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Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

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Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#281
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't remember many times that I encountered Firefox-specific web bugs. I've had bugs where the site doesn't work in Firefox but works in Chrome, but as far as I can tell, those were always caused by the aggressive privacy settings I use in Firefox (whereas the Chrome profile is mostly default). I'm not particularly concerned with the article's complaint about onboarding. The problem is that Firefox is simply sligh…

Or you can install brave and not deal with anything

This does not help prevent the blink monoculture though.

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a full-time firefox user, I commonly find that sites have bugs, and when I boot it up in Chrome just to check my hunch, they don't manifest. Also a full-time Firefox user. This is fascinating because I quite literally cannot remember a website for which I had to switch browser so it would start working. What kind of websites are these? Have you noticed any pattern about them? Perhaps it's a certain type of site…

Was going to say much the same thing. I've been a full-time Firefox user for 10+ years. I've also worked on web apps and tested against Firefox, Chrome, IE (and later Edge), for 10+ years. In all that time, I don't think I've ever seen a Firefox-specific bug or layout issue. I saw them on IE all the time ( obviously ), sometimes in Edge, rarely in Chrome, and never in Firefox.

Me either. When something doesn't work it's almost always because of Privacy Badger. If I'm really curious I'll whitelist it to see if that does the trick. Otherwise I might report the bug to the site, but typically there's just not enough time in my life to waste on broken web sites.

People hold on to this belief that Google is infallible because they're rich and they put together a marketing campaign some years back to convince people that only smart people work there. I believe the truth is exactly the opposite.

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#283

> While I understand that they have to make money somehow I don't. I don't understand how Mozilla has over a thousand employees and over 500 million dollars in annual revenue. With that kind of money, Firefox should be absolutely dominating the browser space. They shouldn't be making Firefox worse with advertising in order to subsidize their flailing around trying to find traction in mobile or VR. It actually reminds…

No, the whole point of Mozilla is to "ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all." https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ Firefox, Thunderbird, and other projects are a means to that end.

to be fair, looking at their product page (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products)

firefox (different spins) and thunderbird appears to be about it at this point. I'm glad for the work they do but I also find the entire size of the operation staggering.

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#284
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If developers are genuinely concerned with browser diversity and not handing the Web over to Google and whatever they deem to be the next IE6, it starts with having a test plan for other browsers. I'd say it starts with dialing back the "new feature/change fetish" that a lot of web developers have. Yes, I know some things simply can't be done without a JS webapp, but not all and probably not even a majority, so if HT…

> Yes, I know some things simply can't be done without a JS webapp, but not all and probably not even a majority, so if HTML and CSS will do the job fine, then so be it; and even if it needs to use JS, it likely doesn't need to be latest-browser-only JS either. Sticking to HTML and CSS won't necessarily get rid of this - new stuff is being added to CSS all the time, in particular. And browser support is just as patch…

How much new css do you actually use though w/ patchy browser support?

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#285
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I'm a full time Firefox user as well and honestly can't think of an example where this happened to me. There have been a couple times where I was warned my browser wasn't supported, which is stupid, but it usually works fine anyway.

I've definitely had sites where FF doesn't work properly with LastPass. I've already had sites that plainly don't work at all with FF. I've never blamed the browser for that though. It's the developer responsibility to make sure I can access their site or I go elsewhere.

To me, if the site doesn't work on Firefox, the site is broken. End of story.

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#287
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webdevs don’t seem to have much of a user-centric view of the sites they develop. The vast majority of use cases on the web are “I want to see a list of options then fill in a form”. All the tech needed to shop online or bank or pay bills or book travel or whatever existed 20 years ago (SSL being the last piece of the puzzle, all the rest is just plain HTML).

Fully agree, plain old cached SSR with a little sprinkle of JavaScript when it really matters.

The thing is too, anyone can do that. HTML forms are easy, generating HTML is easy. There just doesn’t need to be any webdevs, the dedicated role doesn’t need to exist. No amount of trying to rebrand themselves as “full stack engineers” will save them when that realisation dawns on the people paying their over-inflated salaries!

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#288
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If developers are genuinely concerned with browser diversity and not handing the Web over to Google and whatever they deem to be the next IE6, it starts with having a test plan for other browsers. I'd say it starts with dialing back the "new feature/change fetish" that a lot of web developers have. Yes, I know some things simply can't be done without a JS webapp, but not all and probably not even a majority, so if HT…

> Yes, I know some things simply can't be done without a JS webapp, but not all and probably not even a majority, so if HTML and CSS will do the job fine, then so be it; and even if it needs to use JS, it likely doesn't need to be latest-browser-only JS either. Sticking to HTML and CSS won't necessarily get rid of this - new stuff is being added to CSS all the time, in particular. And browser support is just as patch…

But when a browser doesn't fully support a CSS feature most of the time is your site just looks a little wrong. Unless it's a major feature, the site will probably still be functional to the user.

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#289
post #7

I feel there's an opening for mobile experience on Android. Chrome is pretty terrible in that space. No extensions, no reader mode, no eacape from AMP, etc.

I exclusively use firefox for android. It's better than android chrome in nearly every way I can think of you. You get extensions.

Re: Firefox has lots of room to improve if it wants to beat Chrome

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a full-time firefox user, I commonly find that sites have bugs, and when I boot it up in Chrome just to check my hunch, they don't manifest. Also a full-time Firefox user. This is fascinating because I quite literally cannot remember a website for which I had to switch browser so it would start working. What kind of websites are these? Have you noticed any pattern about them? Perhaps it's a certain type of site…

For example's sake, try opening payment/billing setting pages of Google products. For example, pay.google.com doesn't load on FF latest on MacOsX latest.

Loads for me - latest Safari, latest macOS. Maybe it's a specific page?

I know for example I can use FF everywhere but specific Google apps (new sites) don't work well in FF, though that's improved lately as well.

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