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Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

robert.ocallahan.org

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Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#221

Post by findjashua »

dammitcoetzee wrote: post #210

Everyone's mentioning this separate process business and subtle engine differences web developers compensate for and I never experience. However,I really don't care about all that. Chrome is just nicer to use: one search/url bar, few buttons but all purposeful, can drag and split windows easily. Best browser. Only recently annoying thing is it asking me to sign up for some sort of sync constantly. I have no idea why…

Firefox separates the search and url bars in the interest of the user's privacy - your search query is sent to Google only when you explicitly intend to do so.

Also, if you try the 'tree style tab' extension for firefox, it'd be very hard to go back to chrome ;)

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#222

Post by cwyers »

jfuhrman wrote: post #149
jfuhrman wrote: post #136

For those saying Google is a benevolent company, here are a few signs that the bean counters are taking over: Tracking Google Apps for Education and even paid Google Apps for Business emails to build ad profiles, making misleading statement to the public that they're not doing so, and then when it finally came to statements to federal court, lacking the dare to continue lying and finally confessing the truth and then…

Edit: I can't edit my post, perhaps due to the downvotes(why downvote without replying?), so here's a couple more. Tying Android App store to having Google search engine as default on Android, ensuring that alternative search engines cannot be shipped as default. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/02/12/documents-shed-light-... Stopping Acer from shipping Aliyun OS by threatening to pull the Play Store and Android beta…

Don't sweat the downvoters.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#223

Post by sabbatic13 »

mythz wrote: post #39

If the premise here is that Google is the evil empire, why is Google still on the Home Page when running Firefox?? Apparently large sums of money can have an effect on ethics. Obviously the underlying goal here is a plea for more FF marketshare, but it's a tad hypocritical if the message is to not use services from a company you're promoting yourself. That's do as I say, not as I do type stuff.

Keep mind that Google was initially installed as the default search engine years ago, because FF users voted for it to be so. Only after Google saw how many search referrals they then got from FF, did they, that is Google, suggest an actual deal (which paid, incidentally, only a few percent of the market value for those referrals.). That deal doesn't include anything preventing users from changing the defaults.

Consider as well the Awesome Bar. The ability to search your history easily resulted in fewer users going back to Google and generating search referrals. Mozilla implemented it anyway, because it was good for the user.

You seem to be missing the point that overthrows your assertion. Yes, there is still a deal with Google, but Mozilla doesn't care if doing and advocating what's good for the user makes that relationship less and less valuable for Google. They are, in fact, sacrificing potential financial gain for the sake of their principles.

Mozilla has numerous, egregious faults, but this kind of hypocrisy and ethical lapses aren't among them.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#224

Post by kybernetyk »

personZ wrote: post #213
findjashua wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You stated facts, with sources. I can't see why someone would downvote, and that too without stating the reason. I upvoted to counter at least one downvoter.

They also created a new account to post a mixed list of random complaints. Sorry it's actually a repost given that this identical list was posted by angularfan -- also a fresh new account created purely to post this list -- 20 days ago. Is that really the behavior HN wants?

> Is that really the behavior HN wants?

He/She might have good reasons for anonymity. As long as the post contributes to the discussion I don't really care if the account is 10 years or 10 days old or if it has been posted 20 days ago.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#225

Post by momerath »

sergimansilla wrote: post #117
srean wrote: post #43

Almost every other comment that have been posted so far are complaining that FF tabs are not independent processes. Let me express my contrarian opinion. For my use case FF is just excellent and has served me well, I have absolutely no complains now. There was a time when FF leaked, and held a lot of memory, that time has since passed, at least seams so. I regularly keep several hundreds of tabs open for months on en…

Some time ago I made a very (very) light-weight extension for myself that works well for situations in which I have hundreds of tabs opened. It closes them all and stores the linked titles in a simple HTML page (thus searchable), ordered by tab session. It is inspired by OneTab and it is open-source. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-grenade/

Thank you! I looked pretty hard for a OneTab-like extension for FF about a year ago, and couldn't find one. It's the one thing I really miss about Chrome; making my own was on my TODO list.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#226

Post by DCKing »

stephenr wrote: post #202
DCKing wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter whether you can download the source for the devices you buy in the store. Not in the context of this discussion about vendor lock-in. You're using a red herring. The point is: if you don't like devices on sale with Chrome, Chrome OS or Android, you can download the source code and make it run on your own devices. Google really doesn't mind at all if you do that. The point is: Google doesn't profit f…

I was referring more to the fact that what Google says ("embrace the open web", "open source wins", etc) don't really mean shit. Chrome isn't open source, chromium is. What are the extra bits in chrome? My issue is not that google does what it does, my issue is the religious cult like status so many tech related people give google, in spite of their numerous and repeated attempts to control so many facts of the digit…

> my issue is the religious cult like status so many tech related people give google, in spite of their numerous and repeated attempts to control so many facts of the digital landscape

"People are defending Google" => "They are giving Google a religious cult status" really? Come on, keep that attitude away from adult discussion.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#229

Post by Silhouette »

dammitcoetzee wrote: post #210

Everyone's mentioning this separate process business and subtle engine differences web developers compensate for and I never experience. However,I really don't care about all that. Chrome is just nicer to use: one search/url bar, few buttons but all purposeful, can drag and split windows easily. Best browser. Only recently annoying thing is it asking me to sign up for some sort of sync constantly. I have no idea why…

Chrome is just nicer to use: one search/url bar, few buttons but all purposeful, can drag and split windows easily.

This is why the browser market is challenging: to me, all three of the things you mentioned are negatives.

I don't want a single URL and search bar that sends every character I type to the mothership. I value my privacy and am particularly aggressive at defending it on the Web.

I don't want a slimmed down UI where everything is hidden away. I have nice, big screens in front of me, and I want features I use all the time available with as little effort as possible. Almost every change Firefox has made in its UI recently has been a step backwards for me.

I don't want splitting and dragging windows to be too easy. I have desktop management software to lay things out properly, and those big screens. The last thing I need is an accidental drag when I pushed the mouse button a moment too soon and picked up a tab splitting everything up so I have to spend the next half-minute fiddling around to put it back again.

YMMV, and the next guy's mileage may vary from both of ours. Pleasing a large market is difficult. But I can't help thinking that Mozilla's current strategy, which seems to be the bastard child of Microsoft (make it the same on all platforms) and Google (hide almost everything in the UI by default), is doomed to failure if only because they probably can't beat either Microsoft or Google at their own games and they'll alienate the people who liked Firefox because it wasn't those things as long as they try.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

#230

Post by dep_b »

pdkl95 wrote: post #195

Separate process tabs? Rendering and javascript speed? UI features? I know it's popular on HN to focus on technical features, but that entirely misses the point of this post. Technical features will continue to improve over time. The browser that is "best" in any given area will change as the code evolves. Most of the other reasons to like a given browser are the subjective opinions we all have or the particular use…

The reason to stop using Firefox on my Mac was battery life, Safari handles this so much better that it was impossible to ignore. On Windows 8 whenever I use I tend to use Internet Explorer as it's better optimised for HDPI screens. But I still love Firefox and I'm ready to return to the nest again as soon as the battery life issue is fixed.
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