I use Firefox exclusively because of the sidebar tab extension and will probably use it until Firefox dies a slow death.
https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/welcome?channel=d...
First it’s “sign in” with obtuse ways to turn it off. Then block Adblocking, once again with obtuse ways to disable... the end goal is pretty obvious, get the majority of Chrome users to turn on ads and tie their real names to their Chrome browser.
Of course let “power users” (who’ll turn that crap off anyways) have their switches to do so. It gives Google plausible deniability.
——
To those who say just fork Chrome adfm had a good article explaining why that doesn’t work:
> And while you can use or adapt Chromium to your heart's content, your new browser won't work with most internet video unless you license a proprietary DRM component called Widevine from Google. The API that connects to Widevine was standardized in 2017 by the World Wide Web Consortium, whose members narrowly voted down a proposal to change the membership rules for the W3C to require members not to abuse the DMCA to prevent DRM from becoming a tool to undermine competition.
https://boingboing.net/2019/05/29/hoarding-software-freedom....
Step 4: Spend weeks getting used to new shortcuts, finding equivalent extensions/plugins and getting used to their dev tools.
I find it odd how there will be Google Hate, and unanimous Firefox support.
I guess I'm looking to hear from users who actually removed Google from their life and are happy. Chrome is only 1 of the Google products I've used.
There is still an open problem on Retina Macbooks with scaled resolution where the performance drops like 10x over non-scaled versions.
I'm not sure how hard it would be for the RN team to switch to another browser such as Firefox or the new Edge so I can uninstall Google Chrome from my computer.
I really wish Microsoft would open source the Edge/Titan engine. There can't possibly be any NSCA code in there they don't own the rights too anymore.
With the way Google tries to strongarm standards and at the same time defy them, it's the modern Internet Explorer and it's a PITA to develop for.
It's been amazing. With the ad-blocker she almost never texts me now with suspicious stuff. Also, it was super easy to teach her that if she ever gets into a situation that feels shady, just close the browser and open it up again. Starting from a clean slate every time in a well protected browser makes her feel a lot safer because she knows that if things get scary, she can just close the window and start over.
Having to log in every time hasn't turned out to be that much of an inconvenience either. See actually feels safer because of it. It makes perfect logical sense to her that the website ask her to login every time. "My bank asks me for my ID every time I go in to deposit a check, so of course it makes sense to ask for my password every time I open my browser and visit the website."
Anyway, my takeaway is that Firefox + uBlock Origin for parents is really a wonderful thing.
Will WebRender fix the CPU taxing problem, and will that be released for macOS in a subsequent release?
Sorry if the question is silly
Whatever it is, its not in Firefox.
"Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the remote resource at https://internal-xxxxxxx. (Reason: CORS header ‘Access-Control-Allow-Origin’ missing)."
Does anybody know what kind of knob I have to turn on/off in FF to make this disappear?
I ask because I keep reading about how Google is bad because of their business, but I haven't seen an actual pcap, or any reporting for that matter, on what Google actually sends back home.
If you have, or know of a place that has done that, I'd be interested to read about it.
Until then, Chrome, and Firefox are just more tools in my arsenal; and people trying to get me to ditch one, just because they dont like it, is just outright dumb.
For example, when I press Apple + Shift + C, I copy the URL and save it as markup. I want this functionality in Firefox -- it's not good if I can't keyboard shortcut.
Also... and this one is a bit more painful... we use Lighthouse for a lot of testing. Contractually, it's an easy thing to build in, "We'll meet scores of at least 85 on Lighthouse for accessibility..." and I can't run that out of Chrome. Any similar tool suggestions?
I found a lot, but I haven't found suitable replacements for:
* Lighthouse - Chrome Web Store || https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lighthouse/blipmdc...
* Create Link - Chrome Web Store || https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/create-link/gcmghd... (need to have keyboard shortcut and export link to MarkDown for easier pasting into GitHub issues).
Also... I'd love a good replacement for Xmarks. If Firefox wrote a plugin for Chrome that lets me keep my bookmarks from Firefox sync in sync with Chrome I would be happy. I have to have multiple browsers... and I miss how easy Xmarks made it to go between them.
Everything else is on Firefox now.
Is there something comparable for Firefox?
I use Safari for both my own browsing and for development (a fairly large ClojureScript application), and it is by far the best browser on the platform by all measures (speed first and foremost).
The only place where Safari falls short is 3D CAD programs (like OnShape), where Chrome is faster and better.
Anyway, when I have the same tabs and extensions in FF as in Chrome, the FF CPU usage is huge. I tried several things from the web, but nothing helped. Now I'm back on Chrome, which is less nice looking and less convenient, but the CPU usage is barely anything.
A) Want to use unsigned addons to play around, or tweak your existing ones[1]? Nope, even if you allow them in about:config, you can't; you have to use a special development version and update it separately.
B) Want to customize your keyboard shortcuts? Sorry, that's not safe, you have to use a crippled API that won't take effect until a given page loads.
C) Want to control your setup? Sorry, their "studies" feature is owned by the marketing team and can make arbitrary changes to the app on the fly, all the way up to its cryptographic infrastructure! (As we learned in the recent add-on mishap [2].)
I use Firefox, but they're not obviously better on these matters.
[1] Like, I don't know, if you made a big deal about underprivileged groups getting into coding, and actually wanted to take the concept seriously rather than just get some photogenic token to write hello-world for a photo op.
Initially I ran into problems because I took on too much at once, I tried enabling uMatrix at the same time as I switched over. Once I removed uMatrix I was doing much better, and I'm saving it for another month or two.
Several features of Firefox are real killer apps for me. Adding a taxonomy to my bookmarks has really helped as I've moved more heavily into org-mode. I've started adding a couple of tags to every bookmark I save, that really helps with organization and recall. Beyond tags, the container tabs feature has been pretty amazing. Being able to sign into multiple Office 365 accounts is great, plus the obvious use case of "keep those few times I use facebook in their own special sandbox".
I've donated a few bucks to Mozilla, and I recommend everyone do that. Google seems to rapidly be heading towards 1990s Microsoft territory, with the added "bonus" of discarding apps that they lose interest in.
One HUGE issue over Chrome is that many websites break for me due to broken JS that was only tested on Chrome, including internal sites for work. Ugh.
The visuals of FF including their website are beautiful. Wish they would put that same design team on Rust, which has a website made by a clown now.
I'm not saying forking Chrome would be easy, it's complicated software, I think it would require a lot of labor to keep it competitive over the long term, which is the real barrier.
But I'm not sure if the DRM is an insurmountable barrier, Firefox plays that same video somehow, it should be at least theoretically possible to get a forked Chrome to do it the same way?
To roll out the welcome mat for any new or returning users, I have some general suggestions.
Consider the following extensions: Containerise; Decentraleyes; HTTPS Everywhere; Livemarks; Privacy Badger; Redirect AMP to HTML; uBlock Origin.
For privacy settings: set custom privacy settings to block trackers 'in all windows', block cookies from all unvisited websites, block cryptominers and fingerprinters. Of course enable 'Do Not Track'. Then block all new permission requests for location, web cam etc. Lean towards whitelisting sites that you do want these settings, as stringent privacy settings like this can in rare instances, break sites. The only example I've ran into is during NCAA March Madness and the site used to watch the games, but you may find others.
Random bits: I'd also suggest enabling the dedicated search bar for quick DDG bang updates. I also give Mozilla some information so my preferences can be added to the collective as to not be removed at some point down the road. Yes to 'Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla', 'Allow Firefox to make personalized extension recommendations' and 'Allow Firefox to send backlogged crash reports on your behalf'. Can't say I suggest Firefox Studies though, that's one thing Mozilla rubbed me the wrong way with.
With all of that and your own further customization to make it yours, you should be a happy Firefox user. :)
It would be great if they developed a graph mapping Chrome extensions to Mozilla equivalents. Then the user could confirm installation of the ones with 1:1 parity, like LastPass, allow users to select similar extensions, or skip installing an equivalent.
There are some Chrome-Exclusive extensions that keep me hooked. That and Firefox’s Storage inspector is terrible, there isn’t a native way to clear localstorage during development.
The main difference I've noticed is how easy it is to get the same experience and in some cases a better experience on Firefox just but taking 15-30 minutes to set it up.
Chrome was my browser for almost all of the 2010s and now I'm happy to say I'm not stuck with it.
This is no surprise at all. Competitive pressure for "desktop" (non-crippled computers incl. Laptops) required providing suitable extension APIs, but the writing was on the wall for a long time.
Some powerful people inside Google consider it theft to browse the web while blocking ads.
For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone uses Chrome. But if anyone has information on Chrome that I do not, please let me know.
They too could well bend to corporate pressures to limit ad-blocking, they already have the tech that could be used to block widespread use of ad blockers?
It's IE6 all over again just in different ways.
Perhaps I'll try a chronium fork. Sure it's not as good of a move but maybe I'll have better luck with issues. I'll likely try Firefox again to see if things are better (I usually use Firefox for some things at work anyway).
Anyone thinking of switching to a browser that doesn't have any script-interpretation ability? (Text-only or html/css only?) What options are currently out there?
Also, what pain am I going to hit with DRM and online video? I use the usual suspects - Amazon, Netflix, Youtube.
I don’t know if its LastPass or a limitation of Firefox that’s causing it, but it’s enough of a headache for how often I use LastPass that it prevents me from switching browsers.
Is there an alternative to LastPass that has a better user experience on Firefox? If so I’ll try it.
EDIT: I'll test out Bitwarden.
https://github.com/jasonraimondi/alfred-workflow-launch-fire...
Even with Crostini, there doesn't seem to be a good way to get an official FF build onto the chromebook. Or am I missing something?
I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. I went to File > Import from another browser... and got a dialog that only allowed me to select "Cookies, Browsing History, or Bookmarks". No mention of autofills or passwords.
Am I missing something here?
* Tree Style Tab: makes tabs much more manageable, no parallel in Chrome. If you open dozens of tabs, after using this, you can only pity the traditional tab management [1].
* Containers and container tabs: it's a bit like having separate Chrome profiles for separate contexts, but you can also have them as tabs in the same window.
* Sync / sign-in server that is open source and that you can run on your own if you choose.
[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...
They did this for political reasons. Regardless of what kind of trash talk takes place on Dissenter, the point is that nobody is forced to use it.
My point: neither Google nor Mozilla should be trusted and both seek to be your totalitarian Internet overlord.
1. https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/36490/firefox-and-chrome-ban...
What killed chrome for me is the gradually failing linux support. Had a persistent bug on all my linux machines with chrome (and chromium) would only update the view if the mouse is moving. I actually put up with that for a few months before I switched to FF.
Anyway, I am not a hater on Google, I appreciate their open contribution to deep learning tools and I happily pay for GCP, Play books and movies, and I use gmail as a backup email.
But for me, Firefox is just such a better experience than Chrome.
It is also a good idea to have a diverse ecology for Internet infrastructure, tools, and platforms. More choices are better.
There isn't enough functional parity for me - although I'm certainly an outlier - so I've attempted the switch and went back to chrome.
One of the issues is that I spend a lot time writing in English and then a lot in Portuguese. Chrome can spell check both and ff needs me to tell which language I'm using.
I want search engines, home pages, and plug-ins way more than I need my bookmarks.
Second thing I did was try to open a private window using the universal macOS shortcut of Cmd+Shift+N. Nothing happened, because Firefox decided to use Cmd+Shift+P unlike all other browsers. No problem, this is a macOS app, I’ll just change the keyboard shortcut in system preferences and I’ll be good to go. Except after doing that, Firefox doesn’t actually respect the remapped shortcut (an issue which has existed for 11 years).
And the baked in color management is not correct for a macOS app, and the right click menus are not Mac-like and don’t respect dark mode.
I thought it was time to make the switch, but the reality is that Firefox is still an even poorer macOS app than Chrome. Fix that and I’ll switch tomorrow, as I really want to ditch Chrome!
FF performance is improved, but still lagging, especially on Mobile.
It seems pretty bad.
Here is this HN thread in both for comparison (On Win10)
https://i.imgur.com/ZDVoWXI.png
Notice how the Firefox sample seems bolder, but with uneven letter weight and generally a higher line height. It's not good for readability. Kerning is a bit iffy also.
1) I’m a heavy window/tab user. 300+ tabs across 10+ windows is normal. I have not been able to recreate the same tab bar overflow behavior as in chrome, default ff will keep tabs at fixed width and scroll horizontally, making it impossible to see how many tabs there are in the window. Changing css helps but there are still enough problems with small width tabs not showing favicons, always showing (and overlapping) close tab button etc.
2) performance when switching videos e.g. on yt to full screen and back is terrible. Latest MacBook, external uwqhd screen, took upwards of 3 seconds every single time from pressing f to having the video show. Might not sound like a lot but it adds up. If everything else is fast this will just feel extra slow
Yes. Good advice.
Ad-driven content should be a viable business model, but the way it's currently done is simply unacceptable, and Google shouldn't crack down on people's conscientious objections via ad-blockers without providing a viable alternative.
This cycle will only repeat itself, Google is an advertising company.
If you work for this company, please quit and ply your talents somewhere less motivated to exploit people.
I think the Manifest V3 change on ad-blocking is probably a big win for FF and will likely make many people switch over to FF permanently.
And Google is evil.
A big thank you to Mozilla. Keep up the great work!
My least favorite parts of firefox (switched last weekend) are:
Dark mode. Dark Reader from Chrome is dead slow on Firefox, and none of the 5 others I've tried from Reddit/HN recommendations come close to its usability on Chrome.
Extension / config syncing. I want the same settings and extensions on my mobile device as my desktop, but it seems like only some configuration settings are able to sync, and add-ons/extensions don't sync between mobile and desktop. I know it's on purpose, but I'd like the option to choose.
Overall once firefox did process isolation, chrome had no more reason to exist.
I use Chrome for years, but recently a new update(I dunno the exact version) lags my laptop so much that it can not even used normally, everything delay several seconds, I spend several days and finally found out its the Chrome did this to my computer.Note: I am using an old laptop, but its still solid.
So I have to reinstall Chrome, I have no choice. Then I give firefox a try, to my surprise, with just a few of clicks, all my bookmarks and cookies are all ported to firefox seamlessly, very comfortable feature I'd say.
So yeah, if you are using old PC like me, u may feel lags when using new Chrome browser, and I suggest u to switch to Firefox, I DOES work!
Firefox supports every extension I care about.
I'm a convert.
The sync between devices is very well done.
Can you please make the popped up bookmark dialog box much much bigger? Please!
When clicking the star icon at the end of the address bar, the bookmark dialog box pops up. But it is too small! It only shows very few folders and choices. In order to locate a desired bookmark folder, people have to click and scroll many times. The whole dialog box is $^%&*& too small! Please make it bigger to show much more folders! Like three times bigger! Chrome has the same problem. Firefox can do better!
Also, please make the last used bookmark folder as the default folder at the next time when the bookmark dislog box opens, because people often bookmark many related/similar pages consecutively in one short period of time. Thank you. I love Firefox.
The easiest solution is to install Windows in VirtualBox and do it there, with Firefox Sync on.
* No global zoom by default which also remembers per-page zoom changes. * Bookmarking is overly cluttered with with other other, toolbar, menu, etc. * Skype Web doesn't work on Firefox. * User profiles which are as easily accessible as in Chrome.
- Going full screen on Youtube takes longer than Chrome at least on OS X and there is a momentarily black screen.
- Moving the cursor to the top of a full screen video in Chrome brings down the OS X menu bar this is useful if you want to check the time/date/other menu bar activity, in FF nothing happens when moving the mouse to the top of the screen in full screen mode.
- When a page requests to send web notifications FF basically pretty much blocks the entire browser until you answer whether you want to allow the notification or not, this is very annoying if you visit many sites for the first time that ask for notification permission, which apparently a lot of them nowadays do, making it more apparent now that I switched to FF from Chrome.
There might be settings you can change to fix these, but even if that's the case not having them set as default makes me question whether I made the right choice making the switch.
This breaks a site I built called reVddit [2], and after discussing with Mozilla devs [3], I'm unable to come up with a solution that doesn't significantly alter user experience and maintenance costs.
I find it ironic because the intent of reVddit is to increase transparency, one of Firefox's key principles. I'd love to hear ideas if anyone has any insight into any of this.
[1] https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-protecti...
[3] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.privacy/XO84Ezrw...
I like Brave's concept of Shields, which block ad-trackers. I also think one of the more interesting concepts in Brave is the Rewards ad-revenue-sharing program. I haven't turned it on yet, so I don't know how well it works (if at all) but I find the idea interesting and outside the box when considering the major browser players.
The developer tools in Brave are exactly what you would expect.
Brave has worked well for me so far, so I'll continue with it for the time being.
Alternatives like ungoogled chromium exist, but aren't as powerful/stable as the real thing, so why not use Firefox. Call me overly optimistic, but augmenting the firefox/mozilla community with participating/privacy conscious users can only lead to good down the line.
However, in the past few years, Firefox has been improving left and right, with it's Rust components, containers in core, and it's new dialect in design. The recent improvements alone should convince someone to switch.
The reason why I stayed with Firefox is because Chrome is from, well, Google. It boggles my mind to see someone praising a browser that is from a an advertiser. They never put ads on the browser (I'm looking at you, Opera), but systematically did a lot to track it's users and make money out of it.
You can clearly see the difference in motivation when Firefox removing a whole API of add-ons vs Google removing one particular API feature.
I have seen successful crowd-funding projects where the budget is always transparent and communicated to the public. I am certain this motivates the masses to donate.
Wouldn't it be better for Mozilla to make their funding fully transparent, to attract the masses?
When I try it a little bit it seems fine, but after using Firefox for a week going to Chrome seemed like a relief in terms of performance. I'm missing some cool features from Firefox like containers, but performance is more important.
Let me tell you brothers and sisters, it was a blessing to see Firefox having the same speed as Chrome, and no bloating. Sure, for each tab opened it alos creates a firefox.exe in task manager, but so does Chrome. I can live with that. Now all I need is to move my entire productions from Windows to Linux and I'll be really free. But that's gonna be at least an order of magnitude harder then switching from one browser to another.
As long as we're saying how we really feel, we should +1 to move it up the ladder.
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