Submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world [bot] to technology@lemmy.world
https://tuta.com/blog/best-private-browsers
Why Bother With uBlock Being Blocked In Chrome? Now Is The Best Time To Switch To Firefox::Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs.
It blows my mind how many people do you not understand how essentially useless Chrome is now and how much it has changed.
What I don’t get is that my browser experience is legitimately better overall, I don’t know what was keeping me from switching all these years. Familiarity perhaps.
I had the same reaction. Used to love Firefox with all it’s awesome plugins but it took me soo long to go back to it. I just became so used to Chrome that the switch seemed daunting, although, I’ll admit it took a little while to get comfortable with it again.
What about chrome is useless? What makes chrome so useless that a normie would want it to change? In the end both let you browse the internet just fine. from work i use Firefox and at home i had chrome for years. I did not recognise any diffrenses except ram usage and it beeing a Google product. I changed to firefox at home a few months back so it is the same at work and at home. Can’t say it feels any snapier or whatever. For a normie Privacy is no reason to change. They don’t care. Ram, they probably don’t even know what that is. You have to search for new extensions in the mozilla store if the same one you used does not exist there. That is the reason firefox will not dominate Chrome in my opinion. For a normie there is absolutely no reason to change and normies are the majority of people. Some anecdotal story. At work i installed for some colleges Adblockers because the said some of the ads where anoying and after i did in the following months one after another wanted me to deactivate it again because they could not figure out to visit some websites. As i offered them to show them how they could get around it they just denied. “that is to complicated for me.” So yeah. Normies do not care and even worse adblock blockers work.
there are many reasons to prefer chromium based browsers, security being one of them
am not saying that firefox is inherently bad, but that there are valid reasons to use something else. I know that this is considered a hot take on lemmy but it needs to be said
On balance, though, since most people go almost exclusively to well-known, uncompromised websites that are legitimate and also trying to harvest data, privacy protections are more important. Defend against the attacks you know are happening and all.
Besides, most attacks are social engineering these days, and even the most secure browser on earth won’t defend against that. The recent flurry of high profile YouTube account hijacks was accomplished via malware that stole session tokens from both Chrome and Firefox.
They said Chrome specifically, not Chromium as a whole.
Not to mention that Youtube and Chrome are run by the same company.
In my book, nothing changed because I refuse to run anything closed source on MY computer.
Very Stallman of you, unfortunately for many people’s use cases they will want at least proprietary video codecs or drivers.
I’d largely like to agree. My main issue is as others have said, some websites don’t work on Firefox due to Chrome basically being the standard. It’s annoying. And I do think people should still switch and try their best to stop using Chrome. Because IF we could get to a point where Firefox has a larger audience than it already has, the problem may end up stopping due to developers having more of a need to make sure their stuff is cross compatible with other browsers.
I’ve been using Firefox as my main browser for a long time. Sites that don’t work in FF are very rare. If it’s something I really need to access, I just use chrome/edge for that particular site. But as I said, it happens rarely, and there’s an easy way to work around it.
I actually encountered the opposite. A site I’ve been using for roughly 7 years actually has massive issues on chrome that makes it unusable.
On Firefox? No problem at all.
That’s fair. Firefox hasn’t sprung up too many issues for me either. But it does occur and occasionally adds some annoyance if it’s a site you need. For me especially Firefox on IPhone is annoying to work with at times. Which is why I have other browsers on my phone as well. But for desktop, generally works fine.
some websites don’t work on Firefox
Are you sure? Is there a list of these websites? I’ve been primarily using FF for a decade and haven’t encountered any.
Unfortunately there really are websites that don’t work in Firefox. Not a nice list, but issues should be reported here: webcompat.com/issues?page=1&per_page=50&s…
Personally, I have been using Firefox for years and will continue using it.
I don’t have any specific list. But I have ran into a few issues with Firefox. (mostly on my IPhone) In my experience Firefox on Mobile is just up to par with Desktop.
I’ve ran into a few in the last year or two. I also can’t flash things like ESP32s (ESPHome) using Firefox for some security reasons, but this is fine as I’d rather be safe than sorry with my main browser.
Almost every web developer I’ve met tests if their site works in Firefox and other browsers. The problem is when websites (specifically Google) deliberately design their sites to not work in Firefox to get people to switch to Chrome
Ive had website that require chrome work perfectly fine in firefox when I switch my user agent
Ive had website that require chrome work perfectly fine in firefox when I switch my user agent
I’ve been using Firefox since the beginning. I do not understand any of the complaints people have about it. And I cant remember the last time I visited a website that wasn’t compatible with it. It was definitely before the pandemic and probably longer before that.
Can you list the websites? I feel like this issue is sufficiently rare to be inexistent for the vast majority of users.
People always say “MUH WEBSITE BORKED ON FIREFOX” and never give examples.
This is not as nearly as bad as the old days of IE6’s tyranny. If anything, we should stick to FF now that the situation is still bearable - before it becomes completely unbearable.
Which sites are you referring to?
They’ll never tell because they’re not telling the truth.
You can file web compatibility bugs on bugzilla.mozilla.org or webcompat.com
There are different ways how bugs are fixed. But someone might reach out to the page itself, find and fix a bug in Firefox or change the web specification if the incompatibility arises from ambiguity around the feature definition.
Firefox can also ship an intervention, basically injecting code into certain websites to fix broken ones.
Some incompatibilities can arise from missing features in Firefox, the web constantly evolves and the Devs sometimes don’t catch up. But bugs might still help, as high compatibility-risk features might be implemented more quickly.
As someone who used to do web design when there were around 5 different rendering engines, I found having multiple browsers to design for was often a good thing. You could easily build something that worked 90% of the time on the primary testing browser, and hit a wall trying to fix the remaining bugs, but then testing in a different browser would reveal something obviously broken with your solution, and once you fixed that, would fix some of the minor quirks you were having a hard time solving in the primary testing browser. 5 was probably too many engines, and I’m thrilled to see Trident (IE) in the grave where it always belonged. But if you aren’t testing in multiple browsers, you’re making your life harder, not easier.
I use Firefox. If a site doesn’t work depending on my OS I use Edge, Safari or Chromium.
Tbf every time is the best time to switch to Firefox
I would gladly if their Android app wasn’t filled with bugs and performance issues on my phone
It’s bas on Android, but is good on desktop
i’ve been on Firefox in the last 8 years. i don’t even know what’s going on in Chrome and other browsers lol.
Same… I don’t understand the appeal of Chrome. I think they used a new java engine like 10 years ago and beat Firefox in a handful of benchmarks, and then Firefox conclusively and irreconcilably trounced Chrome a few months later, never letting up a bit.
I remember when they released Firefox Quantum. Too many tabs was never a problem again.
I mean I tried to download the official minecraft client for debian and was not able to on Firefox.
Microsoft disabled the site on non Chrome browser
This sounded weird to me, so I just tried it. Running Firefox on Kubuntu, I just downloaded it with one click from here.
user agent switching is fortunately not too difficult to do.
Remember when Firefox started dealing damage to IE’s insane monopoly, and then Chrome came along and shanked them both?
I hope Chrome finally eats dirt after basically becoming knockoff IE 2.
Litetally every new HTTP standard is coming out of Google’s dev team. That is not a good thing.
As long as Chrome was convenient people preferred it. Now that they are showing their true face and squeezing it in favor of being more ad-friendly I hope people realize there are better choices.
It would be nice to spend one day on Lemmy without seeing a half dozen posts telling me to switch to Firefox nor 100 comments on every post that’s even vaguely browser-adjacent about how ever since they switched to Firefox their life has been nothing but joy and rainbows
May I interest about about switching to Arch Linux instead?
People who are on an open source reddit alternative like open source software and an open internet, holy shit!
If it makes you feel any better (it probably doesn’t), the same article was on reddit too. And hackernews also had it hit the frontpage.
If you are concerned about things like PWAs like I was, try it out anyway. PWAs require a bit more setup, but are a lot more flexible in Firefox. For example, PWAs with http connections have a huge banner in Chrome, and just an icon in Firefox. Everything I’ve noticed is that firefox is just as snappy as Chrome
The people who know what UBO or a firefox even is is the vast minority. Google could single handedly completely fuck over the free internet and a majority still wouldn’t give a fuck as long as they get that sweet sweet one click convinence. The average consumer who plays on their phone and tappy taps on their laptop have zero clue how their devices actually work, or that there are more privacy friendly options. They just want their shit to work, privacy and daddy google violating their basic human rights be damned.
Oh and also some websites make it a huge pain in the ass if you aren’t using chromium. I think its a bit of a conspiracy but could be wrong.
Also stop shilling firefox and start shilling Librewolf
It’s weird how lots of devs treat chrome as a standard, even though when developing I have a lot more issues with Chrome browsers than Firefox browsers
Firefox is my daily driver, but oooh how I miss native tab groups like they have on most chromium browsers right in the tab bar. Extensions like simple tab groups just hit differently and are inferior…
This “article” is an ad lol
It’s a shame that Firefox is still heavily reliant on Google. It’s not chrome but we really do need some competition in this space that doesn’t feed the monster and is also not safari lol.
Why settle for less anyway, Firefox all the way
) uBlock Origin
I switched from Chrome and it was seamless. After a few weeks I didn’t notice any negative difference.
Any numbers from Mozilla about increase in usage or anything?
Without this fiasco, i would’ve still use chrome. Yeah, now i use firefox.
While I largely agree with the options that Tuta provides, I think the article could’ve been more succinct and to the point if they condensed all the Firefox forks like PaleMoon and WaterFox under one category. Also, I’m not sure if Brave should be on this list, not just because of their Chromium foundation but also because of their use of cryptocurrency, something I consider very suspicious and unsustainable. Finally, I question whether DuckDuckGo should be on the list. True, they are more private when compared to Google and all, but aren’t they limited to what they can block through their contract with Microsoft? I remember hearing/reading something about that.
Or you can DNS level blocking + NewPipe(SponsorBlock)
for anyone wondering, there’s already a manifest v3 version of ublock origin available from the same developer.
The best time was always.
Last I checked, Firefox had also been switching to Manifest v3 because they’re also combating the tide of add-ons that pretend to do something useful, but actually steal your information. They asked uBlock at least a few times how they could build Manifest v3 in a way that’d be compatible. Instead of the browser asking about each URL, thereby giving the add-on access to personal information, uBlock could tell the browser what to block. uBlock’s answer was always, “No. That’s not good enough. Give the add-on access to URLs.” It seemed to me like every time uBlock was approached, they turned to news sites to complain and IIR, the feature that would have given uBlock some functionality was removed from v3 because if nobody’s going to use it, why build it?
I wonder, now that uBlock has conflated the discussion of, “How much should extensions be able to see and modify URLs you’re visiting?”, with, “v3 is a war on ad blockers!”, how quickly Firefox will move forward with v3, if at all.
why the Freenet logo and not I2P? Freenet is not designed with privacy in mind, unlike I2P which literally stands for the Invisible Internet Project.
There’s so many post about Firefox. Mozilla should throw some money at Lemmy devs for free marketing.
pushed up glasses
It motivated me to finally set up pi hole in my old raspberry pi I wasnt using, so there’s that
I use Firefox but there are web apps that just plain do not test on it. Office 365 is one of those and Word is basically non functional…more than normal.
In my former job, I had no choice but use Chrome due to work rules. If I couldn’t have installed uBlock at the time, it would have killed me. So I hope for people like me, there’s at least an adblocker that has a small chance of working in Chrome.
Considering, the mobile browser also has addons and will gain hundreds more in a few months. It’s a no-brainer.
I haven’t been using chrome ever since they remove AdNauseam from the web store with no justifiable reason.
They just took it off and kept it that way because there wasn’t sufficient backlash.
indigomirage@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I love Firefox. Love it.
But I keep coming across sites that don’t function properly with it. Is this Firefox’s fault? No - Firefox follows standards nicely. But growing numbers of sites don’t, and this is a big problem at a micro and macro level.
Chrome seems to have such a foothold that it is getting away with embrace/extend/extinguish and I think it’s a very sad thing.
agent_flounder@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That was Internet Explorer 20 years ago and look where we are now.
I personally can’t remember the last time I had issues with a site on Firefox in the last few years since I switched.
rambaroo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The teams web app was borked for me on Firefox at one point in Firefox. Idk if it’s still like that. Also Google Chat or whatever tf it’s called now disables a bunch of features on Firefox.
Still worth it. 99% of websites work just fine. They basically have to design to intentionally not work on FF.
kratoz29@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Chrome turning into Internet Explorer was something that I didn’t foresee some years ago.
Heck they have literally done that with Edge lol.
eager_eagle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Been using it for years, and the only few times I had issues was due to worthless websites creating artificial obstacles with an “unsupported browser/OS” page or banner rather than something actually breaking for being incompatible.
yesmeisyes@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
Discord and spotify web versions don’t work on Firefox for me. On discord in can’t connect to a call and Spotify doesn’t play songs or it takes a long time after pressing play for the song to start playing.
raptir@lemdro.id 11 months ago
This is an especially common problem on Android. I have found many sites whose mobile version simply does not work in Firefox. It’s very frustrating.
denast@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I also feel their number grew in the last year. I’ve recently tried using Mull again (mobile firefox privacy-focused fork) after using Bromite for a year, and it was so unbearable I had to switch back. I’d say I had less websites that worked than ones that did not
asap@feddit.de 11 months ago
Have you got an example I can test? I switched to Firefox mobile over a year ago and I can’t think of any time I’ve come across a site that didn’t work.
ysjet@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I keep seeing this sentiment on these posts, often with a suspicious number of up votes that don’t seem to correlate how many up votes everything else in the topic get.
Literally the only place I have EVER seen this issue was a state toll road website, which was using a timezones that didn’t actually exist but chrome added (and documented on the Internet to trick people into using it). A simple email to the website with an explanation and the correct timezones name and the problem was fixed.
Pretty sure a lot of this sentiment is either astroturfing, or people passing on astroturfing trying to be helpful.
sfxrlz@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah, I’ve been exclusively using Firefox dev edition for the last 2-3 ys. I can’t remember one site not functioning properly apart from the odd visual bug from time to time.
TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I tried to bring this up as an issue back on Reddit, and I got downvoted into oblivion.
I think sometimes switching your use agent to Chrome can bypass some issues.
neutron@thelemmy.club 11 months ago
So many tech minded people here, but at same time, so many of us fail to consider others POV and priorities.
JUST DON’T VISIT THAT WEBSITE! - sure bro, that means i won’t be able to pay the bills this month because the only traditional way of doing this is visiting a physical kiosk at working hour. Did i mention that i gotta work?
Similar with messaging apps.
YOU NEED BETTER FRIENDS LOL - trust me I’ve tried. i also need to send my resume using this app to whoever interviewing me. no, no email. yes, i tried teling that. no, i won’t be that guy preaching about software freedom when all i want is a fucking job.
Patches@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
There is infact an addon that does this automatically.
Some stills still load weird like a pop-up on mobile that should take over your view window is a side bar instead. Which makes it harder to read. Still fully functional.
But you know what makes it even harder to read? Ads
dubyakay@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Make sure to only do that temporarily and only if it’s absolutely necessary. Otherwise just avoid using said website and look for alternatives.
space@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
We should add another E… Embrace, extend, extinguish and enshittify.
VicentAdultman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Mr. Lahey?
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
That’s such bullshit. People keep saying SO MANY SITES DONT WORK ON FOREFUX
with zero examples.
I see no examples. You’re making a ridiculous claim with no proof and I’m astounded at how many people believe you here.
indigomirage@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I think someone needs a hug.
berg@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Give me examples. I’ve been using Firefox exclusively for over ten years and I can recall one website I’ve had to use chrome on. That was draw.io to get shared drawing through a Google drive to work.
Alpha71@lemmy.world 11 months ago
For me there are certain sites where the site icon doesn’t show up in my bookmarks. While not world shattering, it can be annoying.
Salix@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Reminder for others that they can report to Web Compat
indigomirage@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
This is a good comment! I’ve reported to them in the past. A good reminder.
jetsetdorito@lemm.ee 11 months ago
on desktop I don’t think I ever notice an issue, but on mobile it’s really noticable