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Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

blog.mozilla.org

331–340 of 482 posts

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

#331

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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 th…

>Make a better browser and people will come.

With magic money? Do you think mozilla employees and firefox employees should starve? Should they be making firefox entirely as charity?

The other browsers are made by a GigaCorp that extracts a tax from pretty much everything on the internet, especially if you want to do any advertising, and another Megacorp that has billions upon billions of dollars in cash just waiting for a need and also extracts 30% on ANY financial transaction using their hardware.

Imagine people pushing stupid hard for everyone to use Meta's MetaVerse instead of VRChat because VRChat once had an advertising ID in their code or something. Like sure, that's not awesome, but like, what the fuck is the alternative?

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

#332

There's a lot of hate any Firefox and the "blessed apps." But come on, chrome and Safari don't sorry add-ons at all! I know there are other apps that support add-ons but the fact is that Firefox is __the only__ "mainstream" browser that does this (quotes because it's 0.25% in the US, as the 4th most popular, behind Samsung fucking Internet). It's popular to hate on Firefox, but this is the nerdiest of nerd issues and…

> Safari don't sorry(sic) add-ons at all

iOS and iPadOS Safari has supported extensions for a while now.

https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/get-extensions-ipada7ca...

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/get-extensions-iphab0...

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

#333

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> what should be their core mission of protecting the web by making the best browser they possibly can In your opinion. I disagree. They could spend a billion dollars on making the best browser the world has ever seen and it would still be used by next to no-one. People use the browser they're given, especially in the smartphone era we're in now. Android users use Chrome. iOS users use Safari, Mozilla isn't even allo…

> "They could spend a billion dollars on making the best browser the world has ever seen and it would still be used by next to no-one. [...] So they've clearly decided to expand their mission to protect the web." Seems like you're now conceding matheusmoreira's point you disputed before: > They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead. And you haven…

[flagged]

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

#334

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> 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), web…

Oh fuck off. How is Mozilla supposed to build a browser that outcompetes two companies that literally build all in one corporate environments? Firefox could literally provide regular oral sex to the CEO and still be less attractive to businesses than whatever shlock microsoft has bought and re-sold.

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

#335
post #294

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

Same, and its amazing. How can people complain about FF so much, when it's the only mobile browser that even gives you this option, and radically cleans up mobile browsing.

It's called motivated reasoning. "Firefox must suck because I don't want to switch to it", so when firefox buys a bookmarking tool and integrates it into the browser, that's apparently "user hostile", while google wants to force your browser to attest that you haven't blocked any ads.

But no, it's "mozilla bad"

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

#336

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I've never tried Kiwi Browser but had similarly come across it while searching. The dev themselves refers to them as ads[1] (2022), though prior to being accepted properly into Bing's referral program Kiwi redirected all search queries through their own servers[2][3] (2021) (the original Kiwi repo's issues tab has been deleted since). Tbf the dev always sounds reasonable in their responses but was a little off-puttin…

Fyi, I'm pretty sure you're talking to kiwi's main dev :)

Then the main dev is just wrong. That issue contains the exact words "Since then, now Kiwi Browser contains ads" as an explicit reason why they can't be in F-Droid.

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

#337
post #85

We need to be able to directly fund Firefox instead of all the other mozilla stuff. https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/ability-to-donate-money...

Just like chrome is it's own charity organization that only does things that are good for the open internet right?

No? We only have this requirement of the only browser not tied to an advertising organization? Huh, that's very strange....

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

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "They could spend a billion dollars on making the best browser the world has ever seen and it would still be used by next to no-one. [...] So they've clearly decided to expand their mission to protect the web." Seems like you're now conceding matheusmoreira's point you disputed before: > They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead. And you haven…

[flagged]

You've lost the plot. matheusmoreira said they have a billion dollars but they're cutting back on development to focus on agenda spending. You disputed this, but a few comments later concede that they've deprioritized development because:

> "They could spend a billion dollars on making the best browser the world has ever seen and it would still be used by next to no-one"

And increased agenda spending because:

> So they've clearly decided to expand their mission to protect the web. Ensuring AI is used ethically strikes me as relevant to the topic, a little too much like chasing buzzwords to my taste but it's clearly an area of current interest. And hey, maybe a few more people will learn about the Mozilla brand and consider converting to Firefox some day."

You've as much admitted that matheusmoreira is completely right.

> "shitty tone"

Right back at you, buddy. Did I call you shitty? Not until now, to throw your insult back at you.

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

#339

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Iceraven's reason for existence has been about allowing (pretty much?) all Firefox addons since day one. And about:config. Wish you hadn't downvoted him.

Yep, and I still have to deal with my settings being reset every time I update, their user hostile UX flows, strange highlights on web page elements, and all the other stuff Firefox says aren't important to users. But I do it, why? So that all those scaremongers who screech "but you have to use Firefox! Otherwise youre helping the evil only other game in town!" like they always do don't have a single argument. Mozill…

>my settings being reset every time I update, their user hostile UX flows, strange highlights on web page elements

I have used firefox since 2007. I have used the exact same firefox PROFILE, that I simply copy from device to device when I set them up, for 10 years now. I have NEVER ONCE lost ANY settings.

Maybe you're on a weird linux distro and the package manager does dumb things?

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

#340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disabling extensions had nothing to do with their market share. We have extensions on desktop and they are still being squeezed out there. And judging by some other comments here there is apparently a fork of Firefox for Android that allows extensions - which even I had never heard of until now.

> Disabling extensions had nothing to do with their market share It kinda did because it removed a reason to pick Firefox over its competitors. If Firefox doesn't actually bring anything tangible to the table, why would people pick it over whatever they're currently using (which is likely to be Chrome)? The average user doesn't hate Google like some people do, so a purely ideological argument of "it isn't Chrome" won…

>It kinda did because it removed a reason to pick Firefox over its competitors.

The reason to pick firefox over competitors is because they are the ONLY web browser vendor who isn't actively handicapping the internet. Firefox could smear my face with literal shit every time I use it and it would still be less hostile to end users than, let's see what chrome is doing this week, oh yes, forcing everyone to build attestation systems into the internet so that you eventually will be cryptographically prevented from blocking ads.

Jesus. Perspective people

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