5 ms·

It's so sad that it became "acceptable" to not test in Firefox (as estimated by the number of sites I randomly encounter that don't work in FF but do in Chrome)

It's so sad that it became "acceptable" to not test in Firefox (as estimated by the number of sites I randomly encounter that don't work in FF but do in Chrome) right around the time that Firefox Quantum happened and Firefox became good again :(

nmfisher 6y ago
I’ve noticed this too. When I encounter broken behaviour on Firefox, I always try to ping the owner on Twitter with a screenshot.
thinkloop 6y ago
Double-check that your initial privacy excitement during setup isn't the culprit. The couple of times that happened to me (Paypal being one) lowering my "Browser Privacy" setting from "strict" or "custom" back to "standard" fixed the issue. I would be curious to see examples of broken sites if you have em.
- aspenmayer 6y ago
  I feel like I’m using IE in 1995 hearing this comment, but it’s valid. I feel like time is repeating itself. This is one of those tips that never really stop being relevant. The modern equivalent is tuning uBlock Origin, uMatrix, Privacy Badger, or similar products, on top of correctly configuring your browser itself.
chrisweekly 6y ago
Agreed -- but FWIW a fair number of times I've encountered problems using Chrome which disappeared in FF. As a veteran of the original browser wars (circa 1998-2000) I'm grateful standards have come as far as they have -- and to support Moz at the heart of the open web.
3131s 6y ago
Firefox must have performed poorly on Windows / MacOS in the past, because Firefox on Linux was never actually that bad. I've used Firefox for 15+ years now and never had the problems that people talk about.
- abnry 6y ago
  I left Firefox in 2011 because it was unusably slow on my macbook. My recent experience has been that it is much faster and I am considering switching back.
  - mroche 6y ago
    At work we use CentOS, which only houses the ESR builds of FireFox as it fits Red Hat's intentions. I started here a few months ago, and found out that the studio was using Chrome as it's default browser. Turns out they had made the switch during the 57 ESR branch and never bothered to try the browser after, completely unaware of the Quantum project. Since we were having Chrome issues (which were admittedly our fault) I suggested trying FF again (CentOS now shipping with 68 ESR) as I couldn't replicate the issue. A colleague tried FF 77 on a personal laptop and was caught completely off-guard by the sheer performance difference. I'm excited with 78 ESR shipping on the 30th this month, it'll be a fun time getting all of the improvements over the past year!
  - adrianhel 6y ago
    It's the snappiest browser at the moment and I love its render as text function and automatic ad blocking on mobile. I've made a permanent switch on mobile, but I tend to miss the Chrome dev tools whenever I use it on a computer. It's also wonderful that the browser is truly privacy conscious.
    - Timpy 6y ago
      I know productivity takes a hit when you switch tools but FF dev tools are great, it just takes some getting used to
- andai 6y ago
  Tried it again last week. Still slow, I'm afraid, despite Mozilla literally inventing a new kind of programming language to speed it up! A lot of it has to do with design, though. ie. when opening a new window, Chrome draws the window instantly and then fills in the UI, while Firefox waits until the window is completely built to display it. Even though they become usable at roughly the same time, Chrome responds instantly to the command while Firefox exhibits zero sign of life for hundreds of milliseconds.
anonytrary 6y ago
Some businesses are willing to (and sometimes should) take a 30% cut in traffic in order to ship a product more quickly. It's not a company/developer's fault that there are subtle differences between browsers.
- jolmg 6y ago
  Certainly not their fault. What's wrong is that it's possible to get the majority of traffic by developing for a single browser. They should not be sustainable doing that. It should be the case that in order to have sustainable levels of traffic they should develop for the standard. It should be the case that the cut is not 30% but rather 70% or more when compared to developing according to the standard.

nmfisher 6y ago

I’ve noticed this too. When I encounter broken behaviour on Firefox, I always try to ping the owner on Twitter with a screenshot.

thinkloop 6y ago

Double-check that your initial privacy excitement during setup isn't the culprit. The couple of times that happened to me (Paypal being one) lowering my "Browser Privacy" setting from "strict" or "custom" back to "standard" fixed the issue. I would be curious to see examples of broken sites if you have em.

aspenmayer 6y ago
I feel like I’m using IE in 1995 hearing this comment, but it’s valid. I feel like time is repeating itself. This is one of those tips that never really stop being relevant. The modern equivalent is tuning uBlock Origin, uMatrix, Privacy Badger, or similar products, on top of correctly configuring your browser itself.

chrisweekly 6y ago

Agreed -- but FWIW a fair number of times I've encountered problems using Chrome which disappeared in FF. As a veteran of the original browser wars (circa 1998-2000) I'm grateful standards have come as far as they have -- and to support Moz at the heart of the open web.

3131s 6y ago

Firefox must have performed poorly on Windows / MacOS in the past, because Firefox on Linux was never actually that bad. I've used Firefox for 15+ years now and never had the problems that people talk about.

abnry 6y ago
I left Firefox in 2011 because it was unusably slow on my macbook. My recent experience has been that it is much faster and I am considering switching back.
- mroche 6y ago
  At work we use CentOS, which only houses the ESR builds of FireFox as it fits Red Hat's intentions. I started here a few months ago, and found out that the studio was using Chrome as it's default browser. Turns out they had made the switch during the 57 ESR branch and never bothered to try the browser after, completely unaware of the Quantum project. Since we were having Chrome issues (which were admittedly our fault) I suggested trying FF again (CentOS now shipping with 68 ESR) as I couldn't replicate the issue. A colleague tried FF 77 on a personal laptop and was caught completely off-guard by the sheer performance difference. I'm excited with 78 ESR shipping on the 30th this month, it'll be a fun time getting all of the improvements over the past year!
- adrianhel 6y ago
  It's the snappiest browser at the moment and I love its render as text function and automatic ad blocking on mobile. I've made a permanent switch on mobile, but I tend to miss the Chrome dev tools whenever I use it on a computer. It's also wonderful that the browser is truly privacy conscious.
  - Timpy 6y ago
    I know productivity takes a hit when you switch tools but FF dev tools are great, it just takes some getting used to
andai 6y ago
Tried it again last week. Still slow, I'm afraid, despite Mozilla literally inventing a new kind of programming language to speed it up! A lot of it has to do with design, though. ie. when opening a new window, Chrome draws the window instantly and then fills in the UI, while Firefox waits until the window is completely built to display it. Even though they become usable at roughly the same time, Chrome responds instantly to the command while Firefox exhibits zero sign of life for hundreds of milliseconds.

anonytrary 6y ago

Some businesses are willing to (and sometimes should) take a 30% cut in traffic in order to ship a product more quickly. It's not a company/developer's fault that there are subtle differences between browsers.

jolmg 6y ago
Certainly not their fault. What's wrong is that it's possible to get the majority of traffic by developing for a single browser. They should not be sustainable doing that. It should be the case that in order to have sustainable levels of traffic they should develop for the standard. It should be the case that the cut is not 30% but rather 70% or more when compared to developing according to the standard.