Live data from Hacker News

Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

data.firefox.com

571–580 of 618 posts

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#571
post #25
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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/brave-brendan-ei... I don't feel bad for this guy - He says and does things regularly that are hurtful to society with no signs of becoming a better person.

If you mean Fauci, then for once on HN, I agree! :-P

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#572

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.

I also doubt that it's a large segment of users but count me as one among the millions who dumped Firefox in 2020. I knew it was going downhill when they started purging words from the project. When your inclusion efforts start alienating moderate users it might be time to rethink them.

* Removing "meritocracy" from the governance docs - https://blog.mozilla.org/careers/words-matter-moving-beyond-...

* Changing "master password" to "primary password" - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/primary-password-replac...

* Removing "crazy" from the codebase - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1675987

* Removing words deemed as reference to mental illness - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1675986

The difference in the project from 15 years ago is stark.

The Mozilla mission 2005:

"Established in July, 2003, with start-up support from America Online's Netscape division, the Mozilla Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for the Mozilla open-source software project."

The Mozilla mission 2021:

"Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent."

Where they once were just supporting a software project they're now a political movement. They spout "equity", "justice", and "advocacy" all over mozilla.org. No thanks, I just want a decent software.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest - since the removal of XUL addons, all my add-ons have been working just fine. Let's stop repeating this ... thing - it's long lost its relevance and nowadays it's just a falsehood.

In what way is it a falsehood? There is an entire class of addons that are simply impossible to create under the new paradigm. These used to work, now that don't. Firefox broke them intentionally.

Do you have an example? I didn't have anything break long term, so didn't get affected (luckily)

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#574

Are you guys aware of Brave? It's the best browser I have ever used

I find Brave's business model unethical. Blocking ads... well, fine, everybody does that anyways. But monetizing on it by replacing website ads with your own, pocketing the revenue, and pretending that it's fine because you give everyone your custom made-up currency? Genius move by taking advantage of modern trends (ad-blocking, cryptocurrency, micropayments, ...), but it's not the "web revolution" they pretend it to…

We have never replaced website ads with "[our] own". Check your source for this claim. I'm happy to follow up on where you found this false information.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#575
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some in the world are capable of working without being emotionally incapacitated by the thought that those they work with don't agree with all that they believe in. Mozilla is there to build browsers. Politics should have been left at the door. Instead it wasn't and so Firefox happened and then Brave happened.

It's not "politics" when the leader of a company is fundamentally against your existence. It's only politics when it's "other people's problems I don't care about", it seems.

[deleted]

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firefox is a symbol for the free web for me. Can it really be when/while it is entirely dependent on Google for revenue?

Just for me, Firefox feels like that. It seems Mozilla tries to break free, yet has trouble. Wondering how to help them. If a non-tech friend asks me about a browser recommendation, I will always point them to Firefox. It's the browser that I trust most. Do you have an alternative? I trust Brave, Opera etc. way less. Not talking about Safari and Edge ... As I mention, I love to use nyxt and qutebrowser currently. Yet…

> Do you have an alternative?

Yes, building one ;)

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#577
post #78
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's say you work for Mozilla and you are gay, or your sibling is gay, or your best friend is gay, or hell: you just are willing to care about people who aren't that close to you and you know that some people somewhere are assuredly gay; and so now, you have to come in to the office every day to work under a guy who, sure, has made an invaluable contribution to the web... but also actively dislikes gay people and…

I'd work for someone who voted to raise my taxes. That is years of my life's work redirected to causes I don't agree with. Worse than someone being against me getting married. If I could swap marriage rights for lower taxes, I wouldn't be married. It is more symbolic these days than practical. I think the gays can cop it. > you are gay, or your sibling is gay, or your best friend is gay At least one of those is true.

[deleted]

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#578

I've been using Firefox daily for over 15 years now. My experience with Firefox over the last 2-3 years in particular leaves me very disappointed and frustrated. The constant nonsense UI redesigns that come about with every new update. The instability, and ridiculous resources consumption. The slowness and slugishness. I want a browser that works, respects my privacy, stays out of my way and lets me get shit done. A…

I was in the same boat until a year or so ago. The resource consumption kept getting worse and worse, I’d have to restart Firefox every day.

I really miss Firefox but the memory leaks were just a deal breaker.

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#579
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Firefox but I don’t donate anymore which is awful but I want to donate to Firefox not Mozilla. If anyone knows a way to only support Firefox and not Mozilla at large do let me know!

One way to help Firefox would be to spend some time on Firefox bug reports or patches.

But aren't Firefox bug reports known mainly for being ignored (or if not ignored then viciously denied)?

Re: Firefox lost 50M users since 2019

#580

I've been using Firefox daily for over 15 years now. My experience with Firefox over the last 2-3 years in particular leaves me very disappointed and frustrated. The constant nonsense UI redesigns that come about with every new update. The instability, and ridiculous resources consumption. The slowness and slugishness. I want a browser that works, respects my privacy, stays out of my way and lets me get shit done. A…

I've been a Firefox user for at least 15 years as well, and the recent UI updates in v89 is the first instance of me refusing to update Firefox. I updated my user prefs file to permanently disable updates, so I'm remaining on pre-ProtonUI v88. Of course, I don't know how much longer I could sustain that because I'd also not receive security patches, but in the short term it's what I'm doing. The new Firefox UI is inc…

Not updating a web browser is a fantastic way to make your computer very insecure. I understand the desire to keep things the same but personally I would value security above that.
Post reply on HN