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What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

neilzone.co.uk

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Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#21

Post by crossroadsguy »

My needs are:

- I like Safari as a browser and can live with it - at least on Mac and Safari. But goodness, its sync and almost anything it does with iCloud is atrocious. Now, Apple being Apple they definitely wouldn’t let anyone else fix that.

- I also need to use Android where I use Safari.

I would happily ditch Safari and Firefox if I can use a browser (without crypto shenanigans, edgy UI) all I need are:

- robust sync (tab, bookmarks, and if possible preferences) across platforms (at least between iOS and Mac; and I repeat, no Safari/iCloud isn’t that)

- Decent tracking/ad blocking. Doesn’t have to be top notch

- Snappy

- I am fine with closed source because I have been using Safari all these years

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#23

Post by poisonborz »

reidrac wrote: post #12

I moved to Waterfox on Android and, in a couple of small things, it works better for me than Firefox; but being a soft fork it has some of the problems of LibreFox. As the post is saying: I'm disappointed, but there is no technical reason to drop Firefox for now. Yet I feel like I must do something when the ToS is still hot, although I don't expect any change from Mozilla.

I have to say Firefox (and forks) for Android is several levels inferior to chrome (forks). Just slower and consumes way more battery - and does not even have the customizability of alternatives.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#24

Post by jeroenhd »

huhtenberg wrote: post #2

** To clarify - looking for any Firefox alternative, not restricted to the Gecko engine Is Brave at all a viable alternative? Or do their own ads and all the crypto-shmypto make the switch moot? Tangentially - has anyone tried building Firefox from the source? [1] I wonder how feasible this would be as an alternative if coupled with disabling all unwanted parts of the browser. [1] https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.…

I use Brave as my go-to "website doesn't work in Firefox so I've got to use Chromium" browser on my phone. The constant cryptocurrency ads are really putting me off. No matter how many times I go through the settings, there's always some kind of cryptocurrency feature being placed front and center.

I guess they must be making their money off crypto bros in some fashion, but this crap is preventing me from doing anything more than necessary in that browser.

I don't think it's worth it to build Firefox from source when there are so many tiny projects out there maintaining slightly altered versions of Firefox already. You can do it yourself, but then you need to go through every line of code to check if they've added something suspicious and probably end up with some old, vulnerable version as your main browser (because who has time for that stuff).

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#25

Post by soulofmischief »

DrinkyBird wrote: post #15

I decided to just stay with Firefox and disable any rubbish that Mozilla adds as it comes. I tried Librewolf, but the unstable RPM repository was very annoying, because zypper disallows system updates if even one repository fails to refresh. I also had some weird issues keeping it pinned to my desktop environment's dock. It also didn't want to save its window geometry (very annoying for me), and the only way to trans…

That's my issue with all of these solo-maintained forks. It's a security nightmare, and browsers are a prime target for supply chain attacks or other forms of subterfuge. The security model just simply isn't acceptable.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#26

Post by sgc »

DrinkyBird wrote: post #15

I decided to just stay with Firefox and disable any rubbish that Mozilla adds as it comes. I tried Librewolf, but the unstable RPM repository was very annoying, because zypper disallows system updates if even one repository fails to refresh. I also had some weird issues keeping it pinned to my desktop environment's dock. It also didn't want to save its window geometry (very annoying for me), and the only way to trans…

I felt that way until the last week. But I feel better using another project that mainly or only exists to strip dubious FF behavior from their code. I installed Waterfox, copied my FF profile folder, pointed Waterfox at the copy, and it has been smooth sailing.

Yes I still depend on FF, yes it makes FF just a tiny bit less sustainable, yes I might need to change browsers again. But they have pushed me over the edge with their nonstop shenanigans.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#27

Post by qskousen »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #21

My needs are: - I like Safari as a browser and can live with it - at least on Mac and Safari. But goodness, its sync and almost anything it does with iCloud is atrocious. Now, Apple being Apple they definitely wouldn’t let anyone else fix that. - I also need to use Android where I use Safari. I would happily ditch Safari and Firefox if I can use a browser (without crypto shenanigans, edgy UI) all I need are: - robust…

I would recommend Vivaldi then. I've been using it for half a year and it's pretty good.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#28

Post by muragekibicho »

foxrider wrote: post #19
SahAssar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vivaldi is chromium based and not open-source.

Zen Browser is the closest thing to Vivaldi in Firefox fork land. https://zen-browser.app

Can one copy a firefox profile to Vivaldi? Do you think it's possible?

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#29

Post by jonatron »

huhtenberg wrote: post #2

** To clarify - looking for any Firefox alternative, not restricted to the Gecko engine Is Brave at all a viable alternative? Or do their own ads and all the crypto-shmypto make the switch moot? Tangentially - has anyone tried building Firefox from the source? [1] I wonder how feasible this would be as an alternative if coupled with disabling all unwanted parts of the browser. [1] https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.…

I built Firefox from source recently, it took under 15 mins to compile on a 7800X3D.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#30

Post by Valodim »

BaudouinVH wrote: post #5

I've switched to Waterfox (yet another Firefox fork) and so far I'm happy with that choice https://www.waterfox.net/

While these forks are nice and all, I'm not sure how meaningful it is in the bigger picture if 99% of the work done on it is still done (and paid) by the same people.

Similarly, I don't get those "I use brave instead of Firefox", as if that wasn't 99% chromium.

Don't get me wrong, I know there's not much choice. But that whole direction of "action" that people take just seems like a working marketing tarpit to me.

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