Prologue

You might not know it, but Firefox was once widely considered to be an innovative browser. It wasn’t just an alternative to Internet Explorer (and now Chrome). Firefox introduced honest-to-goodness new features that people loved and rely on to this day.

  • CifrareVerba@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    11 months ago

    Reading the article, I believe this take isn’t the best view or one that fits what the average user thinks.

    The problem with Firefox for normal users is Mozilla changing things way too often, changing UI or forcing features/ads/marketing onto users.

    I used Firefox for the longest time as my primary browser but remember needing to do the following for family members:

    1. Disable Pocket
    2. Disable Firefox Hello
    3. Change Yahoo Search to Google
    4. XUL Add-ons removal and finding alternatives.
    5. Firefox sponsored content (new tab page, suggestions)
    6. Mr. Robot Scandal

    Another thing is Firefox is where it is now because of the late introduction to a Firefox version for iOS:

    Even if it’s just a skin over Safari, it allowed Chrome users on iOS to sync their browser data, everywhere they went. Firefox didn’t have a version until 2015 iirc on iOS.

    Mozilla’s issue is that they do not listen to users, and they don’t listen to their contributions. Mozilla (not the non-profit) as a company has no idea what to do, and when users suggest ways to improve the experience for avid users or normal people, they have an opinionated take that deflects what their users want.

    To add to the point above, this is why Thunderbird has gotten big updates recently, and even will get an iOS version soon. Between the UI updates, news and general contribution + the community and even the Thundercast podcast about said email client, they don’t have to deal with bull shit that Firefox does with Mozilla corp.

    (I say this as someone who even though I use Vivaldi and Edge now, Firefox and even Opera (presto version) will always have a place in my heart which makes both current versions of the browsers states sad.)