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Sure. Firefox doesn't work with acceptable universality first and foremost, I'd never use Firefox to take an online test at University for example because the o
by djdeusudufy 7y ago
Sure. Firefox doesn't work with acceptable universality first and foremost, I'd never use Firefox to take an online test at University for example because the one in a million chance it has a hiccup isn't worth the risk when using Chrome or Edge is riskless. The way that situation arise may not be Mozilla's fault but it doesn't change the reality. There are ways to make Firefox more reliable in terms of hiccups on websites but we're past the point of asking users to do extra work being acceptable if they're not your employee.
Perhaps relatedly, Firefox's features for syncing across devices are unappealing because there aren't terribly many Mozilla products that I care about whereas most people have a Gmail and many also have Microsoft accounts. I can't imagine the circumstance that would lead me to have a Mozilla account already and so it's just one more thing to have to think about in an ecosystem where I have other options.
Extension support is stronger in Firefox but most users aren't heavy extension users and if they are it's probably an adblocker. Ad-blocking is a lot less special now since most of the competing browser's have acceptable adblock options whereas once upon a time Firefox was the only choice if you wanted a not awful internet experience.
Edge pays you to use it, Brave does this too but have yet to see the growth of Edge yet I feel it's worth acknowledging because this might just be the cost of trying to genuinely compete with Chrome. Chrome doesn't pay but it has little reason to since it's Chrome.
Finally, Firefox's mobile browser is terrible. Chrome is similarly terrible in terms of UI but Edge and Brave are light-years ahead in terms of having a layout suitable for a mobile device. It's worth noting this might change in the future since Firefox Lite and Firefox Focus both have much better UIs for mobile than the flagship mobile browser but until the flagship catches up those are just novelties for alternate markets.
I'm sure Firefox is still the 'ethical' browser and it runs fine for non-critical web usage, but the market is past that being enough to make a web browser stand out in the mainstream. Nobody wants to manage two web browsers when they could make due with one and so it makes the most sense to just use the critical task browser for eveything. Related to this, most people don't have the extreme outlook on browser ethics that the privacy movement does and so Firefox doesn't offer them anything in that regard anyway. It flies on hacker news to handwave this part as a matter of normies just not knowing better (informed consent arguments) but the reality is that no one has made a convincing argument for demonstrating how all of this is actually damaging the mainstream users and the topics are old enough that there's been plenty of time to come up with persuasive arguments
Summarized, Firefox's strengths are things that mainly appeal to particular ideologies. For people who don't share those ideologies it doesn't offer anything over the other browsers and I've seen little that suggests Firefox will be able to overcome this hurdle since its identity these days is built on being the private/ethical browser.
- rumanator 7y ago> I'd never use Firefox to take an online test at University for example because the one in a million chance it has a hiccup isn't worth the risk You're not complaining about Firefox. You're complaining about how the guys who developed the online test failed to put together a standard-compliang app, and instead opted to develop a bug-ridden platform-specific web app. This argument is a tired old throwback from the 90s internet. Have people learned nothing?
- djdeusudufy 7y agoWhether Mozilla or the test designers are at fault does not change the situation as it stands. You can call the argument tired if you want but that doesn't suddenly imbue Firefox with more compatibility compared to their Chromium competitors.
- peschu 7y agoSorry to say that, but...you use a lot of words and in the end you say nothing... Some points are just personal preference (like mobile UI) and ecosystem(I really like the function to send a tab to my mobile...can't remember that chrome had it at least I never used it in chrome) And other points are just wrong/not true ... or missing proof for your strange assumptions...
- djdeusudufy 7y agoMobile UI is far from preference in the browser examples I used. Menus and interactive elements at the top of the screen are holdovers from the desktop. Bottom screen menus are vastly easier for exclusive thumb use. Considering that both Focus and Lite adhere to this, I suspect Mozilla knows it as well.
- rumanator 7y agoAt best your complains boil down to subjective and highly exaggerated and outright nonsense nitpicking. The only thing that Firefox mobile has at the top of the screen are the URL bar, which automatically hides when the user scrolls down, and a couple of buttons piggy backing to save on screen real estate. And complaining about these UI elements in Firefox mobile while boasting Chrome mobile as the best is something that makes absolutely zero sense, as Chrome mobile has the exact same UI elements at the exact same position. It seems you are desperate to both find reasons to criticize and justify your complains at a rational and factual level.