4 ms·

I generally agree with the sentiment here, but somewhat similar to using Linux over macOS, my experience has been that it's just a worse user experience in exch

I generally agree with the sentiment here, but somewhat similar to using Linux over macOS, my experience has been that it's just a worse user experience in exchange for "doing the right thing." In the end, it's about how much you're willing to sacrifice convenience and user experience for an ethical ideal. For me, the last time I attempted to switch from Chrome to Firefox, it drove me nuts after a few days because of one behavior: When you click a web link in another application, it opens it in your non-incognito (or whatever that's called in Firefox) window, even if the incognito window is the one on top. Instead, you have to copy the link from the other app, tab over to Firefox, and manually paste it into the incognito window. This is a flow I use many times a day, and having to do this workaround was really annoying. I found a thread about it on Firefox's issue tracker, but it was closed with a response that basically amounted to the developer telling the user that reported it, "this isn't a valid use case." I may be able to switch back to Firefox when they implement that feature where each browser tab is essentially an isolated "incognito" context, which is really what I want. The distinction between "incognito" and "not incognito" windows has really just been a proving ground for the idea of concurrent browser sessions isolated from each other, which is a much overall solution to controlling your privacy on the web.

chopin 10y ago
A thousand times this. Ironically Firefox had this feature in the past ( I don't remember the exact version). My workaround is to start Firefox in anonymous mode always (Settings->Privacy->History->"Never remember history). But it's a workaround and I wish Firefox would be able to open links in an incognito window.
- kleiba 10y ago
  It's so interesting to see how workflows differ between different people. You say "a thousand times this", but I for one never have this issue because I never (have to) click on an external link to be opened in my browser.
  - qplex 10y ago
    I find it scary when a browser window appears from nowhere.
aluhut 10y ago
If this is your only or main issue with FF, it can't be that bad. I tried Chrome from time to time and the endless processes eating up an immense sum of RAM (I had to add together first to realize) as well as the missing addons drove me away. I never considered myself a participant in the ideological browser war and whenever I have to fix a computer somewhere around my friends and family (besides my parents) I left Chrome on their computers. It somehow always is there. Installed through Avast or similar. This annoying and disgusting behavior and the fact that Chrome wasn't anywhere faster or better led me to the conclusion that there is no better browser for me then FF.
- Waterluvian 10y ago
  I've never experienced ram issues with chrome. Is it a tangible problem that noticeably hurts experience or do you kind of have to be looking at the RAM stats to perceive that there's a problem? I wonder if I'm missing something or am just not the exceptional case where chromes use of memory matters.
  - aluhut 10y ago
    I only open the process overview if something doesn't work as it should (like most people I guess). Every time I tested it I came to a point where I had issues. Maybe too many tabs, maybe wrong content, I don't know. It wasn't possible to find the "right process" there to kill too. I would just go and kill them from big to small and this is also the moment where I realize: I shouldn't have to care about which tab caused that or why. I don't have this problem on FF and if I have there is exactly one process I'd have to kill and I didn't have to do that for some versions already. Even with it being cramped with Addons. Old and new ones. I barely had Ublock on Chrome...
  - barnacs 10y ago
    I too switched from chromium to firefox a few years ago when my system ran out of its 8GB RAM regularly. Chromium was using about 7.5GB, it was quite noticable. I then reopened the exact same tabs in firefox, made sure they are all loaded to make a fair comparison and it came out to less than 1.5GB RAM usage. I've been a happy firefox user since then and never looked back.

chopin 10y ago

A thousand times this. Ironically Firefox had this feature in the past ( I don't remember the exact version). My workaround is to start Firefox in anonymous mode always (Settings->Privacy->History->"Never remember history). But it's a workaround and I wish Firefox would be able to open links in an incognito window.

kleiba 10y ago
It's so interesting to see how workflows differ between different people. You say "a thousand times this", but I for one never have this issue because I never (have to) click on an external link to be opened in my browser.
- qplex 10y ago
  I find it scary when a browser window appears from nowhere.

aluhut 10y ago

If this is your only or main issue with FF, it can't be that bad. I tried Chrome from time to time and the endless processes eating up an immense sum of RAM (I had to add together first to realize) as well as the missing addons drove me away. I never considered myself a participant in the ideological browser war and whenever I have to fix a computer somewhere around my friends and family (besides my parents) I left Chrome on their computers. It somehow always is there. Installed through Avast or similar. This annoying and disgusting behavior and the fact that Chrome wasn't anywhere faster or better led me to the conclusion that there is no better browser for me then FF.

Waterluvian 10y ago
I've never experienced ram issues with chrome. Is it a tangible problem that noticeably hurts experience or do you kind of have to be looking at the RAM stats to perceive that there's a problem? I wonder if I'm missing something or am just not the exceptional case where chromes use of memory matters.
- aluhut 10y ago
  I only open the process overview if something doesn't work as it should (like most people I guess). Every time I tested it I came to a point where I had issues. Maybe too many tabs, maybe wrong content, I don't know. It wasn't possible to find the "right process" there to kill too. I would just go and kill them from big to small and this is also the moment where I realize: I shouldn't have to care about which tab caused that or why. I don't have this problem on FF and if I have there is exactly one process I'd have to kill and I didn't have to do that for some versions already. Even with it being cramped with Addons. Old and new ones. I barely had Ublock on Chrome...
- barnacs 10y ago
  I too switched from chromium to firefox a few years ago when my system ran out of its 8GB RAM regularly. Chromium was using about 7.5GB, it was quite noticable. I then reopened the exact same tabs in firefox, made sure they are all loaded to make a fair comparison and it came out to less than 1.5GB RAM usage. I've been a happy firefox user since then and never looked back.