I love Firefox. It just doesn't always feel like it loves me back.

nik282000 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not like Chrome, Chrome feels like it LOVES hanging out with me, looking over my shoulder, telling all it's friends about what I'm working on, what I buy, and how much money I make.

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DrewADesign 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Sure, but Firefox doesn’t have to be Chrome to be unacceptable, and Chrome isn’t the only alternative. I reject the idea that Firefox can transgress as much as they want as long as Chrome has gotten worse.

And fuck then for buying and killing fakespot.

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culi 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Chrome is the only alternative unless you have access to Safari. Brave, Opera, Edge, etc are all Chromium and will all deprecate Manifest V2 eventually. The V2 mess is just one example of how Google can continue to stangle the web even if you're not using Chrome itself.

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theamk 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Chrome != Chromium engine

Most of the Chromium-based browsers remove Google's telemetry and integrations, so if someone has a problem with Chrome "looking over my shoulder", then they have many more alternatives.

And sure, Manifest V2 will disappear in all those forks, but many browsers have built-in adblocker instead, for example both Opera and Brave claim to. And other than adblockers, what else is lost in Manifest V2?

Mind you, I am still using Firefox, but saying "the only alternatives are Chrome and Firefox" is completely incorrect.

	▲	culi 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Chrome != Chromium engine This exactly what I disagree with and I think I supported my argument quite clearly. The more we say "Chrome is not Chromium" the more stuff like V2 will happen. At some point we need to admit that the dominance of Chromium does in fact give Google power over the web

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evilduck 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Epiphany on Linux is a pretty straightforward Webkit browser. Konqueror still exists. Ladybird is up and coming. Servo is still making progress.

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DrewADesign 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use Waterfox or Librewolf

	▲	culi 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The "I use arch btw" of browsers. Jk but tbh I think group them in with Firefox

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qsera 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>Chrome is the only alternative

The future looks pretty clear to me. We will have to use two browsers. One government approved, google (or some other thing) vetted browser for all the official and banking stuff. One other for all the other causal stuff.

This would be bundled as a single package, with something like firefox containers automatically switching to the "approved" browser based on domain loaded in the tab.

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usernomdeguerre 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Once a browser is "Government Approved" all the other are 'Unapproved' ipso facto. There's nothing clear about that future, imo.

	▲	qsera 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		By government approved, I meant only to access government websites/applications.

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stephen_g 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use Firefox and I like it (especially being able to use uBlock Origin), but I really dislike what Mozilla has become over the last ten years or so. I think that's the key distinction, I can mostly manage Mozilla's crap by turning off a bunch of stuff in my Firefox settings, but I think it's really important for the web to not use a Chromium based browser.

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s3p 7 hours ago | parent [-]

But they have to make money. Else they go away. I don't understand how people think Mozilla can just exist and be permanently solvent forever

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ptman an hour ago | parent | next [-]

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/ability-to-donate-money...

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aragilar 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Then let me pay for Firefox. I don't need a resold Mullvad (which incidentally took forever to come to my country) or an AI chatbot (which seemingly are the options Mozilla provides to give them money), and donations to Mozilla don't go to Firefox. It took them ~20 years to work out that was the solution for Thunderbird, they shouldn't spend another 20 years flailing about for Firefox.

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cpburns2009 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Mozilla's not exactly short on funds. They take in at least $500,000,000 every year.

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AnonC 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

AFAIK, from reading the annual reports years ago, this nice sum of money belongs to Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit that works on making a better web. Mozilla Corporation, the for-profit entity that makes Firefox, doesn’t seem to have as much as it needs. Hence MDN Plus, Mozilla VPN, and other services.

	▲	dingaling 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's their choice, nobody forced them to implement that corporate structure and they can decide to deconstruct it any time. Google pays Mozilla for default search engine selection in Firefox, no other product. If Mozilla then redirect that money to other non-Firefox ventures then maybe they should explain why.

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glenstein 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And it probably costs something like 80% of that to build and maintain a browser and they probably spend less than Google.

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tiahura 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Linus manages.

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stogot 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Look how they spend money, plenty of articles on it, and it makes me hesitate to donate

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8cvor6j844qw_d6 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Same. I want to love Firefox, but it does not have the polish on Android compared to Chrome-based browsers.

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connicpu 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

On Android I use Firefox despite the rough edges simply because the usability gain of the mobile web with ublock Origin is insane. Also it's nice sending tabs between desktop and mobile.

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kxrm 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> polish on Android

Would you care to expand?

I've been using Firefox on Android for years and haven't noticed a lack of polish. However, I am genuinely curious what I am missing out on.

	▲	PennRobotics 10 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'll reinstall now for a fresh opinion vs Kiwi (which to me is Chrome with Extensions minus tab groups or AI junk) My last installs of Firefox Klar and Developer had the APKs at over 200 MB, no ability to block sound per-site, confusing UI icons (e.g. I couldn't find the forward button after clicking back, abstract shapes for everything), reader mode that doesn't place you at the same place where you were on the original page, annoying gestures that can't be disabled (swiping tabs away UGGGHHHH), Collections which were really quite silly/not my thing, no toolbar customizability like in the desktop app, no WebHID, data collection on by default. Mozilla could join Canonical in dumping the Nickelodeon color scheme. (Did the founders of all these plus FedEx go to Clemson or something??) Now Firefox is under 100 MB, has very much bought into Android's overrounded/inproperly-whitespaced/shadow-heavy/unintuitively-animated Material 3 Expressive. Like most Material Design apps, this Firefox is ugly in a way that offers zero usability benefit. Despite the excessive margins nearly everywhere, the three dot menu is still too close to the screen edge. Holding a tab selects its checkbox, holding it longer does "something" but it's not clear what, I guess "show full URL" and then eventually "Share"? I still have to change just about every default setting to match my personal preferences. The "swipe tab away" gesture is still there. WebHID will never be added. Per-tab disabling of Sound is still missing; this is not the same as Autoplay! There are prominent features that I'd never use :private mode icon, "grab tabs from any device", "search your tabs", the giant "FIREFOX IS ON GUARD" reminder, a home screen. New Tab is across the entire screen from the tab overview button, so you either need to enable the New Tab shortcut (which encroaches on URL space) or just live with "tap top-right, tap bottom-right" for every new tab you'll create in your lifetime which is DEFINITELY not nice for one-handed navigation. There was enough space in the tab overview top bar for a "New Tab" button, but then they'd have to ditch the default Jetpack Compose floating action button. Oh, and I guess there's no about:config unless you re-enable it at chrome://geckoview/content/config.xhtml. :( I liken Firefox to mediocre toilet paper. It gets its job done but can get irritating to use day after day.
	▲	glenstein 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Same, especially with the recent redesign I think it's actually super polished.

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canibal 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

But how could it possibly? For work, sure, this kind of minor efficiency means something, so I'll stick with Chromium-base. But for my own phone? This is like the exact type of thing that proves the monopolistic dark patterning. Personally, the modicum of convenience feels super short-sighted compared to the ethical/privacy hangover, not to mention the risk to future availability of a viable competitor.