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What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

neilzone.co.uk

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Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#41

Post by roenxi »

mr_sturd wrote: post #36
roenxi wrote: post #18

I'm not sold that avoiding Chromium is any sort of win. It seems to be BSD licensed. The code comes from a long and storied OSS tradition. It is unclear why that having multiple different browser engines is strategically important. As far as I know we've long left behind the world where a hobbyist project could reasonably expect to implement modern JavaScript. Brave's existence and success suggests that competitors b…

The problem with Chromium is that it's controlled by Google. Given they control the engine in the majority of browsers, they get to call the shots on the direction of the web as a whole.

They're not in any position to control the web as a whole; Safari is too strong a competitor.

But even if Chromium was at 100% market share they couldn't control the web. If they start throwing their weight around then the other web companies will start organising around a Chromium fork. The important thing here is OSS/not-OSS rather than market share. Market share can change quickly enough in response to problems. It is like GCC - there was that spat back in the day, someone forks the code and there is a little war until people figure out which is better. Then the better version became "GCC".

It is fine to have one custodian as long as the actual power is retained by the users. Efficient, even.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#42

Post by Macha »

ed_mercer wrote: post #22

What’s wrong with Chromium?

Chromium based browsers are beholden to Google's whims the same way Firefox forks are to Mozilla's. I expect those Chromium browsers planning to continue support of effective APIs for adblock will soon find they don't have resources to maintain those patches as more of the underlying infra gets removed from upstream, for example.

My level of trust in Mozilla has fallen, but it still doesn't look likely to fall below my trust in Google in the short to medium term

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#44

Post by jonatron »

randunel wrote: post #39
jonatron wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built Firefox from source recently, it took under 15 mins to compile on a 7800X3D.

Do websites using akamai work with that browser? Try checking prices on Radisson hotels (their own website, not OTAs), for example. Do prices load, or is it only static resources which work? Same question for Marriott hotels, I can't see any of their rooms unless using an original build.

Both Radisson and Marriott work for me. I guess my IP address has a better reputation?

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#45

Post by husam212 »

roenxi wrote: post #18

I'm not sold that avoiding Chromium is any sort of win. It seems to be BSD licensed. The code comes from a long and storied OSS tradition. It is unclear why that having multiple different browser engines is strategically important. As far as I know we've long left behind the world where a hobbyist project could reasonably expect to implement modern JavaScript. Brave's existence and success suggests that competitors b…

There's a value in keeping using a non-WebKit browser.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#46

Post by vincvinc »

soulofmischief wrote: post #25
DrinkyBird wrote: post #15

I decided to just stay with Firefox and disable any rubbish that Mozilla adds as it comes. I tried Librewolf, but the unstable RPM repository was very annoying, because zypper disallows system updates if even one repository fails to refresh. I also had some weird issues keeping it pinned to my desktop environment's dock. It also didn't want to save its window geometry (very annoying for me), and the only way to trans…

That's my issue with all of these solo-maintained forks. It's a security nightmare, and browsers are a prime target for supply chain attacks or other forms of subterfuge. The security model just simply isn't acceptable.

So what's stopping anyone from forming a group or foundation based on donations from like-minded people? And maintain a secure, free fork? I see this topic often enough on HN, this might a big enough group.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#47

Post by poisonborz »

sgc wrote: post #35
poisonborz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to say Firefox (and forks) for Android is several levels inferior to chrome (forks). Just slower and consumes way more battery - and does not even have the customizability of alternatives.

FF has ublock origin, so already end of story there. But it also does a better job of allowing me to request desktop site and actually get it, and thus around some website bugs.

Chrome forks like Kiwi also have ublock, extensions or desktop view.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#49

Post by randunel »

jonatron wrote: post #44
randunel wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do websites using akamai work with that browser? Try checking prices on Radisson hotels (their own website, not OTAs), for example. Do prices load, or is it only static resources which work? Same question for Marriott hotels, I can't see any of their rooms unless using an original build.

Both Radisson and Marriott work for me. I guess my IP address has a better reputation?

Radisson doesn't load on Firefox for me, only on chrome. Marriott doesn't load on chromium.

I'm talking about the rooms pages, they show errors when loading prices. Static resources still load.

The situation is similar with other websites behind akamai, such as US ESTA, the static resources load but all API calls fail.

The IP address probably also matters, indeed.

Re: What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox

#50

Post by afarah1 »

huhtenberg wrote: post #2

** To clarify - looking for any Firefox alternative, not restricted to the Gecko engine Is Brave at all a viable alternative? Or do their own ads and all the crypto-shmypto make the switch moot? Tangentially - has anyone tried building Firefox from the source? [1] I wonder how feasible this would be as an alternative if coupled with disabling all unwanted parts of the browser. [1] https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.…

Gentoo offers firefox built from source with various privacy defaults such as disabling telemetry:

https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/www-client/fi...

It's regularly updated.

It also offers a binary package with privacy default configs such as disabling Normandy which "allows Mozilla to push changes for default settings or even install new add-ons remotely":

https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/tree/www-client/fi...

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