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Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

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Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#151

Post by temphnaccount »

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'd say other way around is true. HN crowd won't like this but it's very hard to continuously update a product for the core userbase that Firefox has. (small sample size but I maintain a small privacy focused app and from my experience, most of the reviews I get are how it's missing features which competitors have or how it's unusable because it can't handle stuff without jeopardizing privacy focused nature of the app.)

Judging by the HN and Reddit comments with each Firefox/Signal/Matrix releases, it seems most of the customers of privacy focused products want all the other features of competitors; most of the times without paying any money (or they think donations should cover for everything because they once donated, so all hundreds of thousand users would). And they dislike/have negative sentiments towards any UI changes or breaking functionality for new features. So core userbase for these products becomes hostile towards the product growth by definition. In this environment, either the product stops growing and simply becomes a niche product for those set of users or it dies.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#152

Post by anonymousab »

roca wrote: post #100
yosamino wrote: post #8

I use Firefox exclusively, but the only thing I can think of to write in this box are all the unneccessary frustrations they are putting me through. The list is long . Item one: Why does Mozilla have so many ways to file bugs* ? Which is a pity, because, besides the fact that Chrome has almost all of the marketshare, they also basically own Mozilla financially (is this still correct ?) and technologically Firefox use…

Skia and Harfbuzz are relatively small components compared to the rest of the engine. Also there's really only one way to file bugs: bugzilla.mozilla.org.

There are various GitHub repos, such as for the mobile browsers, and they also spun off some functionality like container tabs into their own repos as well. You'll also get bounced around these repos, bugzilla, the blog and community forum posts whenever one source really doesn't want to bother with the issue you're trying to bring up regardless of relevancy.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#153

Post by fistynuts »

junon wrote: post #37
znpy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox on Android used to just freeze for me. I'm happily on brave mobile, which does block ads.

... and replaces them with more ads directly in the user interface (e.g. the new tab screen).

It replaces the millions of ads and trackers on the web with exactly one ad, which is as you say on the new tab screen, that you can turn off in the settings.

There is also Brave Rewards, something that pays you for viewing ads but is disabled by default and can be totally hidden through another setting.

This straightforward set-up isn't something I feel deserves the number of negative comments I see on here. The benefits far outweigh the minor inconvenience of changing two settings.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#154

Post by was8309 »

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.

can i ask how? thank you

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#155

Post by hypertele-Xii »

pwdisswordfish8 wrote: post #40

> Then Google decided to make the tabs on top standard for its Chrome browser, which was designed for mobile devices not desktops. On a smartphone it may make sense, as there isn’t room for a full desktop style menu layout. On a desktop it is counterintuitive and breaks workflow with all other programs. Funnily enough, moving tabs to the top is actually one of the few UI changes I actually agree with and find more lo…

The most logical tab position is on the left or right, on desktop, because most of the space on a wide screen display is on the horrizontal axis, and you want to reserve as much vertical space as possible for scrolling websites (which happens vertically, and pretty much cannot be changed at this point, as it is baked into the web).

There's an addon for that, but you no longer can hide the default tab bar! So now it just wastes space up there for me. Mozilla... just one day removed the option to hide it. First from the GUI, then from about:config. And also addons can no longer hide it either.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#158

Post by hypertele-Xii »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #107
laurent92 wrote: post #19

My Firefox has become adware. Adware for Mozilla, but still: Every new tab I open, there is a “WE CARE FOR YOUR PRIVACY” message awaiting for me. Every restart, “LOOK AT HOW WE HAVE FEWER ADS, MORE PRIVACY”. And from time to time, if I don’t open a tab by myself, it will install Pocket and/or open two tabs at startup, one for the release notes and one for browsing, but still with the little mention “Firefox has been…

Wait, what? I use Firefox exclusively and there's definitely not a Mozilla ad every new tab or every restart. There is one once a major release (including a couple of days ago), and those always annoy me, but it's only once a month or two. Are you exaggerating or does yours work differently?

Actually I think there is... I distinctly remember being extremely annoyed at the text ad on the new tab page. Turned it off a long time ago. It's called "Snippets" in settings/home. It's like a Twitter feed from Mozilla.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#159

Post by arglebarglegar »

hypertele-Xii wrote: post #150
dralley wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

more like “low skilled” users rather than new, and most people (by a large margin) are low skilled users…

power users were the market early on, and that’s just not the case anymore… power users have been spoiled for a long time online, most things outside of tech have never been built for us

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#160

Post by sleepless »

pasc1878 wrote: post #137
sleepless wrote: post #82

Longtime Firefox user here. Oddly I have no problem with Tabs on top (I prefer that UI design), low contrast between tabs (there are favicons and text which clearly indicate the tabs, I am not lacking anything to make out where a tab is), removing XUL (only using few add-ons and those transitioned), performance (is fine for me on a macbook pro). Sometimes it feels to me as if there is a trend to bash on weaker projec…

The last version messed up macos dark mode completely. It ignores much css including including add-ons like tree style tabs which is the main reason I use firefox. So I am stuck on v90 The bug says fixed but the nightlies show it hasn't

What do you mean by "it ignores much css"? I am using tree style tab add-on and it shows fine for me.
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