this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023

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2080

It's never been a better time to switch to Firefox (www.androidpolice.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

381 comments fedilink hide all child comments

• Firefox offers better privacy and security than Chrome, with upcoming support for 200 new add-ons. • While Chrome dominates, Firefox gains ground with user-friendly browsing experience and open-source model. • Mozilla's focus on user privacy and transparency challenges Google's ad-centric approach, making Firefox a viable alternative.

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[–] [email protected] 238 points 9 months ago (13 children)

I'd like to formally apologize. I should have never left.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 9 months ago

It's cool just come back and bring a friend with you.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Same here. I left for about 10 years but started coming back gradually a few years ago. After everything that happened this year, I made the full switch to Mozilla on all my devices. I'm very happy to be back though!

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[–] [email protected] 174 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Switch? I never left!

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I deeply regret leaving.

Growing up, I used Firefox on PC, but switched to Chrome early 2010s due to using a lot of google products for university work, and the general “google is cool” vibe that surrounded me from peers (tech/business student).

Now after a decade, I’m deeply entrenched in Google with bookmarks, passwords and habits. Only progress I made is switching to iOS from Android. Installed Ff on mobile, but didn’t really like the experience, so not really using it.

Will probably try to make a stronger push to invest some time and switch completely during Xmas break, as it does bother me to be part of the problem, though I hate how convenient not doing anything about it is.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I had a similar history to you.

I finally decided a couple months back to start de-googling and did the following so far:

switched Google Password Manager to VaultWarden
switched Google Search Engine to searxng
switched Google Keep to Obsidian/memos
switched Google Drive/Office to Cryptpad
switched Google Chrome desktop to LibreWolf
switched Google Chrome Mobile to Fennec F-droid

Only progress I made is switching to iOS from Android. Installed Ff on mobile, but didn’t really like the experience, so not really using it.

Well if you switched to iOS then there's not really much point as the browser backend is still the same as Safari there. Apple doesn't allow other browser engines so on iOS Firefox/Chrome/etc are all just wrappers on Apple's browser engine.

Apple is worse than Google in many ways and if you wanted to maintain control over your privacy (and even just de-google) you ironically would be better off staying on Android.

There are many great custom firmwares available for Android devices such as GrapheneOS which can truly de-google your device.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Exactly. I've been here since Netscape Navigator.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 9 months ago (21 children)

Tree. Style. Tabs.

Best damned extension ever. It's amazing to me that all browsers don't have this style of tabs.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the recommendation. I need to organize my 100+ tabs.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Tree Style Tab also lets you bookmark whole trees. I'm often jumping between different coding languages, or different areas of DevOps on a weekly basis, and tree bookmarks help. I can "file away" a bunch of research and load it all back later, and still have the tree! Very useful for context switching.

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 9 months ago (11 children)

Just because Google broke the most trafficked site on the internet for Firefox doesn't mean its a bad browser. Hell that's a ringing endorsement.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Personally I'd rather stop using any Google services, than handing them a Chrome monopoly. Google is already way to dominant IMO.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The best time to switch to Firefox was 19 years ago when it first came into existence. The 2nd best time is now.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

my cubicle wall poster I sent money for. yw

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[+] [email protected] 53 points 9 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago (1 children)

When it was released, Chrome was revolutionary. Sandboxing individual tabs into their own processes was a stroke of genius. Until then, if a single site ate up all your memory and crashed your browser, all your tabs/sites died and you had to start again.

It really was the best browser for a hot minute before others copied the idea.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (9 children)

I never understood why so many people thought it was a good idea to hand Google the near monopoly power we had just prevented Microsoft in keeping. And that was AFTER we saw how bad it was that Microsoft had that power.
Too many people go for short term gain for way greater long term losses.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Chrome was much faster and more stable than Firefox for a time, but they're similar now.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

This is my recollection, when chrome first came out it seemed significantly faster than IE and Firefox at the time, and Google was much less evil big brother at the time.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (17 children)

I've been using Firefox on desktop and mobile exclusively for a number of years now. I will say the experience isn't perfect but it's better than using a browser made by a company that is actively hostile to its users.

It is important to take note that you will experience issues with some websites. For example, https://astro.build/ Try scrolling quickly up and down on this page on Firefox vs Chrome (on mobile).

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (11 children)

What's wrong with that page? I'm not seeing anything in particular.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Exclusively used chrome browser for ~10yrs. Switched to Firefox last week, cause google being evil.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago

I never left 😘

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (12 children)

Personally I've never left Firefox. Used to develop on it when it was still called Mozilla, and I'm happy it's still around. Privacy is a major strength of it compared to other browsers.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Container tabs are hands down the best add-on I have ever used. Being able to use multiple accounts across tabs is fantastic. Alot of my colleagues have switched due to this alone

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago

When Firefox announced that a ton of their add-ons/extensions were coming to the mobile app, it got me to switch from chrome after almost 15 years.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (18 children)

The mobile experience of Firefox with ad block is so much better than Chrome. Using chrome on mobile makes the Internet feel broken to me. I can't go back.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (12 children)

Since version 120 is coming to mobile soon with about 200 extensions (as mentioned in the article), can anyone recommend some good extensions that are newly added? I have ublock origin, HD YouTube, Google search fixer, clear url fixer, dark reader, privacy badger, and ghostery

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I think ghostery is owned by an ad company. I wouldn't trust it.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Try libredirect, it automatically redirects links from twitter, youtube, imgur and many other spying platforms to alternative privacy friendly frontends. It is also very customizable: you can turn only some redirects and configure what particular site to use for each platform.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You've hit all the great ones, most of which were already available.

Have you added the bypass paywall clean filter list to ublock? Here's the url you can copy paste under "import" in the ublock addon settings: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-clean-filters/-/raw/main/bpc-paywall-filter.txt

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (3 children)

The best time was 15 years ago

[–] [email protected] 57 points 9 months ago (4 children)

And the second best time is now.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (14 children)

Don't forget about the Firefox forks like LibreWolf!

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

For people asking, add-ons work fine on Nightly.

Nightly 122

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I use it on desktop and phone and honestly been pretty good no complaints.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (7 children)

How is this going to end?

Google blocks access to it's services for Firefox altogether? Maybe even ban it from the Play Store? That would finally give me a real incentive to install some CFW.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

It's always been a viable alternative. If the Internet was standard-compliant it would have been the best for a long time

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