this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 170 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (14 children)

Waaaaaaay better privacy, faster than chrome, don’t need to worry about them killing mandatory add ons so they can push ads, also the add ons just work better but maybe that’s confirmation bias.

I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (7 children)

It is not really faster than Chrome, but hey, at least I don't have to manually opt out of monetizing my browsing history and my adblocker still works.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (17 children)

not really faster than Chrome

Its also not really slower. If you are blocking plugins, it can be faster.

Its fast enough I think is the broader point.

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[–] [email protected] 155 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

I don't use it because of mobile adblock only. There are multiple private chromium browsers which have mobile adblock, and also one supporting extensions : kiwi browser.

I use Firefox because it's a competing engine to chromium, and it looks good.

I also have all the synced bookmarks from my PC Firefox, which I use for the same reason, and because I got used to it.

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[–] [email protected] 135 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Because it's the only browser not based on Google's Chromium rendering engine (Webview, WebKit? whatever). Using any other browser supports Google's monopoly over how we browse the internet and what we are allowed to see. No, fuck Google.

Edit: spelling

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just wanna add that one reason this monopoly is dangerous is that Google (could and nowadays) does use it to dictate "web standards". So e.g. they don't come anymore from organizations that develop standards but Google just forces their own standards by sheer power of market dominance.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Technically, WebKit is Apple’s rendering engine (Safari).

Google uses Blink, which is a fork of WebKit, but is its own thing now.

So, you can still use Safari without directly contributing to Google’s de facto rendering engine monopoly.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're interested at all:

Google Chrome is a fork of the open source Chromium with several Google proprietary features. Chromium uses the Blink engine. Blink is a fork of a large component of WebKit called WebCore. Apple primarily develops WebKit (and by proxy WebCore), itself being a fork of KHTML and KJS which were actually discontinued this year.

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[–] [email protected] 116 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Because it's not Chrome

Because it's open source

Because I can get it on all my devices

Because I like the work Mozilla does

Because it's private and secure by default

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Came here to say all of this, so thank you for saving me keystrokes :)

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because it's never let me down.

I started using it pretty much from the beginning and have never had a reason to stop. When Chrome came along, I thought the whole idea of using a browser made by Google was obviously awful, so I just kept using Firefox. And I'm still using it.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because I'm not comfortable using a tool of a mega corporation trying to shape the internet to show more ads to ppl

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Because it's one of the only remaining browsers (the other one being Safari) that doesn't run on Chromium. We must protect FireFox and Safari with our lives because if they die out then Google has a monopoly on the browser space. Not something anyone wants... I mean look at their Manifest V3, and web DRM controversies. They are trying to ruin the web. Don't let them people!

Plus, I just like the ability to customize the toolbar, and FireFox Sync is just brilliant for syncing between mobile and desktop!

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago

Google has too much power over the web, also I just like Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago

Chrome runs like garbage compared to Firefox, and this has always been the case for me. I didn't make the switch in 2008. I also had a bad feeling that Chrome would become the new IE with every other browser ditching their own rendering engine and basing on Chromium.

People back then said it was OK because Chromium is ostensibly open-source. Look where that got us. Surprise, it's still controlled by Google!

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

It's FOSS, respects my privacy, doesn't try to kill my adblock and it's the only option that doesn't support a big evil monopoly

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago

Works well

Extendable

Open source

Not chrome based

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I just don't want to support the monopoly.

Also Firefox has been so tempting since the new engine written in Rust came out. It has a wide range of supporting add-ons.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think Firefox is a pretty cool guy. Eh has great add-ons and customization and doesn't afraid of anything

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It’s open source, free, well maintained, and easy to set up and use.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

Add-ons, it’s not chromium, and also I CAN BLOCK AUTOPLAY VIDEOS on it

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

I lived through the IE6 days. I don't want one browser or engine or company to dominate the web. We need multiple implementations of free and open standards.

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

It has extensions support on mobile. I can't live without uBlock Origin. I installed Firefox on PC because of synching between Firefox on PC and Firerox and Android. I now stopped using this feature, but I kept using Firefox. I only use Chrome when pages don't open correctly on Firefox.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Stable, fast, excellent ecosystem, and it's the ONLY trustworthy browser available.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It used to be 90% habit, 10% Firefox not being run by a mega corporation.

Now it is 49% habit, 51% the smug satisfaction of being right this whole time, even when people bitched about it being bloated on the back end.

Nyah.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Been using it for 15 years or so. It was good back then, it's still good now. Chrome has never been an alternative for anyone who knows what Google is.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Not Chrome and Not MS. Simple.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Doesn't wake up one day and decide to DRM the Web or kill the adblcker.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Main reason is that I can use my own sync server, I don't trust Google nor Mozilla to store my passwords, bookmarks and history, etc. but I trust myself.

Second reason is that it's the only non Webkit related browser left after IE, Opera gave up on their own rendering engine, so once Google decides to implement anti-features there is almost no way around it anymore. I like to think that if at least I use it, it will somehow stay relevant enough that the W3C can keep existing and Google needs at least engage in some kind of conversation about their anti-features instead of just implementing them and forcing it on everyone automatically.

Third, uBlock origin works very well, even on my Android mobile phone.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

When Opera 12 died. Fuck chromium. Fuck Vivaldi. Firefox is the only legit non-chromium browser.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Everything is chrome except Firefox.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

No more cookie popups or banners

Back to the old internet kind of vibes when all that shit got canned

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I've tried every other browser, and I keep coming back to Firefox because it's reliable, has a low memory footprint, and isn't run by some evil corporation.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I switched around 2007 (I think it was Firefox 2 or 3?) because IE didn't have tabs, and then just stuck with it because it was extremely customisable and really fucking good. I never found a reason to switch.

At that time I didn't care much about the privacy/open source aspect of it but in today's world it's definitely a big plus.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

it's the best mobile browser with bottom address bar

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Ad block on mobile. Ad block on YouTube.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

On mobile: because of addon support (aka because of ad-block) On desktop: Open Source, "It's not chrome", it feels snappier than alternatives, it has good Linux/Wayland support, customizability and the biggest reason - habit. I started using Firefox when there was no Chrome.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (6 children)
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Chrome, and it's relatives like Edge, are no longer an option, so I use Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Even without the politics of it all (which are good), Firefox is flexible and customizable. Chromium is an ugly, inflexible piece of shit from 2006 that relies on the same bloated list menus and doesn't really let you do anything with it. Come at me, Chrome fanboys.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's the only non-chrome browser. And the only browser I can customize and that does what I want. I've been waiting for arc to release so I can try it out, but it seems like the development on it is taking literally forever.

I have pretty strict criteria for a browser, and really only firefox meets them. Chrome is way too locked down for me. And firefox has slowly been getting worse unfortunately.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Originally because CSS worked more consistently. Now because it allows adblockers.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Because I have been using the same web browser, in terms of ideology, heritage, and codebase, for the last 30 years.

I mean, it’s hardly perfect. But it’s far better than the alternative (Chrome & derivatives). And now that Tab Mix Plus is available again (albeit in a somewhat unstable non-webstore XPI that requires you to hack Firefox to successfully install), I’m loving Firefox & LibreWolf all the more.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On PC:

  1. Containers
  2. Firefox's screenshot button. It's so good. https://i.imgur.com/9lHxekk.png
  3. Wanting to not see the browser market be monopolized. Competition is good.

On Android:

  1. Extensions support
  2. This button: https://i.imgur.com/heuupxK.png It's so handy.

Been using it for 7-8 years and only seen it improve. A few gripes to deal with, but I'm happy otherwise.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

It's the least greasy browser that actually works with the modern web.

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