The only reason I don’t is because, when I’m on my MacBook, I’m worried about sacrificing battery life by not using safari
In 2024, please switch to Firefox
81–90 of 850 posts
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#82I use PWAs extensively and Firefox decided they won't bother to implement them, so that's going to be a no from me. Rather than wanting the web platform to be first class, they really want it to languish as a second-class citizen. Really sad, seeing as they also fired devs, and invested in "AI" instead.
What's the real use case of PWAs?
They just seem like another way to attempt to shift users from the 'proper web' into a place where blocking ads is more difficult.
Personally, I wish we could purge the vast majority of 'apps' from the world, they shouldn't be apps in the first place, most have no need to run native code, they should be links to websites, sites that can work on more-or-less any device in any browser.
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#83I’ll switch to Firefox when they fire their overpaid CEO who keeps getting hefty pay raises despite Firefox losing market share and whose big idea for revenue is “AI services”.
You have no issues with Google? Every exec is paid just right, every endeavour is pure and good?
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#84The microsecond manifest v3 is forced upon me, I will switch. And I'll be bringing my entire family tree and friends along with me! What does everyone think about LibreWolf vs mainline FF? It reminds me of Waterfox: https://librewolf.net
Happy to chime in regarding LibreWolf and Waterfox, as it comes up alot in our support forums[1]:
This question comes up every now and then, I'll base my currently updated reply starting with my previous response[2]:
> Now, ignoring feature differences between all the forks out there, I'd like to present a different perspective and consideration that I think gets overlooked when comparing forks like Waterfox to other forks (if I am incorrect regarding Librewolf, someone please correct me).
> Waterfox provides signed binaries for download. Librewolf (and most of the rest) do not. Checksum's are all well and good, but IMO, not enough. Code signing provides trust.
> Librewolf does not provide auto-updates. There are 3rd party tools out there, but IMHO that brings in its own set of problems, and breaks the chain-of-trust.
> The most important one that I believe, maybe apart from Pale Moon, only Waterfox does, is offers _accountability_. There is (and has been since 2012) a legal entity behind Waterfox. That used to be Waterfox Limited, then it was System1 and now BrowserWorks (the entity I control). Laws must be abided and the end user actually has an entity to hold accountable. GDPR, CCPA, the rest are things that _actually_ need to be followed. The other projects, who are you _really_ going to hold accountable if things go wrong? To me this is super important because a browser is used for sensitive information. It's just not worth the risk otherwise. This also goes hand in hand with the code signing.
> Above all else, Waterfox has been around for 12 years
> Don't get me wrong, things like EV code signing certs are a bit of a racket, and yeah you can jump in and code audit all those other forks too. But really, push comes to shove, they can just disappear into the aether.
Separately, I'd say the end goals of each browser are different. Librewolf seems to aim for privacy on a rolling release. Tor and Mull will both target ESR (extended support releases, which is where Mozilla aim for my enterprise friendly releases of features being set and instead security/bug patches applied only). All of them will sacrifice compatibility for privacy/security. From my above comment, I'd go with Tor if you're willing to sacrifice speed, Mull if you want better speed but broken websites. After all a web browser probably accesses the most _sensitive_ data it can, I'd put my faith in a piece of a software run by a legal entity so you can have some legal recourse on matters.
Waterfox's goal in terms of privacy is a usable web that still leans heavily to privacy but doesn't want to sacrifice the web experience for that to work.
Waterfox has done a lot to reach that, from careful curation of preferences to supplemental infrastructure such as DNS over Oblivious HTTP (DoOH). These aren't just features that "might" help; there's real benefit to it. For example, users have reported being able to access censored websites when using Waterfox. In my opinion, I've reached Waterfox's goal perfectly here: privacy and web compatibility.
Then, there's all the other "sugar" on top:
- Customization
- Reverting features removed by Mozilla but are genuinely useful/should've remained in Firefox.
- Adding features when Mozilla is slow to do so (better JPEG-XL support for one).
- The only fork that AFAIK that supports DRM content, for watching Netflix, Prime Video etc. Considering how difficult this was to achieve I doubt any will get support any time soon either.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/18g8tez/comment/k...
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/14seevh/comment/j...
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#85I switched back to firefox last year and haven't looked back. I still use chrome on another laptop sometimes, the performance difference from my human perspective is literally zero. These days, it's much more common for me to encounter a website that works in firefox but not chrome than the other way around. I actually switched for good when I had to use firefox to file my taxes, because the IRS free self-file site w…
Firefox out of the box indeed does not cause broken websites. However, the demographic of this forum probably will use Firefox with "Multi-Account Containers", "Temporary Containers", "uBlock Origin", and a few more. These are amazing for privacy and productivity, but will occasionally cause broken websites.
Source: I am a Firefox-first user who occasionally uses plugin-less Chrome because the aforementioned plugins (and "ClearURLs", "Consent-o-matic", and a few others) occasionally break websites.
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#86I'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.
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#87I use PWAs extensively and Firefox decided they won't bother to implement them, so that's going to be a no from me. Rather than wanting the web platform to be first class, they really want it to languish as a second-class citizen. Really sad, seeing as they also fired devs, and invested in "AI" instead.
I personally hate PWAs even the ones I use on mobile (with firefox). Not being able to open a link in a second tab for example. I much rather just open the web app in a normal browser. PWAs just seem to reduce functionality over a normal web page.
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#88We all switched to Firefox back in the day because it was better. Better than IE, there was no chrome and safari was a joke. Entreaties and ‘trying to make Fetch (firefox) happen’ won’t work, evidently. How do we make Firefox obviously better ? I’m core market for Firefox and just use Safari. Better battery life. And it’s just as good for privacy. At least that’s my impression. Is it wrong? If I don’t use it there’s…
> Defaults are powerful.
This is true, though the current dominance of Chrome is evidence that a lot of people will switch. Chrome isn't the default browser on any desktop, after all, and yet a majority of non-technical users have deliberately switched to it...
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#89>1. Privacy Firefox is the only major browser not built by a company that makes money from advertising and/or selling your personal data. Mozilla tracks and gives (sells?) unique information about every download to Google unless you choose to grab it from the FTP servers. https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-...
> (sells?)
An accusation like this would benefit from some evidence.
By not offering any evidence, you get all the benefits of sowing doubt without having put in any of the work necessary to have an actual discussion about it.
Re: In 2024, please switch to Firefox
#90There is no support for touch screen navigation gestures in Firefox on Windows and that is the #1 reason why I cannot switch. I use the touchscreen on laptop while browsing every day.
Touch screens on windows isn't something new. They became common around the time of the release of Windows 8 in 2012.
There is a 6 year old feature request on bugzilla. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1443710