4 ms·

What faults to you find in Firefox, when compared to Chrome? I switched a year ago and I was emotionally prepared to fight a rough battle with problematic webs

What faults to you find in Firefox, when compared to Chrome? I switched a year ago and I was emotionally prepared to fight a rough battle with problematic websites, incompatible apps and so on. I was very positively surprised. The only major PITA was the fact that I had to define MIME types for downloadable documents that I wanted to save by default - the usual box "remember this option" was missing for .mkv and the like. So far, this was the only major complaint on my part. Everything else was very positive, especially the containers, no forced Google logins everywhere, the availability of extensions that Google doesn't like (like Ad Nauseam) and so on. I wouldn't go back even if someone paid me (OK let's be honest: I'd do it if I was paid more than €1000 a year).

loudtieblahblah 5y ago
Breaking Addons to be more compliant with a standard between other browsers - making things like TabTreeStyles not work. Putting ads in the address bar: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-search-ads-browser https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-... Recording what you type in the address bar: https://today.in-24.com/technology/450296.html https://today.in-24.com/technology/450296.html Putting ads on the New Tab Page: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/31/firefox-with-ads-on-new-tab-page/ https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/31/firefox-with-ads-on-new-ta... Randomly installing Addons for people: https://itsfoss.com/firefox-looking-glass-controversy/ https://itsfoss.com/firefox-looking-glass-controversy/ Some times installing addons without permission to promote TV Shows: https://gizmodo.com/mozilla-slipped-a-mr-robot-promo-plugin-into-firefox-1821332254 https://gizmodo.com/mozilla-slipped-a-mr-robot-promo-plugin-... They last 5-6 years, Mozilla has made a number of baffling decisions. And most of their advancements just seem to be very 'me too, me too!' as they chase design decisions made by Google.
- handrous 5y ago
  FF's behavior over the last decade or so makes it seem like about three different and totally unrelated factions/departments/people that should never have been given any power have been given lots of power.
  - gjvc 5y ago
    This is known as "shipping the org chart", aka Conway's Law.
- tehbeard 5y ago
  Don't forget firing the Servo team and cutting funding / support to MDN while execs. and middle management got a pay rise..
- r00fus 5y ago
  You can turn off all this nonsense. Most of these mis-steps have been mitigated. Never going back to Chrome - even though I'm forced to use Google apps @ work, and it has noted incompatibilities with FF.
- gibspaulding 5y ago
  These are valid complaints; frankly Mozilla hasn't been the steward that I would like for them to be, but I really struggle to understand how these are enough to make someone switch to Chrome. They're all things that make FireFox less better, but surely not worse? The auto-installed addons thing was a bit of a fiasco (though one which didn't affect me), but things like advertising or extension support are still worlds better in FireFox than on Chrome.
  - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
    Yeah, I have the same feeling. Chrome feels like a carefully planned campaign of tricks to enter every aspect of your life and make it controlled by Google. Facebook feels like a browser with occasional frantic episodes of random folks having an idea "let's make money on $this" (where $this is so stupid you can't believe it), and the usually it disappears and another person has another equally brilliant idea. Not ideal, but I can live with that, it doesn't even come close to what Google is doing. And each year they go further.
  - loudtieblahblah 5y ago
    oh i'm not switching to Chrome. FF is still my main driver. but boy has it made Brave more attractive. I just feel like Mozilla has a very "Democratic Party" attitude. They do really stupid shit that no one likes and stares you square in the eye and says "what are you gonna do about it - vote for the other guy?" and it's super frustrating.
crocodiletears 5y ago
Firefox's greatest fault is Mozilla. They reinvent the UI every couple years, and seem hell-bent on stripping away power-user features. They also managed to ruin their privacy-oriented Firefox focus browser on mobile, by making it redirect website links to compatible apps - completely butchering its only use case as a private browser that lets you be online without any permanent sessions
- loudtieblahblah 5y ago
  >by making it redirect website links to compatible apps You can turn this off
  - crocodiletears 5y ago
    Perhaps they updated it since, but this wasn't the case on focus two or three months ago. After a lot of googling, I could find other people mentionining the same issue but no solution. Ultimately I rolled back my installation to a previous build, and have refused to update it since. I'll give the latest build a try on my backup phone.

loudtieblahblah 5y ago

Breaking Addons to be more compliant with a standard between other browsers - making things like TabTreeStyles not work. Putting ads in the address bar: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-search-ads-browser https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-suggest-... Recording what you type in the address bar: https://today.in-24.com/technology/450296.html https://today.in-24.com/technology/450296.html Putting ads on the New Tab Page: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/31/firefox-with-ads-on-new-tab-page/ https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/31/firefox-with-ads-on-new-ta... Randomly installing Addons for people: https://itsfoss.com/firefox-looking-glass-controversy/ https://itsfoss.com/firefox-looking-glass-controversy/ Some times installing addons without permission to promote TV Shows: https://gizmodo.com/mozilla-slipped-a-mr-robot-promo-plugin-into-firefox-1821332254 https://gizmodo.com/mozilla-slipped-a-mr-robot-promo-plugin-... They last 5-6 years, Mozilla has made a number of baffling decisions. And most of their advancements just seem to be very 'me too, me too!' as they chase design decisions made by Google.

handrous 5y ago
FF's behavior over the last decade or so makes it seem like about three different and totally unrelated factions/departments/people that should never have been given any power have been given lots of power.
- gjvc 5y ago
  This is known as "shipping the org chart", aka Conway's Law.
tehbeard 5y ago
Don't forget firing the Servo team and cutting funding / support to MDN while execs. and middle management got a pay rise..
r00fus 5y ago
You can turn off all this nonsense. Most of these mis-steps have been mitigated. Never going back to Chrome - even though I'm forced to use Google apps @ work, and it has noted incompatibilities with FF.
gibspaulding 5y ago
These are valid complaints; frankly Mozilla hasn't been the steward that I would like for them to be, but I really struggle to understand how these are enough to make someone switch to Chrome. They're all things that make FireFox less better, but surely not worse? The auto-installed addons thing was a bit of a fiasco (though one which didn't affect me), but things like advertising or extension support are still worlds better in FireFox than on Chrome.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  Yeah, I have the same feeling. Chrome feels like a carefully planned campaign of tricks to enter every aspect of your life and make it controlled by Google. Facebook feels like a browser with occasional frantic episodes of random folks having an idea "let's make money on $this" (where $this is so stupid you can't believe it), and the usually it disappears and another person has another equally brilliant idea. Not ideal, but I can live with that, it doesn't even come close to what Google is doing. And each year they go further.
- loudtieblahblah 5y ago
  oh i'm not switching to Chrome. FF is still my main driver. but boy has it made Brave more attractive. I just feel like Mozilla has a very "Democratic Party" attitude. They do really stupid shit that no one likes and stares you square in the eye and says "what are you gonna do about it - vote for the other guy?" and it's super frustrating.

crocodiletears 5y ago

Firefox's greatest fault is Mozilla. They reinvent the UI every couple years, and seem hell-bent on stripping away power-user features. They also managed to ruin their privacy-oriented Firefox focus browser on mobile, by making it redirect website links to compatible apps - completely butchering its only use case as a private browser that lets you be online without any permanent sessions

loudtieblahblah 5y ago
>by making it redirect website links to compatible apps You can turn this off
- crocodiletears 5y ago
  Perhaps they updated it since, but this wasn't the case on focus two or three months ago. After a lot of googling, I could find other people mentionining the same issue but no solution. Ultimately I rolled back my installation to a previous build, and have refused to update it since. I'll give the latest build a try on my backup phone.