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Firefox is the best browser in many respects. But even if it wasn’t. Even if it was missing extensions, used all my RAM and chewed my CPU, I would still choose

Firefox is the best browser in many respects. But even if it wasn’t. Even if it was missing extensions, used all my RAM and chewed my CPU, I would still choose it over Chrome. Because using a browser from the world’s biggest advertiser is wrong on principle. And using an ad blocker (I don’t use one) while using a browser made by an advertiser is next level cognitive dissonance.

mrits 4y ago
It is literally not cognitive dissonance.
- haswell 4y ago
  It would be helpful to share an argument supporting your assertion if the goal is to help people understand and/or agree with your position. If you consider a simplified definition of cognitive dissonance that goes something like “thoughts or actions that do not match your beliefs or values”, then the behavior described by the parent comment could be cognitive dissonance, but probably only if certain things are true: - The person understands the nature of Google’s business - The person believes that using Chrome still benefits Google even when anti-tracking extensions are installed That said, the people who understand enough to be categorized as such are not the average Chrome user. The average user is not experiencing cognitive dissonance, they just don’t know any better.
dontcontactme 4y ago
I think most people use an adblocker to avoid seeing ads, not privacy. Most people (myself included) care more about saving time on YouTube videos and making webpages not have pop ups all over the place than privacy.
- feanaro 4y ago
  That's a pretty big assumption. I'd say my motivation is exactly the reverse of that.
  - haswell 4y ago
    > I think most people > I'd say my motivation I’d be careful not to generalize your own experience here. Just the fact that we are having this conversation on HN puts us in a bubble that is not representative of “most people”. My motivation is privacy. The motivation of many people I know is “ads are super annoying”. Privacy awareness is growing, but most people are not as aware as the people on this thread.
    - feanaro 4y ago
      This works both ways, and I'm warning of generalizing in the other direction based on an assumption of what is "normal among normal people".
deleted 4y ago
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philsnow 4y ago
> using a browser from the world’s biggest advertiser is wrong on principle Spot on. As said many many times, the browser is the new OS. If Google wowed the world and introduced a free (beer or speech, doesn't matter) Windows-killer OS[0] that was better in every way than Windows, was Windows-compatible, tons of people would use it. You and I wouldn't. [0] I do know about ChromeOS, yes
charcircuit 4y ago
Mozilla is an advertiser too. You shouldn't use their browser either then.

mrits 4y ago

It is literally not cognitive dissonance.

haswell 4y ago
It would be helpful to share an argument supporting your assertion if the goal is to help people understand and/or agree with your position. If you consider a simplified definition of cognitive dissonance that goes something like “thoughts or actions that do not match your beliefs or values”, then the behavior described by the parent comment could be cognitive dissonance, but probably only if certain things are true: - The person understands the nature of Google’s business - The person believes that using Chrome still benefits Google even when anti-tracking extensions are installed That said, the people who understand enough to be categorized as such are not the average Chrome user. The average user is not experiencing cognitive dissonance, they just don’t know any better.

dontcontactme 4y ago

I think most people use an adblocker to avoid seeing ads, not privacy. Most people (myself included) care more about saving time on YouTube videos and making webpages not have pop ups all over the place than privacy.

feanaro 4y ago
That's a pretty big assumption. I'd say my motivation is exactly the reverse of that.
- haswell 4y ago
  > I think most people > I'd say my motivation I’d be careful not to generalize your own experience here. Just the fact that we are having this conversation on HN puts us in a bubble that is not representative of “most people”. My motivation is privacy. The motivation of many people I know is “ads are super annoying”. Privacy awareness is growing, but most people are not as aware as the people on this thread.
  - feanaro 4y ago
    This works both ways, and I'm warning of generalizing in the other direction based on an assumption of what is "normal among normal people".

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

philsnow 4y ago

> using a browser from the world’s biggest advertiser is wrong on principle Spot on. As said many many times, the browser is the new OS. If Google wowed the world and introduced a free (beer or speech, doesn't matter) Windows-killer OS[0] that was better in every way than Windows, was Windows-compatible, tons of people would use it. You and I wouldn't. [0] I do know about ChromeOS, yes

charcircuit 4y ago

Mozilla is an advertiser too. You shouldn't use their browser either then.