I keep going back and forth with Firefox and Vivaldi. The chrome based browsers just tend to run better. I love firefox on mobile but on desktop it’s tougher for me to stick with. Also Mozilla seems to have a different goal for the future with all the other products and ai weirdness they recently announced.
Jezebelley@kbin.melroy.org 5 months ago
Not using Chrome is so easy. I mean, Firefox is right there and is a better browser to boot. I genuinely have no idea why people still use Chrome for everything.
rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
tsonfeir@lemm.ee 5 months ago
All chromium browsers are supporting Google’s grip on the internet.
rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
This is true. Which is why Mozilla needs to focus on making a better browser instead of adding their own ai bullshit.
tsonfeir@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Mozilla has frequently pointed their efforts into the wrong direction. We need to politely encourage them to focus on the things that matter.
Lodra@programming.dev 5 months ago
Serious question. Is it actually better for the typical user? I don’t mean people commenting here. I’m thinking about the majority that don’t care about privacy, blocking ads, quality technology, etc. for those people, I’m guessing that Firefox is equivalent. Just another browser that works fine. So why switch??
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
I run into compatibility issues and weird bugs with firefox a lot. I’m still using it as my primary browser, but I have to keep a chromium based browser ready for times when a website won’t work in firefox. I can put up with that personally, but I wouldn’t want to set up firefox on family/friend computers because I don’t want to get a call whenever something doesn’t work and they don’t know why.
Chrome based browsers also have some super useful features (like tab groups) that firefox doesn’t have a good alternative for.
Lodra@programming.dev 5 months ago
Interesting. I’ve heard this many times from people here on Lemmy. I’ve been running Firefox for ~6 months now (previously Brave) and haven’t seen these issues yet. I don’t even have a chromium based browser available on any of my devices.
Regardless, I hear you about not wanting to be personal support for friends and family. That’s annoying
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
People inevitably bring up compatibility issues in Firefox when this subject comes up, and nobody ever has specific examples.
FutileRecipe@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I run into compatibility issues and weird bugs with firefox a lot. I’m still using it as my primary browser, but I have to keep a chromium based browser ready for times when a website won’t work in firefox…
Got any specific examples you don’t mind sharing? I can’t remember the last time I ran into this.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
Most recent one was visiting www.lifetime.com/playsets on Firefox mobile. After going back and forth between the list of playsets and individual playset pages, Firefox stopped loading the list of playsets. I would load in most of the page, but the actual product list wouldn’t load. Refreshing and restarting Firefox wouldn’t fix it, but the page loaded fine in brave browser so it didn’t appear to be a server issue.
Before that one, I had a time where Firefox mobile was completely broken by an update for like a week. Wouldn’t load any web pages, reinstalling/resetting user data/etc wouldn’t fix it.
I’ve had websites break on Firefox desktop too, but I don’t have any specific examples I can recall right now. I definitely run into more issues with Firefox mobile than desktop though.
foggenbooty@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This was the case back when Chrome was starting out too. Everything was made for IE and you’d have to keep it around for the odd time you needed it.
Eventually those old sites were replaced and now Chrome is the new de facto standard.
diffcalculus@lemmy.world 5 months ago
For the overwhelming majority of users, they won’t know the difference between using the two. People here are on a high inhaling the air in this echo chamber.
I’ve used Chrome on every device imaginable since Chrome was a thing. I’ve had 0 problems, in all my years. I absolutely hate that Google shuts services down when they get bored. And I absolutely hate what they did with Google Music and Google Chats, and Domains.
I move off Google services when they shut down. Besides that, I’ve no problems with the ones I use (minus nitpicks and the above products).
So to anyone here feeling bad and are afraid to comment on here because they don’t want to lose Internet points, fret not. There are millions of us perfectly satisfied using Google, PAYING for their services where we see fit, and generally not worrying at all about any of this.
Live_Let_Live@lemmy.world 5 months ago
some small problems i face is that
while i use youtube it runs slower.
and the quick image search feature using google lens is not present.
and telegram voice call does not work.
TigrisMorte@kbin.social 5 months ago
Where as,
youtube = googlie
google lens = googlie
and
telegram via web requires chromium api, so = googlieHmm, proprietary things that are totally under the control of the corpo in question run slower or not at all on the corpo's competitor's browser. I wonder if that isn't exactly what avoid a monoculture is all about preventing?
themachine@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Ah yes, google nerfing its own services under another browser for its own gain definitely isn’t the issue here.
DePietPiraat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
You can use a different frontend for YouTube. You’ve got Freetube for pc, Yattee for MacOS and iOS and piped on any platform. These solutions also protect your privacy and block ads.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
If only they actually worked. Never understand how they get recommended constantly and yet repeatedly I try to use them and they don’t work.
DePietPiraat@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’m using Freetube on Windows, it works like a charm. Feel free to dm me if you need help.
Wannade@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
My problem with these is that the quality is always bad. Usually 720p max and only H.264 instead of VP9. YouTube quality is already bad enough as it is and nerfing it even more feels awful.
w2tpmf@lemmy.world 5 months ago
That’s because YouTube detects the browser you are using, and slows it down for browsers that aren’t their own.
bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Would changing the user_agent be helpful here?
w2tpmf@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’ve seen mixed reviews on whether or not that’s effective.
gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
and the quick image search feature using google lens is not present
There’s an addon that not only adds that back into the right click menu but also adds support for other image searching services!
Its called “search by image” and it works very well ime
rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
You use TG in a browser?
leaskovski@kbin.social 5 months ago
To be fair, chromebooks are great devices for kids, and the family link platform makes keeping them "secure", easier... a lot easier!!!
Jezebelley@kbin.melroy.org 5 months ago
Actually that's a fair point. I totally forgot about Chromebooks.
leaskovski@kbin.social 5 months ago
It grinds me a bit, as I did have a Linux version if Firefox installed on my Chromebook, but because the book is just a sofa device and doesn't get any love (especially from the little shits), it runs dog slow, so I end up just using chrome on it, and suffer the pain of not having things synced between devices. Thankfully the most important thing, bitwarden is syncing, so I can manage the suffering.
danielf@aussie.zone 5 months ago
Even on Chromebooks you can install Firefox.
Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world [bot] 5 months ago
I once commented saying something like, except for work, all Linux users should be using Firefox. And this was the reply. Some people are just fucking hopeless:
“Firefox has only ever been a sometime back-up browser for me…ever since Chrome appeared in 2007. Prior to that, I used it because it was the sole usable alternative to Internet Exploder…
The Mozilla devs, for far too long, spent more time stabbing each other in the back than they did writing code and fixing the tons of problems that were always inherent in the code. It’s the only browser I’ve ever used that used to regularly crash & burn at least a dozen times a day. And ya wonder why people flocked to Chrome?”
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
But it’s true.
nadram@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Chrome is great at multi-user switching. FF in comparison is @$$ in that respect… I went back to FF around a month ago after a decade long hiatus.
obinice@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Okay I’m happy to switch, I used to use Firefox years ago until Chrome came along and it’s a great browser, but can I integrate my Google accounts with it?
I want it to sync all my stuff to my Google accounts, and so far I’ve not found another browser that can do this :-(
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
What do you want to integrate with your Google account? Imo that’s something to specifically avoid, not something to seek out. But I may be not understanding what you mean
obinice@lemmy.world 5 months ago
All my bookmarks, search history, browsing history (so I can type a portion of a URL into my address bar, say a word or so, and have it find the page I want even though my own memory fails me), that sort of thing. Plus it works across all my devices.
And casting pages or my desktop or such to my Chromecast is really handy too, and so is the Chrome Remote Desktop feature that I use sometimes to remote in to my PC. I don’t know how many of those things Firefox has, maybe it casts and stuff too.
But yeah I use all that kinda stuff, and of course it keeps me logged in to all the Google services I use, like my emails, YouTube, Drive, Docs, Maps, etc, and facilitates using that stuff seamlessly without issues, which is great.
I’m deep in the Google ecosystem basically, and I’d be happy to switch browsers just so long as that deep functionality remained, know what I mean?
Some people here really hate Google (like, specifically on Lemmy people seem unusually angry about them existing), but they seem no worse (or better) than any of the other companies that offer all this stuff, so I might as well pick my poison as it were. They’re all evil at the end of the day, haha.
Sure, I could run 20 different individual open source services on a server to do everything I use Google for, albeit without integrations and likely a bit more muddled and less feature complete, requiring ongoing care and upkeep, and that IS kinda appealing, I do get why, I used to do the homelab/home-sysadmin stuff for fun, but I just don’t have the time or patience to do that stuff these days, you know?
I got older, and now I just want a functioning service that I don’t need to fiddle around with these days, and that way of life extends to my browser too. Give me a good browser that lets me do what I want with all the integrations I like, and I’m happy.
Right now I’m not happy with Chrome because of their ad blocker policy, and how locked down plugins are in general. And I want to theme it! Firefox used to let you change everything in a themed all the colours, icons, element sizes and so on, it was dope. I assume they still do that, I’d love that.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question :-) Sorry if it is a bit muddled, I blame ADHD brain :-P
Klear@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Damn, no replies. I’m in the same boat. I’m kinda waiting for Google to break adblock so I finally have the push to make the switch.
ParetoOptimalDev@lemmy.today 5 months ago
Firefox sync will do the same without spying on you.
CatTrickery@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Firefox has Firefox Accounts which will do just the same. All those extensions are also available.
Johanno@feddit.de 5 months ago
All work on Firefox.
While you can’t use Google password-manager easily on Firefox (probably there is a plugin for that) the Firefox password-manager is better in my opinion.
The Google account stuff works mostly, but I don’t know what you exactly want to do. You should try it out.
anlumo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Chrome’s developer tools are better, and having two browsers open at the same time while programming is a strain on RAM resources.
not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Have you checked recently? Chrome devtools have been getting steadily worse the last few years, and Firefox’s keeps getting better.
anlumo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I haven’t seen anything getting worse, but I agree that the Firefox dev tools are now barely usable. They weren’t before.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
FF dev tools haven’t been shitty for like more than 10 years
doppelgangmember@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Horses and water
Matriks404@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Firefox is better on desktop, but on mobile it still sucks, sometimes it is even refusing to load websites.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Firefox is right there and is a better browser to boot. I genuinely have no idea why
I used to use mozilla by Mozilla, too. THAT’s why.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Because normies were using IE, then enough of them had their “tech enthusiast” grandson show them Chrome in 2010 and now that’s all they use.
people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
No lie, I actually had to shift to Chrome from Firefox today. Some websites are straight-up broken on Firefox, while others load painfully slow (e.g. try arc.net on Firefox vs any Chromium-based browser). Not to mention the massive shame of Mozilla leadership treating its own flagship product as a second-class citizen in favour of “AI initiatives” or whatever the fuck those C-suites want to stud into their resumes.
corus_kt@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I work at a small company - absolutely everything from work macros, accounts and shortcuts are all intertwined in Chrome, they’ve been using it like that for ten years - it’d be faster for me to find a new job then to unclog that mess from the entire office. I still installed firefox for personal use though.
kusivittula@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
in my previous job we were allowed to install some old version of firefox through the companys own portal. but we couldn’t access internet with it because “firefox is vulnerable”. they use google suite so chrome was the default browser, but edge worked too and even IE…
deweydecibel@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Most companies now are being shepherded into Microsoft 365’s walled garden by their security teams. Edge is the only “secure” browser now.
It’s genuinely sad how many security professionals have been shanghaied into Microsoft salesmen.
mb_@lemm.ee 5 months ago
By secure they mean “the only way we can easily see everything you do”
Cheers@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
I was in the same boat. Selenium with gecko driver was a pretty simple swap, just needed to Ctrl f replace a few things.