3 ms·

Why Mozilla's layoffs and Google deal made me rethink my browser of choice

9 points by JadoJodo 6y ago

JadoJodo 6y ago
Genuinely curious what other HNers think. I've been a Firefox user for 10+ years and am not happy about the Chromium market-share, Google's stance on adblockers (e.g. uBlock Origin), etc. but it does feel like a losing battle.
- ethbr0 6y ago
  As another longtime Firefox user (since Thunderbird actually being a product days), I'd say Mozilla-the-company has been shooting themselves in the foot in the same way as Wikimedia or OpenOffice. By abstracting away market pressure and substituting an unaccountable org structure, they've successfully eliminated any incentive to respond to actual user desires. Consequently, the project has been rudderless from a strategic perspective for years now.
  - jrnichols 6y ago
    Honestly it is Thunderbird which I am most concerned about losing in all of this. Google & Gmail have done untold damage to what we know as email.
    - toomuchtodo 6y ago
      Thunderbird was carved off, going so far as to have the supporting infra separated from Mozilla. Should be safe.
- pmontra 6y ago
  I'm staying on Firefox until it becomes unbearable, which could never happen. I switched from Netscape to IE at the end of the 90s when IE 5 became the gold standard and vastly superior to Netscape. Then switched to Firefox which was vastly superior to IE. Chrome/ium is not so much better than Firefox to switch. In some ways it's the other way around. By the way I also use Vivaldi for those sites that work better in Chromium. A customer of mine has its infrastructure on the cloud of Google and both the console and the documentation work better there (surprise /s) but I'm writing this on an Android phone with Firefox.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  I think that it is a loosing battle and with the exception of Safari, ChromeOS has own. Ironically, even though they lost PNaCL to asm.js/WebAssembly, even those features are arriving first in Chrome. Still, Firefox is my browser of choice.
- floatingatoll 6y ago
  Discussed two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702
- jrnichols 6y ago
  I'm a huge Apple fanboy, and I sometimes forget that the Safari marketshare includes iPhone and iPad too. I use Safari on my Macs as the #1 browser. Not having uBlock Origin is alleviated by ka-block + pi-hole. (Also I think Apple is changing how plugins work, so maybe we'll see ublock origin after all.) Second is Firefox, which I use for compatibility with some school stuff. Third I'll use Microsoft Edge for the occasional thing that just doesn't work right in the other two. This is a rare occurrence nowadays for me.
- ravedave5 6y ago
  I switched to firefox about a year ago and I love it. I have no issues with it, other than some websites think I am using an adblocker.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
fsflover 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702

9 points by JadoJodo 6y ago

Genuinely curious what other HNers think. I've been a Firefox user for 10+ years and am not happy about the Chromium market-share, Google's stance on adblockers (e.g. uBlock Origin), etc. but it does feel like a losing battle.

ethbr0 6y ago
As another longtime Firefox user (since Thunderbird actually being a product days), I'd say Mozilla-the-company has been shooting themselves in the foot in the same way as Wikimedia or OpenOffice. By abstracting away market pressure and substituting an unaccountable org structure, they've successfully eliminated any incentive to respond to actual user desires. Consequently, the project has been rudderless from a strategic perspective for years now.
- jrnichols 6y ago
  Honestly it is Thunderbird which I am most concerned about losing in all of this. Google & Gmail have done untold damage to what we know as email.
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
    Thunderbird was carved off, going so far as to have the supporting infra separated from Mozilla. Should be safe.
pmontra 6y ago
I'm staying on Firefox until it becomes unbearable, which could never happen. I switched from Netscape to IE at the end of the 90s when IE 5 became the gold standard and vastly superior to Netscape. Then switched to Firefox which was vastly superior to IE. Chrome/ium is not so much better than Firefox to switch. In some ways it's the other way around. By the way I also use Vivaldi for those sites that work better in Chromium. A customer of mine has its infrastructure on the cloud of Google and both the console and the documentation work better there (surprise /s) but I'm writing this on an Android phone with Firefox.
pjmlp 6y ago
I think that it is a loosing battle and with the exception of Safari, ChromeOS has own. Ironically, even though they lost PNaCL to asm.js/WebAssembly, even those features are arriving first in Chrome. Still, Firefox is my browser of choice.
floatingatoll 6y ago
Discussed two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702
jrnichols 6y ago
I'm a huge Apple fanboy, and I sometimes forget that the Safari marketshare includes iPhone and iPad too. I use Safari on my Macs as the #1 browser. Not having uBlock Origin is alleviated by ka-block + pi-hole. (Also I think Apple is changing how plugins work, so maybe we'll see ublock origin after all.) Second is Firefox, which I use for compatibility with some school stuff. Third I'll use Microsoft Edge for the occasional thing that just doesn't work right in the other two. This is a rare occurrence nowadays for me.
ravedave5 6y ago
I switched to firefox about a year ago and I love it. I have no issues with it, other than some websites think I am using an adblocker.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

fsflover 6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24220702