I can't use Firefox on my Chromebook unless i switch to dev mode and use crouton. That said, i enjoy Firefox and the Windows 7 PC at work
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Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
221–230 of 311 posts
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it harder to move to a different browser in Windows 10? I feel like you keep emphasizing how easy it is to change your browser and yet are still registering a complaint. I'm not sure what you are complaining about.
It's quite a bit more difficult. Last week I set a Windows 8 PC to use Chrome as the default; this was simple, two clicks and you're done. Now, it dumps you to a settings page which is a significant increase in steps required to set Chrome as the default. Those are the facts of this, however one can certainly make arguments as to why this is a better way of doing things for Windows.
According to Mozilla's video, it seems to take three clicks now, instead of two...
How to Change Your Default Browser in Windows 10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEUekKqLJ-E
However, the benefit for the user is that there's a consistent process and all the defaults are in one place.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#223I am writing to you about a very disturbing aspect of Firefox 38.0.5. Specifically, that the update experience appears to have been designed to throw away the choice your customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Mozilla wants them to have. When we first saw the Firefox upgrade experience that strips users of their choice by effectively overriding existin…
I'm a Firefox dev (but speaking only for myself). I believe that most people inside Mozilla agree that a number of choices made recently by Mozilla were pretty bad. And these "most people" includes the team who is now in charge of product development at Mozilla, and wasn't in that position at the time of, say, Hello or Pocket.
We are making changes. I hope that the community will see the changes soon. Now, as usual, not everybody will be happy. Part of it is that we're a relatively small team trying to fight giants. Part of it is that yes, we will keep experimenting, and that means making mistakes. And part of it is because Firefox lives in the world of https://xkcd.com/1172/, which exacerbates the previous two points.
But still, I hope that most people will appreciate the stuff we're working on – and I'm not just talking of code.
Caveat: Again, I'm speaking only for myself.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#224I am writing to you about a very disturbing aspect of Firefox 38.0.5. Specifically, that the update experience appears to have been designed to throw away the choice your customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Mozilla wants them to have. When we first saw the Firefox upgrade experience that strips users of their choice by effectively overriding existin…
It's sad how true this is. I still fondly remeber the days of Firefox 2.5. IMO the best browser ever. It feels like Mozilla is trying to shove more shit down my throat with every update. I'm by no means trying to defend Microsoft here. I installed Win10 yesterday, and they replaced my FF default with Microsoft Edge (which is arguably better than IE, but still not something I'd use voluntarily). Why can't Mozilla ship…
Can you give some concrete examples?
> Why can't Mozilla ship their bloat
If you mean pocket/hello/etc, none of that actually loads unless you click the button. The only "bloat" is taking up a few extra kB of disk space and a few seconds of your time clearing out the toolbar. Yes, it was a mistake. Yes, they should be add-ons. But many users like and want the features, and it's a balancing act between the minimalists and the feature-users.
I fall on the minimalist side, and I removed those toolbar items immediately. But I'm not angry at Mozilla for trying to provide what many of their users said they wanted.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, they make a pretty bad move, people complain (rightly so), they go back on said move in response to that feedback and "Reacting to backlash isn't an argument"? Or am I reading your point incorrectly?
The point is that Mozilla ignored their published principles ( 'The Manifesto' ), and also their stated testing and release processes, in order to shove Pocket out the door and into peoples' faces. Basically they trampled on everything for which Mozilla stood. In those circumstances merely reacting to backlash is insufficient. Heads should have rolled and assurances been given that they would alway uphold their princ…
> The point is that Mozilla ignored their published principles ( 'The Manifesto' ), and also their stated testing and release processes, in order to shove Pocket out the door and into peoples' faces.
> Basically they trampled on everything for which Mozilla stood.
What on Earth are you talking about? It's a few kB of code that provided a feature that users were asking for. If you don't want to use it, don't.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#226I am writing to you about a very disturbing aspect of Firefox 38.0.5. Specifically, that the update experience appears to have been designed to throw away the choice your customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Mozilla wants them to have. When we first saw the Firefox upgrade experience that strips users of their choice by effectively overriding existin…
I'm a Firefox dev (but speaking only for myself). I believe that most people inside Mozilla agree that a number of choices made recently by Mozilla were pretty bad. And these "most people" includes the team who is now in charge of product development at Mozilla, and wasn't in that position at the time of, say, Hello or Pocket. We are making changes. I hope that the community will see the changes soon. Now, as usual,…
Your reply inspired me to make another donation to Mozilla.
EDIT: The donation page fooled me. After putting in a credit card, there is a step called 'personal.' It is not. It is the billing address for the card. I put in personal info and was rejected. I put in billing address and it went through. (Company card)
The rule for us little guys applies to big guys too: Re-inventing UI makes it harder for your customer, at least initially. Please don't do it unless there is a very good reason.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#227I am writing to you about a very disturbing aspect of Firefox 38.0.5. Specifically, that the update experience appears to have been designed to throw away the choice your customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Mozilla wants them to have. When we first saw the Firefox upgrade experience that strips users of their choice by effectively overriding existin…
I don't care about Mozilla or Firefox. I used to, but not anymore. Two reasons why. First, copying Chrome's UI. Second, forcing Brendan Eich out. These days Mozilla comes across as a bunch of whiners and activists rather than a technology company. Maybe Rust will be successful but I don't want to be part of an ecosystem where straight talking and free thought is banned. Do you want to submit a pull request and be tol…
Let's see how you feel about your boss when he donates $10,000 to declare that you are inhuman scum, then refuses to apologize when called on it.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, this is what I think too. The Pocket and Hello case could at least have a disable option, even Google allows you to disable the new features that it brings in Chrome like Google Now and more recently the "Ok Google" hotword detection. However, the Australis case is much more complicated. An UI is tons of code, if Mozilla opted too maintain two different codebases they would need to update both everytime they add…
> The Pocket and Hello case could at least have a disable option I really don't think burying an opt-out option justifies these things. This is the same tactic used to push malware in installers, Ubuntu's farming your search results to Amazon, and many of the new Windows 10 privacy intrusions. "You can opt-out (if you know you need to (and you know where to look (and you know about the gotchas like it only applying t…
If you don't want to use it, don't. You can't compare a feature you don't use to malware, which actively causes things to happen that you didn't want to happen. Nothing happens if you don't use the Pocket button.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mozilla did agree, following the criticism on Pocket, that shipping new things like Pocket should be done as addons, and would do the work to fix that.
Citation needed.
Re: Open Letter to Microsoft’s CEO: Don’t Roll Back the Clock on Choice and Control
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's sad how true this is. I still fondly remeber the days of Firefox 2.5. IMO the best browser ever. It feels like Mozilla is trying to shove more shit down my throat with every update. I'm by no means trying to defend Microsoft here. I installed Win10 yesterday, and they replaced my FF default with Microsoft Edge (which is arguably better than IE, but still not something I'd use voluntarily). Why can't Mozilla ship…
Mozilla did agree, following the criticism on Pocket, that shipping new things like Pocket should be done as addons, and would do the work to fix that.
Hmm, I posted a "Citation needed" and got downvoted, but I really would be interested to read if this is true. I kept up with the threads on the mailing list for a long time and never saw any such promise (there was talk about "future integrations" but nothing about changing their stance on Pocket, or anything concrete about genericizing the interface Pocket uses other than it would be nice at some point).
Most of those things also came with the caveat that the person posting was not involved, so if you have a link to someone authoritatively saying this, I'd like to read it.
edit: courtesy of zz1: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Go_Faster