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Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

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Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#511

Post by zare_st »

mariusmg wrote: post #184
nomilk wrote: post #73

FWIW I got annoyed with chrome's distracting home screen, and pondered how long it would take for a 10+ year chrome user to switch to firefox. The answer (on macOS) was 5 minutes. I was shocked how easy it was (and, frankly, how similar it was). When you first open firefox, it gives options to import all your chrome settings (including saved passwords etc). Super cool.

Yeah, you're switching browsers not 3D modelling software. It's easy people. Switch to Firefox today.

Absolutely monster analogy.

After working for a year in 3DSMax, back in the day, someone asked me to show them something in Lightwave. I couldn't find my way about anything.

There is also a far far bigger difference between IDEs than between browsers even if compare only the big names. Compare Visual Studio, IntelliJ and Eclipse.

All the browsers are same. They were all the same for 10 years. Single window or MDI. Then Opera came with tabs, then everyone got tabs. That's it.

Basically, if we accept the notion that it's hard for someone to switch from Chrome to Firefox we accept the notion that it's hard to move anyone from any ecosystem just on the grounds of them not wanting to touch their muscle memory even a bit. You get to the same option in three to four clicks through different menues. Is it that hard?

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#512

Post by Cort3z »

I have been using many different browsers over the years. I regularly use safari, firefox, chrome, and occasionally even Edge and so on.

I keep going back to firefox. Why? It has some power-features I haven't really found in many other browsers. It lets you easily explicitly search through your tabs (% in url bar). It has first party plugin for containers, letting you log in to multiple accounts on the same domain without having to log out all the time. It's also worth noting that Rust, the language, as far as I understand was essentially invented to make features in firefox memory safe.

With all the praise for firefox, it should be mentioned that their business model is centered around passing on searches to google.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#513

Post by zare_st »

insanitybit wrote: post #281
mariusmg wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you're switching browsers not 3D modelling software. It's easy people. Switch to Firefox today.

I don't use 3D modeling software, but I use a browser for like... 95% of my day. Any minor UX differences are going to be like nails on a chalkboard, given that. It's no wonder why people don't want to switch, really.

If you can't replace your handheld drill to another model because no other model "fits your hand that well", all the other carpenters in the market are going to have an edge over you.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#514

Post by linza »

8organicbits wrote: post #77
ochronus wrote: post #50

I would, if Mozilla focused on features users want :)

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.

Are you asking because you have the power to implement some of the missing features, or because you will tell me I don't actually need what i think i want.

1) i never could get password/autofill syncing between several devices working quickly and reliable as in chrome.

2) no app mode in Firefox

3) on desktop i don't like the UI and i would need to install userchrome stuff to "fix" it.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#515

Post by medo-bear »

jacquesm wrote: post #510
medo-bear wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the people who see the existing EU as an anti-democratic bureocracy

What about them? Do they see the federal government of the United States also as an anti-democratic bureaucracy? Do they see their own government as anti-democratic? And if not why do they see the existing EU as different? Do they understand how EU representatives are chosen? Do they follow EU parliamentary proceedings and do they understand how EU law interacts with local law? All of those are important questions an…

What does the US government have to do with anything :/

I am a pro EU person but I feel you are being quite dismissive of an important issue. Namely that understanding the EU governing structure is very impenetrable to a great number of people, much more so than their national government. The foundation of democracy is that citizens distribute power. How does democracy work if citizens have very little idea about how that works in the EU?

Then you also have people from smaller coubtries who are quite concerned about centralization tendencies in the EU.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#516

Post by prox »

pyrale wrote: post #366
prox wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not rewriting history. Firefox really was a slow browser in that time, especially with lots of tabs open. It was only with the Quantum (?) engine that FF became a lot faster. Webpages loading that bit snappier really was a big deal back then, probably for a lot of developers especially. Google was still riding on the “Do No Evil” vibes till about 2012-2014 I would wager.

> Webpages loading that bit snappier really was a big deal back then No, it wasn't. Quick reminder, the issue with IE was webpages loading broken, or not loading at all. People that used that crap didn't switch because "Chrome was a bit snappier than FF", they switched because all of a sudden every webpage, many sotfware install wizard, and even billboards on the street told them to switch to Chrome. Some "toolbars"…

Now I get where you are coming from, that is a good take. I think amongst developers/techies it was an issue though, I remember the convos around that.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#517

Post by zare_st »

One of the impediments in migrating to another software are different UIs. Let's forget for a second that Chrome and Firefox have a really, really similar UI for the sake of this example.

Let's also discard that UI is changed for the sake of itself. It has changed to benefit the software somehow. How to get around the need for someone to redesign the UI and the expectation of a user to have a same routine workflow every day?

Standardize more keyboard shortcuts. Standardize important browser settings under a tree, with prescribed OIDs and such. Start supporting keyboard workflows for all the actions in the software.

Keyboard is the most stable interface there is. Everyone looking to advance in his domain needs to start using the keyboard. Even if you're in construction, engineering, architecture, visual design, you'll find out your software suite has extensive shortcuts and macros or scripting that can boost your productivity N-fold.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#518

Post by jacquesm »

medo-bear wrote: post #515
jacquesm wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about them? Do they see the federal government of the United States also as an anti-democratic bureaucracy? Do they see their own government as anti-democratic? And if not why do they see the existing EU as different? Do they understand how EU representatives are chosen? Do they follow EU parliamentary proceedings and do they understand how EU law interacts with local law? All of those are important questions an…

What does the US government have to do with anything :/ I am a pro EU person but I feel you are being quite dismissive of an important issue. Namely that understanding the EU governing structure is very impenetrable to a great number of people, much more so than their national government. The foundation of democracy is that citizens distribute power. How does democracy work if citizens have very little idea about how…

> Namely that understanding the EU governing structure is very impenetrable to a great number of people, much more so than their national government.

You can say a lot about the EU that needs fixing but their documentation is excellent. What it needs is for the national governments to get better at communicating how and when they interact with the EU and what the practical effects are. The bigger problem is that anti-EU forces within the EU (usually: populists) do their level best to take every problem in their own societies and spin it in such a way that the EU looks like the culprit. Which makes people believe that if the EU were to go away that everything will be unicorns and rainbows.

> Then you also have people from smaller coubtried who are quite concerned about centralization tendencies in the EU.

Yes, that's one of those peculiar cases: they somehow believe that as smaller countries in a much larger world that they would be able to do better than as a bloc. This makes no sense at all and despite many examples to the contrary quite a few people believe this. But common sense unfortunately isn't all that common and as Brexit proves beyond a doubt going it alone isn't better, it is far worse.

To the tune of a trillion per decade for the UK, money that they badly needed. That there is no serious investigation of how the UK public was swindled surprises me, but then again, it probably shouldn't, after all, those that would be in charge of such an investigation all ended up making out like bandits and they certainly aren't going to risk killing their golden goose even if it dumps the rest of the population of the UK into poverty.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#519

Post by sadn1ck »

8organicbits wrote: post #77
ochronus wrote: post #50

I would, if Mozilla focused on features users want :)

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.

Some links I want to open in 1 container profile, some in the other.

I need a native switcher, or better profiles support. In chrom/ium browsers with velja (open to alternatives which support ff profiles), I can click a link and it prompts me in which profile I want to open. Only thing blocking me from switching to firefox. (and figma perf is bad on ff but that's not really a ff problem)

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#520

Post by cesarb »

viraptor wrote: post #506
dubcanada wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Firefoxs fault that Chromium took over, Firefox just had to copy what Google did with Chrome (which is make a version that is easily integrated in other applications). It had years to do so, and did not. I am not blaming Firefox for the rise in Chrome, but I am blaming them for the rise in Chromium. They have a solid alternative and didn't care enough to capitalize on it. Who knows in another timeline with chang…

Embedding the browser is a very small issue compared to what Google actually did: spend money, put chrome ads everywhere on the internet, spend more money, push chrome in its results and pages, spend more money, put chrome ads in physical space. The features don't matter that much - there were a couple of years where you were simply bombarded with ads about a better browser. It worked and they made normies care.

You forgot one: IIRC, Chrome came bundled with some popular Windows applications.

> there were a couple of years where you were simply bombarded with ads about a better browser

Let's not forget the whole context: Chrome's main opponent back then was not Firefox, but Internet Explorer. And it did help reduce Internet Explorer's usage share, so much that it was abandoned (again) by its developers.

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