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Something has to change. Firefox is a GREAT browser. I think a lot of these things boil down to poor marketing. Things like these have to appear 'cool' and appe

Something has to change. Firefox is a GREAT browser. I think a lot of these things boil down to poor marketing. Things like these have to appear 'cool' and appeal to people. There has to be a reason for people to go out and actively want to download Firefox. Something akin to Apple's privacy adverts is how I'd go about it.

signaru 3y ago
For one, Ubuntu should stop breaking Firefox with Snap, even though I think that is a relatively small user base. (There are some suggested fixes but I think the simplest is to bypass Ubuntu's packages and just download FF directly from Mozilla).
cx42net 3y ago
I absolutely agree with you. Firefox must stay. But. I've been using both Firefox and Brave as my browsers, and Firefox is eating my memory way more than Brave (I have around 60+ tabs open at Brave, and just a few at Firefox). (I'm on Linux Fedora 36 with the latest versions available in the repository). This is why I'm not using it much, but it saddens me.
cx42net 3y ago
When Google Chrome came out, what made it stand out for me was their impressive developer console. This lead developers to switch from IE/Firefox where you had to install a plugin for developers, into using Google Chrome that had a native and more advanced tool for debugging. *For me this is the key*. If you provide a browser that greatly improve the developer's experience, they (the developers) will move to use it, making it the best compatible browser to use, which will then make the rest of the crowd to use it because the overall experience is better there. I just hope the team at Firefox will realize this before Google ...
rumdz 3y ago
I agree. I'm not a Firefox fanboy. It has literally run better for me than Chrome for a few years now.
- laurent123456 3y ago
  I'm always surprised to read claims that Firefox is the same or better than Chrome. I switched to Firefox recently and many sites don't quite work: for example the pull request popup menu on GitHub appears off screen so can't be clicked on; the "new post" panel in Discourse is obstructed by the keyboard; FastMail alert box buttons don't work, and many other such annoyances. It can be used as a main browser but it does have problems. I wouldn't bother with it if it wasn't for the manifest v3 situation
  - cwales95 3y ago
    I use GitHub frequently and have never came across that issue; can't speak for the other sites though. If you're sure it's not the website's fault I'd encourage you to submit feedback: https://webcompat.com/issues/new https://webcompat.com/issues/new
    - laurent123456 3y ago
      There's an open issue about it, so hopefully github should fix it eventually. It's on firefox mobile
      - Murfalo 3y ago
        Firefox mobile is its own beast. I experience a whole host of issues on it, but have never had issues with Firefox on desktop. Only reason I use FF for Android is for uBlock, but it's so unreliable I'm dying for a better option...
        int_19h 3y ago
        These days desktop and mobile is kinda joined at the hip because users expect things like tabs and history to sync. So if Firefox has many problems on mobile to the point where users are actively deterred from using it, that hurts Firefox on the desktop as well.
  - 3y ago
maldev 3y ago
They've been trying that and it just pushes people away. I stopped using Firefox when Mozilla tried to score social brownie points. And the numbers seem to collaborate with shrinking and shrinking marketshare, especially after these campaigns. Since on the flip side of what you said, why would people swap from Firefox to chrome, Chrome doesn't bring anything shiny.
- cwales95 3y ago
  I agree with some of what you said about social brownie points. Advertising can be really off putting (I'm very anti-advertisement but I'm not really their target audience since I mostly use Firefox these days). However, they have to do something to get the word out. There needs to be a reason for people to care to install Firefox.

signaru 3y ago

For one, Ubuntu should stop breaking Firefox with Snap, even though I think that is a relatively small user base. (There are some suggested fixes but I think the simplest is to bypass Ubuntu's packages and just download FF directly from Mozilla).

cx42net 3y ago

I absolutely agree with you. Firefox must stay. But. I've been using both Firefox and Brave as my browsers, and Firefox is eating my memory way more than Brave (I have around 60+ tabs open at Brave, and just a few at Firefox). (I'm on Linux Fedora 36 with the latest versions available in the repository). This is why I'm not using it much, but it saddens me.

cx42net 3y ago

When Google Chrome came out, what made it stand out for me was their impressive developer console. This lead developers to switch from IE/Firefox where you had to install a plugin for developers, into using Google Chrome that had a native and more advanced tool for debugging. *For me this is the key*. If you provide a browser that greatly improve the developer's experience, they (the developers) will move to use it, making it the best compatible browser to use, which will then make the rest of the crowd to use it because the overall experience is better there. I just hope the team at Firefox will realize this before Google ...

rumdz 3y ago

I agree. I'm not a Firefox fanboy. It has literally run better for me than Chrome for a few years now.

laurent123456 3y ago
I'm always surprised to read claims that Firefox is the same or better than Chrome. I switched to Firefox recently and many sites don't quite work: for example the pull request popup menu on GitHub appears off screen so can't be clicked on; the "new post" panel in Discourse is obstructed by the keyboard; FastMail alert box buttons don't work, and many other such annoyances. It can be used as a main browser but it does have problems. I wouldn't bother with it if it wasn't for the manifest v3 situation
- cwales95 3y ago
  I use GitHub frequently and have never came across that issue; can't speak for the other sites though. If you're sure it's not the website's fault I'd encourage you to submit feedback: https://webcompat.com/issues/new https://webcompat.com/issues/new
  - laurent123456 3y ago
    There's an open issue about it, so hopefully github should fix it eventually. It's on firefox mobile
    - Murfalo 3y ago
      Firefox mobile is its own beast. I experience a whole host of issues on it, but have never had issues with Firefox on desktop. Only reason I use FF for Android is for uBlock, but it's so unreliable I'm dying for a better option...
      - int_19h 3y ago
        These days desktop and mobile is kinda joined at the hip because users expect things like tabs and history to sync. So if Firefox has many problems on mobile to the point where users are actively deterred from using it, that hurts Firefox on the desktop as well.
- 3y ago

maldev 3y ago

They've been trying that and it just pushes people away. I stopped using Firefox when Mozilla tried to score social brownie points. And the numbers seem to collaborate with shrinking and shrinking marketshare, especially after these campaigns. Since on the flip side of what you said, why would people swap from Firefox to chrome, Chrome doesn't bring anything shiny.

cwales95 3y ago
I agree with some of what you said about social brownie points. Advertising can be really off putting (I'm very anti-advertisement but I'm not really their target audience since I mostly use Firefox these days). However, they have to do something to get the word out. There needs to be a reason for people to care to install Firefox.