4 ms·

I use Firefox personally and originally made the thing for myself. I added Chrome support because Chrome is much more popular (not far from ten times more popul

I use Firefox personally and originally made the thing for myself. I added Chrome support because Chrome is much more popular (not far from ten times more popular these days :() and people I would like to use this, eg friends and family, mostly use Chrome. I couldn't ask them to switch browsers for my little side project. I have to co-operate with Google's bureaucracy. For what it's worth, so far it seems like Mozilla is not exactly streets ahead, but at least they didn't charge me and they seem to be fairer and more helpful to extension developers (they have a "self-distribution" mode with relaxed oversight I used while in private alpha, and their tools and docs are better).

IggleSniggle 6y ago
I think it would be perfectly reasonable to promote Firefox to your friends and family as "simply the better choice" irrespective of your own interests. When Chrome was better, I suggested friends and family use Chrome. Now I think most people would benefit from using Firefox as their primary driver.
- CathedralBorrow 6y ago
  Are you including the change cost here, which will be many times higher for most of the population vs. HN? Even if I thought that Firefox was a better choice, I'd recommend to my friends and family to keep using whatever they are using unless they have to switch for some reason.
  - chris_wot 6y ago
    What, precisely, is the cost?
    - Larrikin 6y ago
      Lazy web devs that only test in Chrome and maybe safari that constantly break things in other browsers. I don't mind sending the angry support email and using chrome for a single task here and there but others might.
      - adrianN 6y ago
        I never used Chrome and never encountered a website that didn't work on Firefox. I think this concern is a bit overblown.
        Larrikin 6y ago
        Bank of America didn't work for the better part of last year. Chase Rewards are currently broken since last week. Its easy to drop small sites that don't test but my experience has been they actually bother testing and it's the major sites that actually have problems.
        thejynxed 6y ago
        I've had Firefox fail to work properly on the sites of Slashdot, Amazon, Newegg, Chase, BoA, GE, Walmart, the IRS, PennDOT, Mozilla's own org site, WaPo, NPR, Fox, Disney, and a whole host of others.
    - CathedralBorrow 6y ago
      Effort, time, unlearning workflows and re-learning them in Firefox, etc. Switching costs would probably have been a better term to use.
RonanTheGrey 6y ago
I got my retired mother to switch to Firefox without her hardly noticing the difference. And she's happier now that she gets fewer ads. I think we as developers overestimate the resistance to switching.
- sensible123 6y ago
  I think this is because programmers have very specific and personalized workflows for all the tools they use so they assume other people are the same way when in reality a browser for most people is just a tool to get what they want.

IggleSniggle 6y ago

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to promote Firefox to your friends and family as "simply the better choice" irrespective of your own interests. When Chrome was better, I suggested friends and family use Chrome. Now I think most people would benefit from using Firefox as their primary driver.

CathedralBorrow 6y ago
Are you including the change cost here, which will be many times higher for most of the population vs. HN? Even if I thought that Firefox was a better choice, I'd recommend to my friends and family to keep using whatever they are using unless they have to switch for some reason.
- chris_wot 6y ago
  What, precisely, is the cost?
  - Larrikin 6y ago
    Lazy web devs that only test in Chrome and maybe safari that constantly break things in other browsers. I don't mind sending the angry support email and using chrome for a single task here and there but others might.
    - adrianN 6y ago
      I never used Chrome and never encountered a website that didn't work on Firefox. I think this concern is a bit overblown.
      - Larrikin 6y ago
        Bank of America didn't work for the better part of last year. Chase Rewards are currently broken since last week. Its easy to drop small sites that don't test but my experience has been they actually bother testing and it's the major sites that actually have problems.
        thejynxed 6y ago
        I've had Firefox fail to work properly on the sites of Slashdot, Amazon, Newegg, Chase, BoA, GE, Walmart, the IRS, PennDOT, Mozilla's own org site, WaPo, NPR, Fox, Disney, and a whole host of others.
  - CathedralBorrow 6y ago
    Effort, time, unlearning workflows and re-learning them in Firefox, etc. Switching costs would probably have been a better term to use.

RonanTheGrey 6y ago

I got my retired mother to switch to Firefox without her hardly noticing the difference. And she's happier now that she gets fewer ads. I think we as developers overestimate the resistance to switching.

sensible123 6y ago
I think this is because programmers have very specific and personalized workflows for all the tools they use so they assume other people are the same way when in reality a browser for most people is just a tool to get what they want.