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

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#191

Post by dark-star » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:20 AM UTC

ggjkvcxddd wrote: post #165

masfoobar wrote: post #148

I have been a happy Firefox user for 15 years... maybe more. I have seen people use and complain Internet Explorer in my younger days, from version 6 to 7, etc. Even though I mention Firefox to them, they stay with IE. What amazes me is how quick they transitioned to Google Chrome when it released. This was around 2009. It amazes me how quick people jump to something especially when it has a big company behind advert…

>I just don't understand why people would use Chrome. Really? That seems hard to believe. I stuck with FF until around 2016 or so before being compelled to switch. The performance was just very clearly worse than Chrome's at the time. Not sure what the state of things is now. This is HN, so another huge reason to use Chrome is for the devtools, which I've always had a very good experience with and know pretty well. I…

Firefox is still slower than Chrome (and uses more memory). For me at least.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#192

Post by self_awareness » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:20 AM UTC

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #31

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…

Funny, I use Firefox and think Chrome looks a bit uglier. A lot is simply what you're used to. Don't let your initial aesthetic reaction dictate your browser choice. It's really not ugly; just a tiny bit different.

> Don't let your initial aesthetic reaction dictate your browser choice.

Why? Also "initial reaction"? You mean, "fake it till you make it"?

For others this may be a nitpick, for me it's a barrier I'm not able to cross.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#193

Post by robertlagrant » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:20 AM UTC

theferalrobot wrote: post #138

tinus_hn wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like a true Internet Explorer believer in 2010. Nothing is forever, no matter how solid its lead appears to be.

Certainly not but believing that FireFox is going to resurrect itself from a dropping market share of 3% is delusional and the sooner we all face reality the better we can make it. I loved FireFox over the years but he’s dead Jim.

I don't really understand this - would you not buy a car if it has too small a market share? Why not just use it? What reality is there to face?

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#194

Post by _cenw » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #100

I keep seeing Edge mentioned as a worthy alternative, and I just don't get it. First, all Chromium-based browsers will eventually block uBlock Origin for the sole reason that they can't maintain Manifest v2 on their own, and they all rely on Chrome's Web Store anyway. This won't happen immediately because Manifest v2 will probably stick around for longer because of enterprise users, but the writing is on the wall. Th…

People who don't see the problem with Edge must all be domain joined or on Pro for Workstations / Enterprise. Supposedly the browser doesn't annoy "confirmed" business customers as much.

I recently switched to the RC Insider ring just to get the EU digital markets update, which lets you uninstall Edge.

Because it started doing incredibly creepy stuff.

* Keeps asking me every day if I want to keep my new tab extension. No way to set a blank page either. If you don't use an extension, it's "Microsoft Home" (which doesn't even let you properly set your own background, and keeps showing me squids, no thanks). Despite me clicking no every time, it still occasionally disables it. I think there may be a timeout, and then the disabled plugin syncs everywhere.

* Asked me if it could shouldersurf my Kagi searches and scrape them to improve Bing. If I was Kagi, I'd think about blocking the Edge user agent.

* Upon clicking "no" on the point above, it changed my search engine to Bing.

* Edge also has a feature to regularly scrape other Browsers for their history to submit to Microsoft. Given every other Edge feature did not respect my consent in an honestly gaslighting fashion, I don't feel confident any browsing data on a Windows machine is private unless you install the above Release Candidate and set your Region to EU to uninstall Edge.

Here's the guide I followed. Just set your region to Ireland or something: https://www.partitionwizard.com/news/uninstall-microsoft-edg...

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#195

Post by nicman23 » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

ochronus wrote: post #185

8organicbits wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your wishlist? Browsers feel pretty complete to me in that I can open all the websites I want to open, and atleast with FF I can easily block ads.

Two things stand out: 1. native vertical tabs 2. native tab groups Yes, I know there are extensions for these things, but I, personally, find them horrible.

> native tab groups

that addon is semi official

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#196

Post by bratwurst3000 » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

rrreese wrote: post #144

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the security concern of Firefox over chromium?

Not the browsers themselves, but the extensions that provide tab group functionality - they often have the `Access your data for all web sites` permission. Maybe I trust the developer right now, but one day they may sell their plugin to someone else. Obviously its the same story for uBlock Origin, but I prefer to restrict the number of extensions with these permissions, and its a shame to need an extension for what i…

I don’t think those permission mean that they can collect the data and send it home. I think it means more something like „ accessing all code of website to block scripts“.

If the would send data home I would be a bit irritated. Could someone please clarify this ?

Because I know some extensions do exactly this . There was a talk from the ccc about this. But is this a Firefox specific problem ?

Thanks for responding anyway

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#197

Post by dark-star » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

pyrale wrote: post #161

masfoobar wrote: post #148

I have been a happy Firefox user for 15 years... maybe more. I have seen people use and complain Internet Explorer in my younger days, from version 6 to 7, etc. Even though I mention Firefox to them, they stay with IE. What amazes me is how quick they transitioned to Google Chrome when it released. This was around 2009. It amazes me how quick people jump to something especially when it has a big company behind advert…

> What amazes me is how quick they transitioned to Google Chrome when it released. This was around 2009. The power of endless money for advertising. Some users think it doesn't have that much impact, but being nudged on every other web page to make the switch is much more powerful than that nephew who talks to you about it once.

My guess is that i wasn't marketing. It was because FF was dog-slow back then and Chrome was (still is) blazingly fast

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#198

Post by masfoobar » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

theodric wrote: post #168

masfoobar wrote: post #148

I have been a happy Firefox user for 15 years... maybe more. I have seen people use and complain Internet Explorer in my younger days, from version 6 to 7, etc. Even though I mention Firefox to them, they stay with IE. What amazes me is how quick they transitioned to Google Chrome when it released. This was around 2009. It amazes me how quick people jump to something especially when it has a big company behind advert…

I moved to Chrome on first release not because of blind, trend-following foolishness, but because it performed significantly better than Firefox. It also didn't have the bug of occasionally losing things I told it to grab into the clipboard. Poor performance is also what drove me back to Firefox. It still has the clipboard bug, however.

"I moved to Chrome on first release not because of blind, trend-following foolishness, but because it performed significantly better than Firefox..."

This is fine. My comment is not aimed at everyone who switched -- though I am likely still referring to the majority of people.

I do remember the ACID test being the main selling point of Chrome over the other browers. Yes, from memory, I do believe Chrome was faster. My attitude to this, however, was that it was new and eventually, would be adding new features, etc.

I understand that there are people out there who switched for other reasons.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#199

Post by nicman23 » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:23 AM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #56

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 dropped its own extensions to follow Chromes extension model for a long time now

the issue was more of a security / architecture than just following chrome. xul needed to change and webextensions was already open and tested.

that said, i still miss a couple of xul extensions

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#200

Post by subtra3t » Mon, Nov 27, 2023, 9:23 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.

I feel like this comment was made in bad faith. Brave Rewards, the thing you're complaining about, is OPT-IN. That means you had to manually enable it in Brave's settings. You're complaining about something you consciously enabled.