12mo ago

It is essential to stop using Chrome. Under the pretense of saving users from third-party spyware, Google is creating an ecosystem in which Chrome itself is the spyware.

mastodon.world Dan Gillmor (@dangillmor@mastodon.social)

It is essential to stop using Chrome. Under the pretense of saving users from third-party spyware, Google is creating an ecosystem in which Chrome itself is the spyware. Given Google's overwhelming presence in the browser market, this is unconscionable. We should all despise the ad-tech business...

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469 comments

My main problem is that I prefer other frontends to Firefox. I mostly use Vivaldi and think it's great, but of course it's Chromium based. I read somewhere that it's just way easier to base a browser on Chrome than it is to base one on Firefox. It would be great if the frontend and backend were separated with a unified API and you could simply choose a frontend/interface (Vivaldi) with whatever backend/engine (Gecko). That's not how it (currently) works though.
There are Firefox forks, but they're just that: forks with slight modifications. Vivaldi and Arc are basically completely different browsers. Even Orion isn't based on Gecko, it's based on WebKit.
Add to that small compatibility issues with certain websites/web apps that aren't Firefox' fault, but rather developers targeting Chrome instead of "100 % web standards". Still, as a user you'll likely into (small) issues from time to time.
People saying "just use Firefox" have a very narrow view on how any of this works and I sometimes feel like it's some form of elitism where the cool kids use Firefox and everybody using anything else are "lesser people". In reality, people have different requirements and priorities. It's similar to people posting "just use Linux" under every article talking about problems with Windows.
Yes, Chrome and Google sucks, I agree, but there isn't a single universal solution to this problem.
- People saying "just use Firefox" have a very narrow view on how any of this works
  No, not at all. I understand perfectly. Your concerns are valid.
  Our point is not supporting Chrome is more important in the long run.
  There is no front end in the world that will make up for the loss of true ad blocking and everything else Google pushes down the line.
  Let's be clear about this:
  I don't want to tell you to use Firefox. I want to tell you to use whatever you like. I wish we lived in a world where the choice didn't matter.
  But we don't
  When I'm telling people to use firefox, I'm telling them if you have a problem with the direction the internet is going in, you actually have to do something about it beyond just complaining. Support the competition, the only non-profit in the space, and the only true alternative browser left. Because everything is going to get exponentially worse without competition, and we really really need to preserve the one remaining safe refuge.
  
  Well, you're not saying just use Firefox, you actually bring up valid points and reasoning. Just look at the top comment of this post stating "Not using Chrome is so easy" when it's not.
  Let me clarify that I don't hate Firefox, it's my second most used browser on the desktop after Vivaldi, I just don't think it's a great browser with its current feature set. Mind you, as soon as ad blocking becomes infeasible with Chrome and forks I'll instantly bite the bullet and fully switch to Firefox. But as it stands right now, Firefox is lacking features (some of them almost essential if you ask me, see my comment about passkeys) and compatibility (rarely Firefox' fault, but rather a result of the Chrome semi-monopoly).
  The main problem is that Firefox is the only alternative to a Chromium browser on non-Apple platforms, but it's not the solution to everyone's problems. Let's see if and when Orion is going to get ported to Windows/Linux.
  
  super excited about the future of Orion!!
- What features does Vivaldi have that don't exist in a FF extension?
  And using a WebKit based browser is still better than using a chromium fork.
  
  I don't know. I still prefer having vertical tabs, tab grouping, workspaces, web panels, proper loading information, full page screenshots and way more integrated in my browser instead of having to rely on possibly dozens of different extensions that in my testing never provided nearly as good of an experience.
  Implementation details matter.
  
  Also mouse gestures and tab tiling. Vivaldi has so many useful features baked in that I don't want to give up.
  
  Vertical tabs: Sidebery. It might actually be better than the Vivaldi native. I havent used vivaldi with vertical tabs that much, its just a work/secondary browser for me.
  Gestures: Gesturify. This is just better than the vivaldi native one.
  Tab tiling: well you got me on this one. This is actually pretty neat.
  To be clear, I like vivaldi as well, it is my chromium of choice but with the above two extensions firefox is chefs kiss.
  
  I'll take a look, thanks. I'm not thrilled with the idea of using a dozen extensions that could break or become incompatible, but I would prefer to get off of chrome!
  
  For me it is only 5 extensions really which are essential. uBlock Origin, Dark reader, Sidebery & Gesturify & User agent switcher (it can come in handy every once in a while).
  P.S. There is a little caveat to vertical tabs which i forgot. You have to follow an easy 5 step guide on how to hide horizontal tabs when sidebery is active.
  
  Personally, I would have preferred the option to hide tabs in Firefox, versus what they're currently working on... A hidden sidebar that works on only three of America's biggest shopping websites. Even if they hadn't developed native vertical tabs to go along with it.
  
  Im sorry, but dont know what you are refering to. Could you elaborate?
  
  Understandable. Here's the release notes they didn't advertise:
  https://wiki.mozilla.org/Support/Firefox119
  
  You can get vertical tabs on firefox with custom userChrome.css but it is a nightmare to setup and mozilla is only interested on breaking userChrome with every update lol.
  
  tell me about it! literally the ONE thing keeping me from FF at the moment. vertical tabs are too vital to my workflow at this point to sacrifice.
  
  tell me about it! literally the ONE thing keeping me from FF at the moment. vertical tabs are too vital to my workflow at this point to sacrifice.
  I don't know exactly how to do it, I know you can because when I was in the firefoxcss subreddit there were many posts on how people came up with their own solutions for vertical tabs.
  I wanted vertical tabs to save on screenspace, for some reason the default firefox has the biggest top bar of all browsers and it is horrible, this is the userChrome.css that I use, it does what I wanted but it is not vertical tabs:
  https://imgur.com/h39dsHL.png
  https://pastebin.com/r54QRbKx
  It is also keyboard centric, I also had to install an extension because firefox (and this only happens on linux) uses alt+number to switch between tabs instead of control+number.
  
  i just remembered this project: https://floorp.app/en/
  japanese fork of firefox with lots of features and proper vertical tabs apparently. i’m looking forward to trying it.
  
  check out Floorp: https://floorp.app/en/
  
  I could never get hardware accelerated video working with Firefox on my Linux laptop, and Google Meet (used for work) doesn't work well ( but I guess I blame Google for that).
  
  Google meet sucks hard on every browser and piece of hardware I've thrown at it.
  
  Why is using WebKit-based browser “better” than Chromium-based one? Neither supports Google’s monopoly. Vivaldi is not just a skin for Google Chrome, it continues to support manifest v2 extensions and proper adblockers. And the company is owned by the workers, which is super cool
  
  Because they foster a web monoculture where the only thing that works are Chromium based browsers. For better or worse Google controls Chromium which means that they will continue to keep pushing it in the direction they want.
- It would be great if the frontend and backend were separated with a unified API and you could simply choose a frontend/interface (Vivaldi) with whatever backend/engine (Gecko). That’s not how it (currently) works though.
  Arc has floated this idea. Currently Arc is Chromium-based, but they say they've designed it to allow for swapping engines in the future.
  IIRC, Edge had a similar feature for a while, allowing you to run legacy Internet Explorer tabs if a site required it. Not sure if that still exists.
- I tried really hard to use Floorp which fixes most of my problems with stock Firefox but even that just showed me how excellent Vivaldi is compared to other browsers.
- Let me add that support for passkeys is becoming more and more important and Firefox doesn't support passkeys. Yes, it supports forms of WebAuthn (YubiKey and the likes), but not "scan this QR code with your smartphone and use biometric authentication to sign in".
- Writing a new ff UI is pretty easy. The entire UI is written in html at this point. I'm not sure why people would say it's "hard" to change.
  Embedding gecko into something requires work (even that isn't that hard really, you just have to hand it a gl surface and pass through inputs)
- You admit in the opening of your comment that your issue is preference and then go on to say there's no single universal solution.
  There absolutely is a single universal solution. Either adapt your preference and use a different browser until you're familiar enough with it to prefer it, or adapt your preference to admitting that you don't care that Google is getting your data more than you care about being ever-so-slightly inconvenienced. It's pretty simple.

469 comments