Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#51

Post by airhead969 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #17

syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

> Why 5 weeks? [...] It's not often enough that it will annoy users. You know what's annoying? Asking me to change something that I've already said no to, especially when you don't give me an obvious way to turn it off. 5 weeks, 5 days, 5 months, doesn't matter. You already asked at install time and every time I started FireFox until finding and changing that setting. If I still haven't approved it and you keep askin…

Is there anything I can help you with?

No, thanks; I'm just browsing.

Is there anything I can help you with?

I just said "no, thanks."

Is there anything I can help you with?

Hello?

Is there anything I can help you with?

#$&@! Leave me alone. I'm not a criminal for just browsing here. Can you stop profiling me too?

Is there anything I can help you with?

...

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#52

Post by SemiNormal » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18

syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

> just stop shooting yourself in the foot It's just non-stop with Mozilla, isn't it? They have the curious pairing of technical excellence, and a long history of awful non-technical decision-making. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391659 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10680925 * https://news.ycombinator.co…

Why did you include the Mozilla Foundation as an awful decision?

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#53

Post by GekkePrutser » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18

syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

> just stop shooting yourself in the foot It's just non-stop with Mozilla, isn't it? They have the curious pairing of technical excellence, and a long history of awful non-technical decision-making. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391659 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10680925 * https://news.ycombinator.co…

Ughhh those sponsored links ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26262031 ) are only just new. I can't believe they are pulling that.

Glad it can be turned off but I bet it won't sync to all my other systems.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#54

Post by mindcrime » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #41

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just stop shooting yourself in the foot It's just non-stop with Mozilla, isn't it? They have the curious pairing of technical excellence, and a long history of awful non-technical decision-making. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391659 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10680925 * https://news.ycombinator.co…

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mozilla has no respect for its users. This is a continuing pattern as you've very clearly demonstrated.

It's been that way since the very beginning. The folks behind Mozilla always assume they know more about what the users ought to do, than the users themselves. You would maybe think that this arrogant position would have diminished a bit over the last 20 years, but apparently it has not.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#55

Post by walrus01 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

mavhc wrote: post #12

walrus01 wrote: post #5

Still nowhere near as bad as Windows popping up a system level notification on consumer configurations of Windows 10, with a big advertisement for Edge and trying to get people to change their browser to Edge.

Are you sure you want to not use Edge? Please? I'm going to cry. Hey, I'll reset it to Edge in a bit anyway just in case.

Here, let me remind you how much I love you with the giant blue full screen 'welcome to windows, please make a microsoft account' message next time you log in.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/new-we...

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/welcom...

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#56

Post by airhead969 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

iab wrote: post #28

luckylion wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On April 16, when I started up Firefox 87 (stable) on my Ubuntu laptop, it popped up a prompt asking if I want to set Firefox as my default browser. Firefox is already my default browser. Apparently it will annoy you as well. :)

“Can you sign this 10-Year agreement to make Firefox your default browser across all devices? Click here”

A few moments later..

Would you like to renew Firefox as your default browser now before time runs out? Act now before prices go up! Supplies are limited! Not valid in AK, HI, and Guam.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#57

Post by Hitton » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18

syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

> just stop shooting yourself in the foot It's just non-stop with Mozilla, isn't it? They have the curious pairing of technical excellence, and a long history of awful non-technical decision-making. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391659 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10680925 * https://news.ycombinator.co…

I'm more annoyed by Mozilla hiding functions used mainly by powerusers so they can be accessed only using about:config (for instance relatively recently layout.css.text-decoration-skip-ink.enabled) and then completely scrapping the functionality, because people don't use it (duh). Now they want to do same with compact mode. I dread when they completely disable usage of userChrome.css.

They completely ignore the fact that Firefox got big because technical users were installing it on computers of their less technically literate relatives. Now they changed the Firefox to be carbon copy of Chrome so powerusers no longer have any reason to use it, let alone install it for other people. My reason to keep using it is at this point only desire to avoid Chrome monoculture.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#58

Post by tzs » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

I'd be amused if someone wrote a program that hooked into the OS in such a way that it could detect when a browser is about to launch and then temporarily change the default to that browser, changing it back a moment or two after the launch finishes.

That way, every browser would think that it is already the default.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#59

Post by airhead969 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

plank_time wrote: post #50

This sounds exactly like the stupid decisions made when all you do is look at data and not care about anything else. If all you care about is more people making Firefox the default browser and not care about doing the right thing, then you get people like this doing what he is doing. Doing the right thing is to ask once, and stop asking. To do something different is horribly stupid and reflects very poorly on Firefox…

Mechanical, rational optimization instead of a mix of social UX goodwill with some rational optimization. Reason with empathy perhaps.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#60

Post by tuxone » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

smarx007 wrote: post #31

zeta0134 wrote: post #9

Heh, this won't annoy me in particular since Firefox is already my default. Instead, it'll specifically annoy web developers who prefer some other browser, but are being good netizens and testing in Firefox too. I'm not really okay with making Firefox more annoying for these developers. It's their preference, and the checkbox in settings that is meant to control this prompt should actually control this prompt, all th…

Actually, it will annoy me in particular even though FF is my default browser. Technically, Choosy ( https://www.choosyosx.com/ ) is my default "browser" on macOS and FF is the preferred browser in Choosy. I hope there will be an about:config preference to disable "nudging".

Even better they should embed this Choosy functionality inside firefox as an option. Eg: I'm on firefox and I click on a link that contains a domain that I would to open on a different browser. I admit this is a very power user feature but not much different than this precisely default browser thing: it affects only multi-browser users (which would love to jump out of firefox based on some rules, guess there is already an extension for it).