6 ms·

A lot of things don't work on Firefox, or work worse. If you are against Google pushing their "evil" stuff on people -- not just you, but all people -- well,

A lot of things don't work on Firefox, or work worse. If you are against Google pushing their "evil" stuff on people -- not just you, but all people -- well, Google thinks they can get away with that because people consider their browser better (or those people are just more comfortable with Chrome). Stuff like this, i.e. more options for people, is actually very helpful in reigning Google in a bit. Other Chromium based browsers such as Edge or Brave help as well. BTW, my personal pet peeve with Firefox is lack of MIDI support, but there are lots of other things. I like that I can search Google by voice in Chrome, and my 6 year old loves that especially. (I don't know if ungoogled-chromium can do that though) I like the way you can grab tabs and drag them around and you know where they will go with Chrome before you drop them. (I have several monitors so this is a many-times-a-day thing for me and it feels awful in Firefox, comparatively). And I hate the ads and recommended sites on the "new tab" page.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sixothree 6y ago
It's not clear what does not work for you. Firefox has robust tab dragging. You can drag tabs all around. You can select multiple tabs and drag all of those.
- ShorsHammer 6y ago
  Some google products have a worse experience with FF. Some websites straight up tell you to use chrome instead. Not saying it's right, just saying there's certainly a tradeoff. Firefox has made claims before about changes that specifically affect firefox performance: https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/mozilla-claims-google-has-made-youtube-perform-worse-on-edge-and-firefox https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/mozilla-claims-google-has-...
- robbrown451 6y ago
  Yes but it doesn't work the same, you don't know what it is going to do until it does it. Try it on Chrome. It's a way more polished UI that gives you a dynamic preview. Makes a big difference especially on multiple monitors. As for the other things (MIDI etc), is there any confusion?
  - sixothree 6y ago
    As far as midi goes, that seems like a feature that is not implemented which is different from not working. That's like saying PDF isn't working in Chrome...
adventured 6y ago
> And I hate the ads and recommended sites on the "new tab" page. I don't understand that one, my new tab page is blank on FF, it's nothing more than a setting. Under Options > Home, select "Blank Page" for "New tabs" and for "Homepage and new windows" That should do it. You can also optionally uncheck content in the "Firefox Home Content" section.
- esperent 6y ago
  This should be the default setting, however. Unless I opt-in to see the recommended sites, I don't want to see them. On the other hand, Chrome on mobile does this too and there's no setting at all to turn it off.
  - adventured 6y ago
    I agree. They also have bad defaults (on a fresh install) under the "Firefox Data Collection and Use" section. All of that should be unchecked by default, users should have to opt-in - perhaps with a confirmation - to all data collection.
    - AsyncAwait 6y ago
      They do however at least tell you to go configure telemetry on a fresh install.
  - AsyncAwait 6y ago
    Agree it should be the default, but it's worth noting that Firefox does it all on device & doesn't send your data off to generate the recommendations.
hart_russell 6y ago
I’ve used Firefox as my daily driver for over 5 years. I’ve literally never encountered what you’ve described. The only reason I use chrome is to cast video to my Chrome cast
- robbrown451 6y ago
  So I guess you don't use MIDI. I do. (I develop for it too... you simply can't do stuff like this in Firefox, but you can in Chrome, and it's pretty cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6rdmdZnkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6rdmdZnkA ) And I'm sure you've dragged tabs around, maybe you don't care about the different experience, but it's hard to deny you've seen it.
  - vanous 6y ago
    This is very cool. It says 'runs in your browser', maybe change it to 'runs in your Chrome browser'.
    - robbrown451 6y ago
      Thanks. Yeah I know, I tried to have the fewest words possible. Technically it runs in firefox, you just can't do the midi thing. (my daughter hates watching music videos if they don't have the colored notes displayed and making sounds) I also suggest that pink is a color of the rainbow, which is an even worse offense from my point of view. :)
  - waon 6y ago
    People want better browsing experience from their browsers, not a terrific MIDI experience. If you want those, native apps would be a better choice from a technical standpoint.
    - robbrown451 6y ago
      Why are they better? I'm developing for browsers, and it runs amazingly well. I wouldn't know how to build such a thing natively (for one thing, it layers on top of and syncs with music videos), and wouldn't have bothered. There are tons of web apps, games, etc that "people want." Maybe you don't want them, but other people do. Even HackerNews is more than browsing, since you can post to it. I get that some people want their browser to do a very limited subset of the things that a browser like Chrome can do. I don't think that is actually the view of Mozilla, but if it was, and they actually advertised that, I suspect they'd have even lower usership.
cm2187 6y ago
Firefox is pretty good. The only things I miss are small UI things like muting a website rather than a tab, spell checking, and being able to control the privacy settings for a site directly from a tab rather than having to go into settings and inserting a rule by typing the domain. Also video playback can be less smooth occasionally.
- vladvasiliu 6y ago
  Firefox has spell checking [0] built-in. Granted, if you want to use several languages it's possible, but clunky - you have to change it every time. There is also the Language Tool extension [1]. I've discovered this recently and I'm really impressed. I don't use the online service, I run my own server with French and English n-grams and the experience is very good. It auto-detects the language and integrates well in the UI. [0] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-spell-checker https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-sp... [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/languagetool/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/languagetool/
  - nine_k 6y ago
    There is a tool for merging dictionaries (these are aspell dictionaries internally, iirc), and a number of ready-made merged dictionaries, like English + German, English + Russian, etc. I can attest they work well, without the need to switch. I wish transparent multi-language support was built in, though.
  - cm2187 6y ago
    I am litterally typing "happy Birtdhay to my sister!" on an english version of firefox and see no red underlining ("check your spelling as you type" is checked in the settings). The feature must be broken or blocked by adblockers I presume.
- richbradshaw 6y ago
  Zooming on MacOS in Firefox is awful - or least was a few months back when I last checked. It doesn’t smoothly zoom but just bumps font size - complete deal breaker for me.
soraminazuki 6y ago
This is precisely why I use non-Chromium browsers as my daily driver. It's their constant push for non-standard APIs and aggression towards other browsers that doesn't implement their favored APIs that's cementing their dominance. Not having support for Google features shouldn't be a reason not to support other browser engines. Some examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606027 https://twitter.com/Rich_Harris/status/1220412711768666114 https://twitter.com/Rich_Harris/status/1220412711768666114 Some additional rants: > I like that I can search Google by voice in Chrome, Chrome is a blessing for enthusiastic Google users, but not all people feel the same way. > MIDI support More access to HW is the last thing I want from the web at this moment. I'd rather that browser vendors focus on making the privacy footprint smaller, not bigger. > And I hate the ads and recommended sites You're going to see more of those on Chrome when uBo ceases to stop working along with all other manifest V2 extensions.
- robbrown451 6y ago
  >> I like that I can search Google by voice in Chrome, >Chrome is a blessing for enthusiastic Google users, but not all people feel the same way. My six year old isn't so much an enthusiastic Google user, but she sure does like voice search, since it is really the only option. >> MIDI support >More access to HW is the last thing I want from the web at this moment. I'd rather that browser vendors focus on making the privacy footprint smaller, not bigger. I'm not really seeing Chrome suffering from privacy problems coming from MIDI devices. But, you know, if you aren't into making music or learning keyboard or what have you, I guess you wouldn't care about MIDI. It's kind of a big deal to me (and again, 6 year old), so I'd miss it badly. Likewise, if you aren't into videochatting you'd probably be fine if your browser doesn't talk to your webcam or microphone. Etc. Ok. BTW, if the browser doesn't support MIDI, and you want to use MIDI, you need to install native apps. Those are often a bigger threat, need to be made for each platform, etc.
  - waon 6y ago
    I use my browser to read, watch, and listen, as do many others. I have never heard of people creating music with Chrome. Support for MIDI should be the last thing browser vendors should be concerned with right now.
BiteCode_dev 6y ago
We heard those arguments before, when IE6 was a thing. It didn't go well. But I guess we are doomed to repeat mistakes of the past.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

sixothree 6y ago

It's not clear what does not work for you. Firefox has robust tab dragging. You can drag tabs all around. You can select multiple tabs and drag all of those.

ShorsHammer 6y ago
Some google products have a worse experience with FF. Some websites straight up tell you to use chrome instead. Not saying it's right, just saying there's certainly a tradeoff. Firefox has made claims before about changes that specifically affect firefox performance: https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/mozilla-claims-google-has-made-youtube-perform-worse-on-edge-and-firefox https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/mozilla-claims-google-has-...
robbrown451 6y ago
Yes but it doesn't work the same, you don't know what it is going to do until it does it. Try it on Chrome. It's a way more polished UI that gives you a dynamic preview. Makes a big difference especially on multiple monitors. As for the other things (MIDI etc), is there any confusion?
- sixothree 6y ago
  As far as midi goes, that seems like a feature that is not implemented which is different from not working. That's like saying PDF isn't working in Chrome...

adventured 6y ago

> And I hate the ads and recommended sites on the "new tab" page. I don't understand that one, my new tab page is blank on FF, it's nothing more than a setting. Under Options > Home, select "Blank Page" for "New tabs" and for "Homepage and new windows" That should do it. You can also optionally uncheck content in the "Firefox Home Content" section.

esperent 6y ago
This should be the default setting, however. Unless I opt-in to see the recommended sites, I don't want to see them. On the other hand, Chrome on mobile does this too and there's no setting at all to turn it off.
- adventured 6y ago
  I agree. They also have bad defaults (on a fresh install) under the "Firefox Data Collection and Use" section. All of that should be unchecked by default, users should have to opt-in - perhaps with a confirmation - to all data collection.
  - AsyncAwait 6y ago
    They do however at least tell you to go configure telemetry on a fresh install.
- AsyncAwait 6y ago
  Agree it should be the default, but it's worth noting that Firefox does it all on device & doesn't send your data off to generate the recommendations.

hart_russell 6y ago

I’ve used Firefox as my daily driver for over 5 years. I’ve literally never encountered what you’ve described. The only reason I use chrome is to cast video to my Chrome cast

robbrown451 6y ago
So I guess you don't use MIDI. I do. (I develop for it too... you simply can't do stuff like this in Firefox, but you can in Chrome, and it's pretty cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6rdmdZnkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6rdmdZnkA ) And I'm sure you've dragged tabs around, maybe you don't care about the different experience, but it's hard to deny you've seen it.
- vanous 6y ago
  This is very cool. It says 'runs in your browser', maybe change it to 'runs in your Chrome browser'.
  - robbrown451 6y ago
    Thanks. Yeah I know, I tried to have the fewest words possible. Technically it runs in firefox, you just can't do the midi thing. (my daughter hates watching music videos if they don't have the colored notes displayed and making sounds) I also suggest that pink is a color of the rainbow, which is an even worse offense from my point of view. :)
- waon 6y ago
  People want better browsing experience from their browsers, not a terrific MIDI experience. If you want those, native apps would be a better choice from a technical standpoint.
  - robbrown451 6y ago
    Why are they better? I'm developing for browsers, and it runs amazingly well. I wouldn't know how to build such a thing natively (for one thing, it layers on top of and syncs with music videos), and wouldn't have bothered. There are tons of web apps, games, etc that "people want." Maybe you don't want them, but other people do. Even HackerNews is more than browsing, since you can post to it. I get that some people want their browser to do a very limited subset of the things that a browser like Chrome can do. I don't think that is actually the view of Mozilla, but if it was, and they actually advertised that, I suspect they'd have even lower usership.

cm2187 6y ago

Firefox is pretty good. The only things I miss are small UI things like muting a website rather than a tab, spell checking, and being able to control the privacy settings for a site directly from a tab rather than having to go into settings and inserting a rule by typing the domain. Also video playback can be less smooth occasionally.

vladvasiliu 6y ago
Firefox has spell checking [0] built-in. Granted, if you want to use several languages it's possible, but clunky - you have to change it every time. There is also the Language Tool extension [1]. I've discovered this recently and I'm really impressed. I don't use the online service, I run my own server with French and English n-grams and the experience is very good. It auto-detects the language and integrates well in the UI. [0] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-spell-checker https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-firefox-sp... [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/languagetool/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/languagetool/
- nine_k 6y ago
  There is a tool for merging dictionaries (these are aspell dictionaries internally, iirc), and a number of ready-made merged dictionaries, like English + German, English + Russian, etc. I can attest they work well, without the need to switch. I wish transparent multi-language support was built in, though.
- cm2187 6y ago
  I am litterally typing "happy Birtdhay to my sister!" on an english version of firefox and see no red underlining ("check your spelling as you type" is checked in the settings). The feature must be broken or blocked by adblockers I presume.
richbradshaw 6y ago
Zooming on MacOS in Firefox is awful - or least was a few months back when I last checked. It doesn’t smoothly zoom but just bumps font size - complete deal breaker for me.

soraminazuki 6y ago

This is precisely why I use non-Chromium browsers as my daily driver. It's their constant push for non-standard APIs and aggression towards other browsers that doesn't implement their favored APIs that's cementing their dominance. Not having support for Google features shouldn't be a reason not to support other browser engines. Some examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606027 https://twitter.com/Rich_Harris/status/1220412711768666114 https://twitter.com/Rich_Harris/status/1220412711768666114 Some additional rants: > I like that I can search Google by voice in Chrome, Chrome is a blessing for enthusiastic Google users, but not all people feel the same way. > MIDI support More access to HW is the last thing I want from the web at this moment. I'd rather that browser vendors focus on making the privacy footprint smaller, not bigger. > And I hate the ads and recommended sites You're going to see more of those on Chrome when uBo ceases to stop working along with all other manifest V2 extensions.

robbrown451 6y ago
>> I like that I can search Google by voice in Chrome, >Chrome is a blessing for enthusiastic Google users, but not all people feel the same way. My six year old isn't so much an enthusiastic Google user, but she sure does like voice search, since it is really the only option. >> MIDI support >More access to HW is the last thing I want from the web at this moment. I'd rather that browser vendors focus on making the privacy footprint smaller, not bigger. I'm not really seeing Chrome suffering from privacy problems coming from MIDI devices. But, you know, if you aren't into making music or learning keyboard or what have you, I guess you wouldn't care about MIDI. It's kind of a big deal to me (and again, 6 year old), so I'd miss it badly. Likewise, if you aren't into videochatting you'd probably be fine if your browser doesn't talk to your webcam or microphone. Etc. Ok. BTW, if the browser doesn't support MIDI, and you want to use MIDI, you need to install native apps. Those are often a bigger threat, need to be made for each platform, etc.
- waon 6y ago
  I use my browser to read, watch, and listen, as do many others. I have never heard of people creating music with Chrome. Support for MIDI should be the last thing browser vendors should be concerned with right now.

BiteCode_dev 6y ago

We heard those arguments before, when IE6 was a thing. It didn't go well. But I guess we are doomed to repeat mistakes of the past.