In 2024, please switch to Firefox • Hacker News Board

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#441

Post by fabrice_d » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

nvm0n2 wrote: post #349

Zeratoss wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How has firefox discriminated against you as a white male?

A lot of the money they make from Firefox usage gets spent not on Firefox or the web but on social justice activism, which is invariably exclusionary of ordinary European and American men. For example, they have an entire sub-fund devoted to nothing but ideological activism in Africa: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/what-we-fund/awards/Africa... A typical project is something like funding a mobile app (note: not a…

Your "primarily on social justice activism" affirmation is obviously not true. Most of Mozilla spending is going to staff salaries, including of course paid Firefox developers.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#442

Post by mvdtnz » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:53 PM UTC

culi wrote: post #176

closewith wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, there's plenty of examples of sites breaking on Firefox. For example, the recent degraded performance on Youtube linked to Firefox User Agent strings.

Yeah but that's not on Mozilla in any way. That's just Google's anti-competitive practices. Firefox refuses to jump on Google's attempts to ban adblockers with Manifest V3 so Google wants to punish them

I feel like it doesn't matter how many examples of Firefox not working properly you are faced with, you will simply respond "well that's not Mozilla's fault, that on the website developer" for each and every one. At the end of the day it's the Firefox user who is faced with the problem.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#443

Post by utybo » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:53 PM UTC

TheCleric wrote: post #86

utybo wrote: post #34

I'll switch to Firefox when they get proper vertical tabs like Edge's. I know Microsoft Edge has a really bad reputation, but damn it I can't live without its vertical tabs, and I can disable most of the idiotic AI crap. I know there are plugins, but they all feel quite hacky and are simply not as good.

I finally got sick of a lot of the crap that was getting added to edge (like the stupid button on the right that opens the right toolbar), plus I didn’t like MS stealing my data. Not a day goes by that I don’t strongly miss vertical tabs though.

> I finally got sick of a lot of the crap that was getting added to edge (like the stupid button on the right that opens the right toolbar)

FYI you can disable it, along with most of the additional button things.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#444

Post by dmix » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:53 PM UTC

I use FF as daily but haven't been able to use any site with Cloudflare gating. I get agressive very slow loading captchas. But these same sites work fine in Chrome. I haven't figured out why but it's super annoying.

I despise CF with a passion.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#445

Post by unethical_ban » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

wharvle wrote: post #106

nsagent wrote: post #79

As someone in the Apple ecosystem, Firefox is not a very compelling alternative. I've certainly tried: Firefox Focus was my main iOS browser for a few years (I know it's Webkit-based) and I've tried switching on desktop as well. On desktop, various Firefox updates would change my settings subtly and nag me about features I had no interest in. On top of that, it was simply a slower browser, both with DOM manipulation…

> On desktop, various Firefox updates would change my settings subtly and nag me about features I had no interest in If Firefox suited my needs 100% as well as Safari, this is why I’d still not use it. God damn is it noisy. You’re a browser, I have no interest in engaging with you more than necessary, whatever-I-was-trying-to-do is what I care about. Please stop acting like a kid who’s not getting enough attention. I…

Once every three months, one gets an upgrade tab showing release notes. Upon occasion (and I mean, occasion, not regularly) they may try a new feature like Sync, save for later, etc.

Once I get the browser installed and running, what you describe matches 0% of my experience with it.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#446

Post by mrweasel » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

markx2 wrote: post #98

ausbah wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you have any other recs for firefox extensions?

Archive Page Bypass Paywalls Clean CSS Exfil Protection Decentraleyes DDG Privacy Essentials Ghostery NoScript Privacy Badger Privacy-Oriented Origin Policy Stylus Tampermonkey uBlock Origin uMatrix Yes, there is overkill in there but that's fine. It does not impact my browsing experience.

Doesn't many of those extensions due the exact same thing? Like why have Ghostery, DDG Privacy Essentials, Privacy Badger and to some extend uBlock Origin and Decentraleyes (maybe uMatrix as well), either one would do.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#447

Post by latexr » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

subjectsigma wrote: post #195

arrowleaf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I actually switched from Firefox to Safari this month. I didn't know Safari had tab groups, the feature I missed from Chrome when using Firefox. No speed differences and Safari has less of a battery impact so far. Hard to complain about a browser that still cares about privacy, but with tighter OS integration.

What Adblock do you use with Safari? I would also like to try switching from Firefox to Safari but I haven’t found anything that can compete with uBO

I’m not the person you asked, but I’ve been happy with 1Blocker. As a bonus it can also block ads and trackers outside the browser (that part only works on iOS).

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#448

Post by HankB99 » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

culi wrote: post #256

behnamoh wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matters for the end user is the experience. If using FF will lead to a poor experience on certain websites, then why recommend it? Do people honestly believe that if they keep recommending FF, people will magically switch to FF and Google will be forced to stop its anti-competitive practices?

> What matters for the end user is the experience. If using FF will lead to a poor experience on certain websites, then why recommend it? Because holding that against Firefox is exactly what Google is counting on. And the more you recommend it the harder it is for Google to continue its anti-competitive practices. The more you fall a fool for Google's (or Microsoft a decade ago) practices, the worse the experience fo…

Speaking of adblock experience with Firefox (and uBlock origin), Google has managed to slip ads into my Youtube experience. So far I can skip them after watching the first 5 seconds so it's not too bad.

Before that they had a popup that would timeout after 15s (?). At that point I tried disabling uBlock on Youtube but found the ads stacked up to much longer, so the 15s delay was more acceptable.

As expected, this will probably continue to be a cat and mouse game.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#449

Post by mark-r » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

Until my Windows became unusable, I was using Chrome about 90% of the time and Firefox about 10%. Since then I've been trying to get along with Ubuntu Linux only, and it came with Firefox. Haven't even installed Chrome yet, and I don't think I will.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#450

Post by onionisafruit » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

nvm0n2 wrote: post #371

gavindean90 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is saying platforms need better tools than simply banning. I don’t see a problem with this aside from a headline that is a bit provocative.

She is saying that the "open web" Mozilla envisions is one where Mitchell Baker and her friends get to censor and manipulate content directly in the browser. Obviously, people of the same ideology as her will agree with that, because they hate openness and debate. This is an excellent reason to stay away from Firefox. Using it is getting very close to being a political statement, which given the blog post, could mark…

The only point in this piece that sounds like that is “Turn on by default the tools to amplify factual voices over disinformation”. It’s fair to disagree with her on that point but also consider that in conjunction with her call to make feed algorithms transparent. So she is saying to give preference to NYT over Breitbart by default but also make it obvious that is what you are doing.