Firefox lost 50M users since 2019 • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#41

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

toper-centage wrote: post #15

It's honestly a pity. Firefox is it perfect but the Internet is becoming worse because of chrome. Google is able to fast track any non standard Web tech and the hordes follow. Soon after, that become the standard. I don't want to cheer for a broken browser, but only Safari is able to stop this madness now. Also, Firefox on the Desktop is really good and still let's you do so much more than chrome clones. But it suffe…

I keep using Firefox on the desktop as a kind of resistance factor,. however the truth is that the war is lost, the Web has turned into ChromeOS for all practical purposes.

Specially since Microsoft has always been on the same boat as Google, remember that such kind of features go back to Active Desktop.

Additionally, everyone pushing Electron apps is basically contributing to Chrome market share.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#42

Post by xcambar » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

nsilvestri wrote: post #21

toper-centage wrote: post #15

It's honestly a pity. Firefox is it perfect but the Internet is becoming worse because of chrome. Google is able to fast track any non standard Web tech and the hordes follow. Soon after, that become the standard. I don't want to cheer for a broken browser, but only Safari is able to stop this madness now. Also, Firefox on the Desktop is really good and still let's you do so much more than chrome clones. But it suffe…

Chrome is already the standard. Firefox usually works, but more and more often nowadays I encounter a glitchy or poorly performing page, which I switch to Chrome to use properly. I use Firefox to not be part of the Chrome monopoly, not because it's actually a fundamentally better browser.

Chrome is not better because you witness some pages to render better in Chrome. It is actually the opposite: pages are more and more built for and with Chrome in mind.

And that omnipresence of Chrome allows Google to force their own moves as de facto standards, which is dangerous overall.

Firefox is better because it follows standards and it is open-source and it is not tied to a behemoth like Google.

The authors of pages you see perform better in Chrome are indeed not building for the web but rather building for Chrome.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#43

Post by approxim8ion » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

FF has not done anything to push me away yet. I am open to change and not always happy with their decisions, but their product remains usable and favorable to me.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#44

Post by nightski » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:23 AM UTC

nsilvestri wrote: post #21

toper-centage wrote: post #15

It's honestly a pity. Firefox is it perfect but the Internet is becoming worse because of chrome. Google is able to fast track any non standard Web tech and the hordes follow. Soon after, that become the standard. I don't want to cheer for a broken browser, but only Safari is able to stop this madness now. Also, Firefox on the Desktop is really good and still let's you do so much more than chrome clones. But it suffe…

Chrome is already the standard. Firefox usually works, but more and more often nowadays I encounter a glitchy or poorly performing page, which I switch to Chrome to use properly. I use Firefox to not be part of the Chrome monopoly, not because it's actually a fundamentally better browser.

I have used Firefox for about a decade now and I can't think of a single page that did not work. I'm not saying it's impossible, but incredibly rare. I'd be more inclined to just give up on the site than install Chrome.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#45

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:23 AM UTC

pupppet wrote: post #14

With Google's relentless Chrome dickbars for anyone daring to use one of their services without it, I don't see how any other browser stands a chance.

They even push Chrome when you dare to use their services with another Chrome based browser that isn't theirs like Edge Chrome.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#46

Post by tomjen3 » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:25 AM UTC

vrocmod wrote: post #26

Will Firefox go extinct like Netscape did?

I fear it will. I use it daily because it is the best at protecting my privacy, no other browser has containers, but it seems too few people care. At least as long as mobile Safari exist, Chrome isn't able to swallow everything and resistance is not yet futile.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#47

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:25 AM UTC

crmrc114 wrote: post #5

I may be the odd one but I dropped FF after the drama over brendin eich and his support of prop 8. I just did not feel the same after seeing how he was attacked for his personal contributions. There was just some hateful stuff that came from both sides that really uncovered some toxic personalities in the FF legion.

[deleted]

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#48

Post by alpaca128 » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:26 AM UTC

totony wrote: post #27

crmrc114 wrote: post #5

I may be the odd one but I dropped FF after the drama over brendin eich and his support of prop 8. I just did not feel the same after seeing how he was attacked for his personal contributions. There was just some hateful stuff that came from both sides that really uncovered some toxic personalities in the FF legion.

Yeah, that and the other political commentary + dropping most of their projects (rust, ffsend) really isn't helping. Really wish they'd focus on one mission (making the web free) and not address anything else.

Instead of reworking the UI they should have just added an ad blocker out of the box (preinstall uBlock Origin for example).

The main reason Brave is used and recommended is because a lot of people don't want to bother installing plugins. At least 90% of recommendations for that browser I've seen mention this as reason. Meanwhile most people either don't like the new Firefox UI or just don't care.

And I agree, FF Send was great. It was really convenient to transfer a big file in a pinch without having to setup some cloud sync app with registration etc.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#49

Post by elric » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:26 AM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #30

The recent changes to the address bar and the terrible new "Photon" UI are really annoying. Don't annoy your loyal users.

They've been chasing Google's tail for a while now. They keep making decisions that make little sense. Given the drop in user count I'd say those decisions aren't even paying off. Every time I update FF, I actively dread to see what they ruined this time.

Sadly, creating a new browser is impossible these days, unless you're sitting on a very considerably sized pile of cash. There's over a thousand W3C specs, and you'll need to implement most of them in order to have a functional browser.

It's maddening that the steward of the best browser codebase is doing such a shitty job. They fired a whole bunch of people last year, even though they seem to sitting on plenty of cash, they don't seem to give a crap about what their users actually want. But, sadly, there is no alternative, and there won't be.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#50

Post by roenxi » Sat, Jul 31, 2021, 6:26 AM UTC

crmrc114 wrote: post #5

I may be the odd one but I dropped FF after the drama over brendin eich and his support of prop 8. I just did not feel the same after seeing how he was attacked for his personal contributions. There was just some hateful stuff that came from both sides that really uncovered some toxic personalities in the FF legion.

The Mozilla corporation has to contend with a substantial portion of their community that thinks a $1,000 donation (an unrelated donation, no less) weighs similarly on the scales as something like 20 years in service vigorously supporting the open internet and a long history of technical success.

They're going to struggle to focus on their mission with friends like that.