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The Browser Monopoly

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Re: The Browser Monopoly

#61

Post by gibspaulding »

basch wrote: post #21
albits wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding saving password in browser, the author probably means an encrypted password manager such as KeePass or 1Password, and not the current implementation which does not have a master password

Firefox has a master password that encrypts the data. I dont use it, but doesnt a Sync account also sync the passwords between instances of your browser? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-master-password-pro... That said, can you still copy the profile to a new computer and have it autofill? Physical access to data on a hard drive is often end of game, unlike cloud only hosted stuff that streams. Im guessing y…

Yes, Firefox Sync will sync the passwords between browser instances. It also offers the option to use a master password.

I've been using it without any issues for several years now.

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#62

Post by saagarjha »

basch wrote: post #12
kgwxd wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to believe that spam filtering is a solved problem that could be cheaply self-hosted. Is that not true?

Its a perpetual arms race, if the spammers have access to the blocking software they can work around it. Anti-evil works best when the evil cant see the inner workings.

> Anti-evil works best when the evil cant see the inner workings.

That’s just security by obscurity.

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#63

Post by glenneroo »

aluren wrote: post #23

I don't get why people (I mean technically minded people who are aware of privacy issues and so on) don't just use firefox. They are pretty much at feature parity (Firefox may even get the edge due to the fantastic extensions ecosystem), except one spies on you and the other doesn't. Why do people find the switch so hard? In addition, Firefox + ublokc origin is pretty much the only option on mobile if you want to blo…

HackerNews mods could help out by messing with rendering on Chrome, as revenge for Google's continual messing with Firefox rendering issues[1] ;)

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20755348

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#64

Post by glenneroo »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #2

> Firefox is a fine browser by itself [...] I have the comfort of knowing that my personal information is protected (to the extent possible) – and also that my portal to the web is not custom-built to track me and serve me ads FF is fantastic, but the uncomfortable question is, will it always be, given Mozilla has to found further development and is financed by Google's money as well? Apple's Safari actually has bett…

> Mozilla has to found further development and is financed by Google's money as well?

This was also mentioned at the bottom of the article:

> If I were a Product executive at Mozilla, I would be banging the table to introduce useful, paid products that could enrich and support the Firefox ecosystem. Chief among these would be a low-cost, independent email service focused on privacy and spam protection that would allow people to migrate off of Gmail; a VPN service; a media/content whitelisting service combined with an ad-blocker that allowed people to easily pay for content; and maybe even its own password manager.

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#65

Post by neogodless »

realshowbiz wrote: post #27

My only use for chrome is to interact with the google web apps that don’t work well in firefox or safari. Otherwise it wouldn’t be installed. IMO Google softly requires you to use chrome because their tools, in my experience, are unstable in other browsers (I’m looking at you meet) The cynic in me is doubtful that this is entirely by accident.

So I have a Gmail (G Suite Free) account, and I use Thunderbird on any computer I use regularly. Gmail is painfully slow to being almost unusable on Firefox. Sometimes I cannot get emails to send. So if I'm logging in temporarily, I'm usually forced to use Chrome.

I think is just one example of Chromium being a bit too ubiquitous, and forcing users into the Google black hole.

Is there an affordable paid custom domain email option with good spam filtering?

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#66

Post by glenneroo »

brootstrap wrote: post #10

Interesting i was just thinking about this yesterday. I should ditch chrome. yet here i am typing more shit for google to harvest from me and sell to the highest bidder.

What is the point of making this comment? Why haven't you switched? It's not that hard.

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#67

Post by Medicalidiot »

darklion wrote: post #29
mcv wrote: post #20

I recently ditched Chrome and switched back to Firefox, at home and on my mobile, only to discover that a surprising number of sites don't work in Firefox. In particular: Twitter doesn't work on Firefox Mobile. Most work fine, but still, I ended up switching to Safari, to discover that it's just not quite as good an experience as Firefox or Chrome.

> I ended up switching to Safari, to discover that it's just not quite as good an experience as Firefox or Chrome. IMO, I find it to be just the opposite--neither Firefox nor Chrome are as good an experience as Safari. Maybe the difference is that when a particular site does not work in a given browser, I don't blame the browser, I blame the website.

Spotify and some video sites do not work on Safari, which is mind blowing to me.

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#68

Post by gibspaulding »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #34
aluren wrote: post #23

I don't get why people (I mean technically minded people who are aware of privacy issues and so on) don't just use firefox. They are pretty much at feature parity (Firefox may even get the edge due to the fantastic extensions ecosystem), except one spies on you and the other doesn't. Why do people find the switch so hard? In addition, Firefox + ublokc origin is pretty much the only option on mobile if you want to blo…

The biggest problem is the subtle frustrations if you use Google websites or services at all, since Google builds the Internet explicitly for Chrome, and sometimes works on other browsers okay-ish. reCAPTCHA harassment is particularly egregious too. I'm a Firefox user, but I've also already excised most of the rest of Google from my life. If you're still using Gmail, you're likely to stick with Chrome.

I'm also a full time Firefox/uBO user, but I've never noticed isues with reCAPTCHA or gmail. The only time I can think of hitting reCAPTCHA is when creating a new account somewhere and gmail seems to work as expected. Photos, maps, Keep, and YouTube all seem to work fine too.

It's possible of course that I just don't know any better since I haven't actually used Chrome with any regularity in the last 5 years or so.

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#69

Post by deadbunny »

basch wrote: post #54
jsutton wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Password managers don't hold your password in plaintext, so the liability there only exists if you don't think the latest encryption methods are enough.

Thats not true. Theres other ways into your account besides breaking encryption. Off the top of my head, a brick to my head and the use of my thumbprint would do it. Unlike how a normal service is normally supposed to store my password (hashed, but with no copy of the original password anywhere, EVENT THE LOGS) the password manager DOES retain a plain text copy of a password, not JUST a hashed derivative.

> Off the top of my head, a brick to my head and the use of my thumbprint would do it.

Maybe don't use 1FA for your passwords?

Re: The Browser Monopoly

#70

Post by gibspaulding »

cameronbrown wrote: post #45
aluren wrote: post #23

I don't get why people (I mean technically minded people who are aware of privacy issues and so on) don't just use firefox. They are pretty much at feature parity (Firefox may even get the edge due to the fantastic extensions ecosystem), except one spies on you and the other doesn't. Why do people find the switch so hard? In addition, Firefox + ublokc origin is pretty much the only option on mobile if you want to blo…

I want to like Firefox, and I use it regularly, but I just veer back to Chrome. I still prefer the UI and extensions (which Chrome still has the 'edge' in).

Out of curiosity, what extensions do you miss? I've never really used anything beyond the usual privacy extensions (uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, and HTTPS everywhere). All of which seem to be as well or better supported in FireFox.
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