Technology

The best time to switch to Firefox was 5 years ago. The second best is today.

With the number of people concerned about privacy, it is a wonder why chrome is even popular.

It's no wonder. It's because people aren't actually concerned about privacy.

If you ask someone if they're "concerned about privacy" many people will of course say yes. If you follow up that question with "what are you willing to do about it", you'll find that the answer is a resounding "not a God damn thing". If they were they would spend 3 minutes on Google looking for an alternative browser that works even better than Chrome but without the privacy invasions.

A browser is the low-hanging fruit on the "do-you-care-about-privacy meter". It's the one step with no sacrifices and the highest increase in privacy.

Most people aren’t concerned about privacy outside of places like here and Reddit.

Firefox is a weird buggy mess that constantly freezes.

This is definitely not normal, Firefox never freezes for me. May be worth checking that out, especially your extensions.

I use Vivaldi, which isn't perfect, but I need tab grouping in some form. Firefox's solutions for tab groups are meh at best

I was originally an Opera user (back when it was using Presto) back in the day, but I switched to Firefox during the last moments of the Presto engine. When Presto died, I worried a bit about the state of other browser engines, but I didn't worry about it too much because I never thought Microsoft would use Chromium with their Edge browser. Yet, here we are.

Putting privacy concerns aside, we should encourage the use of Firefox because it helps promote browser engine diversity. The more diverse browser engines we have, the better it is for us, especially when it comes to innovation. I mean, it may be a bit different than the era of Internet Explorer, but since Google is leading the Chromium project, who knows what could happen.

They might remove a particular feature that was once very useful for whatever reason, and we could end up just accepting it because we can't do anything about it.

Firefox + Ublock Origin blows Google Chrome out of water.

I have one thing keeping me from moving back to Firefox. I use Chrome profiles extensively to separate my various client access sessions that I need to do my job. So I need a solution in Firefox that allows me to have separate profiles with separate sessions. I've tried Firefox profiles but those are so much clunkier to setup and switch between. Also there's no way I've found to get the Firefox profiles to be in separate color-coded windows like Chrome does so I have to look through all my open windows to find the one for the specific client I'm working with.

If someone can solve this I'll switch back to Firefox immediately.

I just ditched Brave a few days ago for Firefox and really prefer it for performance and real privacy.

My biggest issue with FF is the lack of the ability to switch accounts easily. In Chrome I have a work account, a home account, and a side hustle account. Each has their own bookmarks, themes, passwords, and history.

I have tried using FF and the few workarounds to match this feature, but so far it has none worked as smoothly as chromes 2 button clicks to switch accounts.

I have always despised Chrome, with Firefox being my preferred web browser. However, I still keep Vivaldi installed on my Linux system in case something requires Chromium for compatibility reasons.

FWIW, latest Firefox nightlies have caught up to Chrome in terms of performance. I have been a Firefox user since the 3.5 days, I was briefly swayed by Chrome because of performance until I came back for the Quantum update and stuck with it ever since. The updates have been great and Firefox + ubo + Nextdns is a solid combination.

Chrome is popular because of inertia. I was a huge Mozilla fan for years, until it became unusable. Chrome was the only choice and noticeably more performant. Since then, there hasn’t been sufficient reason to redirect that inertia. Yes, that was quite a few years ago. Lots of inertia

There's no reason you should be using Chrome. Using Chrome:

• Means you consent to spyware (along with everyone else you interact with)
• Allows Google to continue dictating web standards
• Is a resource hog

If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading this comic about the dangers of Chrome: https://contrachrome.com/

If you need to absolutely use a Chromium-based browser, at least use Brave (just for that site).

Not-so-fun fact from the comic Contra Chrome: Google Chrome's URL bar is called the "omnibox." The name is derived from the Latin word "omnis," meaning "everything."

When you type into the omnibox, it's sent to Google's servers and added to your profile forever.

Even if you deleted it or didn't hit enter.

Waiting for Firefox to implement native browser profile switching UI (not container tabs, not desktop shortcuts, not janky workarounds/hacks) and I'll be there full time.

This is the problem! :( Monopoly is never good, in this case in particular since it's in the hand of a corporation they make money on people data.

What about LibreWolf, a fork of FF. Suppose to be better for security. Love using it !! Ditched Brave a couple of days ago

Modern Firefox is excellent. I have it loaded up with great quality of life addons that seem to work better than their WebKit counterparts.

Loyal FF user since 2017 or so. Loving Thunderbird's renaissance, too.

It's ironic that there are over 60 blockable elements and such over Privacy Badger and Ublock origin on that page.

IMO the thing is that people don't care about their privacy. Sure, some people around here do, but your average person owns an Alexa, has a FB/Instagram account and constantly posts their location, uses the same password on many sites, uses TikTok, doesn't block cookies, etc etc etc.

Most people don't actually care. Some claim they do, but then can't even be bothered to stop using Instagram etc because of the "inconvenience"... So do they really care?

Some companies (Apple, etc) push their products under a narrative around safety and security, and people will repeat that point as a way to justify a decision they already made, but if they actually cared, they would be doing other things too. But they don't.

The number of us who do actually care about privacy and security is actually very small.

FF has been my daily driver... longer than I can remember on essentially anything that can handle a browser. It's powerfull, feature rich, extensible, etc. But it does tend gain weight between major overhauls.

Out of curiosity, being a Linux user, I installed Chromium not 2 weeks ago and the thing is fast. It outperforms Firefox on my aging machine by far. And I was actually surprised. Yes, I do have the ghost of Google just waiting to sink its fangs in me, which I dislike, but I really have to admit the browser is fast, light and easy to approach for new users.

Will I let go of FF? Not really but Chromium did manage to get my attention.

Chrome does suck regarding privacy.

But the article shared here is basically an ad for Firefox.

The whole Reddit debacle has really made me rethink all my services. I recently installed duck duck go and still getting used to it, so not quite sure if I'm ready to make another drastic change.

I used to love Firefox in 2006 or so, but got Chrome when it was released and forgot about Firefox. I think I'll open a tab in my chrome browser for the Firefox page now...this is how I remind myself to delve deeper into stuff later. Thanks for the inspiration, everyone. Google has irked me ever since removing the Don't Be Evil mantra.

What’s wrong with Brave? Does this effect Brave?

I switched to FF a few years ago when my Chrome was showing some bloat. FF works for almost everything, but from time to time some sites, forms, e-commerce, etc., have issues with non-Chrome browsers. In that event, I use Edge.

I've been using the internet since 1999. I've been using Firefox before it was Firefox, and before it was Phoenix, back when it was just "Mozilla". (The original browser became SeaMonkey, but it's been slowly abandoned to the point that it doesn't work on modern sites anymore.) I've been frustrated at times and have sometimes used Chrome, Waterfox and Epiphany (Linux web browser) at times but I always come back to Firefox. Back in the Geocities era in 2000 Netscape 4.x was so poor at CSS I developed for Internet Explorer on my personal sites, (to my regret), but Mozilla eventually caught up.

High number of people concerned about privacy?? There's, like, 5 of us unfortunately.