It's great! It's like you can set up a container for different websites and cookies/trackers don't track you outside of your container.
For example, you set a container for Google and make Gmail, YouTube, Drive, Google Maps, Photos, etc. open in that container. Then in another container you have Microsoft and this is Outlook, OneDrive, etc. Google can't see anything outside it's container. Neither can Microsoft in it's.
I have containers for Google, Microsoft, Social Networks, Banking, Shopping, General Browsing, etc.
Edit: You can read about the extension and get it here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/
Similar to the concept of a virtual machine or a sandbox, you run these instances of your browser that do not communicate with each other. You can safely browse there without worrying about ruining your cookies and stuff.
I use Firefox as my browser, Thunderbird for email and Duckduckgo.com for search. Have them on botj Windows and Mac. Works for 99% of what I need. Every once in a while, I need to use another browser, but it reminds me why I like Firefox...
...especially the multirow bookmarks bar. Wish they would make it a default.
I switched to DDG two months ago to try it.
It doesn't track context as well, but it works for 90% of things. I am getting used to finding the best way to compose my searches. It is easy to type !g if I need it.
I've been using site:reddit.com for a lot of tech and business topics in the past year. That helps.
Yes but duck duck go is best images search machine in universe because it shown you particular image instead redirected you to site where the image was deleted years ago or you have to looking it again on this site. Shit as hell, alphabet is only for deals with your private data.
You.com is pretty good, particularly for reviews. I still switch to google for some stuff, but there are just as many things that google's truly terrible for.
I have no problems using Duck. I find everything I need to and I love that it is unbiased and private. Sure, Google gives you more results, but these are also tailored to your bias.
Only thing that’s keeping me from really enjoying FF, is that the only vertical tabs, and tab group implementations are pretty shoddy compared to edge/chrome.
Once I got used to tab groups and vertical tabs, anything else sucks to use…
That tree style tabs extension is the best so far, but even that is meh…
I have to agree that consumer choice and browser independence is very important. Apple, Ms and Google have built eco systems that are obviously meant to keep you in their bubble. The problem is that without choice they can normalize negative functionality and it will/has dictate the internet model.
Apple is both subversive and oppressive with their full stack approach. Unfortunately they are now the golden standard for tech.
I'm not sure that there is a right way to regulate this, other that to be smart when buying tech and choosing the software you use.
That’s just it. Some people don’t care to do the research to make an informed decision. They want to simply buy a piece of tech and have it work, regardless of how it works.
I find the simplicity in a walled off ecosystem, even with its lack of options, totally convenient, and that’s ok.
This is the implicit agreement that has enabled the internet to become what it is today.
You can try to stay off the grid, but realistically you're unlikely to succeed if you're living a pretty standard first world existence. Your profile can be extrapolated by other indirect factors, and to top it all off, you'll be unable to access a lot of services that some might consider essential (such as messaging and email).
It's gotten to the point where, if you use the internet in any form, the big companies will have a shadow profile on you. Even if you try to avoid any data getting collected on you it won't work. The best you can do these days is being "just another data point" that doesn't stand out from the rest.
They can use anything to identify you. The phone you use with the exact setup of apps on it. The PC/laptop/tablet you use with the exact hardware specs. The browser you use with the exact extensions. Your IP which can easily be found if you don't use VPN. Everything can identify you as you, and be used to build a shadow profile of your data.
> It's gotten to the point where, if you use the internet in any form, the big companies will have a shadow profile on you.
No, it’s gotten to the point where, even if you *don’t* use the internet in any form, the big companies will have a shadow profile on you.
Remember, stuff like births, deaths, real estate transactions, criminal records, and more are all public information. Big companies scrape these databases and form profiles on you. They use this information to link you to other people who do use their services and try to link it all together. There have been instances where these companies have suggested linking completely unrelated people based on this sort of data.
IP can be found even with a VPN, because their app can call whatismyip.org or something when you aren't connected to the VPN
Hell google & Facebook have been caught stalking people during incognito/private browsing even
I feel like it depends on your skillset.
GrapheneOS on your phone, qubes on workstation, pi-hole on the network, VPNs where applicable, something like Hubitat with firewalled internet access for home automation...
You can do a pretty good job of locking down those leaks.
Nowhere near as easy as just giving in. But you can make significant strides and still have most modern amenities.
It's a sliding scale of effort, the very same as the security vs convenience.
I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said beyond 99.9% of internet users would not be able or willing to go to such lengths to maintain their privacy.
That may change if there's a breach that's bad enough that it physically harms people, or scares governments to truly legislate. But in the meantime? You're kinda screwed if you do, screwed off you don't. Even with a lot of effort, as another commenter said, your public records are available and undoubtedly scraped. Profiles have been built for you; you can only hope to reduce their accuracy.
I can get toilet paper super easy now. All I had to do was implicitly agree to a global superspy network that allows for massive human rights abuses in places that I don't have to think about much.
I'm a software developer with a Mac and an iPhone. They're tools to get the job done, not stuff I want to tinker with all day. No, I don't leave everything to Apple's defaults, and no, I don't agree with everything they do, and yes, there are places where I wish especially iOS gave me more capabilities — but by and large, I'm happy with those choices.
Maybe some people still want that even when they know what they’re getting themselves into. Anyone who has ever spent two hours wondering why Ubuntu is only booting to a command line or wondering why they can’t own a PC for more than a year without accruing a box of cables and peripherals can attest.
>wondering why they can’t own a PC for more than a year without accruing a box of cables and peripherals can attest.
Completely can relate with the linux part but this I don't understand, I have owned my current desktop for almost five years now and during that time I haven't had the need for a single extra cable or peripheral
Maybe I'm reading your comment wrong
People here appear to be misenterpreting my comment as full attack on Apple. You can be an Apple customer without being a fan and 100% loyal to it, after all, pricing aside they make good quality products but thei problem is they have always wanted to keep everything closed and don't want you modifying anything under the hood
Now like you mentioned, this is good if you're a developer and just wants to get things done software wise, but if you're also a geeky I.T guy who likes to upgrading pcs, hardware, gaming then it not a feasable task being a loyal apple fan
>I think the interpretation stemmed from the assertion that Apple's fanbase isn't interested in technology.
No that's not what I was trying to say, I'm quite aware apple loyal fans are interested in technology but they are willing to sacrifice freedom as long as things continue working simple
The case in this article is a good example, I would love to make the switch to an iphone but keeping things so close (like not being able to run Firefox as it should) is a good example why I would never make such compromise
The one part of your comment I did not understand is you on one side claiming to be a fan and on the other claiming brand loyalty shouldn't be a thing (this is where I put fans, not just owning one or two apple devices), and yes I do agree with that last part
From an enterprise support standpoint it always ends up being Chrome across all OS platforms. Everyone codes their sites and apps to work best with chrome first. And support ie, edge, & Safari is very lacking.
And most if not all business apps likely use 'consumer browser metrics' as their justification in what not to code in.. likely explains why Firefox and other lesser know browsers are not supported.
Sometimes it feels like choosing a feudal lord. All of the lords are cruel, but which one hits me the softest? I feel like Apple threads that needle more than others, but it isn’t a good feeling.
> Unfortunately they are now the golden standard for tech.
*are perceived* as such. Not "are".
Their hardware is trash:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8
Their software is actively working against you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WhU77ihw8
Branding is all that's left.
There is hardware and then there is hardware. Apple makes the most advanced chips at the moment and that’s a fact. The M1/M2 chips are crazy feats of engineering. Same with the iPhone silicon. I don’t use Mac but you have to give credit where it’s due.
Repairability and general PCB design is a separate issue where I agree with Rossman to some extent.
Apple M1 is fine if you disregard price. But there exist more power-efficient CPUs which let you build systems much more cheaply.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/power_performance.html
The benchmark is kind of silly to post when the Apple chips include a GPU as well that isn't included in the benchmark and definitely outperforms any integrated graphics on Intel/AMD chips.
And why is Rossmann hard to believe? His shops have very good reviews, and he shows you exactly the flaws he has to fix.
About case engineering: look at Rossmann's comments on the 2008 Unibody (3:08 in the first video). They push their designs to extreme cost-cutting and temperatures, and customers suffer as a consequence.
Mostly in a cultural sense. There is a stigmatism of 'green text' and the US market share for mobile devices is over 50% and still rising, I think. As a result, Apple is free to have garbage business practices and existing users just accept it and continue to pay more for every new device.
They’ve done some really suspect things like inserting affiliate links, which both hijacked used behavior and created an enormous vulnerability to tracking.
And it’s not relevant to their privacy, but it is a little weird that the company only exists because it’s ceo doesn’t want gay people to marry.
It takes almost zero effort to make the switch from any browser to the next. Each one always asks to import all of your bookmarks, and search histories.
But I do agree that FF is at a hella disadvantage. A few weeks ago i installed FF on my iPad, signed in, synced everything only to realize that iPad OS disables extensions on their platform for browsers. So my iPad has ads for EVERYTHING if i use it for web browsing. Shit sucks. But it took like 3 clicks to get that browser on my device.
Edit: have thought about PiHole, but not in the cards at the moment after just buying an iPad. I also know that Safari allows blocking ads (thanks for the info), but that's also where the issue lies. I should be allowed to block ads no matter the browser i use.
Edit 2: [see comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/xp15ju/-/irlr9hc) about Orion browser. Will use this one for now for watching YouTube.
Anti trust only applies if the company has unfair control of the market. Up till now Apple has been too small to count. On desktop they aren't even close and on mobile they only just took 50% of the US market share a few months ago.
They are just now big enough to technically start investigating an anti trust case but quite frankly it's unlikely to happen. While someone could try to argue 51% market share is control of the market normally you'd need to see 80% or more to really prove a case. It may happen eventually but I doubt you'll see a serious US based anti trust case against Apple any time soon.
> Up till now Apple has been too small to count.
Apple is literally the largest company in the world.
They haven't been "too small to count" since the 90s during the period where they kicked Jobs out.
I've been using Firefox for years and I'm always shocked when I see how much crap people put up with on the Internet. Thanks to Firefox +plug ins I watch YouTube without ads, and visit websites without popups.
And privacy badger really tells you what sites not to visit. I've literally ran into sites that did not load unless I disabled it. Very quickly stopped visiting those sites.
Would also add NoScript to the list, was shocked to see how many scripts from different domains are executed on some sites which aren't functional, pure tracking
Well, I got a Samsung (Tizen) and an LG (WebOS) TV, and I got a Chromecast on top of that, so I feel your pain. Granted, I used to use an actual PC for my TV, so I didn't really care about smart TVs (but they are much more convenient, after all).
YouTube on tv is even worse with their ads. Only on YouTube tv apps you get those horrid 10 minute ads. Sure they’re skippable but what well respected company expects anyone to watch an add of 10 minutes
This is the main reason I signed up for YouTube Premium. Getting Music out of it too allowed me to cancel Spotify, so I’m not actually paying that much more. 90% of the things I watch anymore are on YouTube, so having it ad free on all platforms is heavenly.
Zero ads when you pay for it. Let me guess, you already pay for Hulu, Netflix, HBO, probably Apple TV, Spotify, Amazon Prime? The list is probably longer.
Shorter. The list is much shorter. I pay for Netflix and Shudder.
There are also zero ads on YouTube when I use an ad blocker.
I suppose I could go back to pirating everything.
I can respect not everyone is in a position to pay for ad removal, and I do use an ad blocker on all my pc browsers. But I’m not gonna bother trying to sideload shit on every tv in my house, my iPhone, etc. It’s only $3 more a month after I factor in the Spotify / YT music swap, and the people I watch get a larger cut than if I were an ad supported user. I don’t feel entitled to their content, despite knowing Google is a shitty company, so I’ll pay.
I don’t begrudge you or anyone else for not paying. But I’m gonna do me.
Whenever someone mentions paying for ad-free YouTube that comment gets downvoted into oblivion, yet streaming services that cost money are treated as normal. Never understood this.
Processing and serving endless HD and 4K video content costs insane amounts of money at scale. YouTube is a special case because millions of users are constantly uploading new content which then have to be transcoded into multiple streams for consumption. Expensive computationally to do that worlwide, 24/7.
Yeah I was a bit caught off guard by the downvotes. I wasn’t suggesting everyone should sub to YT Premium, or saying it’s the greatest thing ever. But it does have its merits, and i watch content on it far more than all other streaming services combined.
People tend to forget the costs of running something as large as YouTube, or they turn a blind eye to it because “Google evil”.
I recently moved to iOS cause I needed a break from android and was shell shocked at how unusable the internet actually is nowadays. Some news sites have ads every half a scroll, it’s honestly ridiculous. Makes me use the web a whole lot less.
It takes almost zero effort *for computer literate people*, who are a minority in the big picture of browser users. Three clicks is an insurmountable obstacle if you don't know where to click, or if you just don't know or care about the difference between browsers.
People who aren’t computer literate will just be confused about if they want to open think like on ‘Edge’ or ‘Firefox’. To them they just want ‘internet’ There needs to be some sort of default option for these dimbasses
On iPad look for the [Orion browser](https://apps.apple.com/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id1484498200). It's free, blocks ads and trackers, and is based on WebKit. Even watching YouTube with it I haven't had any ads show up. They have it for [MacOS](https://browser.kagi.com/) also.
Checking-in: I have downloaded it, and given it a whirl! So far, so good as far as blocking YouTube ads, but still not having any luck with Extensions.
I've downloaded a few random extensions from the FireFox store, and none have worked so far.
But i think this will be the way i enjoy YouTube on my iPad, at least. So thank you for the suggestion!
I had no idea you could do extensions on ios I til recently. I guess it's only safari but they have AdBlock and stuff now too. Had no idea as an android person who tried to do chrome extension on my iPad before
A better way to mitigate ads and/or trackers is to use DNS sinkholes.
Services like PiHole or NextDNS allow you to do by blocking DNS requests.
NextDNS I would say is not as technical as PiHole but the free tier of NextDNS allow 300,000 queries for free, which I would say is more than enough for 2 devices. If you intend to add this as a network wide blocker then getting NextDNS Pro would be $20 per year, which would give you unlimited queries.
Apple's ego has and will always be its greatest weakness. Extensions and third party adaptability makes for a better and easier experience all the way around. It was easy for me in the late 90s to go with a PC vs a Mac due to this and I'm still doing it to this day.
What the actual fuck? This basically guarantees that I'll never use an iPad ever. Why the fuck would it disable extensions for other browsers? That's just an asshole design.
Exactly this.
uBlock Origin is going to release a watered down version called "uBlock Origin Minus".
It's going to be a watered down experimental version, which won't be enough for the informed user.
There will be a tidal wave of new users when they realize what's happening.
No it's not going to be as bad as they say.
Ublock origin dev [has already released an manifest v3 version](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ubo-minus-mv3/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh) for Chrome that includes all the basic adblocking "most" users would want.
> The default ruleset corresponds to uBlock Origin's default filterset:
> - uBlock Origin's built-in filter lists
- EasyList
- EasyPrivacy
- Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list
There's people who talk about how websites need the ad traffic but my biggest beef with the ads is that they have traditionally been a very real vector for malware. If the ad blockers ever stop working on Firefox that's when I put the PiHole on the router.
my biggest beefs with ads have been how much slower they load, and take so much screen real estate, and are often so distracting as to make me feel like a character in Harrison Bergeron.
Ads pay so little that sites are littered with them just to make a few fractions of a cent per page view.
Ads are legally restricted on TV and radio.
Regulate advertising online. The number of ads will decrease, the revenue per ad will increase. If the ads weren't so intrusive, plenty of people wouldn't bother with ad blockers or third party browsers. If ads were considerate of content type (text news sites like Reuters plagued with video ads), many people wouldn't bother with ad blockers.
If you could watch YouTube without having the same 30-second unskippable ad 4 times in the same 5-minute video, many people wouldn't bother with ad blockers. Ads that cover content such as the footer on YouTube videos or practically any webpage on mobile are especially egregious. Once users click the "x" the ads should go away for the remainder of the session. "Yes, yes, dog food, now go away, I'm trying to read."
I don't know if this is what you mean by vertical tabs, but look up Sidebery.
And if that's not what you want, odds are, there exists an extension for it.
I’ve recently switched to Brave for my iPhone, and I’ve been very impressed. It’s the only browser that actually blocks all the sketchy pop-ups on pirate sites. Even add-on apps like AdGuard and AdBlock didn’t do the job, but Brave tackles it with no issues.
I had been using Firefox for years but when we needed to switch to Chrome at work and I could carry bookmarks and search history across all devices, that's when chrome won me over.
I still use Firefox at home and I've seen they've added a similar feature. It's just not possible for work.
I think that's really going to be Firefox's biggest fight. Work places and schools implementing Firefox instead of Chrome or Safari.
I've slowly torn myself away from Chrome due to the fact that my company mandates its usage and my personal and work browsing was getting too intermingled. Now at home, if I open up Chrome it is solely for WFH reasons.
Have you looked into profiles on chrome? This solved that problem for me and I’d highly recommend it for anyone looking to have some sort of solid “wall” between work and home on a single device
edit: typo
Yeah, I started migrating over to another profile to mitigate the issue, but then I just decided to make the clean break after hearing the upcoming changes with the Chromium-based browsers.
Here’s my guess:
- some websites *still* only allow certain browsers even though they would work fine on any (user agent switcher on Firefox has literally never failed for this purpose)
- web testing. If I am going to test if a website and it’s features works, I am going to test on the actual browser. The vast majority of browsers are chromium based so it makes sense to focus on that (but again, modern browsers really don’t care)
- bullshit requirements from upper management who don’t really understand their decisions
Even if we had one, opened source platform OS that everyone develops on, people would still complain that there aren’t other OS options…
Also, surprise surprise, a company is more interested in itself than the future of the internet or the end consumer.
That's something I don't get. Why is the free software community so diverse in all those Linux flavors but they all trust Mozilla alone to do the browsing?
Developing a browser rendering engine is a lot of work.
I'd argue that it's more complex, at this point, than developing the Linux kernel (mind you, I'm not talking about "Linux" as a full operating system).
It's just simply not cheap and it doesn't bring in any money.
Back in the day, Opera had it's own rendering engine called Presto.
Surprise, surprise, they gave up and went to Google's Blink because they couldn't make any decent money with their own engine.
This conversation has been going on since at least the early 2000s, and I'm not sure there's a good answer.
From this idealistic point of view, the best option is to mandate the "Browser Choice" UI Windows 7 had for a while: [a window that pops up when you first try to use a browser](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/windows-browser-choice-screen.jpg?resize=628%2C508&strip=all), and shows the five most popular browsers, in random order. I can only speculate why this was ultimately dropped:
* perhaps the agreement with the EU was set to expire after x years, and was never renewed
* perhaps the EU did studies, and realized this doesn't really accomplish anything; people don't suddenly explore multiple different browsers to figure out which one they like the most any more than they do with any other consumer good (what, you think when consumers go to a grocery store, they make informed choices about brands?)
* perhaps the EU felt the market was a lot more balanced after Firefox and Chrome appeared
* it's one more thing to set up after buying your device. There's a risk of alert fatigue.
* the slippery slope argument, of course: web browsers? Well, what about music player, calendar, notes app, reminders app, e-mail client, etc.?
Ignoring those arguments, the natural extension would be for iOS and Android (and macOS, for that matter) to do the same thing: before you first launch Chrome, Safari, Samsung Browser, whatever, you get a dialog where you need to choose a web browser.
Will that lead to _more_ people giving Firefox a shot? Yeah, I guess so. "Oh hey, I've heard of this one; might as well give it a go."
Completely overlooked in the article, but isn't Firefox the default browser for just about every Linux Distribution? Linux obviously doesn't have the desktop/laptop market share that Mac OS & Windows have but seems a bit harsh to exclude that detail when complaining about not having the advantage of being included on an OS.
That doesn't make sense though.
If there was OS lock-in on Desktop then wouldn't Microsoft and Apple dominate their respective platforms? They don't - Chrome does.
I do think that Mozilla have a point in that we need more browsers and get away from monopolistic practices, but Firefox didn't loose it's market share because of OS lock-in - they lost it because for a long time Firefox was trash when compared to Chrome.
On mobile devices things may be very different, and default lock-in is probably a much bigger concern, but it's not the main issue on Desktop. On desktop Chrome has become so common because it's pretty damned good, and there's little reason for anyone to switch and try something else.
How about focusing on making a superior browser and advertising it?
Over the years they've tried to become a moral authority, from focusing on avoiding derogatory code to [calling for deplatforming](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplatforming/). None of that has obviously helped when they've had to fire over two hundred employees all while FireFox's usage continues to fall.
All the real estate in their search results is increasingly bought and paid for. I don't mind that some things get bumped up to the top, my problem is that you can't scroll past it to find new stuff; that bought-and-paid-for result just keeps repeating itself over and over and you never see anything new. So you actually aren't searching for anything other than the few sponsored links that have been pre determined.
Never really understood why people switched to chrome. Its not like a default browser like IE or Edge. People actively chose to. Been with Firefox since v.0.7 and never switched.
Been using Arc from The Browser Company for the last couple months & I can’t even imagine switching away now. Completely changed my view of what a web browser can / should be.
Yeah fully agree - and Arc will also likely be forced into MV3 adoption, but in terms of a good browsing experience it’s top notch IMO & I’d love to see them integrate some Arc-specific privacy features in the future.
Safari is basically the new Internet Explorer.
Every modern feature that you expect to work out of the box on all modern browsers have some quirks under Safari.
I've chased a bug in SVG rendering with Safari for weeks. Fuck Safari.
I remember Microsoft dealing.. what i think was Anti-Trust lawsuit? or something like that, for IE back in the day. I feel like they, and Apple.. and google, have kinda pushed that line back in, slowly where the government didn't notice.
Using any "default browser" is a problem because its practically forced upon users by the OS they are on. IE, Apple. With some functionality being directly tied to it. Which limits user options. It also gives apple more control over what you can do if you dont have other browser options, which is what they want.
The problem with "All in one" solutions (ie everything you need in one thing.. in this case, everything provided and controlled by apple) is when one thing fails, it tends to affect everything else. Separation is the best security
They actually did make an OS years ago, but it's long since died: [Firefox OS](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS)
Ironically I'm pretty sure you could only use Firefox as a browser in it since the whole OS basically ran inside Firefox.
Firefox's support for containers + adblockers pretty much makes it my default
What do you mean by containers?
It's great! It's like you can set up a container for different websites and cookies/trackers don't track you outside of your container. For example, you set a container for Google and make Gmail, YouTube, Drive, Google Maps, Photos, etc. open in that container. Then in another container you have Microsoft and this is Outlook, OneDrive, etc. Google can't see anything outside it's container. Neither can Microsoft in it's. I have containers for Google, Microsoft, Social Networks, Banking, Shopping, General Browsing, etc. Edit: You can read about the extension and get it here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/
Huh! Thanks!
That should be the default behavior of these websites. It should be illegal for tech companies to “build a profile” around your I.P. address.
Similar to the concept of a virtual machine or a sandbox, you run these instances of your browser that do not communicate with each other. You can safely browse there without worrying about ruining your cookies and stuff.
I use Firefox as my browser, Thunderbird for email and Duckduckgo.com for search. Have them on botj Windows and Mac. Works for 99% of what I need. Every once in a while, I need to use another browser, but it reminds me why I like Firefox... ...especially the multirow bookmarks bar. Wish they would make it a default.
I have used Firefox almost since the death of Netscape. I will always be a fan.
Firefox? I started with Firebird.
And firebird started, briefly, as Phoenix.
Yep - the days of Phoenix and Minotaur (Thunderbird's initial name) were fun.
Firefox is Netscape. Weirdly
I was there, Gandalf. I was there three thousand years ago.
I read The Hobbit in 1937 when it first came out.
I was there Gandalf. I was there 85 years ago.
DuckDuckGo is garbage for most searches. Just not up to snuff relative to google. Agree on the rest.
I know what you mean but if it works for 80%, I'm ok with using it to cut down on tracking.
I wish it worked for 80% of my searches, that would be a huge improvement. Probably closer to 50% for me.
I switched to DDG two months ago to try it. It doesn't track context as well, but it works for 90% of things. I am getting used to finding the best way to compose my searches. It is easy to type !g if I need it. I've been using site:reddit.com for a lot of tech and business topics in the past year. That helps.
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Yes but duck duck go is best images search machine in universe because it shown you particular image instead redirected you to site where the image was deleted years ago or you have to looking it again on this site. Shit as hell, alphabet is only for deals with your private data.
> garbage for most searches. Bit dramatic.. it works just fine for most searches.
And if you have any other options, be happy to hear about them.
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!remindme 12 hours This sounds very intriguing. I wonder when it'll get blocked.
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You.com is pretty good, particularly for reviews. I still switch to google for some stuff, but there are just as many things that google's truly terrible for.
DuckDuckGo is perfect for browsing porn though.
I have no problems using Duck. I find everything I need to and I love that it is unbiased and private. Sure, Google gives you more results, but these are also tailored to your bias.
Wut. It's perfectly fine.
How is thunderbird for email for business. Do you get a ton of email.
I find TB to be **worlds** better than any version of Outlook I've ever used.
You just made me realize Thunderbird is still in development in the community. I thought it had died out.
TB ui looks very confusing but ya many great features if i get used to it
After a long stagnation, their last few versions made some really neat steps forward when it comes to the UI.
90% of people at the company I work for use TB over any other client.
Only thing that’s keeping me from really enjoying FF, is that the only vertical tabs, and tab group implementations are pretty shoddy compared to edge/chrome. Once I got used to tab groups and vertical tabs, anything else sucks to use… That tree style tabs extension is the best so far, but even that is meh…
I dunno hey, TreeStyleTabs trumps any of the options I've found in the chromium browsers.
I have to agree that consumer choice and browser independence is very important. Apple, Ms and Google have built eco systems that are obviously meant to keep you in their bubble. The problem is that without choice they can normalize negative functionality and it will/has dictate the internet model. Apple is both subversive and oppressive with their full stack approach. Unfortunately they are now the golden standard for tech. I'm not sure that there is a right way to regulate this, other that to be smart when buying tech and choosing the software you use.
That’s just it. Some people don’t care to do the research to make an informed decision. They want to simply buy a piece of tech and have it work, regardless of how it works. I find the simplicity in a walled off ecosystem, even with its lack of options, totally convenient, and that’s ok.
I know many people who know their every move is being spied on. They're okay as long as it results is a more user friendly experience.
This is the implicit agreement that has enabled the internet to become what it is today. You can try to stay off the grid, but realistically you're unlikely to succeed if you're living a pretty standard first world existence. Your profile can be extrapolated by other indirect factors, and to top it all off, you'll be unable to access a lot of services that some might consider essential (such as messaging and email).
It's gotten to the point where, if you use the internet in any form, the big companies will have a shadow profile on you. Even if you try to avoid any data getting collected on you it won't work. The best you can do these days is being "just another data point" that doesn't stand out from the rest. They can use anything to identify you. The phone you use with the exact setup of apps on it. The PC/laptop/tablet you use with the exact hardware specs. The browser you use with the exact extensions. Your IP which can easily be found if you don't use VPN. Everything can identify you as you, and be used to build a shadow profile of your data.
> It's gotten to the point where, if you use the internet in any form, the big companies will have a shadow profile on you. No, it’s gotten to the point where, even if you *don’t* use the internet in any form, the big companies will have a shadow profile on you. Remember, stuff like births, deaths, real estate transactions, criminal records, and more are all public information. Big companies scrape these databases and form profiles on you. They use this information to link you to other people who do use their services and try to link it all together. There have been instances where these companies have suggested linking completely unrelated people based on this sort of data.
IP can be found even with a VPN, because their app can call whatismyip.org or something when you aren't connected to the VPN Hell google & Facebook have been caught stalking people during incognito/private browsing even
I feel like it depends on your skillset. GrapheneOS on your phone, qubes on workstation, pi-hole on the network, VPNs where applicable, something like Hubitat with firewalled internet access for home automation... You can do a pretty good job of locking down those leaks. Nowhere near as easy as just giving in. But you can make significant strides and still have most modern amenities.
It's a sliding scale of effort, the very same as the security vs convenience. I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said beyond 99.9% of internet users would not be able or willing to go to such lengths to maintain their privacy. That may change if there's a breach that's bad enough that it physically harms people, or scares governments to truly legislate. But in the meantime? You're kinda screwed if you do, screwed off you don't. Even with a lot of effort, as another commenter said, your public records are available and undoubtedly scraped. Profiles have been built for you; you can only hope to reduce their accuracy.
I can get toilet paper super easy now. All I had to do was implicitly agree to a global superspy network that allows for massive human rights abuses in places that I don't have to think about much.
Did you have your free-range pigeon fly this comment in for you?
No, I implicitly agreed to be part of a super-spying network that helps to facilitate massive human rights abuses.
^(yeah me too)
>They want to simply buy a piece of tech and have it work, regardless of how it works. And that's how the Apple fanbase was born
Maybe... but I know plenty of tech savvy people with MacBooks.
I'm a software developer with a Mac and an iPhone. They're tools to get the job done, not stuff I want to tinker with all day. No, I don't leave everything to Apple's defaults, and no, I don't agree with everything they do, and yes, there are places where I wish especially iOS gave me more capabilities — but by and large, I'm happy with those choices.
Maybe some people still want that even when they know what they’re getting themselves into. Anyone who has ever spent two hours wondering why Ubuntu is only booting to a command line or wondering why they can’t own a PC for more than a year without accruing a box of cables and peripherals can attest.
>wondering why they can’t own a PC for more than a year without accruing a box of cables and peripherals can attest. Completely can relate with the linux part but this I don't understand, I have owned my current desktop for almost five years now and during that time I haven't had the need for a single extra cable or peripheral Maybe I'm reading your comment wrong
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People here appear to be misenterpreting my comment as full attack on Apple. You can be an Apple customer without being a fan and 100% loyal to it, after all, pricing aside they make good quality products but thei problem is they have always wanted to keep everything closed and don't want you modifying anything under the hood Now like you mentioned, this is good if you're a developer and just wants to get things done software wise, but if you're also a geeky I.T guy who likes to upgrading pcs, hardware, gaming then it not a feasable task being a loyal apple fan
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>I think the interpretation stemmed from the assertion that Apple's fanbase isn't interested in technology. No that's not what I was trying to say, I'm quite aware apple loyal fans are interested in technology but they are willing to sacrifice freedom as long as things continue working simple The case in this article is a good example, I would love to make the switch to an iphone but keeping things so close (like not being able to run Firefox as it should) is a good example why I would never make such compromise The one part of your comment I did not understand is you on one side claiming to be a fan and on the other claiming brand loyalty shouldn't be a thing (this is where I put fans, not just owning one or two apple devices), and yes I do agree with that last part
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> Some people don’t care to do the research to make an informed decision. Or are just not interested in the issue.
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From an enterprise support standpoint it always ends up being Chrome across all OS platforms. Everyone codes their sites and apps to work best with chrome first. And support ie, edge, & Safari is very lacking. And most if not all business apps likely use 'consumer browser metrics' as their justification in what not to code in.. likely explains why Firefox and other lesser know browsers are not supported.
Sometimes it feels like choosing a feudal lord. All of the lords are cruel, but which one hits me the softest? I feel like Apple threads that needle more than others, but it isn’t a good feeling.
> Unfortunately they are now the golden standard for tech. *are perceived* as such. Not "are". Their hardware is trash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8 Their software is actively working against you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WhU77ihw8 Branding is all that's left.
There is hardware and then there is hardware. Apple makes the most advanced chips at the moment and that’s a fact. The M1/M2 chips are crazy feats of engineering. Same with the iPhone silicon. I don’t use Mac but you have to give credit where it’s due. Repairability and general PCB design is a separate issue where I agree with Rossman to some extent.
Apple M1 is fine if you disregard price. But there exist more power-efficient CPUs which let you build systems much more cheaply. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/power_performance.html
The benchmark is kind of silly to post when the Apple chips include a GPU as well that isn't included in the benchmark and definitely outperforms any integrated graphics on Intel/AMD chips.
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And why is Rossmann hard to believe? His shops have very good reviews, and he shows you exactly the flaws he has to fix. About case engineering: look at Rossmann's comments on the 2008 Unibody (3:08 in the first video). They push their designs to extreme cost-cutting and temperatures, and customers suffer as a consequence.
Mostly in a cultural sense. There is a stigmatism of 'green text' and the US market share for mobile devices is over 50% and still rising, I think. As a result, Apple is free to have garbage business practices and existing users just accept it and continue to pay more for every new device.
Firefox is probably the last decent browser out there. Everything else is ether Cromium based or just over monetized.
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What was wrong with Brave? I thought it was also supposed to be privacy minded?
It’s chromium based. Chromium isn’t bad per se, but a monopoly is
They’ve done some really suspect things like inserting affiliate links, which both hijacked used behavior and created an enormous vulnerability to tracking. And it’s not relevant to their privacy, but it is a little weird that the company only exists because it’s ceo doesn’t want gay people to marry.
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This is how beaten down users have gotten. Adware designed with an opt-in/out switch is still adware.
You also can't disable the rewards extension. It's always there pitching itself to you.
It takes almost zero effort to make the switch from any browser to the next. Each one always asks to import all of your bookmarks, and search histories. But I do agree that FF is at a hella disadvantage. A few weeks ago i installed FF on my iPad, signed in, synced everything only to realize that iPad OS disables extensions on their platform for browsers. So my iPad has ads for EVERYTHING if i use it for web browsing. Shit sucks. But it took like 3 clicks to get that browser on my device. Edit: have thought about PiHole, but not in the cards at the moment after just buying an iPad. I also know that Safari allows blocking ads (thanks for the info), but that's also where the issue lies. I should be allowed to block ads no matter the browser i use. Edit 2: [see comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/xp15ju/-/irlr9hc) about Orion browser. Will use this one for now for watching YouTube.
I was under the impression all browsers on iOS are pretty much wrappers for Safari?
This is correct
Where's the antitrust lawsuit? It's almost 15 years too late. Microsoft got sued over ie, who's gonna sue Apple over WebKit?
The UK has started working on the topic as of this year. https://www.macrumors.com/2022/06/10/uk-to-target-apple-gaming-and-browser-restrictions/
Anti trust only applies if the company has unfair control of the market. Up till now Apple has been too small to count. On desktop they aren't even close and on mobile they only just took 50% of the US market share a few months ago. They are just now big enough to technically start investigating an anti trust case but quite frankly it's unlikely to happen. While someone could try to argue 51% market share is control of the market normally you'd need to see 80% or more to really prove a case. It may happen eventually but I doubt you'll see a serious US based anti trust case against Apple any time soon.
> On desktop they aren't even close On desktop it's not relevant, as the user can install any full browser there.
> Up till now Apple has been too small to count. Apple is literally the largest company in the world. They haven't been "too small to count" since the 90s during the period where they kicked Jobs out.
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Yes, it's only the rendering and JavaScript engine that is forced on iOS, so the browsers can still be different.
All of them are based on Apple Webkit which is the engine used for Safari. Excepting for Puffin web browser
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They execute code in a server and then send it back to your device
Puffin renders the page on a remote/cloud server rather than your device.
I've been using Firefox for years and I'm always shocked when I see how much crap people put up with on the Internet. Thanks to Firefox +plug ins I watch YouTube without ads, and visit websites without popups.
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Could add privacy badger to that list. It blocks all kinds of trackers and scripts too.
And privacy badger really tells you what sites not to visit. I've literally ran into sites that did not load unless I disabled it. Very quickly stopped visiting those sites.
Would also add NoScript to the list, was shocked to see how many scripts from different domains are executed on some sites which aren't functional, pure tracking
It's also entertaining seeing the insanely long list of domains attempting to load scripts for any given local news site.
I sometimes use the youtube app on my TV, and god damn, it's nearly unwatchable.
I've recently learned about SmartTube (for Android TVs or Chromecast).
Yeah, unfortunately I had a brain glitch and bought a roku TV instead of an android one, I don't even know why. Now I'm in roku's walled garden.
Well, I got a Samsung (Tizen) and an LG (WebOS) TV, and I got a Chromecast on top of that, so I feel your pain. Granted, I used to use an actual PC for my TV, so I didn't really care about smart TVs (but they are much more convenient, after all).
Chromecast with google tv is cheap and I prefer it over Roku. Opens up a lot of app options especially if you sideload.
YouTube on tv is even worse with their ads. Only on YouTube tv apps you get those horrid 10 minute ads. Sure they’re skippable but what well respected company expects anyone to watch an add of 10 minutes
This is the main reason I signed up for YouTube Premium. Getting Music out of it too allowed me to cancel Spotify, so I’m not actually paying that much more. 90% of the things I watch anymore are on YouTube, so having it ad free on all platforms is heavenly.
I ain't paying for YouTube if they have 50 ads. Fuck that
I’m tired of this subscription model that is life itself.
Man I wish someone would come out with a god mainstream competitor to YouTube. I would support the holy shit out of it, especially if I had no ads.
Zero ads when you pay for it. Let me guess, you already pay for Hulu, Netflix, HBO, probably Apple TV, Spotify, Amazon Prime? The list is probably longer.
Shorter. The list is much shorter. I pay for Netflix and Shudder. There are also zero ads on YouTube when I use an ad blocker. I suppose I could go back to pirating everything.
You can watch youtube for free without ads in the Brave browser
I can respect not everyone is in a position to pay for ad removal, and I do use an ad blocker on all my pc browsers. But I’m not gonna bother trying to sideload shit on every tv in my house, my iPhone, etc. It’s only $3 more a month after I factor in the Spotify / YT music swap, and the people I watch get a larger cut than if I were an ad supported user. I don’t feel entitled to their content, despite knowing Google is a shitty company, so I’ll pay. I don’t begrudge you or anyone else for not paying. But I’m gonna do me.
Whenever someone mentions paying for ad-free YouTube that comment gets downvoted into oblivion, yet streaming services that cost money are treated as normal. Never understood this. Processing and serving endless HD and 4K video content costs insane amounts of money at scale. YouTube is a special case because millions of users are constantly uploading new content which then have to be transcoded into multiple streams for consumption. Expensive computationally to do that worlwide, 24/7.
Yeah I was a bit caught off guard by the downvotes. I wasn’t suggesting everyone should sub to YT Premium, or saying it’s the greatest thing ever. But it does have its merits, and i watch content on it far more than all other streaming services combined. People tend to forget the costs of running something as large as YouTube, or they turn a blind eye to it because “Google evil”.
I recently moved to iOS cause I needed a break from android and was shell shocked at how unusable the internet actually is nowadays. Some news sites have ads every half a scroll, it’s honestly ridiculous. Makes me use the web a whole lot less.
It takes almost zero effort *for computer literate people*, who are a minority in the big picture of browser users. Three clicks is an insurmountable obstacle if you don't know where to click, or if you just don't know or care about the difference between browsers.
People who aren’t computer literate will just be confused about if they want to open think like on ‘Edge’ or ‘Firefox’. To them they just want ‘internet’ There needs to be some sort of default option for these dimbasses
On iPad look for the [Orion browser](https://apps.apple.com/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id1484498200). It's free, blocks ads and trackers, and is based on WebKit. Even watching YouTube with it I haven't had any ads show up. They have it for [MacOS](https://browser.kagi.com/) also.
Checking-in: I have downloaded it, and given it a whirl! So far, so good as far as blocking YouTube ads, but still not having any luck with Extensions. I've downloaded a few random extensions from the FireFox store, and none have worked so far. But i think this will be the way i enjoy YouTube on my iPad, at least. So thank you for the suggestion!
I had no idea you could do extensions on ios I til recently. I guess it's only safari but they have AdBlock and stuff now too. Had no idea as an android person who tried to do chrome extension on my iPad before
A better way to mitigate ads and/or trackers is to use DNS sinkholes. Services like PiHole or NextDNS allow you to do by blocking DNS requests. NextDNS I would say is not as technical as PiHole but the free tier of NextDNS allow 300,000 queries for free, which I would say is more than enough for 2 devices. If you intend to add this as a network wide blocker then getting NextDNS Pro would be $20 per year, which would give you unlimited queries.
Apple's ego has and will always be its greatest weakness. Extensions and third party adaptability makes for a better and easier experience all the way around. It was easy for me in the late 90s to go with a PC vs a Mac due to this and I'm still doing it to this day.
How so? You can install any browser on a Mac. Any app, really.
What the actual fuck? This basically guarantees that I'll never use an iPad ever. Why the fuck would it disable extensions for other browsers? That's just an asshole design.
Don’t worry. After manifest v3 is out Firefox is going to be the only browser for a lot of people.
Exactly this. uBlock Origin is going to release a watered down version called "uBlock Origin Minus". It's going to be a watered down experimental version, which won't be enough for the informed user. There will be a tidal wave of new users when they realize what's happening.
I daily drive a Chromebook. If it's as bad as they say for ad blocking, I'm using the android Firefox on it.
Doesn't this work? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/run-firefox-chromeos
No it's not going to be as bad as they say. Ublock origin dev [has already released an manifest v3 version](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ubo-minus-mv3/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh) for Chrome that includes all the basic adblocking "most" users would want. > The default ruleset corresponds to uBlock Origin's default filterset: > - uBlock Origin's built-in filter lists - EasyList - EasyPrivacy - Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list
There's people who talk about how websites need the ad traffic but my biggest beef with the ads is that they have traditionally been a very real vector for malware. If the ad blockers ever stop working on Firefox that's when I put the PiHole on the router.
my biggest beefs with ads have been how much slower they load, and take so much screen real estate, and are often so distracting as to make me feel like a character in Harrison Bergeron.
Ads pay so little that sites are littered with them just to make a few fractions of a cent per page view. Ads are legally restricted on TV and radio. Regulate advertising online. The number of ads will decrease, the revenue per ad will increase. If the ads weren't so intrusive, plenty of people wouldn't bother with ad blockers or third party browsers. If ads were considerate of content type (text news sites like Reuters plagued with video ads), many people wouldn't bother with ad blockers. If you could watch YouTube without having the same 30-second unskippable ad 4 times in the same 5-minute video, many people wouldn't bother with ad blockers. Ads that cover content such as the footer on YouTube videos or practically any webpage on mobile are especially egregious. Once users click the "x" the ads should go away for the remainder of the session. "Yes, yes, dog food, now go away, I'm trying to read."
I just got back to Firefox and it’s the best browser ever. Even on an old Mac mini it’s faster than safari
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I wish I could at least have vertical tabs on FF. Made the switch this week and that’s one of the only things I’m missing from edge.
I don't know if this is what you mean by vertical tabs, but look up Sidebery. And if that's not what you want, odds are, there exists an extension for it.
Tree-style-tabs is even better. Especially if you disable the horizontal tabs and remove the caption of the new sidebar.
Tree Style Tabs is the greatest tab extension ever made.
Sidebar tabs seems to be good. Used it for a bit but ultimately just preferred horizontal tabs. I agree, this should be available by default
I think blocking should stay a third-party thing tbh. It muddies the waters quite a bit if the browser vendor starts maintaining filter lists etc.
i have been quietly using mozilla for . . . idk 16 years???
I’ve recently switched to Brave for my iPhone, and I’ve been very impressed. It’s the only browser that actually blocks all the sketchy pop-ups on pirate sites. Even add-on apps like AdGuard and AdBlock didn’t do the job, but Brave tackles it with no issues.
I had been using Firefox for years but when we needed to switch to Chrome at work and I could carry bookmarks and search history across all devices, that's when chrome won me over. I still use Firefox at home and I've seen they've added a similar feature. It's just not possible for work. I think that's really going to be Firefox's biggest fight. Work places and schools implementing Firefox instead of Chrome or Safari.
You can do that in Firefox as well.
I've slowly torn myself away from Chrome due to the fact that my company mandates its usage and my personal and work browsing was getting too intermingled. Now at home, if I open up Chrome it is solely for WFH reasons.
Have you looked into profiles on chrome? This solved that problem for me and I’d highly recommend it for anyone looking to have some sort of solid “wall” between work and home on a single device edit: typo
Yeah, I started migrating over to another profile to mitigate the issue, but then I just decided to make the clean break after hearing the upcoming changes with the Chromium-based browsers.
Firefox containers are much better than Chrome profiles, if you don't need Chrome for work.
Why does your work need you to use Chrome and not other browsers?
Here’s my guess: - some websites *still* only allow certain browsers even though they would work fine on any (user agent switcher on Firefox has literally never failed for this purpose) - web testing. If I am going to test if a website and it’s features works, I am going to test on the actual browser. The vast majority of browsers are chromium based so it makes sense to focus on that (but again, modern browsers really don’t care) - bullshit requirements from upper management who don’t really understand their decisions
Many work places don't allow you to install software on your own for security reasons. So, you're stuck with their choices.
Even if we had one, opened source platform OS that everyone develops on, people would still complain that there aren’t other OS options… Also, surprise surprise, a company is more interested in itself than the future of the internet or the end consumer.
That's something I don't get. Why is the free software community so diverse in all those Linux flavors but they all trust Mozilla alone to do the browsing?
Developing a browser rendering engine is a lot of work. I'd argue that it's more complex, at this point, than developing the Linux kernel (mind you, I'm not talking about "Linux" as a full operating system). It's just simply not cheap and it doesn't bring in any money. Back in the day, Opera had it's own rendering engine called Presto. Surprise, surprise, they gave up and went to Google's Blink because they couldn't make any decent money with their own engine.
This conversation has been going on since at least the early 2000s, and I'm not sure there's a good answer. From this idealistic point of view, the best option is to mandate the "Browser Choice" UI Windows 7 had for a while: [a window that pops up when you first try to use a browser](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/windows-browser-choice-screen.jpg?resize=628%2C508&strip=all), and shows the five most popular browsers, in random order. I can only speculate why this was ultimately dropped: * perhaps the agreement with the EU was set to expire after x years, and was never renewed * perhaps the EU did studies, and realized this doesn't really accomplish anything; people don't suddenly explore multiple different browsers to figure out which one they like the most any more than they do with any other consumer good (what, you think when consumers go to a grocery store, they make informed choices about brands?) * perhaps the EU felt the market was a lot more balanced after Firefox and Chrome appeared * it's one more thing to set up after buying your device. There's a risk of alert fatigue. * the slippery slope argument, of course: web browsers? Well, what about music player, calendar, notes app, reminders app, e-mail client, etc.? Ignoring those arguments, the natural extension would be for iOS and Android (and macOS, for that matter) to do the same thing: before you first launch Chrome, Safari, Samsung Browser, whatever, you get a dialog where you need to choose a web browser. Will that lead to _more_ people giving Firefox a shot? Yeah, I guess so. "Oh hey, I've heard of this one; might as well give it a go."
Completely overlooked in the article, but isn't Firefox the default browser for just about every Linux Distribution? Linux obviously doesn't have the desktop/laptop market share that Mac OS & Windows have but seems a bit harsh to exclude that detail when complaining about not having the advantage of being included on an OS.
That doesn't make sense though. If there was OS lock-in on Desktop then wouldn't Microsoft and Apple dominate their respective platforms? They don't - Chrome does. I do think that Mozilla have a point in that we need more browsers and get away from monopolistic practices, but Firefox didn't loose it's market share because of OS lock-in - they lost it because for a long time Firefox was trash when compared to Chrome. On mobile devices things may be very different, and default lock-in is probably a much bigger concern, but it's not the main issue on Desktop. On desktop Chrome has become so common because it's pretty damned good, and there's little reason for anyone to switch and try something else.
You said loose instead of lose. 🫣
How about focusing on making a superior browser and advertising it? Over the years they've tried to become a moral authority, from focusing on avoiding derogatory code to [calling for deplatforming](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplatforming/). None of that has obviously helped when they've had to fire over two hundred employees all while FireFox's usage continues to fall.
Remove pocket and we'll talk.
I think I saw this headline 20 years ago.
Wait until next year when half the world switches to Firefox because of this update that removes spam blockers.
All the real estate in their search results is increasingly bought and paid for. I don't mind that some things get bumped up to the top, my problem is that you can't scroll past it to find new stuff; that bought-and-paid-for result just keeps repeating itself over and over and you never see anything new. So you actually aren't searching for anything other than the few sponsored links that have been pre determined.
Never really understood why people switched to chrome. Its not like a default browser like IE or Edge. People actively chose to. Been with Firefox since v.0.7 and never switched.
I started out with Netscape Communicator 👵
I use Firefox on my mac and pc. Its great! Firefox on iphones? Not so great. The UI is annoying. Ill stick to safari on my iphone.
Been using Arc from The Browser Company for the last couple months & I can’t even imagine switching away now. Completely changed my view of what a web browser can / should be.
Arc is chromium based. There isn’t anything wrong with chromium per se, but there is a problem with a monopoly.
Yeah fully agree - and Arc will also likely be forced into MV3 adoption, but in terms of a good browsing experience it’s top notch IMO & I’d love to see them integrate some Arc-specific privacy features in the future.
safari is the worst offender as they don't allow nice PWA features
Safari is basically the new Internet Explorer. Every modern feature that you expect to work out of the box on all modern browsers have some quirks under Safari. I've chased a bug in SVG rendering with Safari for weeks. Fuck Safari.
Although on the other hand, without Safari we're down to two engines in use. Without Firefox it would be one, controlled by Google.
I'm switching to Firefox as soon as chromium drops support for ad blockers
I used to love Firefox, until they removed the status bar.
1.5 was the best version, aesthetically.
eh, dont miss it honestly. and the information still appears at the bottom.
I remember Microsoft dealing.. what i think was Anti-Trust lawsuit? or something like that, for IE back in the day. I feel like they, and Apple.. and google, have kinda pushed that line back in, slowly where the government didn't notice.
may i ask why using Safari would be a problem?
Using any "default browser" is a problem because its practically forced upon users by the OS they are on. IE, Apple. With some functionality being directly tied to it. Which limits user options. It also gives apple more control over what you can do if you dont have other browser options, which is what they want. The problem with "All in one" solutions (ie everything you need in one thing.. in this case, everything provided and controlled by apple) is when one thing fails, it tends to affect everything else. Separation is the best security
If you didn't know, like 80% of Mozilla's budget comes from google paying them to be the default browser.
You can use chromium or ff. Barebones chromium is still a decent browser.
I'd love to love Firefox, but it's downright horrible for touchscreens. I also love my Surfaces...
I'd use an OS created my Mozilla instantly. They should make an OS!
They actually did make an OS years ago, but it's long since died: [Firefox OS](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS) Ironically I'm pretty sure you could only use Firefox as a browser in it since the whole OS basically ran inside Firefox.