Firefox lost 50M users since 2019 • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#371

Post by bsd44 » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

eingaeKaiy8ujie wrote: post #335

bsd44 wrote: post #300

I switched to Opera because Firefox forces invasive updates that require a forced restart. For someone who likes to keep a web browser running for a long time and put their laptop to sleep rather than shutdown, that is not acceptable. I use Linux so I could get around that by excluding the package from updates but I don't want to run an outdated web browser that might have security vulnerabilities. I raised this a fe…

Opera is closed source which means it is not secure.

So Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows, Amazon FireOS, Cisco IOS, Netapp ONTAP... they are all "not secure" because they are not OSS?

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#372

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

littlecranky67 wrote: post #362

gfodor wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you explain what the value is of having that many tabs open? i hear people do this but never understood it. what's the point?

There is no value to it, this is what happens when you don't know what bookmarks are for.

Honestly I simply need an autotagger. I tried doing one a few time but never finished.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#373

Post by Volundr » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

littlecranky67 wrote: post #357

dontblink wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does happen with Chrome. See the whole ublock origin debacle. I guess it doesn't impact end users as greatly or maybe Firefox users are more vocal about changes? Also: yikes on that link. I would feel disillusioned if my feedback was responded to in that manner. Sometimes empathy can get you so much further.

Whats that debacle about? I'm using latest Chrome and am still using uBlock origin.

https://www.techradar.com/news/popular-chrome-ad-blockers-co...

If I recall correctly they backtracked, but it was a big deal for awhile.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#374

Post by FractalParadigm » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

hackthefender wrote: post #301

FractalParadigm wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was having crazy issues in GDrive and GDocs where I could download nothing using FF - no PDFs, no .docx files, none of my other backed-up files, you'd click download and nothing would happen. Do the same in Chrome, Edge, Safari, Opera, even changing my user-agent to Chrome, and it works flawlessly. My solution to this problem was move everything off GDrive and into self-hosted options. If Google is going to intenti…

What self-hosted option did you pick just out of curiosity? Looking to do the same thing.

As another commenter mentioned, TrueNAS is my go-to for general storage and phone/PC/Mac backups; it's dead simple to setup and is extremely capable, not to mention it'll run on just about anything (barring the ZFS cache RAM requirements...). Personally, I keep a 'master' home folder on there that gets auto-mounted in whatever OS I boot into; this way I never have to go hunting around the NAS for files, for instance I just have a single "Documents" folder that effectively 'syncs' across my Mac, *nix, and Windows. I use CX File Explorer on Android to access the NAS, add a WireGuard VPN (which there's a great plugin for on TrueNAS) and you've got access to your files anywhere.

GDrive I was able to replace more or less with LibreOffice and Collabora, I rarely need to share documents outside PDF or print, which makes compatibility a non-issue for me (and even when I need to, saving as a .doc usually maintains layouts, fonts, etc.).

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#375

Post by PoignardAzur » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

eitland wrote: post #208

judge2020 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anti competitive behavior Have some examples? On Desktop, I don't see any, but I would get if you mean Mobile since Chrome is still the default browser there for Android.

Have you used Firefox with Google Docs Calendar or YouTube over the last ten years? (Multiple more examples exist for those willing to dig: at one point the search results page would peg one processor core briefly every 30 seconds as long as you stayed on that page - and used Firefox) Edit: and as you mention, the situation with Chrome on mobile is basically a 1-1 of IE on Windows.

Not OP, but I have. I'm currently typing this answer on Firefox, have been using google Docs, Calendar and Youtube for years, never had major problems.

(Of course this is all anecdotal.)

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#376

Post by InTheArena » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

I still use Firefox - primarily for the container extension which is exactly the awesome type of privacy and internet control we need. I simply don't want google that into my ecosystem. When they have to be there, I want them in a penalty box.

Firefox lost their way technically, and their focus on users when Brenden Eich was forced out. Mozilla's focus seems to be far more on the social to the detriment of their technical efforts.

Their fragmentation trying to chase other goals then browser has really cost them.

Want mozilla to take a stand on a policy issue? Great. Responsive. Respond to user requests? Not so much.

To be clear, I defend anyone's right to have a position and make the world a better place. But please improve the product that you are actually working on. The number of users you claim to speak for is shrinking.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#377

Post by prashantsengar » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

shaan7 wrote: post #219

prashantsengar wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been trying to switch to Firefox since long but have never been able to completely switch. There have always been some problems that send me away. On my phone (Android), Firefox is quite good except a few UX issues (that I don't mind too much) but the sync with my desktop has NEVER worked. On the desktop, FF has always been slow - in booting, loading pages. The same with Edge and Chrome just work. If I could g…

I can imagine how frustrating it would feel as a Firefox dev reading reports like this and wondering wth is going wrong. Because I'm "just a user" and I've never seen FF being slow to start or loading pages . Same with sync, I recently install Firefox on a new laptop. Clicked the sync button, logged in with my account and done. In 2-3 minutes all history and addons sync'd \o/ UX wise I really love that Firefox Androi…

I can feel that too. But I have tried to sync so many times, tried reinstalling, used a different account but it never worked.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#378

Post by InTheArena » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

todd3834 wrote: post #221

Meanwhile: Brave Passes 25 Million Monthly Active Users https://brave.com/25m-mau/ This seems relevant as it was started by the former co-founder of Mozilla and creator of JavaScript. Maybe Brendan Eich is good at finding out what people want in a browser.

now if it just had multi-account containers.

Still running the monoculture problem....

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#379

Post by InTheArena » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

deadalus wrote: post #329

Mozilla(Firefox's parent) has supported pro-social justice and progressive causes that ticked off a lot of users. There were a lot of discussions about it in 4chan from 2017-2019. Many people vowed to never use Firefox ever again and instead switched to alternatives like Waterfox and PaleMoon.

Mozilla is far better at delivering social positions then good software.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#380

Post by paulryanrogers » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

leppr wrote: post #280

Nextgrid wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed? Lack of in-browser ads? (Google websites have ads but as far as I’m aware Chrome itself doesn’t have any, unlike Firefox which has sponsored sites and “snippets” on the new tab page - enabled by default obviously). Lack of constant nagging? Firefox in its default configuration has always something to nag you about. Whether it’s Pocket, Firefox Sync or that it’s just updated and there are potentially new featur…

To be fair the push to connect a Google account and use Google services in Chrome is the ad, they don't need more. But I definitely agree about the Firefox nags, I suppose it can be off-putting to new users and project a low-quality adware image (usually synonymous with more privacy violations, which is ironic).

Google is the dominant ad provider on the websites themselves. Embedding yet more ads (beyond their sign-in push) may be counterproductive. And they don't provide a simple way to turn those off, unlike Mozilla's sponsored sites.