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Switching from Chrome to Firefox

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Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#171

Post by ghusto »

luuurker wrote: post #23
bryanlarsen wrote: post #2

Firefox users don't use profiles, we use something much superior: multi-account containers.

Firefox users don't use profiles because switching between them is a pain in the rear (at least on some platforms). Containers are nice, but you can't have different bookmarks, extensions, settings, etc. It's not a replacement for profiles.

When I used Chrome, I had to use profiles because that's all it had. I used it to switch between personas. It wasn't great, precisely _because_ you had to set up everything like bookmarks and extensions again.

Containers on the other hand, fit the use-case of personas perfectly. I can keep logins separate, keep a work / home session separation, etc. Best of all, I set up certain websites to always use a particular container, even when I'm currently browsing in a different container tab. I can't imagine going back to Chrome profiles.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#172

Post by Dylan16807 »

crazygringo wrote: post #108
unethical_ban wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"off" implies an error. Which browser does it correctly? Having used Vivaldi and Firefox in close succession I never noticed a difference.

No, "off" in this case merely implies different from what you're used to. This is aesthetic preference, there's no such thing as "correct". It goes back to the old debate on Mac vs. Windows font rendering -- do you like pixel alignment or do you like letterform accuracy? There's no right answer.

There's no right answer to that question, but Mac does render fonts too thin because of gamma issues, if I'm remembering right.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#173

Post by ghusto »

jrm4 wrote: post #8

Do people live in their browsers like that? I find it useful to keep both. 95% of the time I'm in Firefox, as one should be -- with all the good adblockers etc. And for the 5% unavoidable garbage of "things I must use/sign up for in life" that don't implement things properly, including Zoom, I keep Chrome around.

I hear this now and again, but haven't had Chrome installed for years now without issue. I'm made to use things like Zoom et al. too, but everything "just works" for me?

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#174

Post by ghusto »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #87
jrm4 wrote: post #8

Do people live in their browsers like that? I find it useful to keep both. 95% of the time I'm in Firefox, as one should be -- with all the good adblockers etc. And for the 5% unavoidable garbage of "things I must use/sign up for in life" that don't implement things properly, including Zoom, I keep Chrome around.

In my experience, only sites that break are google ones. Right now Google Flights and Hotels are pretty much unusable, as is GCP console.

Not even those are broken for me. What's broken for you?

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#175

Post by lolinder »

gnicholas wrote: post #63
lolinder wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with OP that the tone is needlessly negative, but while some people are super into TST, most of us don't care about it at all. I wouldn't say that any given article on Firefox "should" mention TST, because odds are the author won't be in the group that cares.

In an article talking about the pros and cons of Chrome and FF, it would make sense to mention cult favorites like TST. I'm not sure where you get the notion that "most of us don't care about it at all" — perhaps you have more inside info than the rest of us? Regardless, I don't care about profiles or any of this other stuff, but I don't begrudge the author for mentioning things that aren't up my alley. In my mind, w…

I'm not saying I would begrudge the author for mentioning TST, I'm saying that they're not obliged to mention things that they don't personally care about. I don't mind if a list of someone's favorite features has features I don't care about, nor do I mind if they neglect to mention features that I do care about.

As for my information, I'm comparing the install base for TST with that of uBlock Origin (both only counting Firefox). It's not a perfect measurement, since not all Firefox users have uBO either, but it should if anything overestimate TST's relative popularity.

Tree-style tabs [0] has 163,716 users.

uBlock Origin [1] has 6,175,439 users (only counting Firefox).

That places TST at about 2% of the install base of uBO, which is plenty small to justify my saying that most Firefox users (and prospective users) don't care about TST.

[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#176

Post by Dylan16807 »

jeroenhd wrote: post #158
adithyassekhar wrote: post #121

You can't go back a page using both Alt (+ Left Arrow) keys on Firefox. Only with the left Alt key, which is super uncomfortable.

AltGr (the right alt key) essentially translates to ctrl+alt on Windows and some Linux configurations. It also acts as a compose key on some configurations, making it quite unreliable for navigation as the system IME may intercept the key before sending it through. You can rebind it back to a normal alt key at the operating system level if you don't care about the AltGr functionality, that'll probably fix a whole bun…

> I think Firefox altering the ctrl+alt+left/right behaviour would break more workflows than it fixes, to be honest.

What's it likely to break? I don't have anything bound to that combo by default.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#177

Post by ghusto »

luuurker wrote: post #27
Aissen wrote: post #17

What use is profile switching when one has Multi-Account Containers ?

Different bookmarks, extensions, settings, themes, and ability to sync all those to other machines. We just have to look at what profiles and containers do to understand that while useful, containers can't replace profiles.

I've seen this pop up a few times in this post. What's the use case for different extensions etc.?

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#178

Post by luuurker »

redkoala wrote: post #131
luuurker wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I'm replying to the original version of your comment.) How can you have different bookmarks, extensions, and maybe even a different theme (so you know you're using the right window) with containers? The answer is: you can't. Because containers and profiles are different things. That's the "sacrifice" you're asking users to make. To change the way they use browsers, to adapt to something that is useful, but not a com…

Chrome still has buggy behavior working with multiple Google account profiles. Firefox with containers works smoothly for that use case.

Yes, containers on Firefox are better for that use case. Now imagine Firefox with containers and user friendly profile support. The best of both worlds in one browser.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#179

Post by mariusor »

AnonC wrote: post #122
mariusor wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try this extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/profile-switc...

Not GP, but this extension seems to only allow switching profiles. Is there something that allows opening a new window using a different profile? People who use Chrome with multiple profiles may have multiple windows open at the same time, with some windows using (or possibly) sharing profiles.

It allows running multiple profiles at the same time. You can't open links from one into the others though, which I'm sure Chrome doesn't do either.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#180

Post by mariusor »

luuurker wrote: post #169
mariusor wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try this extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/profile-switc...

"Additional software is required for this extension to function, you will be prompted to install it after installing the extension."

Yep, sadly Firefox requires external shims if you want to open binaries from the host machine (which in this case is the browser executable with a different profile).
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