Live data from Hacker News

I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

techradar.com

431–440 of 699 posts

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a longtime Mozilla contributor, so I’m probably biased toward Firefox, but there are still a few Chrome features that I wish Firefox had, like: - Easier to create and use multiple profiles (somewhat mitigated by Mozilla's multi-container add-on) - Google Translate integration

It’s not built-in, but you can get Google Translate browser extensions, and these are promoted on Firefox marketing pages. Also, there’s an offline translate extension being worked on in open source: https://blog.mozilla.org/mozilla/local-translation-add-on-pr...

You can also make a bookmarklet that loads Google Translate into the page. It isn't quite as nice as the auto-detect in Chrome but very close.

With the new offline translation support I actually prefer this setup as I can try the local translate first, then if the quality is bad or the language isn't supported I can make the decision if I want to upload the page to Google.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#432
post #20

Firefox on Android with ublock origin is a _must_. Otherwise the mobile web is nigh unusable.

I use Chrome Mobile with NextDNS blocking the ads. The experience is mostly the same.

A lot of stuff is loaded from the same host as the content. For example, a DNS blocking solution like NextDNS can't block YouTube ads without breaking the videos (same with ads on Google Search and many other sites). It also can't apply cosmetic filters to block things like cookies popups or hide empty spots where ads are supposed to be displayed.

DNS blocking is better than nothing, but it's very basic when compared to a browser extension like uBlock Origin.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#433
post #6

I'm a big fan of Firefox containers. I occasionally need different logins for the same sites and containers make that much easier than Google's profile feature.

Are extensions and their settings shared across all containers?

One thing I love about Chrome/Edge profiles is being able to different extensions enabled/disabled and configured differently across them.

For example, I have a "private" profile that always runs windscribe vpn and other privacy-heavy extensions that I might not necessarily want running on my "base" profile.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#434
post #388
post #291

Is there really a killer feature of Chrome that justifies its use over FF? I've been using Firefox and have never been disappointed with it. I always just assumed that if you wanted privacy, it's better to use Firefox over Chrome, Safari, or Brave.

Not exactly "killer" but the ability to customize the keyboard shortcut to focus the URL bar (to Cmd+D) is what keeps me from switching to Firefox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32130168

I would pay $100 for fully customizable keyboard shortcuts in Firefox. Especially if they were Vim-like or could bind arbitrary JavaScript to a key.

I miss vimperator so much.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#435
post #291

Is there really a killer feature of Chrome that justifies its use over FF? I've been using Firefox and have never been disappointed with it. I always just assumed that if you wanted privacy, it's better to use Firefox over Chrome, Safari, or Brave.

Its only killer feature to me is that websites are designed and tested with a Chromium-first attitude. As a regular FF user I might stumble upon a website that’s quite buggy or straight up doesn’t work, which forces me to use Chrome for that specific website. Other than that I don’t really feel like there’s anything, and Edge is currently a better Chrome than Chrome anyway. EDIT: and for the record, I’m still upset M…

Microsoft had a huge hit with VSCode. They like Blink/chromium.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#436
post #287

I used Firefox in the early-mid 00s, switched to Chrome not long after launch, after my colleagues showed me how much slicker is was than a now fairly heavy Firefox (at the time.) Then evil Google emerges, Chrome got fat, FF trimmed up and went privacy-as-a-default, and I'm back on FF again for the better part of the last decade. Opera had a look-in around 2008 but it didn't last long, although some of the features w…

I never switched to Chrome, always used Firefox. But it increasingly got more config-involving to make FF do what I wanted and maybe I overdid some settings/plugins and websites started to show incorrectly. Also the imho (much) too high salary for the CEO annoyed me (Mozilla is supposed to be "Internet for people, not profit"). Tried Brave and it was a nice experience after some initial cost to e.g. disable crypto. S…

Same! I switched from FF to Brave a few months back, and I'm liking it a lot.

I miss a few features, but nothing major.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#437
post #384
post #287

I used Firefox in the early-mid 00s, switched to Chrome not long after launch, after my colleagues showed me how much slicker is was than a now fairly heavy Firefox (at the time.) Then evil Google emerges, Chrome got fat, FF trimmed up and went privacy-as-a-default, and I'm back on FF again for the better part of the last decade. Opera had a look-in around 2008 but it didn't last long, although some of the features w…

I'd switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if I could somehow focus the URL bar with Cmd+D instead of Cmd+L (years of muscle memory with Alt+D on Linux previously). Other browsers have a menu entry for this (File -> Open Location... in Chrome) so keyboard shortcuts can be switched in the Keyboard settings but Firefox doesn't have this. :| I've tried various methods without success. If anyone had a working solution I'd be v…

Option+D would be the analogue on Mac.

This might work: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shortkeys/

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#438
post #291

Is there really a killer feature of Chrome that justifies its use over FF? I've been using Firefox and have never been disappointed with it. I always just assumed that if you wanted privacy, it's better to use Firefox over Chrome, Safari, or Brave.

Firefox had the chance to remain relevant when it still had some significant market share and if they had gone all in on ad blocking (basically something like merge ublock origin directly into Firefox). Unfortunately, since most of their revenue is from Google, it could never happen due to conflict of interest.

Do you think major websites that are funded by ads would simply block Firefox with merged ad blocker?

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#439
post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said I want it specifically to be Cmd+D (instead of the default Cmd+L).

It would be pretty trivial to write an extension that does that.

I don't think Firefox extensions can do this sort of thing.

Re: I've started using Firefox and can never go back to Chrome

#440
post #384
post #287

I used Firefox in the early-mid 00s, switched to Chrome not long after launch, after my colleagues showed me how much slicker is was than a now fairly heavy Firefox (at the time.) Then evil Google emerges, Chrome got fat, FF trimmed up and went privacy-as-a-default, and I'm back on FF again for the better part of the last decade. Opera had a look-in around 2008 but it didn't last long, although some of the features w…

I'd switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if I could somehow focus the URL bar with Cmd+D instead of Cmd+L (years of muscle memory with Alt+D on Linux previously). Other browsers have a menu entry for this (File -> Open Location... in Chrome) so keyboard shortcuts can be switched in the Keyboard settings but Firefox doesn't have this. :| I've tried various methods without success. If anyone had a working solution I'd be v…

I think it may be possible to change browser shortcuts with a custom UserChrome.js but it is very much going down a nonstandard path.
Post reply on HN