Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs • Hacker News Board

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#81

Post by soco » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

HenryBemis wrote: post #34

roydivision wrote: post #25

Mozilla get a lot of funding directly from Google for making Google the default search site [0]. Seems to me that this may be a problem going forward if Mozilla continue to allow ad blockers in Firefox. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-05/why-go...

The curse of the default tells us that this will never be a problem. Do you honestly believe that 99% of the Android Firefox users spend time to change the settings on the browser? (change to DDG, block all 3rd party cookies, etc.) I did a quick search on DDG but no meaningful results came up with search engine for firefox on android. Gut feeling tells me 'minimal'. People do like their google remembering stuff. Conv…

DDG search (same setup, in Android Firefox) is quite slower for me than Google search, it needs a few good seconds to bring the search results. No idea why this might be.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#82

Post by ranguna » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

rrreese wrote: post #64

I tried moving to Firefox a year ago but found that the lack of Tab Groups really killed me. There are several extensions that try to emulate this behaviour, but I didn't find that they worked particularly well. And then there are the security concerns. I guess when Chrome break uBlock Origin next year I'll give Edge a go, or one of the various chromium builds

Give it another go. Mozilla's own extension called multi account containers is pretty good and it has more features than just grouping tabs together.

And there's also the panorama view extension, which looks really nice and I've seen people use it extensively.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#83

Post by CTOSian » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

b112 wrote: post #37

dageshi wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Works just fine for me.

Probably referring to firefox on android. There way they rewrote it, and put an alpha version in the hands of end users was pathetic. It was a long time before it even had extensions again, it was horribly unstable, it lacked functionality, and it still does. You really couldn't work harder at torpedoing a product, than do what Mozilla did with Firefox on Android. I've often wondered if Google offered the team in cha…

There still issues with the FF on android, I have apps that redirect a page (eg for authentication in most of the cases) to the web browser and waiting back a response from it to continue, this works on on chrome but alas not FF

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#84

Post by JonathanBeuys » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

albertzeyer wrote: post #78

JonathanBeuys wrote: post #33

My problem with Firefox is that a new Firefox windows can only be launched from the same environment (or only from a child process?) from which the first window has been started. Even the same user who started FF cannot launch a new window from a new shell. That constantly interferes with my workflow. Example: Say firefox has been started from the Destop already and now I want to start a new Firefox window from a roo…

Maybe you need to set the DISPLAY env var? Maybe it tries to contact the app via dbus and fails for some reason? I'm quite sure this should work, and you just need to set some env var or so.

You can easily try jourself. 1) Have Firefox open 2) Start a root terminal (or a normal one and then "sudo su" 3) su normaluser firefox

It will refuse to start.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#85

Post by bratwurst3000 » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

rrreese wrote: post #64

I tried moving to Firefox a year ago but found that the lack of Tab Groups really killed me. There are several extensions that try to emulate this behaviour, but I didn't find that they worked particularly well. And then there are the security concerns. I guess when Chrome break uBlock Origin next year I'll give Edge a go, or one of the various chromium builds

What is the security concern of Firefox over chromium?

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#86

Post by silisili » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:49 AM UTC

gardenhedge wrote: post #63

seanthemon wrote: post #57

Highly recommend brave (with all the crypto nonsense shut off), it's a pretty fast browser, nice features and works with chrome extensions. I've used it successfully for the past 3 or something years

When I tried Brave, it blocked website ads but gave me browser ad popups on the top right. No thanks. Stick to Firefox.

Brave Rewards, which is what you are complaining about, is opt in.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#87

Post by INTPenis » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:49 AM UTC

rfoo wrote: post #54

INTPenis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? Firefox had extensions before Chrome existed. Firefox has always been the most versatile and secure way to browse the web. The only reason Chrome is even in the discussion is because Google abused its monopoly to push it on people. And yes a lot of people will say it's faster, all that speed lead you straight into the claws of Google doing whatever they want with you.

> Firefox has always been the most versatile and secure way to browse the web. Currently, a Chrome full-chain is notably harder than a Firefox full-chain, with the former being at "state actor ITW" level, and the latter being at "your friends started a never-heard of consultancy and they decided to do the classical trick - pwning Firefox at Pwn2Own" level.

Yeah but if Google keeps removing the ability to block content then Firefox will be more secure simply by filtering dynamic content from unknown domains. Drive by attacks are the most common way to spread malware, this is exactly what extensions like noscript prevent.

This isn't the first time Chrome has crippled user ability to filter content on a deep level.

So it doesn't matter how much hardening Chrome has if it allows for drive by download attacks from unknown domains.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#88

Post by JonathanBeuys » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:50 AM UTC

nstart wrote: post #61

JonathanBeuys wrote: post #33

My problem with Firefox is that a new Firefox windows can only be launched from the same environment (or only from a child process?) from which the first window has been started. Even the same user who started FF cannot launch a new window from a new shell. That constantly interferes with my workflow. Example: Say firefox has been started from the Destop already and now I want to start a new Firefox window from a roo…

Curious what use case you are looking at for over here? I don't want to make any assumptions. I'm wondering if what you are looking for might be covered by the functionality of tab containers.

I wrote a command line tool which tells me "Now look at the following page" and opens it a browser window with the url.

Works with Chrome, but not with Firefox.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#89

Post by soco » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:50 AM UTC

self_awareness wrote: post #26

Firefox looks ugly, I really can't accept it. The only way of it looking less ugly is to do some unofficial tweaks which break from version to version. I was a Firefox user for years until they've changed the UI, and now I can't go back because of how it LOOKS. Also, the Mozilla ideology. Why can't the browser be just a piece of software and that's it? I just use Vivaldi. Edit: I can sense that Firefox zealotry is st…

Uh where do you see the browser? You mean maybe the settings pages? Otherwise I only see a standard window frame around a webpage, and can't even imagine it being different.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#90

Post by luc4 » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 8:50 AM UTC

izacus wrote: post #58

roydivision wrote: post #25

Mozilla get a lot of funding directly from Google for making Google the default search site [0]. Seems to me that this may be a problem going forward if Mozilla continue to allow ad blockers in Firefox. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-05/why-go...

Yes, attacking the source of revenue that sustains a project is always a sensitive prospect. But then again, what's the alternative for Mozilla? In case of YouTube Premium we've clearly seen that even HN software engineers, demanding six figure pay, will refuse to pay other software companies a few bucks for their engineering work. Where does Mozilla find funding to sustain itself elsewhere?

What? We're not refusing to "pay other software companies a few bucks for their engineering work", we refuse to give in to the extortion attempts of a greedy multi-billion dollar company.

I have and will keep financially supporting software I find useful. However, I do agree that it's questionable whether you can easily replace Google as a source of funding.