Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#141

Post by basilgohar » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #51

FinanceAnon wrote: post #5

After a year of using Firefox on Macbook, I've switched back to Chrome. The laptop was running really hot just from having a few tabs opened and Youtube playing in the background. It's been much better after I've made the switch to Chrome. For privacy reasons, I would rather stick to Firefox, but I feel like the performance is worse.

In general I think there is no way to heavily use Google properties (in particular drive, docs and meet) without Chrome. I tried through the years, and always ended up with a main browser (Safari or now Firefox) and Chrome as a Google dedicated browser, because the experience would be miserable otherwise. At this point I stopped blaming the other browsers.

While Google apps definitely perform less than ideally for me on Firefox, I think that falls far short of unusable. I use Google Docs, Drive, YouTube, and other Google properties in 4K on my old (5+ year old AMD Ryzen 2400G) system. I definitely don't relish using their apps, but I definitely can and don't feel hindered.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#142

Post by dralley » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

mbg721 wrote: post #136

dralley wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were an LGBT employee at Mozilla, I would be pretty pissed and demoralized that my "leader" was actively trying to remove my rights. Because that's what Proposition 8 was, an attempt to constitutionally remove marriage rights from gay people after the California courts ruled that it was allowed. I think I'd be pretty uncomfortable making money for a person who would turn around and it to take away my / my family…

What did "marriage rights" actually change? I know taxes changed, and I assume there were some property implications beyond just sticking it to bigoted Christians, but that last part seemed to be the major feature.

>What did "marriage rights" actually change? I know taxes changed, and I assume there were some property implications beyond just sticking it to bigoted Christians, but that last part seemed to be the major feature.

If your "partner" is dying in the hospital, you don't have a legal right to be allowed to see them.

If your "spouse" is dying in the hospital, you do.

That's one example.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#143

Post by marcinzm » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #50

lousken wrote: post #12

Idk about 12 years but I know about last two years - many companies and workers had to switch to WFH. So that means using some sort of chat&video&audio software/website. What did Firefox do to fix the compatibility e.g. with Teams? That should've been the highest priority. Instead, it took them years to get at least the GPOs right, autoupdate is the same story... so many things in corprote env were or still are PITA…

> What did Firefox do to fix the compatibility e.g. with Teams? I think that's the wrong way around. Why would Firefox need to change their browser for a specific web application? Microsoft chose not to support Firefox, not the other way around. It's still choosing not to support smaller platforms (the Linux application is simply garbage, lacking basic features that have been available on other platforms for months).…

>Why would Firefox need to change their browser for a specific web application?

Because Firefox has more to lose by not doing so. The blame game is pointless because in the end it helps Firefox in no way.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#144

Post by nickthemagicman » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

I just couldn't get over the PROFILE UI.

Switching profiles was unpleasant and confusing.

They already have them implemented, why not give it a good UI like Chrome?

if they got that sorted I would be a Firefox user for life.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#145

Post by dralley » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

will4274 wrote: post #131

dralley wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a stupendously massive, unjustified assumption that Brendan Eich would somehow have prevented Mozilla from being in this position. They're competing against Apple, Google, and Microsoft simultaneously. It is entirely possible that could have been the best CEO in the world and Firefox could still be in the same exact position right now, or one that is only marginally better.

You've misread me. Eich wouldn't have saved Mozilla. Having many fewer ideological employees who insisted on conformity would have saved Mozilla. Conformity is not just a problem for politics. Read TFA - these are all conformity problems - Mozilla gets angry at people who disagree with their point of view - whether it is that tabs belong on top or that Eich is an evil abusive person or that Proton is surely better th…

> Proton is surely better than XUL

Proton has literally nothing to do with XUL, so if this is something you believe they think, then they'd be right to be annoyed about people with no clue what they're talking about spreading FUD.

That is like complaining that KDE is better than QML files or that GNOME is better than .glade files. Or that Chrome is better than HTML and JavaScript. Utterly nonsensical.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#146

Post by indymike » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

Unpopular opinion: Personally, I'd love to see Mozilla take on Apple in court. Firefox, Gecko rendering engine and all, should be on iOS. Not allowing competing browsers is more anti-competitive than not allowing third party payments for in-app purchases, and would lead to incredible amounts of innovation.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#147

Post by stingraycharles » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

Since the original source is down and I couldn’t find any other mirror, here’s an AMP mirror: https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.itsfoss.com/firefox-contin...

If someone has a better one that’s not AMP, please post it. :)

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#148

Post by The_rationalist » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

greypowerOz wrote: post #16

pteraspidomorph wrote: post #6

I agree with this opinion piece. Firefox is a product strangely hostile to its core userbase. It's almost like they've been deliberately trying to sabotage themselves for years. I don't use it because I approve of all their stupid pigheaded UI choices, I use it because it has been the least bad option despite those choices. That might not go on for much longer, though.

i use ffox on android because (for some reason) it's the only one I'm aware of that has ublock origin addon...( happy to be proven wrong :) I also used to use reader mode once in a while...

no, kiwi broser is chromium based and supports ublock origin

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#149

Post by Krasnol » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

Chrome spread like malware. Bundled with Freeware on PCs and being the de facto browser on most mobile phones on this planet.

Firefox never had a true chance to compete on the same level and I'm happy they didn't and still exist.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#150

Post by hypertele-Xii » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 4:02 PM UTC

dralley wrote: post #121

footlose_3815 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is my bit, too. they dropped an update that arbitrarily spaced out the area in between your bookmarks folders. You can you fit less on your screen now because of the stupid spacers

You can remove the spacers with 3 clicks.

Until you can't, because Mozilla deems that only X% of users use that feature and maintaining its configurability consumes too much organizational resources.

First the GUI to edit the GUI disappears, then the about:config option follows later.

That's what's been steadily happening. Less and less customizability for power users, more and more streamlining for new users.