Firefox users down 50 million since 2018

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Nizkus said:

I used FF for a long time, until they changed how addons work which made mouse gestures garbage. Luckily Vivaldi came to the scene not that long after, so there is still a place with good mouse gestures. 

How so? I'm using mouse gestures forever and it doesn't seem any different than before. I do only use basic ones for back/forw and to open new tabs.

[avg123]

firefox is slow on my computer. 

[Crossroads]

I have never noticed the difference in speed between different browser. And all those speed tests look useless to me. Bloated pages laod slow, normal pages load fast in every browser.

On topic:
I use Firefox as primary browser mostly due to privacy features. But those settings and plugins can broke some (sh1ty) websites. IMO, the best feature FF has is multi-account containers.
I also use Vivaldi as it seems like the best overall browser when it comes to features (especially tab management) and it's ok in terms of privacy. I used to use Opera, but it's worse than Chrome now. Edge is somewhere in between.

The main problem is - there is no reason for average user to download and use anything but Chrome. People have it on phone, and will use it on PC also. So why would average user download any other browser when Chrome or Edge work well for them?

Firefox user base consist mostly of advanced or privacy-oriented users. And some of them don't like some things Mozilla is doing.

[LAwLz]

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

How so? I'm using mouse gestures forever and it doesn't seem any different than before. I do only use basic ones for back/forw and to open new tabs.

He's probably talking about how extensions are no longer allowed to run on certain tabs like new tab, settings menus etc.

[RejZoR]

4 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

He's probably talking about how extensions are no longer allowed to run on certain tabs like new tab, settings menus etc.

Oh, ok I get it what you mean now. Yeah, that is slight annoyance. But I got used to it. New tab is probably biggest offender.

[wamred]

On 8/5/2021 at 3:51 AM, WolframaticAlpha said:

Summary

Firefox has lost 50 million users since 2018, according to Mozilla's latest report. 

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

This is really concerning. I switched back to FF because of the 89 redesign. I will also never understand the acceptance by many of a Google controlled internet, when so many (rightfully) fought against MS back in the day with IE. I have been guilty of this earlier(talking trash about ff). 

 

FF is a vital part of the net. Mozilla may not have been the best of the companies in recent times, but we need it to survive, else we might not see any more innovations in the web space, as well as in other places(rust etc)

 

Sources

Firefox Lost Almost 50 million Users: Here's Why It is Concerning - It's FOSS News (itsfoss.com)

This is really concerning to me. Firefox has always been there to make sure the Internet was safe and fair for everyone. At least, that is the way I thought about them. 

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Oh, ok I get it what you mean now. Yeah, that is slight annoyance. But I got used to it. New tab is probably biggest offender.

Yeah... It was really annoying at first. I use mouse gestures a lot and it always sucked switching between tabs with gestures, then accidentally hitting a page where it doesn't work. Now I'm used to it. Edge (which is the browser I use) also have those stupid restrictions. 

[JoshB2084]

I'm not leaving my Firefox browser, it is my main browser for 17 years.

[tikker]

16 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

As soon youre logging into any google or google like services a vpn becomes completely meaningless, they'll immediately know anything they need to identify and follow you…

I mean, youre probably going to say "I know…"   but then why using a vpn as argument for more "privacy"?

Because it can hide activity from your ISP. It's true Google will track you easily and know who you are just by how you are browsing, but at least it provides some layer between you and your ISP preventing them from directly sniffing whatever you are doing (do make sure to update your DNS resolver to something not-your-ISP). Working around region blocks is also useful at times.

[Akolyte]

An internet built on Google Tech.  

 

Anyone who is in the enterprise IT space knows that Google doesn't rule the internet through just their web-browser.   

 

Kubernetes (an open-source project made and heavily contributed to by Google, like Chromium) is running a signficiant portion of the modern internet. 

 

Google has been good about it and made it open source, but still - Google's softpower here is huge.  It doesn't matter what Chromium or Kubernetes distribution you use, it's a lot of Google Code that is running. 

 

 

... At least the internet isn't also controlled by Amazon... oh wait...   

[Mooshi]

I was using Edge on mobile and Chrome on desktop up until recently. Tried Opera GX for a bit and didn't care for the UI so I switched back to Chrome.

 

Fast forward a bit and I had my computer acting funny a few days after swapping in a 32gb ram kit laying around in the Ryzen build. Figured it was a one off thing until it happened again. Imagine 98% ram usage in Chrome...for <10 tabs.. I knew Chrome eating ram is a meme, but jfc.

 

Was gonna go give Firefox a try, but reviews on compared to other browsers had me hesitant. Last I've used FireFox, it was during that time when the UI was becoming an Aliexpress Chrome. UI changes and getting bloated over the years is what turned me away from Mozilla. Stumbled upon Brave and have been using that since. I joked with my wife that it's basically Chrome with a condom haha.

[Kisai]

 

Quote

Google Chrome will disable functions like alert() and confirm() inside cross origin-frames. As this is a breaking change, developers are encouraged to update their apps and debugging tools before the update.

https://inside.com/campaigns/inside-dev-2021-08-05-28891/sections/245628

 

More google breaking the web for no reason. Like, do the chrome developers not realize that malware just creates a UI box from DOM components too?

 

And the kicker here is, if you're going to disable alert(), they should be disabling document.write() , document.writeln(), exec() and writing to innerHTML too. 

 

The browser vendors might be aligned on getting rid of it, but what they should instead be doing is removing it monopolizing the UI. 

 

The push notification boxes are far more prevalent.

 

[MartinTheActor]

Honestly, I use Edge for day to day browsing. It works fine enough. I tend to use FF for anything I'm unsure of. Grey areas or websites that I don't yet trust...that way there's at least the illusion of separation between browsers. I've also got Opera for business purposes as a psychology mindset. As I WFH separation of work/leisure is a useful trick of your mind. If I'm using Opera, I'm working. If using Edge, I'm not. That probably sounds insane.

If I'm messing with my Linux Laptop, Mint kinda seems to leave me with FF as default.

[xAcid9]

It's been 10 years since I daily drive with Firefox. Their tendency to break extensions on every update pissed me off. Currently using Opera and Edge as my daily driver. 

[whispous]

On 8/6/2021 at 8:03 AM, avg123 said:

firefox is slow on my computer. 

I think you have a slow computer.

[avg123]

Just now, whispous said:

I think you have a slow computer.

i think you should stfu

[steelo]

On 8/5/2021 at 4:04 AM, JuliusW said:

if im not using firefox, what should i use, since I dont like chrome?

 

I've been using Brave for about 6 months now and it's not bad.

[Forbidden Wafer]

Wondering where did they go? Surprise.
 

[xAcid9]

< removed by moderation >

 

I tried to daily drive Vivaldi when It still new, doesn't feels that good. Maybe I'll give it another try. 

Edited August 10, 2021 by LogicalDrm

[Lord Szechenyi]

On 8/5/2021 at 10:04 AM, JuliusW said:

if im not using firefox, what should i use, since I dont like chrome?

 

TOR

(aka The Onion Router)

https://www.torproject.org/

I don't know about now, but the main problem with TOR is that it used to be a bit slow.

[RejZoR]

Well, Firefox 91 has just been released... I've also updated Firefox Tweaker to version 3.2.5 to support some of its new goodies like HTTPS First Mode.

 

Firefox 91:

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/91.0/

[BiggieBagelz]

1 hour ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

Wondering where did they go? Surprise.
 

Brave is honestly way better than Firefox. Mozilla lost the plot and doesn't care about privacy the way they used to. I switched over to using Brave almost full time.

[Quackers101]

1 hour ago, BiggieBagelz said:

Brave is honestly way better than Firefox. Mozilla lost the plot and doesn't care about privacy the way they used to. I switched over to using Brave almost full time.

yeah, it does feel like FF is one of the dying browsers out there.

While they might pick up some steam from time to time, it feels like they are just grabbing at straws and trends currently, even if they do some cool stuff and projects.

Some time ago, mozilla was maybe on the idea of FF becoming a bit like brave, but I guess that is out of the picture. To get more content consuming people onto their browser and to renew their browser, then came the UI change and it seems more trendy like their logo adjustments.

[NinJake]

I've used FF as my main browser since... before Chrome was even around. And I'll continue to use it as long as I can.

[RejZoR]

How is Brave better than Firefox? Their Sync is unreliable joke after months if not years now, they stubbornly refuse to add simple requests like option to disable closing of entire god damn browser when you close the last tab. One of dumbest things adopted by everyone, only resisted by Opera and optional in Vivaldi and Firefox (but enabled by default). Or the stupid eye stabbing bright purple gradient color of starting page if you decide not to see random photos every time. Their adblocker, while nice to be built-in, it's incredibly unreliable, especially on Youtube. And all Chrome based browsers feel like absolute trash with mouse gestures. It's like they are unresponsive and random where in Firefox, despite new limitations still feel the same as before. And Chrome based browsers aren't even fast on real webpages. Despite having several extensions and super extensive adblocker and it's still super quick. I keep trying Edge, Brave, Opera, Vicaldi and even Chrome and they just aren't as fast as people praise them to be.