Firefox lost 50M users since 2019 • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#161

Post by Nextgrid » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:25 PM UTC

mfer wrote: post #108

thesimp wrote: post #98

And that is the price they pay for trying to be Chrome clone UI wise and not listening to to the "power users". I hate to use the words "power user" but it is the small group of very active and enthusiastic users that you need to give the appears to every one else that they are missing out on something cool. I still use Firefox because it works reasonably for my usage but I stopped promoting it to other people around…

We shouldn’t just look at power users. Google and Microsoft, for example, constantly advertise to use their browser when you visit their properties. I imagine this has an impact.

But if Firefox was genuinely better it could win via word of mouth; whether it’s power users recommending it or people having it on their work computers (because their IT mandates it) and wanting the same great browser at home.

The problem is that Firefox is basically a Chrome clone at this point, all the way down to the privacy-invading features such as telemetry, so using it nowadays is more down to ideology than actual technical merit.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#162

Post by beezischillin » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm an avid Facebook user, it helps me keep in touch with friends and family living abroad, despite it's obvious negatives quitting it would mean losing out. I'm saying this because to me one of the benchmarks of a browser is how well it runs Facebook's awfully-optimized front-end code.

In that regard Safari used to be a disaster and now it works alright but Firefox seems to be consistently worse. It's a shame because FF is very important to the future of the internet, in my opinion, and on macOS their performance is not that great. My backup browser for this sole reason is Brave. I wish that wasn't the case because the browser is stuffed with... things.. that I don't need or want in it so I always have to go and hunt down how to turn all of them off when I install it on a new machine.

To me a browser needs a UI that's small, unobtrusive but clean, no BS on the "new tab" page (I don't need random wallpapers loaded from who knows where or news) - just a list of bookmarks, speed and support for the few extensions I use (adguard, sponsorblock, bitwarden).

Please fix FF, I wanna use it as my main browser!

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#163

Post by Nextgrid » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

whatever_dude wrote: post #104

nuker wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Safari is usable on less than 20% of machines, it absolutely will not be stopping anything You forgot mobile, iOS users are big chunk of it and websites want to work on iOS browsers.

The US is not the world.

It’s a big chunk of the world as far as web/software revenue is concerned.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#164

Post by dmitriid » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:29 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #149

eitland wrote: post #143

I have contacted local authorities twice about anti competitive behavior from Chrome. If two - three other Norwegians do the same that should start to look like an earthquake ;-) Same if ten - twenty Germans or Brits or French do the same. I would mention: 1. that some of their web properties (calendar and YouTube) have been intentionally incompatible with Firefox as evidenced by how well they work in Firefox if one…

> anti competitive behavior Have some examples? On Desktop, I don't see any, but I would get if you mean Mobile since Chrome is still the default browser there for Android.

This thread from a former Mozilla exec: https://twitter.com/johnath/status/1116871231792455686?s=20

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#165

Post by cto_of_antifa » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:29 PM UTC

whatever_dude wrote: post #104

nuker wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Safari is usable on less than 20% of machines, it absolutely will not be stopping anything You forgot mobile, iOS users are big chunk of it and websites want to work on iOS browsers.

The US is not the world.

That’s true, but economically speaking, it might have a larger-than-life impact where it counts, say, in e-commerce.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#166

Post by Nextgrid » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

marcellus23 wrote: post #125

emrah wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> only Safari is able to stop this madness now Safari is a hard sell when one can't install an ad-blocker on it (work on the street is you can but not easily)

You’ve been able to use ad blockers in Safari for years.

The ad-blocking API Safari offers isn’t as powerful as Firefox’s.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#167

Post by sleavey » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

csmpltn wrote: post #126

I've been using Firefox daily for over 15 years now. My experience with Firefox over the last 2-3 years in particular leaves me very disappointed and frustrated. The constant nonsense UI redesigns that come about with every new update. The instability, and ridiculous resources consumption. The slowness and slugishness. I want a browser that works, respects my privacy, stays out of my way and lets me get shit done. A…

Just to give a contrasting data point: I always see people complaining about resource consumption in Firefox in these threads, but I have honestly almost never had trouble like this and I use it for hours every day with lots of tabs and lots of rich media websites open. It happened more in the past (maybe 5+ years ago), but I am sure some of the blame in those cases would have been down to Flash. Now that I think more about it, that whole time I've also blocked ads, which surely helps too.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#168

Post by Nextgrid » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

rmsaksida wrote: post #144

bluedevil2k wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how they make a minimum $450M a year in revenue, how on Earth is Mozilla not swimming in cash?! How high can their expenses be?

Mozilla pays millions of dollars per year to their CEO, despite the decrease in usage and user base. Could be a symptom of a larger problem in the organization.

Mozilla also spends its cash on various other bullshit that nobody cares about.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#169

Post by unnouinceput » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

I have to confess I am the culprit. In 2019 I started to move from yahoo to protonmail and from chrome to firefox. I brought the bad juju it seems

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#170

Post by stelonix » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #149

eitland wrote: post #143

I have contacted local authorities twice about anti competitive behavior from Chrome. If two - three other Norwegians do the same that should start to look like an earthquake ;-) Same if ten - twenty Germans or Brits or French do the same. I would mention: 1. that some of their web properties (calendar and YouTube) have been intentionally incompatible with Firefox as evidenced by how well they work in Firefox if one…

> anti competitive behavior Have some examples? On Desktop, I don't see any, but I would get if you mean Mobile since Chrome is still the default browser there for Android.

I remember when gmail outright crippled itself when I used it some 5 years ago. I also remember other Google services disabling some features only on Firefox.