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Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

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Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#371

Post by stjohnswarts »

lavabiopsy wrote: post #171
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you can't, because Mozilla deems that only X% of users use that feature and maintaining its configurability consumes too much organizational resources. First the GUI to edit the GUI disappears, then the about:config option follows later. That's what's been steadily happening. Less and less customizability for power users, more and more streamlining for new users.

I don't see how that's a problem, you can just modify the CSS. If you too decide that's too much work and consumes too much of your resources for not enough gain, well then now you know why Mozilla made the decision.

Yeah but it takes way too many steps to modify the CSS and it's not really worth it when they could have just left it alone.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#372

Post by stjohnswarts »

s17n wrote: post #232
pteraspidomorph wrote: post #6

I agree with this opinion piece. Firefox is a product strangely hostile to its core userbase. It's almost like they've been deliberately trying to sabotage themselves for years. I don't use it because I approve of all their stupid pigheaded UI choices, I use it because it has been the least bad option despite those choices. That might not go on for much longer, though.

Firefox was/is trying to be a top browser in global market share. The "core userbase" is irrelevant to this mission. You wouldn't really even talk about Chrome's "core userbase" because they aren't trying to make a niche community happy, they are trying to best serve their billions of users, something that the author of this piece clearly knows nothing about - eg, when your userbase is this large, the only meaningful…

They don't have billions of users though. They are down to 200-300 million users, depending on who you ask. It's going down steadily every year.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#373

Post by stjohnswarts »

corty wrote: post #49
bjt2n3904 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, isn't this a bit like saying, "I left Windows for Ubuntu because of the invasive privacy concerns I had... But man Unity is terrible, I'm going back to Windows!" If privacy is the ultimate concern, I can suffer usability. I think the real issue is we've stopped advocating for privacy loudly and publicly. All the users know is convenience.

The thing is, if you do not like the UI of unity, maybe you'll like Gnome, KDE, LXDE, fluxbox, i3 or ratpoison or .... With most Linux distros, you can have both privacy and your favourite UI paradigm. You usually do not need to suffer in the usability department (or at least not too much). But with Firefox, all the UI choices are gone now, intentionally sacrificed on the altair of rewrites, UI changes, branding and…

None of that matters to most people. People want a robust, fast, and secure browser that evolves rather than tries to be revolutionary. I think the large GUI changes did bug a lot of people.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#374

Post by stjohnswarts »

aero-glide2 wrote: post #35
clement_b wrote: post #26

I use both Chrome (for work) and Firefox (personal) on Windows. Beyond a few specifics, I often can't remember which I am using. There might be many differences under the hood, but in a regular usage Firefox is really damn good. Even on Google's properties. I also use Firefox exclusively on mobile, and same. At the end of the day, they are two very mature, slightly different executions of the same concept. I get the…

In desktop, there is barely any difference now (Chrome's save as pdf feature is more accurate with tables). In mobile however, Chrome seems noticeably faster.

Graphics+javascript in firefox always feels a lot slower to me on firefox than on chrome (and chrome based browsers)

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#375

Post by stjohnswarts »

nsonha wrote: post #340
alserio wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter point: install ublock origin on firefox mobile (which you cannot do on chrome) and the web is very noticeably faster on firefox.

this and "Video on background fix" which allows you to "listen" to youtube and multitask. I don't use the youtube app to avoid all the addictive features and tracking, and even it doesn't play in the background.

Newpipe is great for youtube background listening.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#377

Post by laurent92 »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #259
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I think there is... I distinctly remember being extremely annoyed at the text ad on the new tab page. Turned it off a long time ago. It's called "Snippets" in settings/home. It's like a Twitter feed from Mozilla.

Oh huh you're right, I must have turned it off and forgotten. I turned it back on again and don't see anything new but maybe it's not all the time.

If you had to turn off features from your browser, that’s a pretty good demonstration that the browser was getting in your way, in a sufficient occurrence that you jumped on Google to ask “How to disable Firefox’s new annoyance”.

Not everyone wants to spend time disabling features of their browser to be able to use it.

Especially if Firefox pretends to not get in your way!

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#378

Post by znpy »

junon wrote: post #37
znpy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox on Android used to just freeze for me. I'm happily on brave mobile, which does block ads.

... and replaces them with more ads directly in the user interface (e.g. the new tab screen).

It took me a moment to get what you're talking about.

I notice such advertisement from time to time, but it's so unobstructive that I almost like them.

Yes, they put advertising where it doesn't bother me and where it doesn't slow down page loading.

That's brilliant.

Thank you for pointing that out!

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#379

Post by guerrilla »

junon wrote: post #43
guerrilla wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is HarfBuzz heavily dependent on Google? It's been around forever, spawn of FreeType.

It is owned and maintained by Google and Facebook. https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/blob/main/COPYING

If you read that license, you'll see it's free software. Anyone can fork or maintain it just like was done for over a decade before Google and Facebook were involved.

Re: Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

#380

Post by junon »

dvdkon wrote: post #295
junon wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't matter who maintains it. It matters who owns copyrights.

That doesn't matter, since it's FLOSS with an irrevocable licence. That's the great thing about free software.

That wasn't the point. Yes, you're free to use it. But many of us would like not to depend on Google code.
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