Switching from Chrome to Firefox • Hacker News Board

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#231

Post by ajphdiv » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #208

thibran wrote: post #175

Firefox is nice. But over time there are more and more things I need to configure to get a "good" browser experience. Things I do: - about:preferences#general > Startup > restore previous session - about:preferences#general > Tabs > uncheck Ctrl+Tab cycle ... - about:preferences#general > Downloads > always ask where to save - about:preferences#home > Firefox Home Content > disable all except Top Sites - about:prefer…

On the contrary, the first thing I do is log in to Sync, which is (/claims to be) encrypted so Mozilla can't read your settings/data, and everything Just Works TM. Plus, I get the added benefit of syncing all my passwords and being able to send pages to my phone, though I would quite like it if it were faster (I've had cases where the pages took days to arrive).

Sync can also be self hosted.

https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#232

Post by rwnspace » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #208

thibran wrote: post #175

Firefox is nice. But over time there are more and more things I need to configure to get a "good" browser experience. Things I do: - about:preferences#general > Startup > restore previous session - about:preferences#general > Tabs > uncheck Ctrl+Tab cycle ... - about:preferences#general > Downloads > always ask where to save - about:preferences#home > Firefox Home Content > disable all except Top Sites - about:prefer…

On the contrary, the first thing I do is log in to Sync, which is (/claims to be) encrypted so Mozilla can't read your settings/data, and everything Just Works TM. Plus, I get the added benefit of syncing all my passwords and being able to send pages to my phone, though I would quite like it if it were faster (I've had cases where the pages took days to arrive).

FYI you can manually trigger synchronization in both the mobile and desktop browsers, the option isn't buried very deep in either and is the only workaround I've found to avoid delays!

Edit: on mobile it's under Hamburger > Settings > Firefox Account

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#233

Post by eitland » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

Yoric wrote: post #198

reagent_finder wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not at all true, any and all wizards or configuration dialogues would go over a small subset of settings deemed 'important' by someone. There isn't a single program out there anywhere that has a walkthrough that goes through all configuration options. At least I don't believe one to exist, I would certainly be enthusiastic to be proven wrong! About:config in Firefox has 3930 lines. That would be a very, very,…

I remember installing Linux like that during the (early?) 90s. It took about two days of answering endless questions ("Do you want Klingon fonts?") I much prefer what we get nowadays.

About 10 years later (sometime in 01-03) I remember installing Red Hat from the CDs in the school library. It was absolutely no problem to get it working for what I needed it for, and with minimal tweaking (I had no clue back then) I got sound working as well.

Remember, this was back in the days were on Windows you'd carefully archive any CDs or diskettes that came with your computer to have a chance to reinstall it and Linux just worked (sometimes, it wasn't always that easy back then.)

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#234

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:38 PM UTC

rwnspace wrote: post #232

StavrosK wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, the first thing I do is log in to Sync, which is (/claims to be) encrypted so Mozilla can't read your settings/data, and everything Just Works TM. Plus, I get the added benefit of syncing all my passwords and being able to send pages to my phone, though I would quite like it if it were faster (I've had cases where the pages took days to arrive).

FYI you can manually trigger synchronization in both the mobile and desktop browsers, the option isn't buried very deep in either and is the only workaround I've found to avoid delays! Edit: on mobile it's under Hamburger > Settings > Firefox Account

That's what I usually do, but sometimes I send links from the phone to the desktop so I remember to read them there, and if they never appear I just forget about them.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#235

Post by kgwxd » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:44 PM UTC

thibran wrote: post #221

siliconpotato wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good thing that you are actually able to tweak these things to your personal tastes.

Yes it is, and I'm thankful that it is possible. There is – and always was – someone who gets paid to distract you from doing what you want to do. This is called advertising and we have seen on the web multiple very aggressive excesses here: pop-ups, auto playing sound/video and nowadays notification spam. What I'm trying to say here is, that you shouldn't need to be a nerd to get a pleasant browsing experience.

But no other major browser is any better in that department, they're all worse.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#236

Post by Boxxed » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:48 PM UTC

Pimpus wrote: post #214

thibran wrote: post #175

Firefox is nice. But over time there are more and more things I need to configure to get a "good" browser experience. Things I do: - about:preferences#general > Startup > restore previous session - about:preferences#general > Tabs > uncheck Ctrl+Tab cycle ... - about:preferences#general > Downloads > always ask where to save - about:preferences#home > Firefox Home Content > disable all except Top Sites - about:prefer…

How does this make for a better "browsing experience"? It is just neurotic nitpicking. A good browsing experience means performance, security, minimal popups and minimal tracking. Firefox provides this OOTB now.

You must be new here... Welcome to HN.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#237

Post by stiray » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

ajphdiv wrote: post #231

StavrosK wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, the first thing I do is log in to Sync, which is (/claims to be) encrypted so Mozilla can't read your settings/data, and everything Just Works TM. Plus, I get the added benefit of syncing all my passwords and being able to send pages to my phone, though I would quite like it if it were faster (I've had cases where the pages took days to arrive).

Sync can also be self hosted. https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver

I love firefox but this is one hell of an annoyance I would beat author with a large trump. A hellofablob of dependencies etc. Like it was deliberately build to not self host it (and no I dont want docker).

I really really really hate it for almost 10 years. There was a project rewritting it in go but was abandoned and probably the next thing I will develop will be a replacement .

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#238

Post by OrgNet » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 3:02 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #208

thibran wrote: post #175

Firefox is nice. But over time there are more and more things I need to configure to get a "good" browser experience. Things I do: - about:preferences#general > Startup > restore previous session - about:preferences#general > Tabs > uncheck Ctrl+Tab cycle ... - about:preferences#general > Downloads > always ask where to save - about:preferences#home > Firefox Home Content > disable all except Top Sites - about:prefer…

On the contrary, the first thing I do is log in to Sync, which is (/claims to be) encrypted so Mozilla can't read your settings/data, and everything Just Works TM. Plus, I get the added benefit of syncing all my passwords and being able to send pages to my phone, though I would quite like it if it were faster (I've had cases where the pages took days to arrive).

My problem with sync on mobile is that it appears to be impossible to manually sync the data when the phone's general sync setting is set to off (When I want no apps to sync). My email software let me manually check for new email... this appears to be a Firefox bug.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#239

Post by archie2 » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 3:06 PM UTC

ivanfon wrote: post #207

archie2 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is awsome for web development too! You can have two tabs open to test out sending messages to eachother, you can have an admin and regular session open simultaneously. So usefull! Firefox Dev Edition with Multi-Account containers is my GOTO web frontend dev browser.

This extension is super useful for that, it lets you instantly create new temporary containers: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...

Yup - I LOVE temporary containers. I feel so cripple when developing outside of Firefox now.

Re: Switching from Chrome to Firefox

#240

Post by ttctciyf » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 3:11 PM UTC

Yoric wrote: post #198

reagent_finder wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not at all true, any and all wizards or configuration dialogues would go over a small subset of settings deemed 'important' by someone. There isn't a single program out there anywhere that has a walkthrough that goes through all configuration options. At least I don't believe one to exist, I would certainly be enthusiastic to be proven wrong! About:config in Firefox has 3930 lines. That would be a very, very,…

I remember installing Linux like that during the (early?) 90s. It took about two days of answering endless questions ("Do you want Klingon fonts?") I much prefer what we get nowadays.

Sounds like you must have chosen the expert install option (or whatever they called it) in slackware install scripts..

Are you sure there wasn't also an option to just install a typical server or desktop application set, or just install everything? :)