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Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#261

Post by Gud »

veave wrote: post #137
Gud wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly has Firefox “screwed you over”? I’ve used Firefox since it was called Phoenix… although I don’t like the governance of the project, I would hardly say I’ve been screwed over. Firefox has been an amazing product since day one. Meanwhile, Chrome has literally been developed to probe your ass for data they can sell to advertisers.

Last time it was 2 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36077360 In that thread there are a few more examples, most of them somewhat recent: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36077683

Yes, the people in charge of Mozilla have been doing dumb stuff like this, eroding our trust.

Hardly screwing us over, though. They’ve been doing even worse things, for example constantly opting us in for “anonymous statistics” etc.

If it one day comes out they’ve been sharing this data deanonymized with 3rd parties, then you can say you’ve been screwed over.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#263

Post by timtom39 »

afavour wrote: post #243
matheusmoreira wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people hating on Mozilla, not Firefox. They absolutely deserve it too. They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead. One would think they'd try to fix the web by making Firefox the dominant browser.

> They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead Where have they announced that they're focusing on "agenda pushing"? Mozilla's "agenda" feels like a very tiny part of what they do, it's just that people talk about it endlessly.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/

Just read their blog. Latest three: - EU's AI Act - Fakespot school supplies? - Making trustworthy chatbots to support women plagued by violence and abuse

The first one might make sense? Second one WTF? And third is disgusting (I know people effected and the LAST thing they want is some chatbot).

None of these are related strongly to Firefox. I quit donating to them years ago after it was obvious they have their priorities messed up.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#264

Post by Nextgrid »

shinryuu wrote: post #130
veave wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Firefox's publicity is based on the fact that they are "on your side". That means that they are held to a much higher standard. Pretending to be on the side of the user and then screwing users up over and over seems like wanting their cake and eating it too? It's funny because, you know, I expect chrome to screw me over while I expect firefox not to screw me over but chrome has screwed me over fewer times tha…

Perhaps that is because they screw you over in secret? Whenever Firefox makes a mistake it gets very publicised, but whenever chrome does it it's just business as normal so no one really publicises it.

As far as I know Chrome doesn't use every possible opportunity to nag you about self-righteous BS on how they're better and more private than everyone else?

It's one thing to make a mistake or do user-hostile decisions inline with your business model. But it's another to loudly shout about how "good" you are (and everyone else is bad) and then do the exact same thing.

Same reason why a policeman or some law-enforcement figure gets more outrage for committing a crime than a normal citizen.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#265

Post by Nextgrid »

godelski wrote: post #150
autoexec wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll always love Mozilla, or at least some fictional idealized version of it, so I'm stuck being increasingly disappointed in Mozilla while holding out for the times they do something right. Giving add-on support back to firefox users is a good thing so here's hoping it won't be done in a way that disappoints me. I hope they bring back about:config next.

> or at least some fictional idealized version of it This might be the most real comment here. All our perceptions are some fictionalized version of . Doesn't matter if it is Apple, Google, Mozilla, or whatever. Our judgements are based on narrow experiences and highly affected by the PR generated around them.

> Our judgements are based on narrow experiences and highly affected by the PR generated around them.

When it comes to Firefox, a lot of users' judgements might be from actual experience using the product back in its heyday (before it was lobotomized), as opposed to PR?

However, bringing PR into the discussion is a good point. Mozilla turned from a browser/web tools maker into a PR agency with unclear profit motives that happens to make an increasingly-lackluster browser.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#266

Post by Nextgrid »

godelski wrote: post #153
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- They lost focus with just about every other project other than Firefox & Thunderbird which were the actual products I donated money for - They are (recently) very top heavy for a non-profit foundation and are spending non-negligible amounts of money on C-level and execs - Ideologically I disagree with them taking money with strings attached from Alphabet - (Personally) their recent trends of UX with 'dummyfication'…

Have you considered that they are doing some of these things to survive? That Chrome nearly killed them? Literally the strings attached from Alphabet are that they give you Google as a default search engine. Default, as in... you can change it... trivially. This isn't like they are installing a keylogger into your browser and using it to learn about your behaviors. It isn't like they are making their browser the defa…

What made Firefox originally successful (and gave it significant marketshare against a preinstalled incumbent) was the features. They simply made a better browser than the status-quo at the time.

I don't understand nor approve their current strategy of trying to make a Chrome clone - even if they actually make a perfect copy, why would people use it instead of Chrome itself?

The only way for Firefox to survive and thrive is to differentiate itself from the incumbents and offer features that those incumbents can't offer due to conflicts of interest such as built-in ad blocking. Make a better browser and people will come.

At the moment there is no reason for any non-technical user to use it over Chrome, since in its default configuration it's no better (and being non-technical means they are not aware of add-ons/etc). Give non-technical users an actual reason to pick it over Chrome.

Worse, their current strategy is actually alienating their current (mostly-technical) users, effectively working against their already-tiny marketshare.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#267

Post by Rastonbury »

danShumway wrote: post #14

This is a big surprise and a welcome one. I honestly had given up hope of this happening. It's disappointing that it took this long, but it is a big deal to have full extension support on Android again. I'm very happy to see this news.

I use Firefox Nightly on Android but just only use adblock, privacy extensions and pay wall unblock

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#268

Post by Nextgrid »

maleldil wrote: post #127
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- They lost focus with just about every other project other than Firefox & Thunderbird which were the actual products I donated money for - They are (recently) very top heavy for a non-profit foundation and are spending non-negligible amounts of money on C-level and execs - Ideologically I disagree with them taking money with strings attached from Alphabet - (Personally) their recent trends of UX with 'dummyfication'…

> They lost focus with just about every other project other than Firefox & Thunderbird which were the actual products I donated money for > Ideologically I disagree with them taking money with strings attached from Alphabet How would they get more sources of funding if not exploring other projects? Firefox would never pay for itself. I totally agree with the exec thing, however.

Firefox would actually pay for itself. The Enterprise spends insane money on (potentially dubious) security products.

The browser is the primary interface to untrusted and often-malicious code, as well as a window to the outside world. It's the perfect place for security features that would actually make a difference.

Sell an enterprise-focused browser with built-in ad & tracker blocking (important for security), website restriction policies (which are currently implemented via various hacks such as DNS blocking), logging and data loss prevention and centralized management. Use that to subsidize the free version.

They won't even need to restrict the free version's features; all the code can remain open-source. Enterprise customers pay for the support and the hosted services (case in point - Okta has a successful business despite there being plenty of free, self-hostable alternatives).

Mozilla has a huge competitive advantage here - they have brand recognition (especially among IT folks which would help sell it to the enterprise), a competent and up-to-date rendering engine (no small feat these days) and at least some skill left to work on said rendering engine. They're in the perfect position to actually be able to offer a browser product (as opposed to a Chromium reskin which is all that the competition does).

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#269

Post by Nextgrid »

maleldil wrote: post #169
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> where people criticise them for taking money from Google, but also criticise them when they explore alternate funding sources What aggravates me is nobody is asking why do you need so much cash? - Why has it become so big that it needs to spend 81M on Management payroll per year? [0] - Why has it grown so big that it needs to spend 21M in external consultants per year? [0] - Why do you need 1000+ staff to roll out…

I think this is valid criticism, but it's more nuanced than the usual "mozilla bad because google money" and "mozilla bad because not firefox". Thank you for providing data. Is there a more sustainable path where they don't rely on Google so much? Maybe? Developing a browser doesn't seem to be cheap. Do we know how many resources are used in Firefox versus the rest? I'd like to see a strong argument that Mozilla coul…

> Do we know how many resources are used in Firefox versus the rest?

Well the C-suite sure isn't writing code, so that's already a few million going to "the rest" as opposed to Firefox.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#270

Post by snird »

Firefox for Android is lacking on so many basic features, it's amazing that they prioritize anything else before fixing those.

E.g deep links. Which is very, very basic feature for mobile. Firefox on Android is unusable without it - and it seems like no one prioritize this, so excuse me for not being excited by any other feature.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54653641/app-links-not-w... https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/15202 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1809264

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