What We're Working on in Firefox • Hacker News Board

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#81

Post by pessimizer » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:10 PM UTC

a0123 wrote: post #45

lainga wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quickly thumbing through my product book for "gaining market segment by making yourself indistinguishable from competition"

Yes, but the current design and direction are very clearly not working. You can hardly blame them for trying to emulate what's currently working for everyone else when everything you've tried so far has led to your downfall.

Their downfall came when they changed everything that they were doing, and subsequently nuked every reason why someone would prefer firefox other than that they weren't google. They transformed firefox into wonky chrome, even copying superficial UI stuff. And then got very hostile about any criticism of this project, actively destroying all of the goodwill they built up. That alienation of their stubborn, fanatical base took years to accomplish.

People would move back to firefox if it were still anything like firefox.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#82

Post by thwarted » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:12 PM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #13

> We’ve been listening to your feedback, and we’re prioritizing the features you want most. > Tab Grouping, Vertical Tabs, and our handy Sidebar will help you stay organized no matter how many tabs you have open — whether it’s 7 or 7,500. > Plus, our new Profile Management system will help keep your school, work, and personal browsing separate but easily accessible. Wow, that ... actually is what users have been aski…

I've been using multiple profiles in Chrome for years for keeping things separate… right up until my company started using Google's centralized browser/device management which infects the entire browser not just the single profile that is tied to my corporate Google account. Specifically, they forced a homepage setting browser-wide that can not be changed on a per-profile basis.

So multiple profiles are seemingly difficult to get right/fully isolated. I hope Firefox doesn't have similar limitations.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#83

Post by dralley » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:13 PM UTC

aquova wrote: post #66

rurp wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of regressions Mozilla has inflicted on Firefox in recent years blows my mind. One of their few big advantages over Chrome is better user control, but they have been working continuously to destroy that. Getting rid of most extensions and removing about:config are two big wtf decisions. All that does is piss off power users, which are the main advocates for this browser. Plus so many other baffling changes…

> removing about:config about:config is right where it's always been, unless I've missed something?

You've missed nothing, OP is full of it.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#84

Post by pessimizer » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:13 PM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #13

> We’ve been listening to your feedback, and we’re prioritizing the features you want most. > Tab Grouping, Vertical Tabs, and our handy Sidebar will help you stay organized no matter how many tabs you have open — whether it’s 7 or 7,500. > Plus, our new Profile Management system will help keep your school, work, and personal browsing separate but easily accessible. Wow, that ... actually is what users have been aski…

If you had 7,500 tabs open, it would take firefox approximately three and a half weeks to start.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#85

Post by worksonmine » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:14 PM UTC

Great, now please give me back the option to set my new tab page without resorting to extensions.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#86

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:15 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #22

Looking at the comments, I'm not surprised about FF's low market share. They chose to target geeks and nerds, and let's face it, we tend to be whiny about almost everything and complain about any new change. Meanwhile, Google Chrome doesn't even need to pretend like they care about privacy, so they automatically target the other "ordinary" people who are not so picky about every new release note. This kinda teaches y…

[deleted]

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#87

Post by dralley » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:16 PM UTC

luyu_wu wrote: post #59

em500 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they stretched for resources? Mozilla's revenue is around a half billion USD per year.

It's important to note here that Mozilla spends the majority of that money on non-Firefox projects (something that has pissed off people who have wanted to donate to Firefox specifically for ages). Firefox itself gets a sliver of that.

>something that has pissed off people who have wanted to donate to Firefox specifically for ages

Get pissed at tax law, not Mozilla. Mozilla Foundation cannot legally funnel tax-exempt donations into the development of products for a for-profit entity (Mozilla Corporation). That would be a crime.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#88

Post by palata » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:17 PM UTC

iforgotpassword wrote: post #18

blizdiddy wrote: post #5

> More streamlined menus that reduce visual clutter and prioritize top user actions so you can get to the important things quicker Oh no, more of this. What about less used options? How much slower? How much less discoverable? Desktop applications are already for power users almost by definition, let’s not slow them down for the sake of reducing “clutter”. Absolutely annoying trend of the last 15 years or so.

IDK, they're just following what Chrome has been doing forever now, and it has worked there. I guess that really is what the vast majority of normal people want. And considering how even among my most tech-savy friends and colleagues Chrome appears to be the browser of choice, it seems even these folks don't really care...

IMO the vast majority of users cannot make the difference between Chrome and Firefox. They just use whatever they are used to and like it because they are used to it.

Over the years, I have converted people to Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Safari. The only common denominator is that they all strongly prefer the one they use now.

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#89

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:18 PM UTC

neilv wrote: post #61

Prioritization that I'd like to suggest for Firefox, driven by needs of society (from high to low): 1. Representing the public interest wrt Web -- especially fervent respect for privacy in the browser, almost as much emphasis on security, fighting commercial excesses around de jure and defacto standards, and social equity within the scope of what Mozilla does (e.g., software accessibility, encouraging all volunteers)…

[deleted]

Re: What We're Working on in Firefox

#90

Post by palata » Thu, May 30, 2024, 9:18 PM UTC

Kye wrote: post #43

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't necessarily follow; a person could easily argue that Chrome won because Google abused its search monopoly to push it, then kept winning because of inertia. Unless your friends specifically prefer Chrome because of UX reasons, it could be unrelated.

Firefox certainly didn't help by becoming a bloated mess. Firefox was bad when Chrome came out. All Chrome did was the same thing Firefox did to IE in the same situation: take advantage of complacency. Google's heavy and sometimes ethically questionable promotion of Chrome was an amplifying force, but not sufficient.

> Google's heavy and sometimes ethically questionable promotion of Chrome was an amplifying force, but not sufficient.

I strongly believe it was sufficient. Which does not mean that Chrome was not better when it came out. But most people really don't want to try new tech: because you were excited by Chrome back then does not mean, by far, that everyone on the planet was.