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The abuse by the Google Chrome team never ceases to amaze me. I feel trapped on chrome simply because of my reliance on Google drive/docs, which are handicapped

The abuse by the Google Chrome team never ceases to amaze me. I feel trapped on chrome simply because of my reliance on Google drive/docs, which are handicapped on browsers like Firefox.

SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
I have no problem at all using Google Drive and Docs on Firefox, what specific issues have you run into?
- 013a 7y ago
  There are a couple minor things. For example: inside of a Doc, in Chrome you can right click -> edit menu -> copy/paste, but in Firefox it tells you that you must use CMD+C/CMD+V. Non-Chrome browsers also used to be unable to upload folders, but this has been fixed for a while. Calling the experience Handicapped is extreme, but there's clear preferential treatment toward Chrome.
  - AlphaWeaver 7y ago
    If I recall correctly, this is actually due to a security restriction that Google has circumvented since it built both the browser and the application. If you could right click to paste, that would mean it would be possible for Javascript to access your clipboard on any site you go to. Firefox enforces the appropriate security setting here, Chrome simply has some sort of workaround built in by Google to allow them to make the UX slightly better on their own site.
    - noir_lord 7y ago
      > Chrome simply has some sort of workaround built in by Google to allow them to make the UX slightly better on their own site. The optics on that are potentially terrible. The dominant browser from the dominant search engine company deliberately breaks a standard it enforces elsewhere only on its own sites. Ouch.
      - zerocrates 7y ago
        Copy/paste on Docs at least used to be a feature you got from installing an extension or "app" in Chrome... I think maybe that now is preinstalled? (Or I've just had it for so long I don't notice) On the other hand copy from the Docs menubar and custom right-click menu works for me right now in Firefox, with no addons that I'm aware of, so maybe this whole discussion is outdated.
        AlphaWeaver 7y ago
        It didn't use to be possible to manipulate the clipboard at all using Javascript, so sites would embed tiny flash applets to make "Copy to Clipboard" buttons. Now it is possible to copy text to the clipboard using the HTML5 Clipboard API [0], (I think it might still have to be triggered based on a user input event, but I'm not positive), but reading the clipboard is still not possible, for the aforementioned security reasons. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Clipboard_API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Clipboard_A...
applecrazy 7y ago
What are you talking about? Google Docs works perfectly fine in Firefox. What issues exist?
cknoxrun 7y ago
Drive works fine for me in Safari (other than using an unreasonable amount of CPU). It sure beats installing drive sync or whatever it is called.
lutoma 7y ago
My main annoyance is that all Google apps on iOS will refuse to open links in Firefox, but offer options to set Safari or Chrome as default browser…
- dmitriid 7y ago
  And they never retain the choice for those options for long. I’ve lost count of how many times I clicked “use Safari”.
rchaud 7y ago
On OSX, Firefox and Google Drive work fine, but Gmail is a whole other kettle of fish. I don't know what UI change they implemented last year or so, but it is nearly unusable on Firefox, from absurdly long load times, to a 2-3 second wait for contextual options to appear when you right click. Switched to ProtonMail's free tier and will gradually migrate everything there aside from newsletter and software beta signups. Those emails are mostly trash anyway.
- RandomGuyDTB 7y ago
  You can change email forwarding in Gmail to forward everything to the Protonmail. That's how I initially transferred. A year and still changing email addresses, I have a ton of accounts to go.
  - rchaud 7y ago
    The free tier has 500MB storage, so this gives me a chance to think about what's worth migrating and what's not.
avierax 7y ago
Yet it's easy to just keep a chromium installation for Google docs and Gmail and do everything else in Firefox.

The abuse by the Google Chrome team never ceases to amaze me. I feel trapped on chrome simply because of my reliance on Google drive/docs, which are handicapped on browsers like Firefox.

SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago

I have no problem at all using Google Drive and Docs on Firefox, what specific issues have you run into?

013a 7y ago
There are a couple minor things. For example: inside of a Doc, in Chrome you can right click -> edit menu -> copy/paste, but in Firefox it tells you that you must use CMD+C/CMD+V. Non-Chrome browsers also used to be unable to upload folders, but this has been fixed for a while. Calling the experience Handicapped is extreme, but there's clear preferential treatment toward Chrome.
- AlphaWeaver 7y ago
  If I recall correctly, this is actually due to a security restriction that Google has circumvented since it built both the browser and the application. If you could right click to paste, that would mean it would be possible for Javascript to access your clipboard on any site you go to. Firefox enforces the appropriate security setting here, Chrome simply has some sort of workaround built in by Google to allow them to make the UX slightly better on their own site.
  - noir_lord 7y ago
    > Chrome simply has some sort of workaround built in by Google to allow them to make the UX slightly better on their own site. The optics on that are potentially terrible. The dominant browser from the dominant search engine company deliberately breaks a standard it enforces elsewhere only on its own sites. Ouch.
    - zerocrates 7y ago
      Copy/paste on Docs at least used to be a feature you got from installing an extension or "app" in Chrome... I think maybe that now is preinstalled? (Or I've just had it for so long I don't notice) On the other hand copy from the Docs menubar and custom right-click menu works for me right now in Firefox, with no addons that I'm aware of, so maybe this whole discussion is outdated.
      - AlphaWeaver 7y ago
        It didn't use to be possible to manipulate the clipboard at all using Javascript, so sites would embed tiny flash applets to make "Copy to Clipboard" buttons. Now it is possible to copy text to the clipboard using the HTML5 Clipboard API [0], (I think it might still have to be triggered based on a user input event, but I'm not positive), but reading the clipboard is still not possible, for the aforementioned security reasons. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Clipboard_API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Clipboard_A...

applecrazy 7y ago

What are you talking about? Google Docs works perfectly fine in Firefox. What issues exist?

cknoxrun 7y ago

Drive works fine for me in Safari (other than using an unreasonable amount of CPU). It sure beats installing drive sync or whatever it is called.

lutoma 7y ago

My main annoyance is that all Google apps on iOS will refuse to open links in Firefox, but offer options to set Safari or Chrome as default browser…

dmitriid 7y ago
And they never retain the choice for those options for long. I’ve lost count of how many times I clicked “use Safari”.

rchaud 7y ago

On OSX, Firefox and Google Drive work fine, but Gmail is a whole other kettle of fish. I don't know what UI change they implemented last year or so, but it is nearly unusable on Firefox, from absurdly long load times, to a 2-3 second wait for contextual options to appear when you right click. Switched to ProtonMail's free tier and will gradually migrate everything there aside from newsletter and software beta signups. Those emails are mostly trash anyway.

RandomGuyDTB 7y ago
You can change email forwarding in Gmail to forward everything to the Protonmail. That's how I initially transferred. A year and still changing email addresses, I have a ton of accounts to go.
- rchaud 7y ago
  The free tier has 500MB storage, so this gives me a chance to think about what's worth migrating and what's not.

avierax 7y ago

Yet it's easy to just keep a chromium installation for Google docs and Gmail and do everything else in Firefox.