Firefox an Endangered Species

[bawz]

They added more bloat with a chat client that no one wanted and reduced their search engine to Yahoo.

Bad decisions all around.

your not forced to use the chat client, its called Customization. im pretty sure firefox offers that. same with SEARCH Engine, just because Yahoo maybe defasult, doesnt mean you have to use it. . i dont see what ya complaining about

[bawz]

I'm glad I ditched FF, was just a bloated and slow mess, using Chrome till something better shows up

oddly i only use 5 Extensions an still find Firefox faster than Chrome.

[oldtimefighter]

My two cents on Firefox, which I have been using since before version one and why I am not going to stop using it any time soon...

- Add-on support which is second to none, especially if you need an ad blocker.
- Web standards support only rivaled by Chrome. IE will finally be back in the fold when Spartan comes on the scene.
- It's not a browser created by an advertising/data collecting company.
- Syncing across platforms. I have a Windows PC, a Linux laptop, two Android devices (phone/tablet), and a Firefox phone. I can sync my Firefox browser on everything with Chrome coming close. IE is not even in the game here...

- Browser customization anyone?
- Firefox being open sourced is a plus for me.

Speed? Firefox can be clunky on Flash intensive sites but otherwise I don't really notice any difference between the major browsers. Remember, 64-bit and muti-process support is just around corner for Firefox which should end all talk of it being slow (except for the trolls).

[Torolol]

I'm looking for browser for power user that would allow user to do reg-ex filtering on html/css/js before it being processed by the rendering engine.

[chrisj1968]

Where Firefox went wrong is that it has been reduced to copying Chrome.

 

When is the last time that Firefox introduce innovative features that make people want to say, "Woo! I want to try that" ?

 

The annoying updates that keep breaking extensions doesn't help either.

 

Mozilla= 90's netscape browser correct?

[ViperAFK]

I would have to agree with the chat client part.  I mean, what the heck?  Why?  What other clients is it compatible with?

Its an open standard called webrtc, so should be compatible with any browser that supports webrtc. afaik chrome also supports webrtc, not sure about other browsers.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Its an open standard called webrtc, so should be compatible with any browser that supports webrtc. afaik chrome also supports webrtc, not sure about other browsers.

It should be an official add-on that is not installed by default.

First time I saw it - I thought my browser was compromised.

But FF usage will continue dropping as long as Google has the "A faster way to browse on Windows" advertisement everywhere.

[ambiance]

I don't think I'll ever stop using Firefox as my primary browser because it's user centric. Chrome is my secondary, but I find that Google is heavy handed with their approach to changes. One thing that really irritated me was when they removed the option to change the new tab page. The fact that I had to make the history file read only to disable the recent history thumbnails is ridiculous.

[gohpep]

Strangely enough many would argue just the opposite, that Firefox started becoming crappier when Mozilla started chasing Chrome's version numbering with its own rapid release model that resulted in half-baked 'features' being pushed out every so often (along with add-ons being broken).

 

 

Flash is still used by many sites that haven't moved on to HTML5 yet, or else I'd definitely leave it off. Can't wait for the day I can get rid of Flash just like I did with Java (undoubtedly the two biggest malware vectors thanks to how sloppily they're coded).

You can use Shumway as an alternative to Flash.

[gohpep]

It should be an official add-on that is not installed by default.

First time I saw it - I thought my browser was compromised.

But FF usage will continue dropping as long as Google has the "A faster way to browse on Windows" advertisement everywhere.

It is not in memory until you go online on Firefox Hello, so it is not really enabled by default.

 

 

Its an open standard called webrtc, so should be compatible with any browser that supports webrtc. afaik chrome also supports webrtc, not sure about other browsers.

http://caniuse.com/#feat=rtcpeerconnection

[Romero]

You can use Shumway as an alternative to Flash.

Thanks. Last time I tried that it broke some Flash-based sites quite badly, especially some online games a few family members like to play. As an experiment I don't think it's quite ready for prime-time yet.

[gohpep]

Thanks. Last time I tried that it broke some Flash-based sites quite badly, especially some online games a few family members like to play. As an experiment I don't think it's quite ready for prime-time yet.

Oh yes, I agree that it is not completely ready but it has made huge strides recently.

[Liana]

I'd been using Firefox since it was first released; it will always have a place in my heart. Since version 29 released last year with the new UI, I have started using Pale Moon, a fork of Firefox. For my wants and needs, Pale Moon simply became a better browser. I love that it supports Firefox extensions while still giving me the level of customization I want over the UI, along with providing some under-the-hood tweaks.

 

I never cared for the minimalistic design of Chrome, and Firefox seems to be following that minimalistic design trend.

[Max Norris]

I never cared for the minimalistic design of Chrome, and Firefox seems to be following that minimalistic design trend.

Not a fan of the minimal setup either but very easily changed into a more traditional layout, never mind missing out on the improvements the later versions of the browser has that aren't present in Pale Moon.

[Torolol]

I never cared for the minimalistic design of Chrome, and Firefox seems to be following that minimalistic design trend.

I too loathe the Chrome UI, and Firefox's deliberate attempts to remove some features from it's previous versions.

[nukenorman]

Chrome is made by Google.. For those who do not know the missions of the browser is to get more data from you.

[T3X4S]

I gave Firefox a try last week.  Unfortunately I kept running into hangs that would last around 5 seconds.  Very frustrating because I do want to move to a more privacy-oriented browser but they have to get the quality bar up.

It probably wasnt firefox that hung... probably flash or an addon

[Romero]

Not a fan of the minimal setup either but very easily changed into a more traditional layout, never mind missing out on the improvements the later versions of the browser has that aren't present in Pale Moon.

Some people prefer that their browser look and work the way they want it without having to load multiple add-ons just to revert UI changes they detest. As far as improvements go, I don't see what Pale Moon users might be missing out on. Chat? Who cares. And it's not as if Pale Moon is forever frozen in a pre-Australis state. Non-Australis code is regularly merged into its codebase.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

It probably wasnt firefox that hung... probably flash or an addon

Flash is part of the browser.

[Max Norris]

Some people prefer that their browser look and work the way they want it without having to load multiple add-ons just to revert UI changes they detest. As far as improvements go, I don't see what Pale Moon users might be missing out on. Chat? Who cares. And it's not as if Pale Moon is forever frozen in a pre-Australis state. Non-Australis code is regularly merged into its codebase.

Sure, if you're willing to overlook all the performance improvements, additional standards, and other under the hood improvements that have been added, never mind the stuff that's coming soon like the new engine, multiprocess support, etc... Pale Moon has been getting outpaced by vanilla Firefox for a while now. Besides, its kind of silly to praise extensions in one post then criticize them in the next.

[Romero]

Sure, if you're willing to overlook all the performance improvements, additional standards, and other under the hood improvements that have been added, never mind the stuff that's coming soon like the new engine, multiprocess support, etc... Pale Moon has been getting outpaced by vanilla Firefox for a while now.

I don't see what great improvements vanilla FF has that PM lacks, and I've compared both. Not to mention FF has an ESR release precisely because not everyone loves their ridiculous rapid release model.

 

Besides, its kind of silly to praise extensions in one post then criticize them in the next.

Care to point out the post in this thread where I praised extensions? Not that I don't like them, but a) I hate people trying to put words in my mouth, and b) I clearly stated that loading extensions that use up resources and possibly reduce stability and security just to revert UI changes that some people detest is not what everyone wants to do. What do you have against PM anyway, I wonder? Are PM users preventing you from using FF in any way?

[T3X4S]

Flash is part of the browser.

well its kind of arguing semantics, but not really - the browser uses Flash, but its not part of the browser.

[Max Norris]

I don't see what great improvements vanilla FF has that PM lacks, and I've compared both. Not to mention FF has an ESR release precisely because not everyone loves their ridiculous rapid release model.

Well if you want old and stable, sure, the ESR is fine for that. But we were talking added features, and they publish release notes for that sort of stuff, never mind the performance improvements alone.. Pale Moon is hardly faster any more by any stretch.

 

Care to point out the post in this thread where I praised extensions? Not that I don't like them, but a) I hate people trying to put words in my mouth, and b) I clearly stated that loading extensions that use up resources and possibly reduce stability and security just to revert UI changes that some people detest is not what everyone wants to do. What do you have against PM anyway, I wonder? Are PM users preventing you from using FF in any way?

Oops, was on a phone typing that last night and got the wrong person. So sue me. That said, back up on the attitude princess, never mind I'm curious how rearranging UI elements would be a security risk.. I'd be more concerned with a fork of an old version of a browser that's had many vulnerabilities in its history done by a very small team of people, sounds riskier by far. As far as PM goes, I honestly don't give a rats ass what anyone uses, I thought this was a discussion.. use whatever makes you happy.

[thejynxed]

Personally, I use Cyberfox - just like Firefox, but better in every single way that I've noticed, including already being compiled for 64-bit processors/(Windows)OS (32-bit and portable versions also available). It's also compiled into separate versions for Intel and AMD systems to take advantage of the different instruction sets, etc those two companies use in their CPUs.

 

Has built-in webdev tools and some other nice features, and also disposed of things like Telemetry, Healthreport, sponsored tiles & other components that collect info.

 

What really caught my eye recently is that unlike the last time I visited the Mozilla Firefox download page, the devs actually have a nice box on the download page reminding you to check your plugins (updates) for security purposes. They even include links to Mozilla's web-based plugin check, and the Flash/Java/Silverlight download pages.

 

Caveats: No MacOSX or Linux versions, default new tab page is "Dark", but very clean. Not all Firefox addons/themes will work by default (kind of obvious due to 64-bit and CPU compiling options - devs also clear about this in several places on the site).

 

https://8pecxstudios.com/cyberfox-web-browser

[adrynalyne]

EXACTLY! The only reason most people have chrome is because it was bundled with something else.

I'd like some data and sources on that please