6 ms·

This actually made me try switching to Firefox again. There's some minor things missing, but for the most part all the features I want are there.

abandonliberty 9y ago
Firefox is maybe 80% of the way there. Just like in the IE Anitrust days, firefox suffers from sites that do not design with it in mind. Still better than Google Creep. Change to a search engine that protects privacy too.
- timlyo 9y ago
  Can you recommend a search engine? I'm trying DuckDuckGo, but it's just not as good.
  - retox 9y ago
    I always hit DDG first then if the results aren't great just append the Google bang (!g) in the DDG search field to get an unbubbled goog search. The DDG bang system is one of its best features in my mind. https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      How often do you end up at Google though; a few years back I tried DDG for a couple of months but ended up basically always doing !g and so went back to Google. Might be time for another go?
      - retox 9y ago
        It depends on what I'm searching for. If its an error code or something a bit esoteric around tech then google usually has better results, but for everyday topics the results are pretty decent, and they feel like they have improved over the years. I probably do less searching than I used to, but the bang system really helps me search other sites much more effectively. The more common bangs I use are !w for wikipedia, !so for stackoverflow, !imdb, !gh, !tpb, !bm for bing maps, !bi bing images.
        Forbo 9y ago
        !sp for startpage is really nice to use if you want to have the Google results without the tracking. Edit: looks like this was already mentioned below. Whoops.
      - rovr138 9y ago
        I use !s. Redirects it to Startpage instead. Google results, but it acts as a proxy. On the homepage, https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/, at the bottom it lists the security part a bit more.
      - Semaphor 9y ago
        I was in the same situation. Switched over again a few months back. I almost always only need to use !g for rare results (and even there it doesn't always help). On the other hand bangs like !mdn (mozilla developer network) and !w (wikipedia) make things much easier.
        pbhjpbhj 9y ago
        I use Firefox "awesomebar" keywords so "w" for Wikipedia, etc. (I think Chrome has this too), so I don't gain anything really with DDG's keywords on most searches.
      - Too 9y ago
        For anything tech-related or everyday information DDG provides more reliable results than google because it's less infected by sales and SEO-spammers. For local businesses and really rare topics Google is better.
      - daveFNbuck 9y ago
        I basically only use Google for movie listings, calculations, and restaurant hours now. The rare times I switch to Google for other searches DDG fails on, Google is no better.
      - littlestymaar 9y ago
        I don't have any figures to back this up, but I feel like I use !g about half of the time (it may be 70 or 20% as well since I have no data). I'm not free from Google then, but this reduced my dependency by about 50%, which is still good to take !
    - newscracker 9y ago
      I follow a three step model: 1. DDG 2. If that doesn't help, then use !s to search Startpage. 3. If that doesn't help, then use !g to search Google. Other than the relevance and quality of search results, there are differences in features across these sites, like date range search, for example. Image search also seems to have more flexibility on Google. I haven't checked recently if reverse image search even exists on DDG or Startpage.
  - Propen 9y ago
    https://www.startpage.com https://www.startpage.com gives you Google results but proxied.
  - JoshTriplett 9y ago
    > I'm trying DuckDuckGo, but it's just not as good. It took me a while of using DDG before I realized how much I had equated "good" with "looks like Google". What finally hit me, hard, was that I switched the DDG theme to a color scheme designed to look like Google search results, and all of a sudden the results "felt better". Markedly better. So, I started regularly comparing results, every time I found something that I felt I didn't get the results I expected for. I would search, and then search again with !g. And almost every time I ran into something that I didn't like the DDG results for, the Google results weren't actually any better. (The rare times they were, I reported that, and often it got fixed.)
    - weaksauce 9y ago
      !sp will give you the google results without the google tracking as it's a proxy of google results.
      - unexistance 9y ago
        awesome, DDG rocks just tried !spi and it works as image search :D
      - newscracker 9y ago
        I use "!s" in DDG to get to Startpage [1] search results. One letter shorter to access the same - no need to type "!sp" when one can just type "!s" instead. :) This does not work for replacing "!spi" (image search on Startpage) though. Using "!si" does a search on a non-existent subdomain sportsillustrated.cnn.com. [1]: https://www.startpage.com https://www.startpage.com
    - unexistance 9y ago
      how'd you report to DDG? tried reporting that !gi does not utilizes encrypted.google.com (which I think it should), seems like no dice
      - JoshTriplett 9y ago
        I used the "Feedback" mechanism, and typically got a human response by email.
- fencepost 9y ago
  If you think "not designed with Firefox in mind" breaks things, try using uMatrix for a while.
  - arca_vorago 9y ago
    If people would focus on content in HTML and CSS for layout and newfad devs weren't shoving 50 jscripts a page down our throat this wouldn't be happening as bad. I plan to make all my future sites librejs compatible, and forgoe js altogether whenever possible.
    - edgartaor 9y ago
      How this could be done if your backend it's a REST API?
      - yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
        You can still render server-side, an with a REST endpoint it should be easy to do so.
    - arkh 9y ago
      History keeps repeating. Flash? Now you have heavily javascripted "website". Table layout? Now you have bootstrap and friends. Progressive enhancement? Fuck that, we don't have time. And 5 years from now people will rediscover those and accessibility. Then 5 years later another kind of hell will have appeared to replace this. The only big change for the current wave is that everything is obfuscated so it's harder for a newcomer to learn by checking how people coded things.
  - caoilte 9y ago
    I've been using uMatrix for over three years and very very few websites don't work with it. By far the most annoying 'feature' (more of a consequence of the internet) is the way that you can't whitelist HTTPS sub-domains. (Makes AWS Console a pain.)
    - 9y ago
abtinf 9y ago
Same for me. I fired up Firefox for the first time in years and it works great. The hardest part to get used to is their super-weird hamburger menu layout.
- asadotzler 9y ago
  This menu is changing for Firefox 57. It will have a more "normal" menu soon. You can see it today by installing Nightly Firefox.
  - efreak 9y ago
    What Ankit The mobile menu? The mobile menu is a mess if you have extensions installed, because add-on developers don't put their stuff in the tools/page submenu, and there's no way to rearrange it.
- harsh1618 9y ago
  Pressing Alt brings up the conventional menu bar, at least on Linux.
  - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
    Plus you can go hamburger menu, customize, (some drop down menu at the bottom), show menu bar. First thing I do when I install FF on a new computer.
thirdsun 9y ago
I recommend the Nightly channel. It feels much snappier, more performant and cleaner than the stable version.

abandonliberty 9y ago

Firefox is maybe 80% of the way there. Just like in the IE Anitrust days, firefox suffers from sites that do not design with it in mind. Still better than Google Creep. Change to a search engine that protects privacy too.

timlyo 9y ago
Can you recommend a search engine? I'm trying DuckDuckGo, but it's just not as good.
- retox 9y ago
  I always hit DDG first then if the results aren't great just append the Google bang (!g) in the DDG search field to get an unbubbled goog search. The DDG bang system is one of its best features in my mind. https://duckduckgo.com/bang https://duckduckgo.com/bang
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    How often do you end up at Google though; a few years back I tried DDG for a couple of months but ended up basically always doing !g and so went back to Google. Might be time for another go?
    - retox 9y ago
      It depends on what I'm searching for. If its an error code or something a bit esoteric around tech then google usually has better results, but for everyday topics the results are pretty decent, and they feel like they have improved over the years. I probably do less searching than I used to, but the bang system really helps me search other sites much more effectively. The more common bangs I use are !w for wikipedia, !so for stackoverflow, !imdb, !gh, !tpb, !bm for bing maps, !bi bing images.
      - Forbo 9y ago
        !sp for startpage is really nice to use if you want to have the Google results without the tracking. Edit: looks like this was already mentioned below. Whoops.
    - rovr138 9y ago
      I use !s. Redirects it to Startpage instead. Google results, but it acts as a proxy. On the homepage, https://www.startpage.com/ https://www.startpage.com/, at the bottom it lists the security part a bit more.
    - Semaphor 9y ago
      I was in the same situation. Switched over again a few months back. I almost always only need to use !g for rare results (and even there it doesn't always help). On the other hand bangs like !mdn (mozilla developer network) and !w (wikipedia) make things much easier.
      - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
        I use Firefox "awesomebar" keywords so "w" for Wikipedia, etc. (I think Chrome has this too), so I don't gain anything really with DDG's keywords on most searches.
    - Too 9y ago
      For anything tech-related or everyday information DDG provides more reliable results than google because it's less infected by sales and SEO-spammers. For local businesses and really rare topics Google is better.
    - daveFNbuck 9y ago
      I basically only use Google for movie listings, calculations, and restaurant hours now. The rare times I switch to Google for other searches DDG fails on, Google is no better.
    - littlestymaar 9y ago
      I don't have any figures to back this up, but I feel like I use !g about half of the time (it may be 70 or 20% as well since I have no data). I'm not free from Google then, but this reduced my dependency by about 50%, which is still good to take !
  - newscracker 9y ago
    I follow a three step model: 1. DDG 2. If that doesn't help, then use !s to search Startpage. 3. If that doesn't help, then use !g to search Google. Other than the relevance and quality of search results, there are differences in features across these sites, like date range search, for example. Image search also seems to have more flexibility on Google. I haven't checked recently if reverse image search even exists on DDG or Startpage.
- Propen 9y ago
  https://www.startpage.com https://www.startpage.com gives you Google results but proxied.
- JoshTriplett 9y ago
  > I'm trying DuckDuckGo, but it's just not as good. It took me a while of using DDG before I realized how much I had equated "good" with "looks like Google". What finally hit me, hard, was that I switched the DDG theme to a color scheme designed to look like Google search results, and all of a sudden the results "felt better". Markedly better. So, I started regularly comparing results, every time I found something that I felt I didn't get the results I expected for. I would search, and then search again with !g. And almost every time I ran into something that I didn't like the DDG results for, the Google results weren't actually any better. (The rare times they were, I reported that, and often it got fixed.)
  - weaksauce 9y ago
    !sp will give you the google results without the google tracking as it's a proxy of google results.
    - unexistance 9y ago
      awesome, DDG rocks just tried !spi and it works as image search :D
    - newscracker 9y ago
      I use "!s" in DDG to get to Startpage [1] search results. One letter shorter to access the same - no need to type "!sp" when one can just type "!s" instead. :) This does not work for replacing "!spi" (image search on Startpage) though. Using "!si" does a search on a non-existent subdomain sportsillustrated.cnn.com. [1]: https://www.startpage.com https://www.startpage.com
  - unexistance 9y ago
    how'd you report to DDG? tried reporting that !gi does not utilizes encrypted.google.com (which I think it should), seems like no dice
    - JoshTriplett 9y ago
      I used the "Feedback" mechanism, and typically got a human response by email.
fencepost 9y ago
If you think "not designed with Firefox in mind" breaks things, try using uMatrix for a while.
- arca_vorago 9y ago
  If people would focus on content in HTML and CSS for layout and newfad devs weren't shoving 50 jscripts a page down our throat this wouldn't be happening as bad. I plan to make all my future sites librejs compatible, and forgoe js altogether whenever possible.
  - edgartaor 9y ago
    How this could be done if your backend it's a REST API?
    - yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
      You can still render server-side, an with a REST endpoint it should be easy to do so.
  - arkh 9y ago
    History keeps repeating. Flash? Now you have heavily javascripted "website". Table layout? Now you have bootstrap and friends. Progressive enhancement? Fuck that, we don't have time. And 5 years from now people will rediscover those and accessibility. Then 5 years later another kind of hell will have appeared to replace this. The only big change for the current wave is that everything is obfuscated so it's harder for a newcomer to learn by checking how people coded things.
- caoilte 9y ago
  I've been using uMatrix for over three years and very very few websites don't work with it. By far the most annoying 'feature' (more of a consequence of the internet) is the way that you can't whitelist HTTPS sub-domains. (Makes AWS Console a pain.)
  - 9y ago

abtinf 9y ago

Same for me. I fired up Firefox for the first time in years and it works great. The hardest part to get used to is their super-weird hamburger menu layout.

asadotzler 9y ago
This menu is changing for Firefox 57. It will have a more "normal" menu soon. You can see it today by installing Nightly Firefox.
- efreak 9y ago
  What Ankit The mobile menu? The mobile menu is a mess if you have extensions installed, because add-on developers don't put their stuff in the tools/page submenu, and there's no way to rearrange it.
harsh1618 9y ago
Pressing Alt brings up the conventional menu bar, at least on Linux.
- BenjiWiebe 9y ago
  Plus you can go hamburger menu, customize, (some drop down menu at the bottom), show menu bar. First thing I do when I install FF on a new computer.

thirdsun 9y ago

I recommend the Nightly channel. It feels much snappier, more performant and cleaner than the stable version.