Can someone remind me why we stopped using Firefox a while back? There was some piece of news that broke everyone’s trust, but I can’t remember what Mozilla did. Was it a change in their user agreement?

  • Nyticus@kbin.melroy.org
    71·
    15 hours ago

    I stopped using Firefox for four core reasons:

    Their investment into AI How they submit and work with their Google overlords to some degree Their browser putting in more and more unnecessary and unasked features (like Firefox account for one) Their Terms of Service

  • bigDottee@geekroom.tech
    7·
    19 hours ago

    I never stopped using it. There are privacy issues with all browsers. I like how Firefox works, but I regularly end up using Firefox, chrome, and edge all at the same time. I use them for some compartmentalization of my tasks and work lol

  • Zak@lemmy.world
    39·
    1 day ago

    When? There have been a few times people stopped using Firefox in large numbers.

    One of them was when Chrome first came out. Firefox (and every other browser) at the time ran every site in one process. As sites became more reliant on Javascript, which was usually poorly written, that meant any one tab having a problem made other sites and even the browser’s own UI unresponsive, or sometimes crashed the whole browser. Chrome’s multiprocess model was a revelation. Firefox didn’t get its own implementation until 2016.

    Recently, there’s been some movement away from Firefox due to Mozilla making decisions people don’t feel align with open source, the open web, and privacy. The one that has me looking at forks is the planned addition of terms of use to the browser. Terms of use are for an ongoing relationship between a service operator and a user; Firefox is local software I’m operating myself on a computer I own. Its fine for optional online services like Sync to have terms of use, but the browser should work without those.

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
      225·
      1 day ago

      I asked ChatGPT is similar question earlier this week. This was the answer.

      While Mozilla has not been found to sell user tracking data in the conventional sense, the introduction of features like PPA (Privacy-Preserving Attribution) and changes in privacy policy language have understandably caused concern among users. These developments suggest a shift towards balancing user privacy with the need to support advertising models. Users prioritizing privacy should stay informed about these changes and adjust their browser settings accordingly.

  • RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish
    571·
    1 day ago

    The thing is, I never have. Chrome is absolute hot garbage and spyware, all the Chromium forks are all flawed and bugged and still feed into Google’s dominance because of engine and stupid Manifest bullshit. Firefox, despite all the stupid things Mozilla did and still does just works the best and is not Chromium.

    • HKPiax@lemmy.world
      8·
      1 day ago

      Honestly, as a “non-power” Firefox user, the only issues I’m experiencing is when Google purposely slows down or messes with me simply because I use Firefox (e.g., YouTube).

      • RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Dunno, Youtube works fine for me, watching without account. I don’t use anything else from Google, so can’t say if anything else is shit.

      • glimse@lemmy.world
        22·
        1 day ago

        New Chromium framework for browser extensions that severely limits their functionality. It neuters adlockers.

        • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
          16·
          1 day ago

          It didn’t break adblockers “at the time”. It broke them intentionally. That was by design. Google is an advertising company dabbling in other areas. They don’t want a browser that can properly block their primary revenue.

        • RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish
          10·
          1 day ago

          It was intentional to block/break adblockers. Google is worlds largest advertiser…

        • Noerknhar@feddit.org
          22·
          1 day ago

          Understood, that’s something to be expected by Google, but complete shit.

          However, adblockers still work these days - see Vivaldi, so they found a workaround?

          • RejZoR@lemmy.mlEnglish
            9·
            1 day ago

            There is no workaround as most browsers download extensions from Google’s extension repository and they don’t allow extensions that don’t follow their bullshit manifest. Ironically, only Opera has its own extensions repository/store that can do that. Others rely on their own built in adblockers.

      • Sandbar_Trekker@lemmy.todayEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        Google sells it as an updated extension framework to improve security, privacy, and performance of extensions… But it also nerfs adblockers ability to block all ads.

        There are some forks from chrome that haven’t implemented the new manifest thing. So if you really need to, look for those.

  • Guidy@lemmy.world
    121·
    1 day ago

    Firefox is better than most but still smugly makes anti-user changes which are complete dog shit.

    Remember when they turned off your ability to choose to load extensions that weren’t signed, because fuck you?

    Fuck Pepperidge farm, I remember that shit.

    Or how about DNS over https, because fuck you, user, why should you have any say over name resolution when you might use that power to block ads and malware?

  • evulhotdog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    18 hours ago

    I recently tried to migrate to Firefox after the v2 extension changes in Chrome. I worked, but there were a few things that bothered me.

    Chrome and chromium browsers will automatically use the window last used in the MacOS workspace you are in, and this usually works nicely when you have a work workspace and a personal workspace. It keeps things nicely separated when you click on links. Firefox doesn’t do that. It uses whatever window you last accessed. Not the end of the world.

    The real problem I had is that the performance when using web tools like grafana in Firefox is so much worse compared to chromium based browsers. It was unbearable. I haven’t tried WebKit yet to see the same services in safari, for example.

  • Lasherz@lemmy.world
    25·
    1 day ago

    I believe you’re thinking of a ToS change where the wording was incredibly vague, leading to some outlets to claim they were selling browsing data to 3rd parties and AI modelers. They changed it right after to specify that the data they were using wasn’t browsing data, and the data they did gather wouldn’t be used for AI. They are not as invasive as google, but you’re subject to Google on Firefox because of the ubiquity of their telemetry and search optimizations across websites. Firefox with an add-on such as noscript is much better than Chrome still, in my opinion. At the very least, it’s nice to have a browser that doesn’t work to undermine its own add-on functionalities.

    • VodkaSolution @feddit.it
      91·
      1 day ago

      This. It has been everywhere here around, if someone denies it, is lying! It was nothing in the end but in the meantime I tried Zen (based on FF) and it’s aesthetically more pleasing to me

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    33·
    1 day ago

    I never fully did, but I did end up using Chromium more than I wanted to:

    1. Some poorly written sites refuse to work with FF. My water company, for example. They eventually fixed it after I complained multiple times. Now they display a warning that it’s “Optimized for Chrome” but no longer flat out prevent FF from logging in (you know, to pay bills and such).
    2. FF Desktop still doesn’t support PWAs, and their recent update says they’re working on it, but they’re half-assing it (installed web apps will still have the menu bars, address, bar etc). I self-host a lot of web applications and want them to appear like native apps. Hence, Chromium.
    3. There was some recent ToS / Privacy Policy change, and everyone was knee-jerking “time to abandon Firefox” as if there’s anywhere better to go. (This is probably what you’re thinking of)
    4. A good while back, Chrom(ium) was just flat-out faster. That’s been a while, and I think when FF’s “Quantum” update (or whatever it was called) came out in like 2016 or 2017, it put it back on par.