I keep meaning to make a guide "how to make firefox not suck" but I never get around to it.

It's a great browser, but I always forget the default settings are super stupid. Myself and power users all have it customized to the hilt.

It takes some serious work to get a new new FireFox install working nicely.

▲ bxparks 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

No kidding. I had to create a Google Doc document to remember all the little things that I have to clobber in Firefox to make it behave reasonably. Here is an excerpt of how I clobber the defaults:

  - Enable pixel-perfect smooth scrolling (Linux): MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 (why do we still have to do this??)
  - Enable: Ctrl-Tab cycles through recent used order
  - Disable: "Show an image preview when you hover on a tab"
  - Disable: "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab group"
  - Disable: "Enable Picture-in-Picture video controls"
  - Disable: "Control media via keyboard, headset, or virtual interface"
  - Disable: "Recommend extensions as you browse"
  - Disable: "Recommend features as you browse"
  - Disable: "Enable link previews"
  - Homepage and new windows: Blank page
  - New tabs: Blank page
  - Disable: Web Search
  - Disable: Weather
  - Disable: Shortcuts
  - Disable: Recommended stories
  - Disable: Support Firefox
  - Disable: "Save and autofill payment info"
  - Disable: "Save and autofill addresses"
  - Disable: "Ask to save passwords"
  - Locations: Select "Block new requests asking to access your location"
  - Notification: Select "Block new requests asking to access your location"
  - Autoplay: Select "Block Audio and Video"
  - Virtual Reality: Select "Block new requests asking to access your virtual reality devices"
  - Default Search engine: DuckDuckGo
  - Disable "Suggest search engines to use"
  - Disable "Quick actions"
  - Disable "Suggestions from Firefox"
  - Disable: "Title Bar"
  - Default Zoom: 110%, 120%, depending on the laptop

I probably forgot a few more things.

And I install the following extensions:

  - uBlock Origin
  - Privacy Badger
  - Facebook Container
  - Firefox Multi-account Container

▲ shawn_w an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The only things I do with a new copy of Firefox is install uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger and it works quite nicely.

(Oh, and an extension that redirects reddit links to old reddit, and RES)

▲ drnick1 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This. Since Firefox claims to be a privacy-first browser, it should, by default, use the Arkenfox settings (report spoofed values for language, screen size, fonts, and many other attributes that aid fingerprinting), and include uBlock Origin out of the box.

But it should go even further; the ultimate goal should be for all Firefox users to basically look the same from the point of view of third parties and put an end to tracking in the modern Web.

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esperent an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> report spoofed values for language, screen size, fonts, and many other attributes that aid fingerprinting

How much do these break functionality? If I spoof language, am I going to start seeing websites in German? If I spoof screen size, am I going to get weirdly zoomed websites?

	▲	mook 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		If anything, it might unbreak things. I have my browser set to request, in order, English, a different English, then a non-English language. Some sites (Android docs, Gitlab, F-Droid) will send me the non-English content; Google even preferentially does their AI translation thing instead of the original English.

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wiredpancake an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

▲ Retr0id an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Likewise. The main thing I change is enforcing separate address bar and search box. It takes a lot of configuring to make the address bar stop being "smart" (i.e. never send things I type there to a search engine even if they're not valid URLs), and I can't even remember what options I used to fix it.

▲ NoPicklez 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Could you mention some of these settings? I moved to Firefox from being a Chrome user and interested to know improvements