4 ms·

I love firefox and use it avidly, but why does every firefox update keep trending on HN? I'm genuinely curious, most of these updates seem fairly minor

gostsamo 5y ago
Because there they are part of a bigger discussion around the web, chrome, and browser engine diversity. Browsing is a difficult problem and the existing solutions do not satisfy big part of the audience here.
stackbutterflow 5y ago
I love firefox too and I have a different question. Why is the general sentiment negative towards firefox on HN? While other threads are generally anti Google.
- Karunamon 5y ago
  If I had to hazard a guess: - The HN crowd were likely burned the hardest by Mozilla's continued dumbing down of the browser (you'll reliably see complaints about how it seems like new releases always remove or move things needlessly) - Firefox is de facto a Google project. If Google says jump, Mozilla says 'how high' because Google holds them at budgetpoint. - Mozilla's stewardship of Firefox has been abysmal. A history of unforced errors, with a result of a completely irrelevant market share. (While paying a CEO millions to do... what, exactly?) - Talking out of both sides of their mouth wrt. privacy (telemetry, cliqz and hiding it, etc)
  - AnonHP 5y ago
    > Firefox is de facto a Google project. If Google says jump, Mozilla says 'how high' because Google holds them at budgetpoint. Nope. Look at deviations in implementing Manifest v3 as an example.
  - bilkow 5y ago
    Meh, I think all of those points are highly exaggerated by drama, to the point of most of them not even being true. For once, I like most of their decisions (except maybe for the layoffs, but they were arguably needed). Some were unfortunate, but they realized that and fixed them publicly. Everyone makes mistakes.
- foxfluff 5y ago
  I don't believe the general sentiment is negative. It's just that the subset with a negative sentiment are more likely to voice their opinion than those who feel neutral or good about Firefox.
sfink 5y ago
I work on Firefox and have the same question. These release notes in particular didn't really seem to have anything worth commenting on, other than to wonder wtf they mean. And yet, here it is on the front page. It does seem like it's mostly driven by people's desire to complain about Mozilla, defend Firefox, and/or opine about the direction of the web. Which is fine, though it's kind of funny that those discussions get attached to minimal release announcements. (Don't get me wrong; it's sort of gratifying to have one's day job product showing up regularly on HN.)

gostsamo 5y ago

Because there they are part of a bigger discussion around the web, chrome, and browser engine diversity. Browsing is a difficult problem and the existing solutions do not satisfy big part of the audience here.

stackbutterflow 5y ago

I love firefox too and I have a different question. Why is the general sentiment negative towards firefox on HN? While other threads are generally anti Google.

Karunamon 5y ago
If I had to hazard a guess: - The HN crowd were likely burned the hardest by Mozilla's continued dumbing down of the browser (you'll reliably see complaints about how it seems like new releases always remove or move things needlessly) - Firefox is de facto a Google project. If Google says jump, Mozilla says 'how high' because Google holds them at budgetpoint. - Mozilla's stewardship of Firefox has been abysmal. A history of unforced errors, with a result of a completely irrelevant market share. (While paying a CEO millions to do... what, exactly?) - Talking out of both sides of their mouth wrt. privacy (telemetry, cliqz and hiding it, etc)
- AnonHP 5y ago
  > Firefox is de facto a Google project. If Google says jump, Mozilla says 'how high' because Google holds them at budgetpoint. Nope. Look at deviations in implementing Manifest v3 as an example.
- bilkow 5y ago
  Meh, I think all of those points are highly exaggerated by drama, to the point of most of them not even being true. For once, I like most of their decisions (except maybe for the layoffs, but they were arguably needed). Some were unfortunate, but they realized that and fixed them publicly. Everyone makes mistakes.
foxfluff 5y ago
I don't believe the general sentiment is negative. It's just that the subset with a negative sentiment are more likely to voice their opinion than those who feel neutral or good about Firefox.

sfink 5y ago

I work on Firefox and have the same question. These release notes in particular didn't really seem to have anything worth commenting on, other than to wonder wtf they mean. And yet, here it is on the front page. It does seem like it's mostly driven by people's desire to complain about Mozilla, defend Firefox, and/or opine about the direction of the web. Which is fine, though it's kind of funny that those discussions get attached to minimal release announcements. (Don't get me wrong; it's sort of gratifying to have one's day job product showing up regularly on HN.)