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Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

bugzilla.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#61

Post by marakv2 »

syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

It's like a fucking litany. I love you ff, but....

Don't fuck me over but....

I swear to the gods if there was one decent browser that wasn't fucking FF...

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#62

Post by LinuxBender »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18
syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

> just stop shooting yourself in the foot It's just non-stop with Mozilla, isn't it? They have the curious pairing of technical excellence, and a long history of awful non-technical decision-making. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391659 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10680925 * https://news.ycombinator.co…

Firefox is my last holdout for a decent graphical browser. After that it will be lynx. I am not looking forward to the endless debates with vendors to get an API gateway that supports simple forms so I can use lynx. Maybe there is a reputable company that has already done this so I can use them as a reference standard. Amazon maybe? I bet Amazon has an API with a full parity web front-end into their store.

[Edit] Just edited this message with lynx.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#63

Post by leppr »

jonpurdy wrote: post #47
ziml77 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This justification is making me strongly reconsider my browser choice.

Numerous times in the past couple of years I’ve briefly tried Firefox, or considered trying it again. Stuff like this just keeps coming up completely souring it’s reputation. At least anecdotally speaking, they’re shooting themselves in the foot and I’ll put off touching FF for another few months until I forget about this.

Ok but then what do you use? Lynx?

Chrome/Chromium/Brave have 10 times the amount of dark patterns. It's sad but the complexity and cruft of browser APIs have created an effective browser duopoly. There are no alternatives for any kind of mainstream usage.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#64

Post by marakv2 »

corobo wrote: post #49
syoc wrote: post #10

> I hope this is either a bug, or misunderstanding: this apparent change does not respect the "Always check if Firefox is your default browser" setting. We absolutely continue to respect that check box. We won't always check at startup if Firefox is your default browser. When that box is left checked, you get a modal/prompt at every single startup. It literally always checks if Firefox is your default. In contrast, t…

They literally have the best (ok, subjectively) browser right now and they're just... What even are they doing? What is their goal with all these user-hostile changes? If it's to try juicing up active userbase just be a good browser and wait for chrome to make a change that annoys everyone (FLoC seems like a good candidate)

Better of shit options is leaving us all fucked.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#65

Post by HDMI_Cable »

LinuxBender wrote: post #62
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just stop shooting yourself in the foot It's just non-stop with Mozilla, isn't it? They have the curious pairing of technical excellence, and a long history of awful non-technical decision-making. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14754740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616740 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23391659 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10680925 * https://news.ycombinator.co…

Firefox is my last holdout for a decent graphical browser. After that it will be lynx. I am not looking forward to the endless debates with vendors to get an API gateway that supports simple forms so I can use lynx. Maybe there is a reputable company that has already done this so I can use them as a reference standard. Amazon maybe? I bet Amazon has an API with a full parity web front-end into their store. [Edit] Jus…

At some point someone [1] should just fork Firefox and work on it independently.

---

[1]: (not me, I'm horrible at maintaining projects, though I would help)

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#67

Post by ziml77 »

jonpurdy wrote: post #47
ziml77 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This justification is making me strongly reconsider my browser choice.

Numerous times in the past couple of years I’ve briefly tried Firefox, or considered trying it again. Stuff like this just keeps coming up completely souring it’s reputation. At least anecdotally speaking, they’re shooting themselves in the foot and I’ll put off touching FF for another few months until I forget about this.

They're absolutely shooting themselves in the foot. They need Firefox to stand out from Chrome. Instead they keep trying to turn it into Chrome. There's still some things they have that keep me from switching like some level of support for a tree styled tabs addon, container tabs, and not crippling the abilities of uBO filters. But I'm wondering how long it will be before those advantages go away. The tree style tabs are already suboptimal since the Quantum release. They share the same sidebar as anything else that wants to display in a sidebar and the addon can't toggle the display of the normal tabs.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#68

Post by MaxBarraclough »

HDMI_Cable wrote: post #65
LinuxBender wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is my last holdout for a decent graphical browser. After that it will be lynx. I am not looking forward to the endless debates with vendors to get an API gateway that supports simple forms so I can use lynx. Maybe there is a reputable company that has already done this so I can use them as a reference standard. Amazon maybe? I bet Amazon has an API with a full parity web front-end into their store. [Edit] Jus…

At some point someone [1] should just fork Firefox and work on it independently. --- [1]: (not me, I'm horrible at maintaining projects, though I would help)

GNU IceCat is pretty much that, not a fork exactly but a sanitized version of the latest Firefox. The project looks dead though. Last stable release was in 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#69

Post by aitchnyu »

Croftengea wrote: post #11
walrus01 wrote: post #5

Still nowhere near as bad as Windows popping up a system level notification on consumer configurations of Windows 10, with a big advertisement for Edge and trying to get people to change their browser to Edge.

It's even worse. When you launch Edge just to go to search and type 'download firefox' Edge tries to stop you by putting a nag banner right inside the search results.

I cant open a link from Teams or Outlook in Android if I don't download Edge. Even copying test returns a nagging/warning.

Re: Firefox to regularly nag users to change their default browser

#70

Post by LinuxBender »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #68
HDMI_Cable wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point someone [1] should just fork Firefox and work on it independently. --- [1]: (not me, I'm horrible at maintaining projects, though I would help)

GNU IceCat is pretty much that, not a fork exactly but a sanitized version of the latest Firefox. The project looks dead though. Last stable release was in 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat

Waterfox [1] is another one. Each of the forks has pros and cons. Most of the forks seem to have very few developers supporting them.

[1] - https://www.waterfox.net/

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