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Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

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Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#21

Post by GekkePrutser »

I really love Firefox still.. Though they are starting to annoy me. Especially with GUI changes and the lack of customisation thereof. Like Compact mode disappearing. For the most used app on most desktops, customisation is super important. I think they're jumping on the 'opinionated software' bandwagon too much.

It still has some powerful features though, like E2E encrypted sync, multi-account containers etc. I'll keep using it. But they're aiming at the mainstream too much which has already given up on them. They need to win back the enthusiasts first instead of alienating us. Only then does it make sense to thing about mainstream adoption again.

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#22

Post by baud147258 »

MrDresden wrote: post #16
yutijke wrote: post #10

I feel the article misses how Firefox's inability to get a foothold on the mobile platform contributed to its decline. There are more people today using web browsers via mobile then desktop. In many poorer countries the first and only access to the open internet for the people is through chrome on Android. I don't blame Mozilla for this though since they did not have a monopoly on a platform to capitalize on unlike t…

Android user (and dev) and I exclusively use Firefox. That also goes for my Linux and Mac desk-/laptops. I actually do not enjoy using Chrome on my Android compared to the feel of the new Firefo client.

Personally I didn't really like the latest changes in the Firefox mobile UI, especially with how it's managing tabs, but I'm sticking with it. I have also to recognize that with recent updates, it has stopped crashing (or at least the frequency is way reduced).

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#23

Post by stavros »

minimilian wrote: post #14
zwkrt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are multiple capable vi plug-ins for Firefox so you don’t even need to self-flagellate

I tried those in the past, but found they didn't work well. They also tended to break with every Firefox update.

The good thing about Web Extensions is now there's a stable API, so they don't break (at least they never have for me).

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#24

Post by vvoyer »

DeathArrow wrote: post #12

> Clearly, that market share was lost solely to Chrome & co.3 I can attribute this decline to various factors: >Google’s massive development resources and marketing machine. >Most people not thinking about the long-term ramifications of ending up in a market with a single vendor in it. >Firefox losing its status of a shiny new thing over the years. >Mozilla’s inability to capitalize on the popularity of Firefox in th…

> The true reasons Firefox lost market share

I would say:

The true reasons Firefox lost market share is because we, developer & tech people started to install Chrome on family computers instead of Firefox because it was safer & faster (way way faster). And we never came back from it.

Performance is a feature.

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#25

Post by yutijke »

MrDresden wrote: post #16
yutijke wrote: post #10

I feel the article misses how Firefox's inability to get a foothold on the mobile platform contributed to its decline. There are more people today using web browsers via mobile then desktop. In many poorer countries the first and only access to the open internet for the people is through chrome on Android. I don't blame Mozilla for this though since they did not have a monopoly on a platform to capitalize on unlike t…

Android user (and dev) and I exclusively use Firefox. That also goes for my Linux and Mac desk-/laptops. I actually do not enjoy using Chrome on my Android compared to the feel of the new Firefo client.

But you are not the average case. Firefox users on mobile are the exception and are very few in number.

For most people the internet, Google and Chrome are one and the same.

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#26

Post by _abox »

yutijke wrote: post #10

I feel the article misses how Firefox's inability to get a foothold on the mobile platform contributed to its decline. There are more people today using web browsers via mobile then desktop. In many poorer countries the first and only access to the open internet for the people is through chrome on Android. I don't blame Mozilla for this though since they did not have a monopoly on a platform to capitalize on unlike t…

I use Firefox on Android, it works pretty good. Having dark reader and uBlock Origin on mobile is a big plus. But I do hate the lack of configuration options, pull-to-refresh, and their need to 'approve' extensions and in particular not allowing any kind of sideloading of extensions. For this reason I can't use some of the extensions I like (because they won't allow them in the firefox store either). This is in particular one that bypasses paywalls. I assume the google deal has a lot to do with that.

I wish they would just charge for Firefox sync. The users that are left mostly use it for privacy reasons and they know that privacy costs money.

Safari is not an option for me, I use all platforms but I want the same browser on every platform which means no safari :)

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#27

Post by executesorder66 »

rvz wrote: post #7

Firefox is not a (serious) alternative and it is quite frankly irrelevant. It is either Chrome (Blink) or Safari (WebKit) and I would much prefer WebKit-based browsers over Chromium-based ones and the market-share tells the full story on where to target the most users and it is not Firefox. Why do you think that these web developers stick banners everywhere to force you to run their apps in several Chromium-based bro…

Safari is not even close to being a contender since it is not cross-platform.

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#28

Post by death_syn »

As long as Chrom(e|ium) isn't limited to one architecture/platform like MSIE was, I don't see this as a problem. I'm using Chromium on my Raspberry Pi right now to post this. I could never dream of doing such a thing 20 years ago. I'd have to hope someone hadn't broken the site for Mozilla and that it wouldn't crash repeatedly. The MSIE-dominant days were bad, but we're nowhere near that now.

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#29

Post by raxxorrax »

technobabbler wrote: post #18
raxxorrax wrote: post #3

Firefox would fit neatly in the corporate world in my opinion. You can have a centrally administered configuration file and Firefox is indeed able to just use certificated from your OS. It is just a small toggle. Still, a bit of effort and maybe advertising would do wonders, because there are companies critical of Chrome that think data protection is worth more than personal advertising. I think Edge is trying to fit…

It would be easier for companies (who aren't anti Google) to administer Chrome policy via their existing Google/Gmail accounts and Google Workspace. Profiles, sync, extensions, etc. can all be centrally administered. And also deployed to Chromebooks for certain users. All without having to manage the overhead of a minority browser with Especially for any web shop... Firefox is even less relevant than Microsoft now an…

I couldn't name you a single webapp that requires Chrome and it wouldn't fit our quality p expectations and would get booted. Apps that require a certain browser will cause problems in the future or force Chrome to become IE. Can you centrally administrate Google accounts? Because employees certainly aren't allowed to use their privat ones.

Re: Firefox is the alternative to a Chrome hegemony

#30

Post by samhw »

dazag wrote: post #15

There is one thing I don't understand from the article. What is that he is so afraid of?that the website becomes more standarized and developers don't need to make a website for 5 different browsers? Or that because of that users will have less problems? Is that such a big deal to make most of the browsers dependent on chromium? Isn't chromium open source and tomorrow anyone could create a better browser? I use Vival…

It's not viable to maintain an open source browser without a large team of engineers. Chromium would likely die if Google abandoned it.
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