8 ms·

How’s firefox these days? On a serious note - I’ve seen a lot of browser startups lately. Are there any of them that really stand out?

by ymir_e 3y ago

shrimp_emoji 3y ago
I prefer it over Chrome. It's a (mostly) de-botnetted browser that allows deep customization and control.
LightHugger 3y ago
I can recommend librewolf, firefox with all the mozilla crap stripped out and good default privacy settings. Can tweak the options easily too if there's anything too annoying.
- Phelinofist 3y ago
  Quoting another HN user regarding librewolf: > Binaries are unsigned, third party update service, Google safe browsing disabled unless you build from source, running unusual browser setups can actually make you more distinctive online, unencrypted DNS by default, speed of security patches is slower than base Firefox, etc.
  - babypuncher 3y ago
    Yeah I like what LibreWolf is doing, but it seems more reasonable to just disable the Firefox features you don't like.
  - oynqr 3y ago
    All of those except the last one are positives.
  - LightHugger 3y ago
    Unsigned binaries is good, update service is good, google safe browsing disabled is mega good, unencrypted dns is comparatively good from what i understand compared to mozilla's imperfect solution. Speed of security patches is not great, but having non-mozilla vetting on security patches is a tradeoff that is worthwhile.
    - neurostimulant 3y ago
      > Unsigned binaries is good Why?
- chikenf00t 3y ago
  Librewolf is great, but an easy way to lock down regular Firefox is to generate a profile on something like ffprofile.com and replace the default config.
isaacremuant 3y ago
Better than chrome, like always. Customizable and better at ram consumption. It's always good to have a backup besides chrome/Firefox, in case Mozilla decides to commit yet another absurd move due to weird political trends.
jonathanlb 3y ago
It's my daily driver, but it's energy inefficient on my Macbook Pro compared to Safari.
bearjaws 3y ago
Been my daily driver since 2021 and its rock solid, performance is maybe 5-10% slower. Theres only one site I know of that doesn't 100% work in it, thankfully its not one I use all the time.
irrational 3y ago
It’s been my browser for both web development and personal browsing for more years than I can remember. It is terrific. I don’t even have chrome installed on any of my computers.
criswell 3y ago
I really like Arc. Takes some getting used to but worth the adjustment I think.
- mooooooooooooo 3y ago
  Arc had terrible adblocking out of the gate, I tried it out and immediately went back to Brave
  - avtar 3y ago
    Did you try ublock origin on Arc? Seems to be just as effective as it is with other browsers.
e2le 3y ago
>How’s firefox these days? Surviving but continues to bleed users. https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity
- robswc 3y ago
  I would use Firefox, if not for Mozilla.
  - kbenson 3y ago
    And instead you use what? And why is that better or worse in specific ways?
    - robswc 3y ago
      I just don't like Mozilla, as a company, for many reasons. The main ones being: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Baker#Negative_salary-achievements_correlation_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Baker#Negative_salary... The pay wouldn't be so egregious if it wasn't a constant pattern of pay raises, despite by their own stats, losing MAU and revenue. They also laid off 250 people (which is much more than $5MM, any way you cut it) but it seems in bad taste to give the CEO a raise in the same year. And: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/ The fact that they're leaning so much into political activism. On their homepage they're promoting a journalist involved in some misinformation controversy: https://web.archive.org/web/20220928230910/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/johnny-depp-trial-creators-influencers/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220928230910/https://www.washi... The journalist has blamed all this on "editors" -- so we'll never know _who_ exactly did the stealth edits and lied about contacting for comment. In any case, it is pretty ironic, given the CEO of Mozilla seems to think we need more than de-platforming to combat "misinformation": https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplatforming/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat... Not a fan of statements that creep into invasions of privacy from a supposedly privacy focused browser. So, to sum it up; Wild executive pay for poor performance and too much political activism (that I tend to not agree with) for a web browser.
neilv 3y ago
Firefox is my main browser for many years, and it's still good. (The only main thing I don't use it for is for the DRM that my main streaming service wants right now. I dedicate Chromium to that, to keep the nastiness away from my main browser.) With Firefox, you probably do want to change a lot of settings from the default, for privacy&security reasons. Firefox is absolutely not holistically security&privacy-friendly overall -- there's a long history, of often behaving like a for-profit tech company, to grow out of -- but it's the closest I'm aware of that we have right now. Not helping is that browser standards were captured and turned into both serving the needs of particular kinds of businesses, and as massive market moats for dominant players. I don't know what to think of all the browser startups and open source forks. I know at least one person at Brave, and that person is a 100% straight-shooter true-believer in privacy&security (and intellectually formidable), but some things leadership has done are too trust-me and bad optics. Regarding the rest of the efforts, there might be gold in there, but we have to skeptical of each one by default, for two reasons: (1) our field is bad at what we do, and that's now reflected deep in our technology stacks, as well as in practices for new development; (2) our field has normalized a lot of sociopathic behavior in the last 25 years, so it's easy for even well-intentioned people to inadvertently do bad things, and there are also a lot people with not as admirable of intentions.
shpx 3y ago
If you want to use uBlock Origin on iOS, there's Orion browser. Enabling extensions and installing uBlock Origin on it requires a tedious step and the app is noticeably slower to respond and just overall worse and buggier than Safari, but the ad blocking works. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id1484498200 https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id148449... https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ios-ipados-extensions.html#enable_installation https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ios-ipados-ex...
peoplenotbots 3y ago
If you're a duel monitor nerd it feels required if you want to do something besides internet surf on one monitor and stream something on other. I dont have the most powerful computer but if I want to play baldurs gate 3 on one monitor while stream something on the other monitor it has to be in firefox over chrome.
- vacuity 3y ago
  Why is this? Memory usage?
koyote 3y ago
I've been using it for the last 5 or so years with no real issues (Linux, Windows and Android). I'd say the Android one is probably the weakest link but still usable and of course having ad-block on mobile is a huge quality of life improvement. Other than that I don't notice any slowdowns compared to Chrome, the UI is very similar anyhow and the addon ecosystem is decent too.

How’s firefox these days? On a serious note - I’ve seen a lot of browser startups lately. Are there any of them that really stand out?

by ymir_e 3y ago

How’s firefox these days? On a serious note - I’ve seen a lot of browser startups lately. Are there any of them that really stand out?

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

I prefer it over Chrome. It's a (mostly) de-botnetted browser that allows deep customization and control.

LightHugger 3y ago

I can recommend librewolf, firefox with all the mozilla crap stripped out and good default privacy settings. Can tweak the options easily too if there's anything too annoying.

Phelinofist 3y ago
Quoting another HN user regarding librewolf: > Binaries are unsigned, third party update service, Google safe browsing disabled unless you build from source, running unusual browser setups can actually make you more distinctive online, unencrypted DNS by default, speed of security patches is slower than base Firefox, etc.
- babypuncher 3y ago
  Yeah I like what LibreWolf is doing, but it seems more reasonable to just disable the Firefox features you don't like.
- oynqr 3y ago
  All of those except the last one are positives.
- LightHugger 3y ago
  Unsigned binaries is good, update service is good, google safe browsing disabled is mega good, unencrypted dns is comparatively good from what i understand compared to mozilla's imperfect solution. Speed of security patches is not great, but having non-mozilla vetting on security patches is a tradeoff that is worthwhile.
  - neurostimulant 3y ago
    > Unsigned binaries is good Why?
chikenf00t 3y ago
Librewolf is great, but an easy way to lock down regular Firefox is to generate a profile on something like ffprofile.com and replace the default config.

isaacremuant 3y ago

Better than chrome, like always. Customizable and better at ram consumption. It's always good to have a backup besides chrome/Firefox, in case Mozilla decides to commit yet another absurd move due to weird political trends.

jonathanlb 3y ago

It's my daily driver, but it's energy inefficient on my Macbook Pro compared to Safari.

bearjaws 3y ago

Been my daily driver since 2021 and its rock solid, performance is maybe 5-10% slower. Theres only one site I know of that doesn't 100% work in it, thankfully its not one I use all the time.

irrational 3y ago

It’s been my browser for both web development and personal browsing for more years than I can remember. It is terrific. I don’t even have chrome installed on any of my computers.

criswell 3y ago

I really like Arc. Takes some getting used to but worth the adjustment I think.

mooooooooooooo 3y ago
Arc had terrible adblocking out of the gate, I tried it out and immediately went back to Brave
- avtar 3y ago
  Did you try ublock origin on Arc? Seems to be just as effective as it is with other browsers.

e2le 3y ago

>How’s firefox these days? Surviving but continues to bleed users. https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity

robswc 3y ago
I would use Firefox, if not for Mozilla.
- kbenson 3y ago
  And instead you use what? And why is that better or worse in specific ways?
  - robswc 3y ago
    I just don't like Mozilla, as a company, for many reasons. The main ones being: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Baker#Negative_salary-achievements_correlation_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Baker#Negative_salary... The pay wouldn't be so egregious if it wasn't a constant pattern of pay raises, despite by their own stats, losing MAU and revenue. They also laid off 250 people (which is much more than $5MM, any way you cut it) but it seems in bad taste to give the CEO a raise in the same year. And: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/ The fact that they're leaning so much into political activism. On their homepage they're promoting a journalist involved in some misinformation controversy: https://web.archive.org/web/20220928230910/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/johnny-depp-trial-creators-influencers/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220928230910/https://www.washi... The journalist has blamed all this on "editors" -- so we'll never know _who_ exactly did the stealth edits and lied about contacting for comment. In any case, it is pretty ironic, given the CEO of Mozilla seems to think we need more than de-platforming to combat "misinformation": https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplatforming/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat... Not a fan of statements that creep into invasions of privacy from a supposedly privacy focused browser. So, to sum it up; Wild executive pay for poor performance and too much political activism (that I tend to not agree with) for a web browser.

neilv 3y ago

Firefox is my main browser for many years, and it's still good. (The only main thing I don't use it for is for the DRM that my main streaming service wants right now. I dedicate Chromium to that, to keep the nastiness away from my main browser.) With Firefox, you probably do want to change a lot of settings from the default, for privacy&security reasons. Firefox is absolutely not holistically security&privacy-friendly overall -- there's a long history, of often behaving like a for-profit tech company, to grow out of -- but it's the closest I'm aware of that we have right now. Not helping is that browser standards were captured and turned into both serving the needs of particular kinds of businesses, and as massive market moats for dominant players. I don't know what to think of all the browser startups and open source forks. I know at least one person at Brave, and that person is a 100% straight-shooter true-believer in privacy&security (and intellectually formidable), but some things leadership has done are too trust-me and bad optics. Regarding the rest of the efforts, there might be gold in there, but we have to skeptical of each one by default, for two reasons: (1) our field is bad at what we do, and that's now reflected deep in our technology stacks, as well as in practices for new development; (2) our field has normalized a lot of sociopathic behavior in the last 25 years, so it's easy for even well-intentioned people to inadvertently do bad things, and there are also a lot people with not as admirable of intentions.

shpx 3y ago

If you want to use uBlock Origin on iOS, there's Orion browser. Enabling extensions and installing uBlock Origin on it requires a tedious step and the app is noticeably slower to respond and just overall worse and buggier than Safari, but the ad blocking works. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id1484498200 https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id148449... https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ios-ipados-extensions.html#enable_installation https://help.kagi.com/orion/browser-extensions/ios-ipados-ex...

peoplenotbots 3y ago

If you're a duel monitor nerd it feels required if you want to do something besides internet surf on one monitor and stream something on other. I dont have the most powerful computer but if I want to play baldurs gate 3 on one monitor while stream something on the other monitor it has to be in firefox over chrome.

vacuity 3y ago
Why is this? Memory usage?

koyote 3y ago

I've been using it for the last 5 or so years with no real issues (Linux, Windows and Android). I'd say the Android one is probably the weakest link but still usable and of course having ad-block on mobile is a huge quality of life improvement. Other than that I don't notice any slowdowns compared to Chrome, the UI is very similar anyhow and the addon ecosystem is decent too.