Mostly agree but Firefox does not have the best Android extensions. Kiwi thrashes Firefox and Iceraven is better too with support for custom ones
There are plenty available for mobile now, which ones are you still missing?
Why I use Firefox
311–319 of 319 posts
Re: Why I use Firefox
#312I don't see why I would want to use anything else. Even if Chrome is marginally faster in an arbitrary benchmark test, I doubt I'd notice. And so far, I have no interoperability issues between Firefox on my laptop (macOS) and my iPhone (iOS), which runs Safari + Firefox Focus (because it's all the same webkit underneath). The add-on and plug-in marketplace is quite healthy, too. At the end of the day, I care about op…
> I don't see why I would want to use anything else I use FF, too, but I can see why someone wouldn't want to: It's just not a very good Mac app. Weird windowing and focus bugs in fullscreen mode. Keyboard shortcuts that randomly stop working. Zero scripting capabilities (it used to have the bare minimum, but Mozilla bizarrely ripped it out), and just poor integration in general. My system-wide shortcuts — the ones t…
Also - no way to remove third-party Pocket.
Re: Why I use Firefox
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
"At the end of the day, I care about open-source software that doesn't model its business around capturing and manufacturing my data for export -- just the opposite." Of course, that is exactly the model used by Mozilla. It exports search query data to Google for capture, by default, in return for payment. "Thank goodness for Mozilla and all its collaborators." Indeed, thank goodness for long-time Mozilla collaborato…
Yes this is the reason Firefox can still survive. But it's easy to turn off, giving you easy and real privacy. On Chrome you don't have real privacy.
One can change settings but one cannot change the default unless edit source and compile. Almost no one does this.
What is "real" privacy.
There is no small amount of telemetry by default in Firefox, far more than Chrome. Unless one changes each of these settings, Mozilla collects data about Firefox users. Defaults can only be changed by editing the source and compiling Firefox. Almost no one does this.
Re: Why I use Firefox
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes this is the reason Firefox can still survive. But it's easy to turn off, giving you easy and real privacy. On Chrome you don't have real privacy.
One can change settings but one cannot change the default unless edit source and compile. Almost no one does this. What is "real" privacy. There is no small amount of telemetry by default in Firefox, far more than Chrome. Unless one changes each of these settings, Mozilla collects data about Firefox users. Defaults can only be changed by editing the source and compiling Firefox. Almost no one does this.
Telemetry and Google as a default search engine are two different things. Also Telemetry doesn't collect any personal data, it's used for anonymous Firefox usage statistics to improve their product. And it's something Firefox asks you to opt in/out when you install Firefox.
Re: Why I use Firefox
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
One can change settings but one cannot change the default unless edit source and compile. Almost no one does this. What is "real" privacy. There is no small amount of telemetry by default in Firefox, far more than Chrome. Unless one changes each of these settings, Mozilla collects data about Firefox users. Defaults can only be changed by editing the source and compiling Firefox. Almost no one does this.
Telemetry and Google as a default search engine are two different things. Also Telemetry doesn't collect any personal data, it's used for anonymous Firefox usage statistics to improve their product. And it's something Firefox asks you to opt in/out when you install Firefox.
And regarding:
"One can change settings but one cannot change the default unless edit source and compile. Almost no one does this."
There are some popular Firefox forks that have several improvements over security and privacy. Check LibreWolf and Waterfox for example.
Re: Why I use Firefox
#316On desktop, FF supports the best vertical nested tab tree I have seen. What I’ve seen on chrome is laughably amateurish with huge chunks of wasted space due to unmodifiable(?) padding elements
Extension name?
I like Tab Center Reborn, then use userChrome.css to hide the native tabs.
I also set the preference browser.compactmode.show=true to enable the "compact density" in the customize toolbar section. Good use of screen real estate with these changes.
Re: Why I use Firefox
#317I work with XML files, firefox XML viewer collapse/expand nodes when I click on text, it makes hard to copy text from de XML, I have tried other XML viewers but other problems appear (for example having problem opening large XML files).
Re: Why I use Firefox
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes this is the reason Firefox can still survive. But it's easy to turn off, giving you easy and real privacy. On Chrome you don't have real privacy.
One can change settings but one cannot change the default unless edit source and compile. Almost no one does this. What is "real" privacy. There is no small amount of telemetry by default in Firefox, far more than Chrome. Unless one changes each of these settings, Mozilla collects data about Firefox users. Defaults can only be changed by editing the source and compiling Firefox. Almost no one does this.
What is telemetry. What is its function. Its function is to share information with Mozilla. Without telemetry, Mozilla does not have access to this information.
But what if the computer user does not care to share information with Mozilla.
Information such as:
(a) IP address
(b) the software is used/when the user is online
(c) the user's preferred websites
(d) how the software is used
(e) settings the user changes or does not change
and so on.
This is information sharing with Mozilla by default. It is not "opt-in". It is "op-out".
Re: Why I use Firefox
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes this is the reason Firefox can still survive. But it's easy to turn off, giving you easy and real privacy. On Chrome you don't have real privacy.
One can change settings but one cannot change the default unless edit source and compile. Almost no one does this. What is "real" privacy. There is no small amount of telemetry by default in Firefox, far more than Chrome. Unless one changes each of these settings, Mozilla collects data about Firefox users. Defaults can only be changed by editing the source and compiling Firefox. Almost no one does this.
Note the difference between (a) the user making changes to Firefox and compiling her own customised version and (b) hoping that someone else compiles a custom version and makes all the user's preferred changes to the source and removes all the defaults that the user wants removed. Option (a) offers the computer user some control. Option (b) is completely outside the control of the computer user.
The best one can do with option (b) is hope that someone managing a "fork" has addressed all their concerns.
Is having control useful for "real privacy". Is it useful for data collection and surveillance. Who should have control.
Firefox has over 37 million lines of code. The compiled program requires hundreds of megabytes of storage space. Based on LOC and binary size it is larger than the Linux kernel. Compiling Firefox on "average" computers will take hours and will require a powerful computer. It is not an easy process and can easily fail due to its numerous dependencies.
I use a text-only browser that compiles in less than a minute on an older, underpowered computer to a 1.2 MiB static binary. There are no mandatory dependencies. It is from this browser that I type and submit this reply.