Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#131

Post by necessity » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:07 AM UTC

kirkdouglas wrote: post #104

dvko wrote: post #53

I recently switched back to Firefox after years of using Chrome. Previously, the few times I had to fire up Firefox for development purposes it seemed sluggish to me. Not anymore. Firefox has been super responsive to me, using less memory than the same browsing activity would on Chrome & Firefox-only (afaik) add-ons like Self Destructing Cookies are A+. On Android, Firefox Mobile works just as good or better than Chr…

Also Firefox for Android has ad blocking.

Probably better to block ads on your cellphone via hostfiles or a custom nameserver that blocks ads. Try turning your phone on and sniffing its packets with tcpdump on a notebook (use Wireshark to decrypt if WPA). You'll be surprised by the amount of servers from ad companies that are contacted before you even unlock your screen, if you let apps start at boot.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#132

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:07 AM UTC

pherq wrote: post #103

Quarrelsome wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox was over reliant on plug-ins, gave plug-ins too much power and the plug-in as well as firefox update mechanisms were messy. Chrome did more out of the box than firefox reducing the need for plug-ins, sandboxed plug-ins from destroying general browser performance and most importantly realised that updating was not a user concern and performed updates silently. There were also other innovations that Chrome did…

The flaw with this notion, is that neither Firefox nor Opera beat IE. Chrome did. Most of the people who argue things like this seem to agree that Firefox and Opera were superior browsers to IE. If that was the case, why hadn't they eaten IE's market share long before Chrome was ever produced? Could it be that Chrome being widely advertised on the most visited site on the internet helped?

[deleted]

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#133

Post by pjmlp » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:07 AM UTC

abhpan27 wrote: post #13

People choose firefox over IE because firefox was better. People choose chrome over firefox and IE because chrome is better. Want to beat google? create better. Not negativity.

Chrome has definitely taken IE's place in pushing their own "standards" specially thanks to Android and ChromeOS.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#134

Post by madshiva » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:07 AM UTC

rubyn00bie wrote: post #97

Daily Firefox user here. Switched back from Chrome a couple years ago and haven't looked back. Just seeing the comments here exasperates me... So for those who don't know, the Internet is heavily biased towards Chrome. Simple pages that should render no differently in FF than Chrome are often broken. This "Chrome is great, screw everything else" attitude is exactly how we ended up with IE and stagnation in standards/…

There are broken because like IE Firefox don't support all standard. Chrome has been every time pushing news technology, ban or isolate adobe flash for the best for the users.

Firefox take decision for me and I don't like it.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#135

Post by necessity » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:09 AM UTC

hlandau wrote: post #128

I'd note that Firefox now implements restrictive code signing practices with regard to extensions; in this regard, Firefox Developer Edition, which makes this a setting, might be a better choice than normally-branded Firefox builds.

Yup. Some distros (e.g. Gentoo) already ship Developer Edition by default.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#136

Post by a_imho » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:09 AM UTC

rubyn00bie wrote: post #97

Daily Firefox user here. Switched back from Chrome a couple years ago and haven't looked back. Just seeing the comments here exasperates me... So for those who don't know, the Internet is heavily biased towards Chrome. Simple pages that should render no differently in FF than Chrome are often broken. This "Chrome is great, screw everything else" attitude is exactly how we ended up with IE and stagnation in standards/…

I'm seriously baffled by a big red UK based telecommunications company, which prompts me to use their e-billing features, yet can't make their local website work with Firefox for years now.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#137

Post by necessity » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:09 AM UTC

Insanity wrote: post #35

I'm running Chromium instead of Chrome. I like to think of it as Chrome without the bad parts, even though google has influence in the Chromium project. The main reason I would not switch to Firefox is because, at least when I last tried it, I did not like their dev tools as much.

Which bad parts?

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#138

Post by bobajeff » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:10 AM UTC

exergy wrote: post #54

sarreph wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I think we've seen throughout societal history that if you want to affect change you have to do it through the path of least resistance for consumers; this means creating a better browser experience that people use not because they want to revolt, but because they gain utility from doing so.

Can I ask something? For me Firefox IS better. Chrome on Android doesnt seem to support extensions (so no uBlock), doesn't have reader view, and would highly prefer it if I signed in. Orfox and Firefox both do not have these issues. Even on desktop, I prefer Firefox (although mostly due to higher familiarity with it). Does Chrome really have some killer feature that I'm not seeing? I can't seem to figure out where ex…

On Android I find that Chrome and Brave tend to work better and be more comfortable to use.

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#139

Post by sssilver » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:10 AM UTC

Once every 6 months, I make an honest attempt to switch to Firefox. I want to use it. However, at least on macOS, I don't buy the argument that it's faster/uses less RAM. I usually have a TON of tabs open[1], and Firefox is horrible at pulling that weight. It's just a slower browser, and I can't tolerate that.

[1] http://imgur.com/a/mt2OE

Re: Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice (2014)

#140

Post by necessity » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:10 AM UTC

eggie wrote: post #9

What about chromium browser? Google's tracking features are disabled there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)#Differe... The author might argue that this is weak resistance because it's just adding fuel to Google's fire. They have co-opted the open source community by building their tools this way. I prefer this to the nearest alternative, which is a company that pushes closed software on the world…

Use Wireshark, Chromium still talks to Google even if you disable all configs it allows you to disable. Firefox is the only one you can configure to not talk to it's servers (Mozilla's).