Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years

Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by clement_b on Saturday September 11, 2021 @08:05AM (#28491282)

I use both Chrome (for work) and Firefox (personal) on Windows. Beyond a few specifics, I often can't remember which I am using. There might be many differences under the hood, but in a regular usage Firefox is really damn good. Even on Google's properties. I also use Firefox exclusively on mobile, and same. At the end of the day, they are two very mature, slightly different executions of the same concept. I get the frustrations that may exist on the power user / dev side, but I think our crowd is generally not fair enough in recognizing the tremendous efforts it take to compete with Google with a fraction of its resources.

Note: I use Chrome for work to 1/ isolate my work from personal sessions without the hassle of containers or profiles, and 2/ because I work for a web app targeting Chrome (per the market share).

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by jeffomatic on Saturday September 11, 2021 @01:23PM (#28493792)

This is my experience as well. I use both Chrome and Firefox across Mac and Windows, and I find the experiences to be pretty much interchangeable. I'm usually someone who gets annoyed at minor differences, but this really is one area where I'm not bothered at all.

I use Firefox most of the time, out of a desire to support Mozilla and promote a non-Google browser. Admittedly, this is a political motivation, but it comes at pretty much zero practical cost. If you are interested in trying out Firefox, I think the only significant inconvenience is disabling Pocket.

Like the parent, I'll occasionally switch to Chrome for separate profiles, or if I need something specific in DevTools. Chrome has much better multi-profile support, in the sense that it has it at all, but again, the differences between the two are so minor that I don't have any qualms switching back and forth.

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by playpause on Saturday September 11, 2021 @02:36PM (#28494555)

I agree it’s important for Chrome to have a competitor, but Firefox has proven itself not to be a successful one. I’ve lost faith in Mozilla’s ability to make decisions that win back users from Chrome. I wonder if Firefox shut down, the dispersal of its users to other non-Google browsers might create enough momentum that one of them could start to become competitive with Chrome.

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by aero-glide2 on Saturday September 11, 2021 @08:11AM (#28491316)

In desktop, there is barely any difference now (Chrome's save as pdf feature is more accurate with tables). In mobile however, Chrome seems noticeably faster.

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by alserio on Saturday September 11, 2021 @11:25AM (#28492725)

Counter point: install ublock origin on firefox mobile (which you cannot do on chrome) and the web is very noticeably faster on firefox.

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by nsonha on Saturday September 11, 2021 @10:29PM (#28498109)

this and "Video on background fix" which allows you to "listen" to youtube and multitask. I don't use the youtube app to avoid all the addictive features and tracking, and even it doesn't play in the background.

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by stjohnswarts on Sunday September 12, 2021 @03:06AM (#28499204)

Newpipe is great for youtube background listening.

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by webmobdev on Sunday September 12, 2021 @08:47AM (#28500658)

Install the Youtube Vanced app - https://vancedapp.com/

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by nsonha on Sunday September 12, 2021 @08:56AM (#28500713)

I know about this and New Pipe, but having tons of apps for every little thing I do on the phone is exactly what I avoid. All these apps do is supporting downloading and subscriptions, something I would care about if I submitted to the youtube time sink, which I do not.

Besides, isn't this app a violation of Youtube's policies?

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by aero-glide2 on Sunday September 12, 2021 @10:10AM (#28501300)

>isn't this app a violation of Youtube's policies?

This is "hacker" news :)

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by stjohnswarts on Sunday September 12, 2021 @03:05AM (#28499199)

Graphics+javascript in firefox always feels a lot slower to me on firefox than on chrome (and chrome based browsers)

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by c0npr on Saturday September 11, 2021 @01:00PM (#28493563)

Similar experience here, except I used brave cuz I don't really like the Google service stuff. I am pretty okay with most of the existing browsers on the market (but not edge, again the force you to use ms service, and useless default news etc.) And I don't care about the gui that much cuz I am not storing bookmarks in the browsers, it's quite hard to search through and sync

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Re:Why Firefox has been in decline for 12 years by GekkePrutser on Saturday September 11, 2021 @01:23PM (#28493798)

Same here but with Edge. Microsoft lobbied us extremely to make it our standard browser.

But both are just fine. Never have issues with Firefox. But I do have issues with its UI. Too much wasted space, it's only useable in compact mode which they want to get rid of. And I hate that there's no clear visual separation between tabs anymore. Even Chrome and edge have this.

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