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Give Firefox a chance

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Re: Give Firefox a chance

#141
post #3
post #2

I've given Firefox multiple chances, but we've had no progress with the MacOS performance issues for years. Also, no pinch-to-zoom? 2007 called, and it wants its browser back.

Energy usage on MacOS is another problem, especially compared to safari. I am using safari for a while now, but every now and then you just have to admit chrome does some things much better, like tab management and the dev tools are more user friendly. Which, i realize, is the case for firefox btw. Ff tab management and dev tools are quite nice.

Yes - but it's miles ahead of Chrome IMHO.

I had to move from Chrome to Safari because it just pegged the fans on constantly once I had a few tabs open.

Then I got tired with some sites not working well in Safari and moved back to FF which is much improved.

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#142
post #7

Vertical. Tabs. For my usecase, nuff said. Chrome developers WONTFIXed requests for this a long time ago, so keep using Firefox I will (that and doing my part to preserve web engine diversity). Additionally, I've begun trying out Brave/Vivaldi/Opera to see if I can uninstall Chrome from my system entirely; They all run Blink, so I assume I can open the occasional compatibility-issue pages on those.

I have gone Vivaldi and after a month, I don't see myself reverting to either FF or Chrome. Needs some tweaking in the settings, yet it is fast and neat the in the end.

I don't see myself going back with my current experience.

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#143

Interesting that the adblock thing is finally nudging people away from Chrome. I've found it disrespectful of its users long ago. The last straw for me was when it started to prevent my computer from sleeping because some unspecified page had active WebRTC connections. There is no option to disable WebRTC in Chrome. I don't understand: why do they dare prevent my system from sleeping just because some page is doing s…

Safari is so good performance-wise on OSX that Firefox/Chrome feel like a mess. One way to perceive this is if you use something like iStat Menus to show your CPU usage in the global status bar. Safari barely affects the meter yet Firefox/Chrome put up some impressive numbers just idling.

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#144
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I walked away from Chrome a couple of years ago is because of the amount of information it sends to Google. I'm curious to know where Safari stands in that regard: how much and how often does it "call home"? Oh, and also : how much of it is Open Source? In my experience, Apple is particularly good at OpenSourcing lots of pieces while keeping the juicy bits proprietary. Can Safari be 100% rebuilt from sourc…

Don’t hold me to this, but I think you may be able to build Webkit from source, giving you a functional browser. I think Chromium is to Chrome as Webkit is to Safari. The latter have proprietary code on top of the open-source former.

Blink is to Chromium/Chrome as Webkit is to Safari

Webkit and blink are browser engines and Chromium/Chrome are both browsers, but Chromium doesn't include the closed source pieces that Chrome does.

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#145

Interesting that the adblock thing is finally nudging people away from Chrome. I've found it disrespectful of its users long ago. The last straw for me was when it started to prevent my computer from sleeping because some unspecified page had active WebRTC connections. There is no option to disable WebRTC in Chrome. I don't understand: why do they dare prevent my system from sleeping just because some page is doing s…

Safari is so good performance-wise on OSX that Firefox/Chrome feel like a mess. One way to perceive this is if you use something like iStat Menus to show your CPU usage in the global status bar. Safari barely affects the meter yet Firefox/Chrome put up some impressive numbers just idling.

Not to mention "This page was unloaded because it was using significant energy". The only sane way to keep an infrequently used google docs tab open all the time ;)

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#146
I switched several months ago from Chrome to Firefox (don't remember exactly when, think it was when the articles about logging into gmail would turn on sync came out).

Unlike many here I'm not a browser power user--few to no plugins, no sync, and no customization. I'm not a web developer, so I rarely use the dev tools.

It's fine. The only annoying thing is that there are a few webpages here and there that just don't work. Reminds me of when IE was dominant and sometimes you had to use it to got to a bank's website.

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#147

I want to move on from Chrome, and Firefox's Containers have made Firefox an easy decision for me. But I am a huge fan of Chrome's aesthetic and don't want to give that up for the sake of privacy. I am not one to do extensive tweaking to my machine, but this is important to me, so I spent an hour experimenting. And I have to say, I am pretty satisfied. Even though it isn't straightforward, Firefox actually can look n…

I don’t know that web pages would have have access to user chrome settings but I still have to ask, do any of those changes make browser fingerprinting easier?

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#148

I switched several months ago from Chrome to Firefox (don't remember exactly when, think it was when the articles about logging into gmail would turn on sync came out). Unlike many here I'm not a browser power user--few to no plugins, no sync, and no customization. I'm not a web developer, so I rarely use the dev tools. It's fine. The only annoying thing is that there are a few webpages here and there that just don't…

I wonder if Firefox (or a living fork thereof) could be built with a “Chromium compatibility mode” where it boots up a Chromium-based renderer for a known blacklist of pages. Sort of like Edge with its IE compatibility mode.

There’s no technical problem with the idea; but I would worry that smoothing over the problems some pages have when rendered with anything other than the Chromium renderer, would just cement Chrome’s hegemony, since nobody would have any incentive to fix Chromium-renderer-only pages any more.

Perhaps it would still make sense specifically for enterprise use-cases: if the whitelisting (blacklisting?) of sites to trigger the compatibility mode on was only ever manual, or due to GPOs/MDM profiles, but never by predefined compatibility lists or extensions or auto-detected, then it would only get used in practice by enterprises who needed it for their legacy Intranet sites. Corporate Intranets are certainly where most IE-only websites reside these days—but is the same true of Chromium-renderer-only websites?

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#149
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t hold me to this, but I think you may be able to build Webkit from source, giving you a functional browser. I think Chromium is to Chrome as Webkit is to Safari. The latter have proprietary code on top of the open-source former.

Blink is to Chromium/Chrome as Webkit is to Safari Webkit and blink are browser engines and Chromium/Chrome are both browsers, but Chromium doesn't include the closed source pieces that Chrome does.

> Webkit and blink are browser engines

Petty sure Webkit is also a browser you can build and run, like Chromium.

Re: Give Firefox a chance

#150
post #2

I've given Firefox multiple chances, but we've had no progress with the MacOS performance issues for years. Also, no pinch-to-zoom? 2007 called, and it wants its browser back.

If you haven't already, please fill out the feedback form here: https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/FirefoxInput/

Why?
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