Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Switching from Chrome to Firefox

support.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 318 posts

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#141

Post by pbhjpbhj »

matsemann wrote: post #134
foxfired wrote: post #71

Having multiple small tutorials like these will make it easy for anyone who wants to move to Firefox. The more the merrier. That said, I still can't get used to Firefox. It's fine on desktop, and using profiles is not too much of a big deal for me. But on mobile, Firefox is not as intuitive as chrome is to me. On my phone I have Chrome, which I only ever use if a website fails on all other browsers, I have Brave as m…

Firefox for android supports addons, though, so can be customized to do anything. I can't believe people use Chrome om Android when you can have Fx with ad blocking! For your problem, I use an addon called "simple gesture" that allows me to add all kinds of gestures/actions.

Assuming it's https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/simple-gestur...: any ideas why does it need to "access my data for all websites" and "access the clipboard"?

Curiously the blurb recommends "Quick Gestures" which presumably is a different gesture addon.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#142

Post by StavrosK »

krab wrote: post #122
philshem wrote: post #38

For those new and old to Firefox, check out the new-ish privacy feature “multi-account containers” https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

I use it not for privacy but for multiple logins with a service that doesn't support it, such as AWS. Even with Google, I find it easier to find the right account's Calendar (work vs private) if the tab handle is colour marked. It's not perfect but it beats "private browsing" windows which I used before.

Damn, this didn't occur to me and I use them for privacy all the time. Thank you, this will make debugging much easier, as I frequently need one "logged in" tab and one "logged out".

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#143

Post by cerberusss »

hydgu wrote: post #128
czechdeveloper wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pocket is owned by Mozilla, so if Pocket is spyware, Mozilla is making spyware. Does not sound right.

Yeah, they would never do that. https://blog.mozilla.org/press-uk/2017/10/06/testing-cliqz-i... "Users who receive a version of Firefox with Cliqz will have their browsing activity sent to Cliqz servers, including the URLs of pages they visit" Ooops.

I think you're misleading in quoting a two-year old blog, then closing off with "ooops", implying that Mozilla was caught in a privacy-related oops.

When in fact, Mozilla was super duper clear in the blog about the privacy implications of this experiment. And in the past two years, they have been focusing more and more on the privacy angle.

At the moment, both Safari and Mozilla look to me to be leading in privacy.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#144

Post by glandium »

dhimes wrote: post #37
glandium wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try about:profiles

I think his point is that if you have to do about:profiles, then that's not usable for a lot of people. Having something that works like containers is a lot more usable: click, select profile.

My point is that about:profiles improves upon -P. But cf. their other post, they're actually after containers, not profiles.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#145

Post by matsemann »

haunter wrote: post #66

I like Firefox but I'm also a heavy tab user. Usually around 70-100 open with ~10-13GB RAM. Chrome is just better in that aspect, much better performance. Altho I use ungoogled-chromium not retail Chrome https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

My experience and what's often echoed here on HN is that Fx is better with multiple tabs, as Chrome's one process per tab can hog too many resources.

With Fx, that actually has a usable history search in theaaddress bar (Chrome wants you to google), I also really don't need to keep stuff open not to lose it.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#146

Post by feanaro »

kmlx wrote: post #56
feanaro wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real question for me is, besides privacy, what is the killer feature that will / does make it obvious to switch to Firefox? Preventing the web from devolving into a closed garden. For this we need alternative browser engines and hence Brave does not make the cut. Other than that, containers are a pretty useful tool that's so far Firefox only.

> Preventing the web from devolving into a closed garden. For this we need alternative browser engines and hence Brave does not make the cut. 1. all web engines are open source 2. we had multiple engines. it didn't work out, at all. user experience was thrown out the window, technologies weren't implemented, the web was massively fragmented. 3. we're now trying to have a single open source engine that everyone contri…

> 2. we had multiple engines

We have multiple engines. This is a fact.

> 3. we're now trying to have a single open source engine that everyone contributes to since it's better for everyone's experience.

We are not trying that at all. The experience is perfectly fine with our currently existing multiple engines.

> 1. all web engines are open source

This does not matter much if your goal is to maintain a single engine. What matters is control of software releases.

In order to maintain a web which is not exclusively controlled by a single entity, the releases need to be controlled by more than a single entity. This sounds like a tautology because it almost is one.

The only thing the free software aspect helps with is that it is easier to assume control of the releases, but as soon as you do this, you've forked the engine and there are now multiple engines. Hence, there is actually no way of maintaining a single engine while also decentralizing control. Short of Google relinquishing control of Chrome and forming some kind of international browser development committee, but that sounds like a creature from nightmares and is yet again a central point of failure.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#147

Post by philliphaydon »

krab wrote: post #122
philshem wrote: post #38

For those new and old to Firefox, check out the new-ish privacy feature “multi-account containers” https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...

I use it not for privacy but for multiple logins with a service that doesn't support it, such as AWS. Even with Google, I find it easier to find the right account's Calendar (work vs private) if the tab handle is colour marked. It's not perfect but it beats "private browsing" windows which I used before.

OMG How have I not been using them for multiple AWS accounts for like ever! Thank you for your comment. Sometimes these "i use X for Y" comments are the best!

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#148

Post by matsemann »

m0zg wrote: post #113
glandium wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try about:profiles

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Whereas in Chrome I _don't have to_ "try about:profiles". The very basic requirement for me is this: I want to completely separate my "work" internet from my "personal" internet, yet I also want to be able to easily switch between the two. Firefox makes this unnecessarily difficult and un-ergonomic.

Containers in Fx makes this super-easy, try it out.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#149

Post by hydgv »

cerberusss wrote: post #143
hydgu wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they would never do that. https://blog.mozilla.org/press-uk/2017/10/06/testing-cliqz-i... "Users who receive a version of Firefox with Cliqz will have their browsing activity sent to Cliqz servers, including the URLs of pages they visit" Ooops.

I think you're misleading in quoting a two-year old blog, then closing off with "ooops", implying that Mozilla was caught in a privacy-related oops. When in fact, Mozilla was super duper clear in the blog about the privacy implications of this experiment. And in the past two years, they have been focusing more and more on the privacy angle. At the moment, both Safari and Mozilla look to me to be leading in privacy.

Being super duper clear about having sent the full URL history of users to a third party doesn't excuse you from the fact that you, well, sent the full URL history of users to a third party.

And unless the entire leadership of the Mozilla Corporation has been replaced since then (a wet dream of mine) that blog entry is relevant, since they've done it and they could do it again.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#150

Post by m0zg »

matsemann wrote: post #148
m0zg wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Whereas in Chrome I _don't have to_ "try about:profiles". The very basic requirement for me is this: I want to completely separate my "work" internet from my "personal" internet, yet I also want to be able to easily switch between the two. Firefox makes this unnecessarily difficult and un-ergonomic.

Containers in Fx makes this super-easy, try it out.

They do not allow for complete separation of "work" and "personal" internet. They literally show both in the same window.
Post reply on HN