Why Bother With uBlock Being Blocked In Chrome? Now Is The Best Time To Switch To Firefox::Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs.

  • @[email protected]
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    562 years ago

    i’ve been on Firefox in the last 8 years. i don’t even know what’s going on in Chrome and other browsers lol.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 years ago

      Same… I don’t understand the appeal of Chrome. I think they used a new java engine like 10 years ago and beat Firefox in a handful of benchmarks, and then Firefox conclusively and irreconcilably trounced Chrome a few months later, never letting up a bit.

    • Johanno
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      42 years ago

      I mean I tried to download the official minecraft client for debian and was not able to on Firefox.

      Microsoft disabled the site on non Chrome browser

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        Are you sure? I just tested and after logging in, the option to download the launcher was there (popos/firefox).

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        This sounded weird to me, so I just tried it. Running Firefox on Kubuntu, I just downloaded it with one click from here.

      • Draconic NEO
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        22 years ago

        Just tried it myself and it doesn’t have any issues at all. It seems like it might be an issue with something else on your end.

        Though honestly I’d strongly recommend against using the Official launcher as it has been known to introduce bugs and in general has poorer support for mods. I prefer the MultiMC forks like Prism, which don’t have the bugs the official one does.

        • Johanno
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          12 years ago

          I wanted sth that is updated by my system and the flatpak I found logged me in as a unsecure user or I had to login at each launch

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Internet explorer was the shit in 1992. That’s only 30 years ago, not everybody is quick to switch. 😜
      There’s also an icon for Navigator, and none for edge. LOL
      Maybe they needed an image that was out of copyright?

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        Its biggest selling point was that it was bundled for free with Windows 98 while Netscape Navigator was still a pay-for product.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          Yes apparently I remembered 3 years wrong according to Wikipedia, I am pretty sure we got Internet Explorer for Windows 3.11, as a separate free product, but Wikipedia states it was released with Windows 95 plus pack in 1995. So 28 years old not 30. But the plus pack although moderately successful cannot compete with being included with Windows 98. The last good Windows version, where you could boot to dos, and fix everything in Windows if they were broken. NT all the way up until Windows 11 sucks IMO. Bad design.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer

  • @[email protected]
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    332 years ago

    If you are concerned about things like PWAs like I was, try it out anyway. PWAs require a bit more setup, but are a lot more flexible in Firefox. For example, PWAs with http connections have a huge banner in Chrome, and just an icon in Firefox. Everything I’ve noticed is that firefox is just as snappy as Chrome

    • qaz
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      132 years ago

      I thought PWA’s didn’t work on Firefox. That’s good to know, because I’ve been using chromium specifically for PWA’s.

      • gila
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        52 years ago

        Same here, I tried the PWAsForFirefox extension a few years back and found the setup to be too much of a pain in the ass compared to the Chromium forks. I tried again around 9-12 months ago when Manifest V3 drama was making the rounds and found the extension had been overhauled and that’s no longer a problem. As a bonus each PWA is a self-contained browser instance, so performance is improved when only the PWA is open, and extensions are per-PWA. So I can run only Purple Adblock on my Twitch PWA, or only uBlock for Youtube, etc.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          Any idea how to get links clicked in a PWA like Google Messages to open in a normal browser tab? I’ve tried nothing.

          • gila
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            12 years ago

            Go to the PWA settings and enable “Open out-of-scope URLs in a default browser” and restart your PWAs.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          I’m using them heavily as well. Mostly good. Painful though when moving between computers as you have to set them up on each one. If they can get it to sync eventually that’d be handy.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 years ago

            What PWA do you use? I think they’re a neat idea but I haven’t come up with an actual use case yet.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              Gmail x2. Pulse SMS. Keep. Calendar. Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger. All as task bar icons.

              I used to use Chrome for this but every now and then it’d break and they would either open in the wrong profile, or they’d add a tab to the main browser rather than opening as a window.

            • gila
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              2 years ago

              I just use it for any tab which I always have open, so they’re organised on my taskbar. That way I don’t end up with 40 tabs of like 5 different websites that I just pathologically open up a new tab for each time I revisit, having to scan through them all each time I want to switch to find one from before. That’s an ADHD thing though. Effectively for some websites I want the tab to always be pinned and easily accessible with a large icon for a visual cue, and this way that all happens automatically

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Aesthetic and productivity. Which are good reasons.

        Let’s say you access your company ERP system through a PWA, or the HR system. You want to alt tab back and forth to it like a regular app. You’re checking supplier data on the web and entering it on the system. It’s a lot easier to do so if your ERP is an app. But if it’s not available as a native app, PWA is a good alternative.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        I mainly use them when I want something windowed but without tabs taking up space. Like monitoring my solar panels

      • andrew_bidlaw
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        42 years ago

        You are correct. I used it on older hardware due to how thin it is, but it has less manpower than more popular forks, so rendering of bloated websites, some of them needing their own workarounds coded in, can be slow and wonky. E.g. Xitter run, well, like xit.

  • Flying Squid
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    82 years ago

    In my former job, I had no choice but use Chrome due to work rules. If I couldn’t have installed uBlock at the time, it would have killed me. So I hope for people like me, there’s at least an adblocker that has a small chance of working in Chrome.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 years ago

      Vivaldi has an adblocker built-in but has no cosmetic filtering unfortunately. I did ask and they said it’s been prioritised given the MV3 problems.

      • Flying Squid
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        62 years ago

        If they were in my situation, installing another browser was not an option, but installing Chrome extensions was still possible.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 years ago

      I’m curious if “must use browser X” is a deal breaker for many people.

      Would you quit a job for forcing a specific browser?

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        For me it was the OS. We agreed, when I started my job, that I would use Windows but that I would eventually switch to Linux, which I did a few months in. If they wouldn’t allow it, although agreed upon, I would have left - which I did anyways, but for totally different reasons

  • @[email protected]
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    1492 years ago

    I love Firefox. Love it.

    But I keep coming across sites that don’t function properly with it. Is this Firefox’s fault? No - Firefox follows standards nicely. But growing numbers of sites don’t, and this is a big problem at a micro and macro level.

    Chrome seems to have such a foothold that it is getting away with embrace/extend/extinguish and I think it’s a very sad thing.

    • @[email protected]
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      262 years ago

      I keep seeing this sentiment on these posts, often with a suspicious number of up votes that don’t seem to correlate how many up votes everything else in the topic get.

      Literally the only place I have EVER seen this issue was a state toll road website, which was using a timezones that didn’t actually exist but chrome added (and documented on the Internet to trick people into using it). A simple email to the website with an explanation and the correct timezones name and the problem was fixed.

      Pretty sure a lot of this sentiment is either astroturfing, or people passing on astroturfing trying to be helpful.

      • @[email protected]
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        122 years ago

        Yeah, I’ve been exclusively using Firefox dev edition for the last 2-3 ys. I can’t remember one site not functioning properly apart from the odd visual bug from time to time.

    • @[email protected]
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      112 years ago

      That’s such bullshit. People keep saying SO MANY SITES DONT WORK ON FOREFUX

      with zero examples.

      I see no examples. You’re making a ridiculous claim with no proof and I’m astounded at how many people believe you here.

    • @[email protected]
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      322 years ago

      This is an especially common problem on Android. I have found many sites whose mobile version simply does not work in Firefox. It’s very frustrating.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Have you got an example I can test? I switched to Firefox mobile over a year ago and I can’t think of any time I’ve come across a site that didn’t work.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          The most recent issue I had was Birds and Beans “manage subscription” page so I don’t think you can test that without a coffee subscription. But here is a screenshot:

          I’m not sure why it says “nightly” as I’m on the stable version.

          • Ace! _SL/S
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            22 years ago

            This isn’t Firefoxs fault though, is it? Just a bad Website putting arbitrary restrictions in place

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        I also feel their number grew in the last year. I’ve recently tried using Mull again (mobile firefox privacy-focused fork) after using Bromite for a year, and it was so unbearable I had to switch back. I’d say I had less websites that worked than ones that did not

        • @[email protected]
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          82 years ago

          Unfortunately tracker blocking can lead to even more issues as many sites have started relying on it for basic functionality.

    • The Giant Korean
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      202 years ago

      I tried to bring this up as an issue back on Reddit, and I got downvoted into oblivion.

      I think sometimes switching your use agent to Chrome can bypass some issues.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        There is an addon that does this automatically.

        Some pages load weird like a pop-up on mobile that should take over your view window is a side bar instead. Still fully functional but slightly harder to read.

        But you know what makes it way harder to read? Ads

        • The Giant Korean
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          82 years ago

          I’ve visited pages in Chrome without an ad blocker… Almost unusable, my eyes couldn’t even focus on what I actually needed to do.

          • @[email protected]
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            42 years ago

            I’m not sure if it’s better, or worse, than the cancer that was the dot come era. Pop-ups everywhere. Random fucking toolbars. So many toolbars. A clippy version of a titty dancer if you’re unlucky.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        So many tech minded people, but at same time, so many of us fail to consider others POV and priorities.

        JUST DON’T VISIT THAT WEBSITE! - sure bro, that means i won’t be able to pay the bills this month because the only traditional way of doing this is visiting a physical kiosk at working hour. Did i mention that i gotta work?

        Similar with messaging apps.

        YOU NEED BETTER FRIENDS LOL - trust me I’ve tried. i also need to send my resume using this app to whoever interviewing me. no, no email. yes, i tried teling that. no, i won’t be that guy preaching about software freedom when all i want is a fucking job.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          The first sites I really noticed it on were banking sites. Pretty much essential. Then I noticed more and more sites. Switching to chrome based solved it. But it really, really bothers me that I had to resort to that.

          Would love to just ignore such sites, but that becomes a pretty big ask… Sigh

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        Make sure to only do that temporarily and only if it’s absolutely necessary. Otherwise just avoid using said website and look for alternatives.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      Give me examples. I’ve been using Firefox exclusively for over ten years and I can recall one website I’ve had to use chrome on. That was draw.io to get shared drawing through a Google drive to work.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        For me there are certain sites where the site icon doesn’t show up in my bookmarks. While not world shattering, it can be annoying.

    • @[email protected]
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      772 years ago

      That was Internet Explorer 20 years ago and look where we are now.

      I personally can’t remember the last time I had issues with a site on Firefox in the last few years since I switched.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        The teams web app was borked for me on Firefox at one point. Idk if it’s still like that. Also Google Chat or whatever tf it’s called now disables a bunch of features on Firefox.

        Still worth it to switch. 99% of websites work just fine. They basically have to intentionally design sites to not work with FF.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          Those are literally restrictions placed by the site in question, not a limitation of Firefox. Get a user agent changer, and set the user agent to the “required” browser, and magically it will work!

        • Veticia
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          2 years ago

          When I was using Firefox I felt like spoofing user agent was essential to make websites work the way they were supposed to. I could loose some rounded corners here and there but it was still better that some features completely missing

        • @[email protected]
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          62 years ago

          Ah yes wtf is Teams doing!? Some arbitrary features are blocked on Firefox, like you can’t direct call someone but you can be part of a group call 🤪

          But I don’t think Microsoft’s online suite is a reference, most of it feels buggy or bloated at best.

      • kratoz29
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        82 years ago

        Chrome turning into Internet Explorer was something that I didn’t foresee some years ago.

        Heck they have literally done that with Edge lol.

      • Eager Eagle
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        62 years ago

        Been using it for years, and the only few times I had issues was due to worthless websites creating artificial obstacles with an “unsupported browser/OS” page or banner rather than something actually breaking for being incompatible.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        Discord and spotify web versions don’t work on Firefox for me. On discord in can’t connect to a call and Spotify doesn’t play songs or it takes a long time after pressing play for the song to start playing.

  • YⓄ乙
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    82 years ago

    There’s so many post about Firefox. Mozilla should throw some money at Lemmy devs for free marketing.

    • @[email protected]
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      292 years ago

      Is it surprising that a userbase for an open-source online forum with no ads are advocates for an open-source browser that can remove ads?

    • zeroxxx
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      2 years ago

      They are. In fact, they make up 60 plus percent of world-wide browser users.

      Don’t forget that Chrome is Android’s default browser.

  • @[email protected]
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    82 years ago

    why the Freenet logo and not I2P? Freenet is not designed with privacy in mind, unlike I2P which literally stands for the Invisible Internet Project.

  • @[email protected]
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    42 years ago

    As a user of Seamonkey - which you’d know as Mozilla, the app that Mozilla the company ditched for being ‘too hard’ - I have to say no. While I trust they’re not as evil as Google, I don’t trust them to do the hard part of actual software maintenance.