siriusmart
average650
WoedenazAnd it was really great and innovative for its time. Presto was pressing the envelope for so long while other browser engines were happy to do the bare minimum.
It’s really a shame they just moved to making their own Chromium skin but making and maintaining a Browser engine is expensive. It really is quite impressive that Firefox has lasted this long.
I think part of the problem was websites needing to work on other browsers too. When it's your own engine if a website doesn't test against it, the website might be broken. So then the websites say they don't support such and such browser.
Less of an issue when its all chromium.
We run into problems on safari a lot like this
That wasn’t really part of the problem. The most used browser engines are often some of the most irritating and frustrating to deal with, just look at Internet Explorer for most of its existence. Safari is an obnoxiously widely used browser because Apple enforces its use on iPhone no matter the browser you use and it has a bizarre update schedule tied to OS version. This causes many iPhones to have ancient versions go Safari.
The problem here is not that there are or were too many browser engines, if is big companies making their browser engines in anticompetitive ways.
We’re “lucky” that Blink, the engine that runs all Chromium-based browsers is currently keeping up with browser standards. For now. Who knows if Google will keep it that way or decide to change course and move away from FOSS standards.
It is dangerous to put so much stock and power into a single huge corporation like this. A large variety of innovative and competing browser engines is far healthier than one dominant engine.
CookieJarObserver
BalsshLet's be clear: it's a very good browser, very HTML5 compliant, and perhaps one of the best browsers...
...Assuming you don't care about insane amounts of spyware - AND not having a lot of really cool browser add-ons (those having spyware and memory leaks is a separate topic, but I want to acknowledge these problems).
Edge makes more calls home per second than any other piece of software on my computer. I looked at my live log and it was a literal stream. Nearly every single action you do is tracked and sent.... (waves hands confusingly up in the air in circles) ...somewhere. Likely Microsoft, but I really don't know.
Almost all of Windows is like this too. I hate it so much. There's just no great way to have nice things right now.
Ghostalmedia
Catweazle
§ɦṛɛɗɗịɛ ßịⱺ𝔩ⱺɠịᵴŧ“Wait, it’s all Chrome?”
“Always has been 🌏👨🚀🔫👨🚀🌌”
I am not even sure Linux is thsat good.
I've been using linux mint for a year or two now maybe. It's fine, and actually there are several things I prefer compared to Windows.
One of the main issues with Linux as a PC OS is that you can't run as much different software as you can on Windows. This is largely due to the user base being smaller(IE, why develop an application for an OS when 99% of you userbase is not using that OS).
Creating a new OS to compete with Windows would have the same issue, and would also struggle to compete.
Also, there are so many different versions of Linux(distros), as in there are 600+ different distros so if you don't like one, there are many to choose from. Not liking Linux based on one distro is saying you don't like ice cream because you tried strawberry ice cream and didn't like the taste.
LollerCorleoneThis is why I use Firefox. I honestly don't think that a browser engine monopoly is good for the world. Single point of failure for everyone with no alternatives is very bad if something nasty happens.
I think the creators of WINE said something similar about one of their reasons for creating WINE. Wish more browsers would use Gecko.
_I_I actually use Edge as a daily, but I also use Firefox because I want to support them. Unfortunately, Edge and Chrome are superior to Firefox in performance. Edge especially is really really great at resource management, and it doesn't matter if I have 1 or 700 tabs and windows open. It'll manage it without any issues. Firefox however, won't. Sure, it's rich in features and it's very very flexible, but it's not as stable or fast as the former.
Still love Firefox, though!
TONKAHANAHI just wish chrome wasnt so fucking useful by comparison. its integration into my android phone is equal to none. the firefox browser on android is ok but it does not integrate quite as well as the whole google platform. then there's the performance on linux. I hate to say it but chrome feels so much smoother and nicer to use on linux than even firefox does. I've tried making the full switch to firefox several times, last time I daily drove it for probably almost 3 months but eventually found my way back to chrome, it was just a more enjoyable experience.
then there is the fact that every website builds their code to ensure it works with chrome, that is one advantage of chrome being the vast majority of the browser user pool, web devs can focus on making sure the one thing works really well.
that all said, just like wine and linux, it is important that we have a completely separate alternative so we're not entirely reliant should the ship start to sink. I've already fully converted to linux and its been my daily driver for a few years now, not looking back. I know plenty of people are still on windows but with ever new release it feels like they're doing more and more to punch holes in the SS.Windows ship and i'll eventually be a sinking boat for enough people who see that an alternative exists. Same will need to be said for chrome vs firefox
BuxtonWater
illogical_virtues
LazaroFilm
qisopeLinux setup (PopOS) - Home and daily driver.
Firefox (hardened): My go to everyday browser
Firefox Beta: For financial sites that don't like hardened Firefox.
Firefox Nightly: For other sites that don't like hardened Firefox.
Brave: for use with just one site for reading with Dark Reader extension.
Firefox Developer's Edition (hardened): Another option, as needed.
Windows setup - Home. Really only use for disc media ripping and burning.
Windows setup - Work
Taasz/WoofHardened = Firefox hardening. Hardening is an option that I choose to implement to improve some aspects of privacy and security of beyond the out of the box Firefox factory settings. I use the settings as recommended in the book, Extreme Privacy - 4th Edition (2002) by Michael Bazzell.
I use the Firefox beta version only for one specific financial account (Chase) that will not work with hardened Firefox. I use the the Firefox beta version with no changes to the default out of the box settings. Using the Firefox beta version allows me to log in to my Chase account while still connected to my VPN.
Unpopular opinion, brace yourselves.
As a web developer, I would love to root for Firefox but they've made some really odd decisions regarding the implementation of web standards (which are published on the Mozilla MDN site, oddly enough), async/defer script loading order for example. Firefox is also often multiple years late with implementing new tech, being surpassed by Chromium and even Safari most of the time.
While I love the non-profit style of Mozilla and think competition in the browser space is a good thing. The reality is just that their browser lags behind the other two. Firefox is a large part of the reason polyfills are still used in this world of evergreen browsers, and requires multi-browser testing/tweaking even though I exclusively follow the standards written on the MDN website...
tartarsauceexactly, and that’s what matters more than anything else. modern websites are insanely bloated anyway; i care more about blocking the 50MB of ads, trackers, third-party cookies and other garbage every site shoves down your throat, than shiny new stuff that arguably is often part of that overengineered bloat.
look at this. it’s fucking beautiful.
I see it the other way around. I have a feeling that FireFox follows the specs while Chromium kind of has its own plan and directly introduce new behavior without much care for standards.
Since Chromium based browsers have the majority of the market share, you have the feeling that FireFox is awkward/lag behind. Now look back at Opera when they still have their own engine and you will see that while they try to introduce new behaviors just like Chromium, their limited market share means that people don't feel the need to make use of these "innovations".
joneskindYou want an even more unpopular opinion? I use WebKit based browsers for web developing because of the clarity of the devtools, performance and Interop.
You can go take a look at the web inspector documentation on WebKit.org to check the features.
So one and only thing I miss from Chrome is Lighthouse.
One big life-changing thing will be something like Manifest V3, limiting ad-blockers capabilities. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/chrome-users-beware-manifest-v3-deceitful-and-threatening
Rules for thee and not for me kind of stance when it comes to who is collecting all the sweet data from its users.
I mean what could possibly go wrong if the biggest data collector and ad provider has a monopoly on web browser?
And people still support and use Google search so the monster just continues growing.
I guess we get what we deserve as a species.