This is consensual. Chromium is open source and has those two main actors: opera and Microsoft. Almost everybody seems to consider chromium in the debate as a proprietary software owned by Google. And thus argue to switch to Firefox. Let's be clear, when you look at the technical,…

When has it ever been a good idea to leave control about something to just one company? Have you somehow been abstinent from tech during the last couple decades? Do you not remember how hostile Microsoft acted towards Linux around 2000? Are you suggesting we would be better off now if Apple and Linux would have left the field to Microsoft back then? This situation now is no different.

Creating patches might work in the short run, but over time when according parts of the code base change and get refactored, you're constantly busy keeping your stuff compatible. Case in point safari: They severely lack behind in several areas. Why? According to your post it should have been trivial for them to just take any improvement from Google's fork and apply it to webkit. Didn't seem to have happened.

And counting on Microsoft, a company active in the ad business as well, doesn't sound too convincing in this context either.

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

#106

Post by ufo » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:45 PM UTC

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…

This is not mainstream media. It is just a blog hosted on Forbes' platform.

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

#107

Post by aioprisan » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

wayneftw wrote: post #102

ravenstine wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation? I've never heard of that.

Look up Firefox Pocket and Firefox Gab/Dissenter.

Pocket, the easy to enable/disable way to save websites for reading later, and Gab, the far-right social network, as exposed by Columbia Journalism Review?

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

#108

Post by PascLeRasc » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:50 PM UTC

sanxchit wrote: post #43

bad_user wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Firefox has awful performance on nearly any web page for me (2014 Mac). Even its own settings page alone puts a core at 100%. I can get past bad font rendering and giving up pinch-to-zoom and not reading PDFs in the browser, but I can't give Firefox half my battery life. I'll use it on my work PC but it's still a huge waste of electricity.

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

#109

Post by tinus_hn » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:51 PM UTC

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #44

ljm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

XUL is a great idea but not for browser chrome. That’s an area where it is truly worth the effort to make it fast and light, secure and stable.

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

#110

Post by blisterpeanuts » Sun, Jun 02, 2019, 1:54 PM UTC

Maybe advertisers need to go back to the drawing board and devise a better way to deliver their message. Ad blockers exist because ads are annoying and even crippling.

Google's Adsense (or whatever you call those text ads that appear next to search results) was a reasonable compromise, unobtrusive and often useful, whereas full window timed ads that force you to click the "x", and similar excessively animated distractions and pop-ups, are what motivate people to install add blockers.