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From the article: "But [Firefox] became irrelevant after Google in 2008 released Chrome, a faster, more secure and versatile browser." Google Chrome is proprie

From the article: "But [Firefox] became irrelevant after Google in 2008 released Chrome, a faster, more secure and versatile browser." Google Chrome is proprietary software. There's no way to back up any claim of it being "secure" because there's no way to determine what proprietary programs do. Users lack the permission to inspect the program's source code, alter the program, or distribute altered versions. Firefox, by comparison, was never proprietary. Users were and are free to run, inspect, share, and modify Firefox (with perhaps a minor naming hurdle that apparently isn't hard to overcome as Debian demonstrated for years). In fact, this is likely a reason why TorBrowser is based on Firefox. Software freedom isn't about guaranteeing the user security, it's about addressing the inequity between users and developers inherent in non-free software. The technical advantages or disadvantages come and go and are apparently only as far as developers want to take them. People can and do learn to become software developers. And free software's technical merit can be improved by anyone willing to do the work. So we can add impressive technical features to free software. But we have no way to make proprietary software free. So the path to getting software we can evaluate against a claim of "security" and back up that claim starts and ends with software freedom.

nkkollaw 8y ago
"secure" probably refers to the sandboxing functionality that Chrome has had since version 1.
- Digital-Citizen 8y ago
  "Probably refers to"? That you don't know what "secure" refers to is itself a problem. But more problematic is anyone's defense of Google Chrome's architecture while overlooking that that architecture is implemented with secret software which you aren't allowed to vet, alter, or share with others (parts of software freedom). This proprietary software apparently allowed for sending Google every URL a Chrome user types in (http://www.favbrowser.com/google-chrome-spyware-confirmed/ http://www.favbrowser.com/google-chrome-spyware-confirmed/) and making it easy for extensions to spy on Chrome users (https://labs.detectify.com/2015/07/28/how-i-disabled-your-chrome-security-extensions/ https://labs.detectify.com/2015/07/28/how-i-disabled-your-ch...) which many Chrome extensions apparently do, or activating a Chrome user's microphone and sending the captured data to Google (https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-chrome-listening-in-to-your-room-shows-the-importance-of-privacy-defense-in-depth/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-ch...). Hardly behavior users are likely to call "secure" because such behavior does not look out for the security of its users, but instead securing access to Chrome user's data.
mda 8y ago
Chrome was and is more secure than Firefox because of its architecture.

nkkollaw 8y ago

"secure" probably refers to the sandboxing functionality that Chrome has had since version 1.

Digital-Citizen 8y ago
"Probably refers to"? That you don't know what "secure" refers to is itself a problem. But more problematic is anyone's defense of Google Chrome's architecture while overlooking that that architecture is implemented with secret software which you aren't allowed to vet, alter, or share with others (parts of software freedom). This proprietary software apparently allowed for sending Google every URL a Chrome user types in (http://www.favbrowser.com/google-chrome-spyware-confirmed/ http://www.favbrowser.com/google-chrome-spyware-confirmed/) and making it easy for extensions to spy on Chrome users (https://labs.detectify.com/2015/07/28/how-i-disabled-your-chrome-security-extensions/ https://labs.detectify.com/2015/07/28/how-i-disabled-your-ch...) which many Chrome extensions apparently do, or activating a Chrome user's microphone and sending the captured data to Google (https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-chrome-listening-in-to-your-room-shows-the-importance-of-privacy-defense-in-depth/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-ch...). Hardly behavior users are likely to call "secure" because such behavior does not look out for the security of its users, but instead securing access to Chrome user's data.

mda 8y ago

Chrome was and is more secure than Firefox because of its architecture.