Choose Firefox Now, Or Later You Won't Get A Choice

[Builder]

http://robert.ocallahan.org/2014/08/choose-firefox-now-or-later-you-wont.html?showComment=1408137721125

 

"I know it's not the greatest marketing pitch, but it's the truth.

Google is bent on establishing platform domination unlike anything we've ever seen, even from late-1990s Microsoft. Google controls Android, which is winning; Chrome, which is winning; and key Web properties in Search, Youtube, Gmail and Docs, which are all winning. The potential for lock-in is vast and they're already exploiting it, for example by restricting certain Google Docs features (e.g. offline support) to Chrome users, and by writing contracts with Android OEMs forcing them to make Chrome the default browser. Other bad things are happening that I can't even talk about. Individual people and groups want to do the right thing but the corporation routes around them. (E.g. PNaCl and Chromecast avoided Blink's Web standards commitments by declaring themselves not part of Blink.) If Google achieves a state where the Internet is really only accessible through Chrome (or Android apps), that situation will be very difficult to escape from, and it will give Google more power than any company has ever had.

Microsoft and Apple will try to stop Google but even if they were to succeed, their goal is only to replace one victor with another.

So if you want an Internet --- which means, in many ways, a world --- that isn't controlled by Google, you must stop using Chrome now and encourage others to do the same. If you don't, and Google wins, then in years to come you'll wish you had a choice and have only yourself to blame for spurning it now.

Of course, Firefox is the best alternative :-). We have a good browser, and lots of dedicated and brilliant people improving it. Unlike Apple and Microsoft, Mozilla is totally committed to the standards-based Web platform as a long-term strategy against lock-in. And one thing I can say for certain is that of all the contenders, Mozilla is least likely to establish world domination :-)."

 

via Hacker News. Quoted article is not my own.

 

I'm not sure how much of this is news to you, but it seems a vital point to users of a tech forum. I'm proud to say I don't currently use any Google products out of will, perhaps after reading this the same will be true for many of you. 

[AlwaysFSX]

But Google stuff actually works.. So why not use it?

 

Works + innovating is good enough for me.

 

Firefox has a lot of junk, doesn't run as smoothly, nor does the UI look as good as as intuitive as I want it to.

[antoainb]

But Google stuff actually works.. So why not use it?

 

Works + innovating is good enough for me.

 

Firefox has a lot of junk, doesn't run as smoothly, nor does the UI look as good as as intuitive as I want it to.

 

^^ Could not have said it better. 

[Liam-McShane]

I'm not going to switch to inferior products. They are winning because they are the best available.

[Builder]

But Google stuff actually works.. So why not use it?

 

Works + innovating is good enough for me.

 

Firefox has a lot of junk, doesn't run as smoothly, nor does the UI look as good as as intuitive as I want it to.

But you're willing to give up the internet's freedom to Google for that?

[mr moose]

Some countries have laws (US) that prevent OS manufacturers from installing web browsers by default and they must not prevent 3rd party software from being used.  MS got in trouble for it a little while back because it included IE with windows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.

 

I believe the same thing happened in the EU, I don't think google will be able to corner the web browser market through it's OS or android on legal grounds.

[リチャード]

I've always felt Google's expanse has been somewhat scary. But it's the same kind of scary I feel when I sometimes contemplate Islam's rapid expansion to the Western world through immigration and I start thinking these are things I shouldn't feel cause it's racist or whatever.

 

But here's the thing: I know a lot of guys whose parents came from Islam cultures, and they're all great people and though I don't like religion of any sorts, they're not particularly religious, just like Sweden's supposedly protestant but like 99% of us aren't religious at all, so aren't they. Even many of their parents aren't as serious about the religion as it's painted in media. (I don't know about their country of origin, though).

 

I think we scare ourselves with foreign concepts a lot, and a lot of it comes from misconceived prejudice. I'd like to think it's the same with Google. It's easy to paint big corporations as evil and power hungry, but they might really not be.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Nineshadow]

Some countries have laws (US) that prevent OS manufacturers from installing web browsers by default and they must not prevent 3rd party software from being used.  MS got in trouble for it a little while back because it included IE with windows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.

 

I believe the same thing happened in the EU, I don't think google will be able to corner the web browser market through it's OS or android on legal grounds.

Windows doesn't come with IE installed?

[AlwaysFSX]

But you're willing to give up the internet's freedom to Google for that?

Google isn't taking freedoms away from the internet. You can create and use anything you want. It's up to the user to determine whether or not it's better than what they currently use. I find FireFox inferior to Chrome, therefore I will use Chrome over FireFox. Same with the rest of the business world. Legitimate monopolies can exist because a company provides that much better of a product or experience.

 

 

Windows doesn't come with IE installed?

It does, moose is talking about an old court case that MicroSoft won in the end regardless.

[sof006]

Hahahaha oh my god, I laughed so much at this. Conspiracy theory much? Sounds like this guy needs to get a life. (Not the OP, the guy who made the blog post btw).

[Akolyte]

my pc bluescreens when using firefox.  I don't think Firefox likes me...  

[Builder]

-snip-

It seems reasonable to you, but keep in mind Google already plays dirty with search and it seems they're starting to do so with Chrome. Google blacklists companies it doesn't like, restricting access to their websites. When they acquired Nest, they blacklisted one of Nest's competitors, vivint, claiming they were a phishing site. Of course, they get away with it, but that can be very damaging.

 

Google isn't taking freedoms away from the internet. You can create and use anything you want. It's up to the user to determine whether or not it's better than what they currently use. I find FireFox inferior to Chrome, therefore I will use Chrome over FireFox. Same with the rest of the business world. Legitimate monopolies can exist because a company provides that much better of a product or experience.

Firefox uses less memory than Chrome does. Chrome's memory usage is unacceptably terrible.

 

Did you even read the whole article? They're trying to make it so that you can only access the internet through their browser and their search. See above. They control access to the internet, if they wanted to, they could squash their competitors like bugs.

 

Hahahaha oh my god, I laughed so much at this. Conspiracy theory much? Sounds like this guy needs to get a life. (Not the OP, the guy who made the blog post btw).

How is it a conspiracy theory when everything is verifiably true?

[mr moose]

Windows doesn't come with IE installed?

It used to, then there was this case, then it was appealed then this was the result:

 

Microsoft decided to draft a settlement proposal allowing PC manufacturers to adopt non-Microsoft software.^[20]

 

the wiki entry's a little messy so only stick to the statements that cite a reference.

In other words we can thank the DOJ for our ability to use third party browsers now and essentially third party software too. 

[Anthrax]

I've been using Firefox now for the past 10 years... Every time I TRY to switch to chrome I can't do it.

[Raid]

Windows doesn't come with IE installed?

After installing Windows it puts a shortcut to "Browser Choice" thingie on your desktop. Clicking it you can choose to install from a whole bunch of web browser including Firefox, Chrome, IE and Opera.

[sof006]

It seems reasonable to you, but keep in mind Google already plays dirty with search and it seems they're starting to do so with Chrome. Google blacklists companies it doesn't like, restricting access to their websites. When they acquired Nest, they blacklisted one of Nest's competitors, vivint, claiming they were a phishing site. Of course, they get away with it, but that can be very damaging.

 

Firefox uses less memory than Chrome does. Chrome's memory usage is unacceptably terrible.

 

Did you even read the whole article? They're trying to make it so that you can only access the internet through their browser and their search. See above. They control access to the internet, if they wanted to, they could squash their competitors like a bug.

 

How is it a conspiracy theory when everything is verifiably true?

 

 

It may be true the Google is better than everyone else but who cares. If it works then whatever. The internet won't change, Google has been around since Google search engine existed. Last time I checked it is the best search engine in the world. If Google are good at making other things then great i'll happily accept it because Google know what they're doing and they've yet to do anything that will upset me.

[Builder]

It used to, then there was this case, then it was appealed then this was the result:

 

the wiki entry's a little messy so only stick to the statements that cite a reference.

In other words we can thank the DOJ for our ability to use third party browsers now and essentially third party software too. 

Exactly. Will it come to the point where you can only use Google through Chrome? All of the other browser and search engine providers will be hidden from their results.

 

They have the power to take over now, that's the scary part.

[Builder]

It may be true the Google is better than everyone else but who cares. If it works then whatever. The internet won't change, Google has been around since Google search engine existed. Last time I checked it is the best search engine in the world. If Google are good at making other things then great i'll happily accept it because Google know what they're doing and they've yet to do anything that will upset me.

It's pretty clearly not the best if they abuse its dominance to defeat their competitors.

[AlwaysFSX]

Firefox uses less memory than Chrome does. Chrome's memory usage is unacceptably terrible.

 

Did you even read the whole article? They're trying to make it so that you can only access the internet through their browser and their search. See above. They control access to the internet, if they wanted to, they could squash their competitors like bugs.

Get more ram. Simple way to fix it if it's causing problems, which it never has for me.

 

As for that... No, doesn't work like that. At all. They can control whether or not they want to kill your packets when they reach their servers but there's always ways to circumvent that. If they start doing things like that it's not hard to not use Chrome, the Google search engine, or their servers which you can blacklist for your connection.

[mr moose]

Google isn't taking freedoms away from the internet. You can create and use anything you want. It's up to the user to determine whether or not it's better than what they currently use. I find FireFox inferior to Chrome, therefore I will use Chrome over FireFox. Same with the rest of the business world. Legitimate monopolies can exist because a company provides that much better of a product or experience.

 

 

It does, moose is talking about an old court case that MicroSoft won in the end regardless.

They sorta won, they got their way but the precedent was held so that they couldn't prevent 3rd party apps from being installed.  that is why they can bundle it now, but they can't prevent you from using another browser if you want.

[c3p0]

We still can use IE  <- LOL BS

 

Changed from firefox to chrome because firefox 33 won't support 1080p youtube in version 33, yet. Once they get that fixed I might switch back. 

[AlwaysFSX]

We still can use IE  <- LOL BS

 

Changed from firefox to chrome because firefox 33 won't support 1080p youtube in version 33, yet. Once they get that fixed I might switch back. 

What. How... HOW DOES ONE DO THAT?

[Builder]

Get more ram. Simple way to fix it if it's causing problems, which it never has for me.

 

As for that... No, doesn't work like that. At all. They can control whether or not they want to kill your packets when they reach their servers but there's always ways to circumvent that. If they start doing things like that it's not hard to not use Chrome, the Google search engine, or their servers which you can blacklist for your connection.

So now I actually have to pay money to use Chrome? I don't like that at all. I prefer software that is coded efficiently and isn't trying to take over the internet.

 

What happens if they make a new standard that only runs on Chrome and force everyone to be compliant or they'll delist them from Google? They have the power to do these things right now.

[c3p0]

What. How... HOW DOES ONE DO THAT?

 

Do what? All I need from a browser is noscript and adblock. The UI does almost look the same since ff changed to australis. No problems switching.

[mr moose]

Exactly. Will it come to the point where you can only use Google through Chrome? All of the other browser and search engine providers will be hidden from their results.

 

They have the power to take over now, that's the scary part.

 

I doubt it for two reasons, 1.  google's main source of income is data, I can't see them preventing people from giving them data (from using google) just because they were using windows and firefox. And 2. that would amount to anti competitive behavior and even forgetting the court case it could still prove to be a PR issue.