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Firefox Browser: best for a free web

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Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#221

Post by tentacleuno »

diskzero wrote: post #73
stereoradonc wrote: post #65

Too many distractions from Mozilla (Firefox OS, VPN etc and a complete dissonance from the core- browser. It doesn't help when senior management takes fat bonuses and fires away employees during the pandemic. That doesn't make for pleasant optics and also distanced me away from their product.

Firefox seems to be the only hope to avoid a duopoly dominated by forces that are anti-privacy and anti-user. I recently made the move from Safari to Firefox and I am very pleased. This being said, I agree with you about the optics of Firefox management. There is a lot going on that isn't good and the personal enrichment of the executives feels all sorts of wrong. If FF management can not be good stewards of a vital…

> Firefox seems to be the only hope to avoid a duopoly dominated by forces that are anti-privacy and anti-user. I recently made the move from Safari to Firefox and I am very pleased.

I've noticed that when the words "duopoly" / "monopoly" get thrown around in a thread about Firefox, it almost reads as if people use Firefox for the sole reason that it isn't Chromium.

In that vein, I've always wondered why some Firefox users tend to use it because of something it isn't?

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#222

Post by tentacleuno »

blacktriangle wrote: post #192
kaba0 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use any open source software? Since most of it is made by people unable to sustain themselves from their projects.

Much of it is sustained by people who are paid by employers who use said open source in their profit centers.

Ehh, that's not really true IME. I'd say "most" is a broad generalization.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#224

Post by lenkite »

trts wrote: post #2

It makes me sad that FF browser share has continued to decline steadily. The past couple years of releases have been some its the best in terms of my own UX, since perhaps the Phoenix era. It's pretty fast these days, the UI is good, has a lot of great extensions and privacy features. I use Brave at work to have a better chrome-based experience with gsuite. It's also a fast, excellent browser with good privacy featur…

Mozilla keeps firing developers and keeps increasing their CEO salary. No doubt, there will be another top-exec pay-hike soon to improve the numbers, along with another layoff.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#225

Post by lenkite »

stereoradonc wrote: post #65

Too many distractions from Mozilla (Firefox OS, VPN etc and a complete dissonance from the core- browser. It doesn't help when senior management takes fat bonuses and fires away employees during the pandemic. That doesn't make for pleasant optics and also distanced me away from their product.

Firefox OS was a thing they actually won in reality but then gave up the game too soon. KaiOS is now the bedrock for low-cost mobile phones in India.

Sometimes the most important thing is persistence.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#226

Post by inside_out_life »

tentacleuno wrote: post #220
unicornporn wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kiwi supports extensions on Android...

After that whole search engine scandal with Kiwi Browser, a lot of people don't trust it anymore. I believe it also majorly lagged behind Chromium versions.

It got updated to newest Chromium version recently, the build process seems to be semi-automated now too. Isn't it open source too? Unfortunately it's a bit buggy on some of my devices. Newest FF beta got unexplained speed bost and tablet UI, it's approaching irreplaceablity steadily for me, There's IceRaven FF fork which has enabled even more addons.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#227

Post by iggldiggl »

lucasyvas wrote: post #84

It's beyond me why they haven't thrown it up on GitHub yet. Let the community have a way bigger involvement and drive the future of the browser. Yes, I can go find the source for Firefox, but I sincerely doubt the engagement is anywhere near as high as it could be.

One doesn't follow from the other. Firefox for Android is now on Github, but at the same time we've still ended up with about:config locked down in Release, add-on support locked down in Release, ... because it's still very much Mozilla setting development policy.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#228

Post by tentacleuno »

toastal wrote: post #98
stereoradonc wrote: post #65

Too many distractions from Mozilla (Firefox OS, VPN etc and a complete dissonance from the core- browser. It doesn't help when senior management takes fat bonuses and fires away employees during the pandemic. That doesn't make for pleasant optics and also distanced me away from their product.

Firefox OS was ahead of its time and the marketing and targeting set was a bit too niche, but it was (and is) a great idea to build a mobile OS around web tech. KaiOS has forked FxOS to some success on lower-end devices with a respectable feature set (though it seems tooling is limited and monetization isn't amazing which is a feedback loop). Imagine if FxOS was a better success and instead of Chromebooks if the educ…

I wish.

I'm starting to realize (taking off my rose-tinted glasses) that a lot of these companies really like children. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. etc.

I'm guessing it's because children will learn how to use their products and probably stick with it. I'd love to see some statistics of this in practice though.

One would assume children would rather a "proper computer" (read: Windows) when they grow up though. I'm not sure.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#229

Post by toastal »

tentacleuno wrote: post #228
toastal wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox OS was ahead of its time and the marketing and targeting set was a bit too niche, but it was (and is) a great idea to build a mobile OS around web tech. KaiOS has forked FxOS to some success on lower-end devices with a respectable feature set (though it seems tooling is limited and monetization isn't amazing which is a feedback loop). Imagine if FxOS was a better success and instead of Chromebooks if the educ…

I wish. I'm starting to realize (taking off my rose-tinted glasses) that a lot of these companies really like children. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. etc. I'm guessing it's because children will learn how to use their products and probably stick with it. I'd love to see some statistics of this in practice though. One would assume children would rather a "proper computer" (read: Windows) when they grow up though. I'…

I would assume this is much the case as well. In the case of Chromebooks this lends legitimacy, high volumes, and starts building a brand/ecosystem familiarity. Maybe they would feel like Windows feels "off" like the first time I moved to OSX in college or the way I had to relearn interfaces and TUIs moving to GNU/Linux, stacking and tiling window managers. When I roll into a café and people see no task bar, terminal splits, etc. and raise eyebrows, maybe this is how kids will see Windows. I just hope they don't actually feel like walled-garden apps are the best solution for software ha.

Re: Firefox Browser: best for a free web

#230

Post by Liquid_Fire »

tentacleuno wrote: post #218
Liquid_Fire wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bundling Chrome with Flash and other software, such that it would install by default unless you uncheck the right checkbox (and make itself the default browser). Making Google web applications (YouTube) use technologies only available in Chrome with much slower fallback used in other browsers. Bundling Chrome with Android. Ads pushing it aggressively on Google/YouTube. Ads IRL.

What else do you reasonably expect them to bundle with Android, though? Safari?

I agree that it's probably too far to call that one a dirty tactic.

However, Microsoft was once forced to offer a choice of browsers to EU users of Windows, which included all major competitors and even a number of minor browsers. Google doesn't have quite as strong of a monopoly as Windows did, but it wouldn't be too unreasonable to offer the user a choice.

Additionally, while I see a small number of Android apps that actually embed the default browser when they want to show some web content, I see many more that embed what is clearly a Chrome-based web view. I'm not familiar with what the relevant underlying APIs are, but I would prefer it if more apps respected my choice, and Google are probably in a position to make that the easy/default choice, but they don't.

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