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> The advice, or rather the plea, from both Hacker News and Reddit is not to abandon Firefox - but on the other hand there is also mounting evidence that MBNA i

> The advice, or rather the plea, from both Hacker News and Reddit is not to abandon Firefox - but on the other hand there is also mounting evidence that MBNA isn't the only company writing Firefox off. I don't know about this. Almost every thread about Firefox has someone recommending Brave. Firefox is solving a problem users don't know they will miss until it's gone: browser consolidation. The problems that needs solving now are privacy related and Mozilla's absolutely poor management of Firefox on this front causes others to look for other solutions. Firefox should be the most privacy centric browser available. However it doesn't seem like management gets the memo. For example, not too far in the past, they made news for putting ads in the search bar and providing a config option (in about:config) to even allow personalization. This kind of thing just destroys the brand and trust with users. If someone asked me to rank browsers based on privacy, I don't think I could give you a rank order, other than the fact that Chrome (and I'm assuming IE) would be near the bottom.

tablespoon 4y ago
> Firefox should be the most privacy centric browser available. They could also be the most power-user browser available. Unfortunately, it seems like they've gotten absolutely high off of telemetry, and seem like they're just itching to cut features and break things. They need to stop thinking like they're some lowest-common-denominator browser. That's Chrome, and nothing is going to change that in the short or medium term.
JohnFen 4y ago
> Firefox is solving a problem users don't know they will miss until it's gone: browser consolidation. This is what kept me using Firefox long past the point where it became unpleasant to use. Last year, I finally gave up and switched to Brave. I don't love Brave, but there isn't a lot of viable options anymore. I tried sticking with Firefox, I really did. I'd been using Firefox from way back in day 1. But, in the end, it just stopped being a good browser for me and all of the changes Mozilla made just kept making it worse.
doopy1 4y ago
Why is browser consolidation such a big problem? If the current market leader starts to fall behind, then whoever does it better will gain adoption. Isn't this how Chrome grew a following?
- Fatnino 4y ago
  You must not have been around for the ie6 days. Browsers consolidated down to basically one and then that one just sat and didn't advance anymore. And why should it? It's not like users could go elsewhere. For years the world was subjected to the absolute crap that ie6 ossified on and wouldn't fix. We need viable competition to keep a fire lit under the leader to stay ahead.
  - solar-ice 4y ago
    Scarier is that Google controls Chrome/Blink and will continue to push "features" that make the web better for Google, not better for users. Mozilla are one of very, very few organisations that are in a position to push back against this at standards bodies - and for all the flak they get, they regularly do.
  - zamadatix 4y ago
    I don't think the problem with IE was necessarily consolidation as much as letting Microsoft be the only ones with the ability to modify or extend the engine. In my mind there would be nothing wrong with Mozilla joining Microsoft in basing their browser on Blink+V8. In fact it might even be a better way to ensure Google can't steer Chrome the same way Microsoft did since no matter how great they make it the competition will always be dragged along with it, there to become the better drop in option should Google decide to stop leading the push.
    - pathartl 4y ago
      Honestly using Edge has been a great experience for me. When they adopted Chromium over sticking with _another_ browser engine I was happy. MS has contributed a great amount to the Chromium project so far and I really don't think there's an issue with standardizing on an engine as long as innovations can still happen. It seems like being able to have vendor skins on top of Chromium has been a net positive in light of what's happened in the past. I'm a bit of a Microsoft shill as of late so take my experiences with a grain of salt.
danjoredd 4y ago
Librifox is where it is all at
largepeepee 4y ago
>Firefox is solving a problem users don't know they will miss until it's gone: browser consolidation Exactly why Google is effectively funding Mozilla. They need to keep firefox alive to avoid Monopoly status.
guywithahat 4y ago
The irony is the CEO of Brave (Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and a founder of the firefox foundation) was briefly the CEO of firefox before he got pushed out in a power struggle and these power struggles have continued to plague firefox, preventing them from doing anything worthwhile I think a good solution though is to let a better organization like Brave grow, and if we need to create a new competing web engine let them fork it when the time comes

tablespoon 4y ago

> Firefox should be the most privacy centric browser available. They could also be the most power-user browser available. Unfortunately, it seems like they've gotten absolutely high off of telemetry, and seem like they're just itching to cut features and break things. They need to stop thinking like they're some lowest-common-denominator browser. That's Chrome, and nothing is going to change that in the short or medium term.

JohnFen 4y ago

> Firefox is solving a problem users don't know they will miss until it's gone: browser consolidation. This is what kept me using Firefox long past the point where it became unpleasant to use. Last year, I finally gave up and switched to Brave. I don't love Brave, but there isn't a lot of viable options anymore. I tried sticking with Firefox, I really did. I'd been using Firefox from way back in day 1. But, in the end, it just stopped being a good browser for me and all of the changes Mozilla made just kept making it worse.

doopy1 4y ago

Why is browser consolidation such a big problem? If the current market leader starts to fall behind, then whoever does it better will gain adoption. Isn't this how Chrome grew a following?

Fatnino 4y ago
You must not have been around for the ie6 days. Browsers consolidated down to basically one and then that one just sat and didn't advance anymore. And why should it? It's not like users could go elsewhere. For years the world was subjected to the absolute crap that ie6 ossified on and wouldn't fix. We need viable competition to keep a fire lit under the leader to stay ahead.
- solar-ice 4y ago
  Scarier is that Google controls Chrome/Blink and will continue to push "features" that make the web better for Google, not better for users. Mozilla are one of very, very few organisations that are in a position to push back against this at standards bodies - and for all the flak they get, they regularly do.
- zamadatix 4y ago
  I don't think the problem with IE was necessarily consolidation as much as letting Microsoft be the only ones with the ability to modify or extend the engine. In my mind there would be nothing wrong with Mozilla joining Microsoft in basing their browser on Blink+V8. In fact it might even be a better way to ensure Google can't steer Chrome the same way Microsoft did since no matter how great they make it the competition will always be dragged along with it, there to become the better drop in option should Google decide to stop leading the push.
  - pathartl 4y ago
    Honestly using Edge has been a great experience for me. When they adopted Chromium over sticking with _another_ browser engine I was happy. MS has contributed a great amount to the Chromium project so far and I really don't think there's an issue with standardizing on an engine as long as innovations can still happen. It seems like being able to have vendor skins on top of Chromium has been a net positive in light of what's happened in the past. I'm a bit of a Microsoft shill as of late so take my experiences with a grain of salt.

danjoredd 4y ago

Librifox is where it is all at

largepeepee 4y ago

>Firefox is solving a problem users don't know they will miss until it's gone: browser consolidation Exactly why Google is effectively funding Mozilla. They need to keep firefox alive to avoid Monopoly status.

guywithahat 4y ago

The irony is the CEO of Brave (Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and a founder of the firefox foundation) was briefly the CEO of firefox before he got pushed out in a power struggle and these power struggles have continued to plague firefox, preventing them from doing anything worthwhile I think a good solution though is to let a better organization like Brave grow, and if we need to create a new competing web engine let them fork it when the time comes