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Firefox on the brink?

brycewray.com

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Re: Firefox on the brink?

#541

Post by rozap »

hs86 wrote: post #117

I switched over after the Manifest v3 debacle, and after a couple of months, I wonder if the implications of using a browser with a lower market share are overblown. I haven't encountered any site that misbehaves, and the only missing feature so far is within the Google Drive web app because it uses a Chrome-only extension [1]. Maybe the ongoing standardization of the web shows its effects here, and using a standard-…

I agree it seems overblown. I haven't encountered a site that doesn't work. Even google meet and zoom's web client work great.

Not sure what all the fuss is about. It's a great browser. Chrome got very, very aggravating and I've had no problems since switching maybe 4 years ago. Even FF mobile works well.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#542

Post by anonymouskimmer »

Chabsff wrote: post #143
robin_reala wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USDS aren’t idiots, and if they haven’t realised this yet then maybe this post will focus attention. They want to support every citizen it’s reasonable to support (or at least I did when I was working for GOV.UK) and dropping support from a lack of knowledge shouldn’t be on the agenda.

Sure, but the government HAS to make that determination in a data-driven way. It cannot be based on anything subjective, for what should be obvious reasons. On top of that, said lack of knowledge is a stated goal of all privacy-focused browsers. GA-blindness is an implementation detail of these policies. Any method the government could use to accurately track that information is effectively a bug in need of fixing fr…

> Sure, but the government HAS to make that determination in a data-driven way.

They really should be hiring a pollster to ask people which browser they use. It might be a bit difficult for those who use the default, but it wouldn't be that difficult to ask a couple of followup questions (e.g. which device) to determine which default browser that is.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#544

Post by Animats »

theteapot wrote: post #492
Animats wrote: post #486

If only Firefox still worked. Every time I open Firefox on Linux, it does disk I/O for about two minutes before it is usable. No idea why. On current Ubuntu, about once a day, Firefox stops accepting keyboard input. Sometimes right in the middle of a text box. Other windows still accept input. Restarting Firefox is usually necessary.

I've used Firefox on Debian for years. Boot time is perceptibly zero. Performance is on par with Chrome. And I can't remember it ever crashing except for maybe a tab crashing every now and then due to some errant Javascript.

Maybe it has to be on an SSD disk now.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#545

Post by macinjosh »

If Firefox goes away, we need serious anti-trust scrutiny on Google/Chrome.

To me they are in a similar place that MS was when IE got them into trouble.

They dominate PIM/Office tools with the google suite and design them to work best in Chrome. The only major difference is that Chrome is open sourced, but their software we need Chrome for isn't so that doesn't affect their moat at all.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#546

Post by rbanffy »

indymike wrote: post #540

A quick look at Mozilla's product page with 12 products of which five are different browsers, explains why the decline has happened: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/ That's a lot of products to support. Add to that this list of 27 discontinued products: https://killedbymozilla.com/ And you can understand why the struggle is real for firefox. It should be the best, bar none at this point.

All the browsers are probably counted as Firefox.

A better guidance would be to count based on engines (Chrome, Edge, and Safari are all variations on WebKit) and have a device preventing an engine monopoly.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#547

Post by beaugunderson »

bambax wrote: post #278

> I am personally unaware of any serious reason to believe that Firefox’s numbers will improve soon. Is it possible that Manifest V3 will help Firefox? Of course most people don't know or care about Manifest V3, but if uBlock Origin or other effective ad blockers cease to work satisfactorily on Chrome, won't that make some users switch? I'd rather go back to fetching web pages from a terminal than suffering the insan…

I'm in the process of switching after many years as a Chrome user... just have to find equivalents for the last of my extensions.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#548

Post by r00fus »

jdlyga wrote: post #90

Firefox needs to focus all their effort on making a good web browser first . If the browser is slow, has a clunky interface, or lags behind on features, then people won't use it. Mozilla focus way too much of their attention on privacy and non-browser related projects. Look at how much attention that The Browser Company has gotten for their Arc browser on Mac. Their primary focus is great UI and making an excellent b…

Firefox on my Macs is more feature-complete and faster than Chrome for me. And the Aweseomebar is truly a replacement for bookmarks for me (full text search showing URLs and titles from years ago with a few keywords is truly amazing).

Once manifestv3 starts really making waves, Firefox will be the best place to go for ublock origin and other adblockers.

Re: Firefox on the brink?

#550

Post by zamadatix »

dvngnt_ wrote: post #493
preinheimer wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specific problems I've had as a firefox user: - I can't pay municipal license fees (Site says "Use Chrome") - I can't use the Vendor management portal for $largePopularTechCompany type company for my small business ("We support Chrome") - Xero my small business accounting software just doesn't work properly ("Use Chrome")

i assume this is just a user-agent check though i don't expect regular users to know how to switch.

This is also a double edge sword in that if it's just a user-agent check the site tends to lack a well coded fallback for any functionality that is actually not supported and the page can silently break during usage. Not necessarily a problem for those that already know how to switch, but even just installing an extension for other people doesn't mean the sites are suddenly actually compatible. Sometimes even big sites like Microsoft Teams have this kind of problem for years at a time.
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