Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is Firefox Firefucked?

kevquirk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 100 posts

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#71

Post by triceratops »

cogman10 wrote: post #69
triceratops wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. And that makes it a bad browser for you? You're clearly capable of switching the default. What's your complaint? Do you pay for Firefox?

> And that makes it a bad browser for you? No, I'm just stating why using google as the default engine is user hostile. > What's your complaint? Mostly that it's a user hostile move. Is it bad enough to make me personally switch? No. Part of why I use firefox is because I don't like the idea of consolidation for browsers into one renderer. Organizations can make decisions I don't like and I'll still use their product…

Aight you're cool then.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#72

Post by bjord »

bjord wrote: post #68
kerkeslager wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on iOS.

I'm a kagi fan, but my family members who I've had try orion ran into quite a few issues. Might be worth trying one of these with regular safari: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id674534269... https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wipr-2/id1662217862 on android I use firefox with the regular ublock origin extension

and if you're a chrome user on desktop (I use ff), helium might be worth a try

https://helium.computer

full disclosure: one of the devs is a friend of mine

if for some reason you want to use webkit on desktop (linux), there's always gnome web, but in my experience it can't handle anything beyond very basic browsing (for example, a youtube video will cause it to crash)

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#73

Post by username223 »

kerkeslager wrote: post #8

I'm concerned, and I am glad people keep writing about this. But the final bit in this post is really where I'm at: I have no idea where to go from here. Currently on mobile I use Orion--it's the only mobile browser I've found where setting up AdBlocking is reasonably easy. Maybe I'll try it on Desktop. But this doesn't really address the issue of there being only one rendering engine out there because it uses WebKit…

> But the final bit in this post is really where I'm at: I have no idea where to go from here.

That's a good question. Mozilla has something like a half-billion dollars of assets, which is more than twice what the Linux Foundation reports. Does maintaining a web browser cost more than twice as much as maintaining an operating system? Hopefully not, but maybe it's time we find out.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#74

Post by rationalist »

prmoustache wrote: post #30
rationalist wrote: post #18

A problem is no one is testing their websites in Firefox, so often I encounter websites that don't work, but work perfectly fine in Vanadium.

often?

Yes, in fact just today trying to use Dollar General's website to "clip a coupon". I scanned the QR code, found the coupon, tapped on it. I got a blank box (white box on gray background IIRC) in Firefox Focus, but a login screen on Vanadium.

And yesterday, same with a local club's website. Didn't even work in Firefox for Android, but worked in Vanadium. I got the website's custom loading sprinner, so that loaded and worked, but whatever was supposed to change the screen when everything else loaded, did not work.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#75

Post by mmastrac »

rationalist wrote: post #18

A problem is no one is testing their websites in Firefox, so often I encounter websites that don't work, but work perfectly fine in Vanadium.

I use it daily on mobile and desktop and... this never happens (maybe once a year at most?)? The only thing that breaks pages is the adblocker and things work again when refreshing.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#76

Post by rationalist »

noman-land wrote: post #37
rationalist wrote: post #18

A problem is no one is testing their websites in Firefox, so often I encounter websites that don't work, but work perfectly fine in Vanadium.

This basically never happens.

What basically never happen? People testing in Firefox, or websites not working properly?

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#77

Post by rationalist »

mmastrac wrote: post #75
rationalist wrote: post #18

A problem is no one is testing their websites in Firefox, so often I encounter websites that don't work, but work perfectly fine in Vanadium.

I use it daily on mobile and desktop and... this never happens (maybe once a year at most?)? The only thing that breaks pages is the adblocker and things work again when refreshing.

No adblocker on Firefox Focus.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#78

Post by jonway »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #49
rationalist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, it's the powerusers that disable Firefox's telemetry so that they don't know how the power users use Firefox. (Guiltily raises hand. Although lately I've noticed a ping option, so I left that enabled.)

On the other hand, maybe it was a mistake for the industry to start leaning so hard on telemetry. While it can provide useful insights in some cases, telemetry is best positioned as secondary or even tertiary in the decision-making process, because it doesn’t tell anywhere close the whole story and requires a great deal of error-prone interpretation to act upon. To be frank, I find that use of analytics as the primar…

I just wanted to note that Firefox reached out to me as a user and requested a video call to discuss how I used one of their features.

I declined, but later they reintegrated their request with a servey, which I did accept.

These requests were presented through a dialog box attached to an extension (which many Firefox features are, internally, built-in extensions.)

I really want Firefox to succeed. Please enhance our security, privacy, ensure a performant browser AND I also like the project that Mozilla undertakes (rip send) hope to see more in the future.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#79

Post by dfabulich »

Mozilla's problem is unsolvable.

Firefox gets 90% of its funding from Google, putting Google effectively in control of Mozilla.

Ideally, Firefox would be financially supported by its users, like Wikipedia. But that requires ads nagging users to donate, preferably on a subscription plan.

Most of Firefox's users block ads, and they refuse to pay Mozilla a dime under any circumstances. Their users are freeloaders, providing no value to Firefox's other users or to Mozilla.

It would be nice if Mozilla could ignore the freeloaders and simply nag for donations anyway, but if the freeloaders leave and Mozilla tries to serve its donor users, they'll lose all of their Google funding and die.

Re: Is Firefox Firefucked?

#80

Post by rationalist »

triceratops wrote: post #51
h43z wrote: post #45

Firefox is really in a sad state. The politics, ideology is getting worse and the tech is still bad. Kind of crazy that they waste everyones battery and cpu https://b.43z.one/2025-02-12/ Am I the one who is crazy and nitpicking here?

Firefox works fine. It's my daily browser on a fairly old Macbook. No issues whatsoever, other than some websites that weren't tested on it.

People seem to think I'm crazy in my other comments when I said I often run into websites that don't test Firefox and thus do not work properly.
Post reply on HN