KirstenJul 24, 2023
e(Ag)le

I posted about switching to Firefox as my "daily driver" browser as a little tiny step away from Chromium browser hegemony, and I had a ton of people in the replies suggesting I should just use Brave or Edge or Opera or Vivaldi instead.

I'm a little concerned that people don't realize just how pervasive this problem is. Every single one of those sits on top of the Chromium codebase.

Jul 23, 2023 at 7:37pmWeb
Show threadShawJul 23, 2023
@silvereagle Love Firefox, but hard to sway me from Edge since my place of work has websites that only run with IE mode enabled. :\
Show threadShawJul 23, 2023
@silvereagle Worth note that I’m also in the military, so snort haughtily at those products that advertise “military grade”.
Show threadZorroJul 24, 2023
@terrance_shaw @silvereagle "snaughtily"? 😉
Show threadLuna LacteaJul 24, 2023
@terrance_shaw @silvereagle Now all I can think of when I hear "military grade" is those videos of people testing "military grade" products & they break instantly during normal use.
Show threadShawJul 24, 2023

@jackemled That’s pretty standard.

Run-of-the-mill garbage marked up for military budgets.

Show threadAfriel  🏳️‍⚧️Jul 28, 2023
@jackemled @terrance_shaw @silvereagle the thing I learned from my coworker in the military is that Military Grade really means "made by the lowest bidder." It sounds rugged. But it ain't
Show threadColinJul 23, 2023
@terrance_shaw @silvereagle I'm surprised you even still can. Our work also had that going on, but with MS' relentless push to kill IE mode the past few years it finally got to a point where it was completely unusable.
Show threadShawJul 23, 2023

@colinstu I’m also surprised. We’re generally not that great at software.

Yet IE mode endures.

Show threadShawJul 23, 2023
@colinstu Microsoft said they’re gonna keep it around until 2029, so I don’t expect the military to budge until 2031.
Show threadColinJul 23, 2023
@terrance_shaw yeahhhhhh I'm sure the US Military can pull a string or two to make it keep working.
And even if they "keep it" we were running into where updates would nuke out IE Mode settings, weh.
Show threadShawJul 23, 2023

@colinstu Good lord.

Given modern software options, I feel like the only reasonable excuse for not updating at this point is laziness.

Show threadBaral'heia Stormdancer ΘΔ🐲Jul 28, 2023
@colinstu @terrance_shaw @silvereagle Microsoft actually positioned IE mode in Edge as the path forward for legacy webapps that only support Internet Explorer tho
Show threadShawJul 28, 2023
@baralheia At a certain point, you gotta adapt or die.
Show threadBaral'heia Stormdancer ΘΔ🐲Jul 29, 2023
@terrance_shaw I don't disagree. IE needs to fully die to force companies to upgrade legacy systems (as much as is possible anyway).
Show threadChris [list of emoji]Jul 29, 2023

@terrance_shaw @silvereagle

My strategy has always been to use Firefox for most things and keep a copy of Chrome[1] handy for the few things that need it.

[1] I use Linux or macOS almost exclusively, so Edge isn't an option for me. Thankfully.

Show thread⛧⛧⛧J.d.B.⛧⛧⛧Jul 23, 2023
@silvereagle even people who are working in tech do that. Like wtf…
Show threadWaspJul 23, 2023
@silvereagle There is a fork of Firefox apparently that's centered around privacy, called LibreWolf, but it is still kinda weird that that's the only exception I can think of besides Firefox itself to browsers using Chromium (ETA: I meant better-known browsers, obviously not every single browser is based on Chromium but most well-known ones are IME)
Show threadWaspJul 23, 2023
@silvereagle Plus, Google literally tries to break adblocking extensions every now and then, which affects any browser built on Chromium AFAIK
Show threadPiko Starsider Jul 23, 2023

@silvereagle

>looking for a new browser
>ask the replying person if their browser is independent or chrome
>she doesnt understand
>pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is independent and what is chrome
>she laughs and says "it's a good browser sir"
>install browser
>it's chrome

Show threaddani little ponie ​Jul 24, 2023
@starsider @silvereagle
Show threadSollace Jul 31, 2023
@starsider @silvereagle Imma dig out a classic for this one
Show threadAlioth Fox (but you can call me Daddy~)Jul 23, 2023
@silvereagle And I'm also pretty sure Brave is run by a bigot cryptobro
Show threadZunekixJul 23, 2023
@silvereagle
Would this help? https://privacytests.org
Show threadpmroman 🇪🇺Jul 23, 2023
@wolffoxkatana @silvereagle Firefox works fine for me on phone and pc.
Show threadrailmeatJul 23, 2023

@wolffoxkatana @silvereagle
Chrome does that better than any other browser, but does nothing to protect you from Google. It works that way across all of Google’s products.

You have to decide what threats you are protecting yourself from.

Show thread🅱🅻🆄🅴🅱️Jul 23, 2023

@silvereagle I switched to Firefox.

Do it! Let's fight the good fight.

Show threadJP   Jul 26, 2023
@BlueBee @silvereagle as much as I LOVE #vivaldibrowser, I’m 50% #firefox, 30% #mullvadbrowser , 15% #vivaldi and 5% #tor
Show threadToon Van de Putte 🍉Jul 23, 2023
@silvereagle unsure about the licensing intricacies here, but what if people started switching to vivaldi, brave and opera in droves and made Chrome the minority browser? Wouldn't that create an incentive to fork Chromium away from Google's dominance, like Safari did?
Show threadSibachianJul 24, 2023

@toon @silvereagle chrome is a fork of safari (well, technically webkit), not the other way around.

either way, firefox is faster than chrome and uses less resources ever since they switched to quantum. the only reason anyone would stick with blink (chrome) browsers now would be because a small group of idiot web devs block non-chrome browsers for no reason (which can be avoided by changing user agent anyway).

Show threadthe Hearth Jul 23, 2023
@silvereagle When did Opera stop being its own thing?
-F
Show thread gravitos Jul 23, 2023
@silvereagle opera was fine... in 2012. i wonder if anyone has modded opera 12 to support modern SSL
Show threadJulio J. 🀲Jul 23, 2023
@silvereagle
Show threadJ. "Henry" WaughJul 24, 2023
Thanks @j3j5, I was looking for the meme in this thread
Show threadFluxJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle even Firefox is basically forced to go with whatever Google choses. Mozilla are basically a subsidiary of Google thanks to how their funded
Show threadLegion495Jul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle Me using Librewolf.
I am special. I am the minority of the minority xD
Show threadRagnell the Mildly UnpleasantJul 24, 2023
@Legion495 LIBREWOLF PACK
Show threadLegion495Jul 24, 2023
@ragnell
Show threadPhantom Kitty (Tech)Jul 25, 2023

@Legion495 @j3j5 @silvereagle I keep giving Librewolf a try, and running into things like I can't log into my Amazon account using it that keep pushing me away.

I use Firefox specifically with the NoScript plug-in so that limits what I can do with it (intentional since NoScript makes some sites usable that otherwise are not due to javascript spam on them).

It is very frustrating that choice seams to be use Chromium or disable NoScript so I can use Firefox instead.

Show threadLegion495Jul 25, 2023
@phantomkitty @j3j5 @silvereagle I use default with a few addons. And enabled some cookie exceptions but Amazon works for me (EU).
The only major thing I encounter sometimes is that the canvas Blocker breaks something and then I enable it.
Show threadPhantom Kitty (Tech)Jul 26, 2023
@Legion495 @j3j5 @silvereagle Maybe I have something configured wrong in Librewolf. I may have tried locking it down too much. Time to dig into the settings!
Show threadLegion495Jul 26, 2023
@phantomkitty @j3j5 @silvereagle The only website which refuses to work is Twitch. I have not tried changing the agent yet.
Show threadPhantom Kitty (Tech)Jul 28, 2023

@Legion495 @j3j5 @silvereagle I have a special extension in Edge specifically for Twitch that makes it work better for me. So I will problably keep using Edge only for Twitch.

I have not had a chance to go through my Librewolf settings to find what may be wrong, work has eaten up all my extra time this week. So that is a weekend project for me.

Show threadZergling_manJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle
Show threadmittornJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle
Show threadniarbehtJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle It's wild to me how khtml basically took over everything.
Show threadRhewJul 24, 2023
@j3j5
Spent 30 min moving to Firefox yesterday
@silvereagle @SpotTea
Show threadJørnJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle There's still Safari, but yeah..
Show threadWydamnJul 24, 2023
@jornane @j3j5 @silvereagle the problem with Safari is that they barely meet with any current web standards, let alone contribute to them in any meaningful way. Google can pretty much do what it wants, and Mozilla has to decide whether it follows or tries to push back.
Show threadJørnJul 24, 2023

@wydamn @j3j5 @silvereagle I’m really happy with Safari being able to push back, on account of it the only browser on iOS and therefore unable to ignore.

Apple having a browser monopoly isn’t a good thing, but currently that’s the lesser of two evils.

Firefox cannot reasonably push back against Google keeping a high pace in developing standards, because users can be forced to use a different browser.

Show threadTobsenJul 25, 2023

@wydamn @jornane @j3j5 @silvereagle Seems not to be the reality anymore:

https://wpt.fyi/interop-2023?stable

web-platform-tests dashboard

Show threadTomJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle Firefox FTW.
Show threadGurre VildskäggJul 24, 2023

@j3j5
Just give me the straight Chrome instead of these half-measures!

mostly kidding.
and been using Chrome exclusively for a long time. FML.

Show threadapaluJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle do this again but for search engines that are Bing 😔​
Show threaddatenwolfJul 24, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle
Show threadNihl L'AmasJul 25, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle It figures it would be something like this.
Show threadFlorian WeidnerJul 25, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle OMG! I truly had no idea but it makes so much sense!
Show threadArmeris 🔻🇵🇸 ⁂Jul 25, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle there is Safari too :D
Show threadRitzgaJul 26, 2023

@j3j5 @silvereagle sadly yes :c

And Firefox gets money from Google so that Chromium is no monopoly.

Show threadnitrofuranoJul 28, 2023
@j3j5 @silvereagle so unfair... where is Waterfox??? :(
Show threadLuis VillaJul 28, 2023
attn @davidthewid