In 2024, please switch to Firefox • Hacker News Board

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#741

Post by vinhill » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:38 PM UTC

cle wrote: post #93

sgt wrote: post #7

> Firefox is the only major browser not built by a company that makes money from advertising and/or selling your personal data This is true for Google, etc, but definitely not for Apple. Not saying Apple is perfect in every way, but they actually have a track record for privacy protection.

Apple definitely makes a lot of money from advertising...probably more than they make from selling Macs (based on 2022 results). Also I think this quote might be technically right, but Mozilla's revenue is almost entirely paid from advertising companies who pay royalties to have their search engines by default in Firefox. So they are very much coupled to the dynamics of the ads industry.

Just a small correction. Large parts of revenue are obtained though sharing ad revenue between Mozilla and a search engine, not for being the default search engine.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#742

Post by TheCleric » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:43 PM UTC

kouru225 wrote: post #644

tejohnso wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What internal ads? I see 0 ads while using brave because of its internal ad blocker . Crypto features are an easy toggle to disable. The toggle isn't hidden, doesn't re-enable itself, and isn't weird in any way.

They’re talking about the ability to turn on ads within brave and get BAT as a reward.

In addition to getting nagged on the regular (every update?) to turn on the ads.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#743

Post by soundnote » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:45 PM UTC

dave78 wrote: post #597

PUSH_AX wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do use it but I just wish crypto wasn’t baked in.

Agreed, though I recognize that they need income too to avoid Mozillas's problems, so I can tolerate some amount of them experimenting with revenue strategies. That said, I turned off the crypto stuff on day 1 and it has stayed off and I never even think about it anymore. Brave is great and I think more people should give it a shot.

One of the more interesting options they provide the user is the ability to pay for an ad-free Brave Search.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#744

Post by soundnote » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:46 PM UTC

ctoth wrote: post #287

Right now I use Chrome because I use several PWAs. Chrome lets me install them and even gives me options to auto-start them when my system starts. Firefox doesn't seem to have equivalent functionality. Researching it some, it seems Firefox used to support this but removed it as part of Mozilla's continuous own-goal of ... whatever the heck they're doing.

Why use Chrome when Brave is pretty much the same but with better privacy?

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#745

Post by mnming » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:51 PM UTC

Long time firefox user, absolutely love it. My only grudge is that on Android some tab will just randomly go black and blank. This problem has been there for at least 1 year, I think it has something to do with os memory collection but I can't prove anything.

And I still use chrome, because of the Chromecast.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#746

Post by jmm5 » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:52 PM UTC

torstenvl wrote: post #188

I use Firefox as my main browser. I love Firefox and I want it to succeed. However... a person who uses Firefox as their primary browser must generally still keep Chrome installed. A person who uses Chrome as their primary browser has no need to keep Firefox installed. Firefox should endeavor to fix that. First, Firefox should honor age-old tradition, swallow its pride, and spoof 99% of the Chrome user agent string.…

MS Office webmail works well for me in Firefox under Ubuntu.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#747

Post by boringuser2 » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:53 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #432

boringuser2 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get it, it's a nice story, but here's a nice little life-hack: What if you could take the benefits of the spending and jettison the side-effects? It's called Brave, they have their own ad blocker in the source code written in C, so it can't be hamstrung.

Crypto crap, no thanks.

This isn't an intelligent statement. I have used Brave for years and literally never see anything related to "crypto".

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#748

Post by ebiester » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:53 PM UTC

torstenvl wrote: post #740

ebiester wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're trying to treat a game theory problem as a philosophical consistency problem. We have a group of Christian Dominionists that would kill us if they could, and only those consequences stop them. (And sometimes, such as the Pulse shooting, not even then.) In my lifetime, we had these same people saying "thank God for AIDS" and fighting funding for research because they cheered our deaths. There is no moral equiva…

Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was not a "Christian Dominionist" and I'm pretty sure you knew that already. "These same people"—which in this thread means Brendan Eich—did not say "thank God for AIDS." And I'm pretty sure you knew that already too. Please stop.

Did you see "Then there's another group" there?

The difference in the groups are a function of what they think they can get away with. Do you dispute that Prop 8 was an effort to tear gay families apart?

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#749

Post by 38 » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 9:58 PM UTC

surajrmal wrote: post #701

38 wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads like someone hopelessly out of touch with actual users. Most users don't give a shit if their client is "honest", or if it's respects intellectual property. These are concerns of web admins and media companies. Users just want something to load websites.

I think it depends. When I use an ATM, I want to make sure it's the official bank ATM and won't steal my information. Also, spam is a tax that websites must pay and we as users are indirectly paying for this tax regardless of whether we intend to or not.

> When I use an ATM, I want to make sure it's the official bank ATM and won't steal my information.

sure, but in that situation, the "client" is you, and the "server" is the ATM. as the client, its not your job to worry or care if you are being "honest" with the "server". your concern is only getting the money. its the banks job to secure the ATM from bad actors, not yours.

Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox

#750

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Fri, Dec 29, 2023, 10:02 PM UTC

kshacker wrote: post #509

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to pay for Firefox. I do not want to contribute to the Mozilla CEO's outrageous US$7M compensation package. How do I do that?

How much does the Mozilla CEO deserve? I know the tech salaries and I believe a comparable role (senior director or VP) in a Faang would at least be 7 figures, can we try to ballpark by how much we are over (or under) paying the CEO?

I have no desire to get into a general discussion over US/tech officer compensation.

However, as I understand it, most of Mozilla's income comes from the Google search deal, not from any product that they make. Whatever argument someone might have for the compensation of the CEO of a corporation that generates revenue by selling a product rather than access to an ever-shrinking set of users, I don't think it applies here.