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

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.
- 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.
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36770883
- Firefox actually has surpassed Chrome recently in benchmarks
- It is not really faster than Chrome
  It is if I close my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears.
Sadly not everywhere. On mobile it lacks behind. Even more on video content and low power cpus.
Chromium is slightly better in a way where I could clic on the video buttons without lag : On my android TV, (sideloaded) Firefox had issues with video buttons. So I tried using kiwi browser (for the extension support), and it worked well for buttons. The video wasn't a lot smoother, but it just seemed maybe just slightly better.
- When you say video, do you mean YouTube and on other Google sites? Not sure if you knew this, but Google has proprietary shit on their websites that enables special features just for Chrome. Even if Firefox wanted to implement those features, Google wouldn’t let Firefox use them.
- I can confirm that Firefox is terrible on Android.
Sorry to hijack, but can anyone help me with my issue?
I'm using librewolf and since about a week or two I noticed a speed issue. Overall my internet is fast, way faster then I need in fact, but websites load at a unreasonably slow speed.
When opening anything librewolf just sits there loading for a few second (probably up to ~10) then page opens fine. Video playback works great too. What could be the issue?
- Could be DNS?
- Do you use many addons? Resetting everything to stock and reinstalling addons one by one is my go-to as occasionally your profile is the issue. Just backup your profile beforehand and there’s 0 loss, aside from like 20 minutes.

Mobile adblock

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.
I normally don't jump on bandwagons, but this is the way. After using ublock on firefox on my phone, it was an easy decision to switch from chrome to firefox (librewolf) on my computer too (so everything would sync lol)

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

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.
- Yes! I failed to dive deeper, but you expressed it well. They have already planned to remove the option to have ad-blockers in Chrome... what will come next?
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.
- Thank you, I used to know the rendering engines fairly well a few years ago, but I'm out of the loop now.
  What about WebView? It's the rendering engine used in Android, closely related to Blink I assume.
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.
- Thank you, it gets complicated as you dive deeper. Am I right when I think that Chromium, although Open Source, is mainly developed by Google and therefore follows Google's agenda?

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

Came here to say all of this, so thank you for saving me keystrokes :)
All of these and then some.
A small part is that I'm supporting the underdog.
It's not created by a company that sells ads.

Cause fuck Google

I was going to say that lol
- We can say it together!

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.

There were a few moments where Firefox seemed to stumble a bit and I did give Chrome a try. Otherwise, Firefox has been my primary browser for ages. Even to the point where I was using a portable version on a locked down computer ages ago. It just works and it respects me as a user.

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

It's pretty much this. No one is going to notice a ~40ms difference in render time. It's functionally the same as alternatives. The main benefit is simply that it's not controlled by Google.

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!

Ublock Origin

Isn't that also on Chrome??
- Yeah, but chrome doesn't allow uBlock Origin to run fully, and it allows ads through.
- I was talking about Android, but on PC Ublock is much more effective on Firefox than on Chrome.
- For now

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

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!

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.

Works well

Extendable

Open source

Not chrome based

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

Holy moly that takes me back.
- It’s an older meme, but it checks out.

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

You could say the same of Chrome, to be fair.
- Chrome is not open-source. Chromium is.
- Only technically and only if you’re talking about chromium. Chrome is about as open source as Android. Meaning not at all by the time it gets to most consumers.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

i recommend waterfox or librewolf which booth are firefox without bloat like pocket. Waterfox seems to have better support

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.

Not Chrome and Not MS. Simple.

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

Everything is chrome except Firefox.

Safari
- Except that
  It's only available on Apple devices
  It's a shitty browser that deserves to die
  On a side note, while Safari is not Chrome, Chrome's rendering engine is a fork of Webkit, the one inside Safari.

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

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.

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.

What are you using for your sync server? I did some preliminary searching recently and it looks like there are a few different options.
- Yes, I'm still using the old one written in Python 2, only because I couldn't get the rust one to work quickly.

No more cookie popups or banners

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

Because google sucks now.

Ad block on mobile. Ad block on YouTube.

it's the best mobile browser with bottom address bar

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.

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.

Oh, hell no!

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.

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

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.

maybe look info waterfox
- waterfox is just a fork of firefox with seemingly no real benefits. I'd rather stay on the original build.

We should not let google take over the internet
It works just as well as chrome
It has proper vertical tab extensions, like tree style tabs

It doesn't work well. I tried switching some days ago and the dns doesn't work, it won't let me visit 🏴‍☠️ websites. I immediately deinstalled it again. I keep using opera gx
- Do you really think that FireFox DNS is broken and you're the only person who noticed?

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.

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

manifest v3

Open source, private, not chrome. Because I've been using it for over a decade.

It's not chrome and it's open-source

Because not using Chrome or Edge is a must.

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

On PC:

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

On Android:

Extensions support
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.

the screenshot button can be triggered with strg + shift + s

I’ve used it on and off over the years; ever since 2004/2005 or so.

Firebug was amazing for web development back in the days when it was just IE, Firefox & Safari.

I recently built a couple of sites (for a sim racing community) and one of my users mentioned a Firefox bug. I fixed the issue but then realized I need to be more aware of Gecko specific rendering issues. I decided to use Firefox for a week on my iPhone (yes I know, still technically Safari) and my desktop, and I forgot how much I like it.

I also don’t love the choices Chrome has been making recently.

Firefox’s market share is so low lately when compared to Safari and Chrome that it honestly feels like the battle is already lost.

It's the most customizable, has the most advanced add ons system, syncs well between mobile and PC (though sadly with no tablet app), and it's not part of the Chrome hegemony. Lately it has become faster and faster!

It's the only browser made for users.

Because it's better in every way?

I just think it's neat.

It's not Chrome, and it does everything I want.

Desktop:

damn nice
good Flatpak version playing everything
all extensions work without weird restrictions
only Forks that make sense, Librewolf and Tor Browser
loads of search engines
arkenfox user.js
UserChrome.css, in theory, if it was easy to create one. Only SimpleMenuWizard currently to make it less rediculous to use
also Thunderbird uses Firefox ESR, and its the only good Mail program I know

Mobile

mull, prehardened
support for a looot of addons using a custom Addon collection
offline translations using FF Translations, literally the only app I know that does this and its so damn critical
dark mode without tracking
ublock, noscript
lots of search engines possible
privacy

I dont use Firefox as it comes on any device, as this is unusable. But with hardening its simply the most secure browser

My wife says: we use firefox

And i cant think of a reason not to.. so of course ive installed Librewolf

UBlock Origin

Switched at the mere mention of losing my adblock. Have never looked back (besides when some shitty dev doesn't make their website compatible, looking at you comed)

Because fuck Chromium

It's not Chrome. Are there really any other good options at this point?

Don't think many. Also because writing a browser from scratch (and make it usable) is a very very complex task
It’s basically down to Firefox and Safari. I’m really hoping that Google’s anti-Adblock changes pushes more and more people back to Firefox.
- Just the proposal by Google to DRM the entire internet had me de-googling as much as possible. What a crazy world.

It was my first browser. I used IE to download it.

When I changed computers I did use Chrome for a bit. Then Vivaldi because it was better to me (I liked the split window browsing)

Saw mention that Chrome and all related browsers were about to kill adblockers. Returned home to Firefox immediately.

I don’t feel a need to change right now, but have heard of Waterfox and Librewolf as potential forks. They’re in my mind if I ever feel the need.

Free Software for free people!

Addon support on Android, cross platform sync. I don't need any other reason

I just started using it for Android the last month or so when Chrome dropped the flag feature that let you toggle dark mode for websites with system dark mode.

I have a VPN with an adblocker so that aspect of Chrome never bothered me so much. Chrome felt like it worked slightly smoother but at the end of the day a browser is a browser and Firefox does the job. (Samsung's browser is actually surpringly good for those with a Samsung device looking for a Chrome alternative)

Firefox does seem more trustworthy overall, although I've learned by now that trusting tech companies is not a sensible thing to do.

Samsung internet also does native PWA install on mobile which is something firefox cannot do.
In case you're not aware, the Samsung browser is just another Chromium fork.

I use it since it's inception 20 years ago. And stuck with ever since. It was one of the first FOSS projects with a mass appeal. In Germany we even had a crowd funded ad campaign in 2004 in that I took part and all that felt very optimistic and cool. And I just always stuck with it and always used it as my main browser. When Chrome took over, Google was already the dystopic mega corp so I was never tempted to use it. Sure I installed it, but hardly ever used it. But I never had big problems regarding speed or resource-hunger. And it keeps improving.

TLDR I'm very nostalgic about FF and will never drop it.

Nothing based on Chrome is an option because Google is evil and thinks it can control my computer, Brave customer service literally made fun of me for not liking the way they took over my homepage regularly years ago, Opera is just adware, and Firefox is about all that's left. Even though it's losing more options every update and on mobile it's complete garbage now with everything centered around their homepage so they can try to serve me ads that I can luckily turn off for now.

I've just been using it for as long as I can remember, so I guess brand loyalty is one reason. Also, I always get annoyed when I have to use another browser like Edge and Chromium. The last reason is that Mozilla actually advocates for an open web in the organization that develops Internet standards (as I understand it), so I would prefer to give them my tacit support, buy not using browsers from corporations that benefit from me as a users and go against open standards.

because its not chromium

Because best

I like it and I don't like google

Add-ons on mobile. Plus, Chrome is slowly but surely gimping their ad-blocking extensions.

I switched to Firefox 2 from Internet Explorer 6. since then haven't used anything else.

gave some chances to other browsers like Chrome or Opera, but didn't like any of them.

as for why... no idea. Mozilla was always appealing to me and their browser is just on point everytime. and I also like red pandas.

Privacy and also fuck Google.

Privacy? Firefox [at least on Android] has Trackers.

6 Trackers = 1747 Classes

        598 tested signatures on 23677 classes
    (13792756)
    
    Adjust
    °Google Play Install Referrer
    Google AdMob
    Google Firebase Analytics
    ²?Sentry
    Mozilla Telemetry
    
    *Adjust
    183com.adjust.sdk.
    
    *Google AdMob
    5com.google.android.gms.ads.
    
    *Google Firebase Analytics
    1com.google.firebase.analytics.
    
    *Mozilla Telemetry
    343mozilla.telemetry.glean.
    44org.mozilla.fenix.components.metrics
    616org.mozilla.fenix.GleanMetrics

    *°Google Play Install Referrer
    11com.android.installreferrer

    *²?Sentry
    544io.sentry
    
    
    file:///data/app/~~kGEETamkCtNrtff0YUQwJA%3D%3D/org.mozilla.firefox_beta-uIpZWar9aqI8JdCRKxBL4Q%3D%3D/base.apk
    
    MD5sum: 898c5776bd4ae16ccbf3a17b463d55d1
    SHA1sum: 045059895e3b387343c00ae2d80d85e1ef24b37d
    SHA256sum: e63240e437b73c64991c27a23d3ffe1fb3b7e8d3b49346b6dcd8a43cc782b75e
    
    CN=Release Engineering,OU=Release Engineering,O=Mozilla Corporation,L=Mountain View,ST=California,C=US
    
    SHA1withRSA
    
    CERTIFICATE fingerprints: 
    md5: b1e1bcee2733025ece9456e419a814a3
    sha1: 920f4876a6a57b4a6a2f4ccaf65f7d29ce26ff2c
    sha256: a78b62a5165b4494b2fead9e76a280d22d937fee6251aece599446b2ea319b04

Now do Fennec

Bottom tab bar, ublock origin.

I tried Firefox but it was hot garbage on Android.

Ended up going with Kiwi - same extension support but just better designed and much faster. Firefox kinda sucks on mobile beyond ublock origin support.

It was the only real place for NoScript for a while and I haven't found a better whitelist add-on. A lot of it is inertia at this point. I avoid Google as much as possible anyway, so Chrome isn't an option.

Container tabs, it respects my privacy, and brave started randomly not painting pages

I have been using Firefox ever since. Never really had a reason to switch to something else.

It's FOSS
Manifest v3
AdBlocking extensions for my mobile too!!!
They created Rust my all time favourite programming language.

Why not?

Web extension manifest v2 ublock origin

Why do you use Chrome?

Because I need to browse the web.

Container tabs and built in tracking protection by default. Mozilla is not Google, unfortunately they depend on their money to survive. Fuck Google.

I switched from Netscape Navigator to Firefox and have used it since. Have tried other browsers but they can't compete.

Netscape? My goodness.

inherent distrust of google, which is deeply pervasive

I initially switched because I felt like it had better support for linux and specifically wayland. Then stayed for other features that are mostly mentioned in other comments.

Because chrome eats my PCs resources like I eat shredded cheese out of the bag at 3am

Does Chrome also cry while doing it?

To counter a monopoly

Principle.

Not Chromium, has custom CSS for the GUI, is open source software and it has a nice extension library

Also it's also a pretty good browser (right now I'm technically not using Firefox, but rather Librewolf, but still based on Firefox)

The tree-style tabs extension

fast, no web environment integrity, not run by a tech giant, no anticonsumer changes, NO CHROMIUM, goog wayland support

It’s a huge improvement over Mosaic.

I use firefox because Lemmy told me to.

Its good enough now and mobile addons exist, plus fuck chrome

Because internet explorer 6 sucked and it has the best ad blocker selection

I started out with using it on the mobile, due to the add-ons being suported, but then Google starten messing around with chrome, announcing changes to the plugin api that would neuter Adblockers and now, the DRM for the web thingy, and I thought enough is enough.

Firefox still has its issues and Chrome does feel more polished, but I'm going with the good guys on this one.

I think foxes are cool :)

I use Firefox when I suspect a site isn't working well with Librewolf. This also implies the site didn't work for Qutebrowser previously

I am slowly switching back to Firefox since Google are nerfing ad blockers in Chromium. I'm switching to DuckDuckGo since their search results have become almost unusably bad recently. Unfortunately though, there it's no usuable replacements for the rest of the Google ecosystem as far as my use case is concerned. I'd even ditch Android if there were a reasonable alternative.

I don't understand why people find DuckDuckGo a good alternative. It's better for privacy yes, but the search results are just as useless and unrelated because they're based on Google which is just a big ad server now. Every result is find 10 "XYZ's" on Amazon or Walmart, or the other results for different companies.
- Duck duck go is based on Bing, not Google.
Google Search -> Duckduckgo
Google Android -> Graphene OS, Callyx OS, Lineage (all are more or less degoogelt android. the former 2 really easy to install. Havent tried lineage for a while)
Google drive -> nextcloud
Google maps -> open streetmap (osmand+, organic maps etc) and for navigation with live updates magic earth
Google mail -> proton mail, posteo, ....
Chrome -> firefox
What else do you use from Google?
In the past years all these non Google products have evolved a lot. 10years ago one needed to be a nerd and spend a lot of time to implement all this but now its really easy to switch, user interfaces and documentations improved a lot.
- Youtube, sadly no viable alternatives with the same amount of great content.
- It's almost like you didn't read my post at all...
- open streetmap and magic earth have the disadvantage that public transit it not supported. For that i use the local public transit apps. That works very well and shows in most cases more alternatives to the current route than google can

Tree style tabs in what made me switch to Firefox.

I like that it's not Chrome, and that it's so modifiable.

Also, Edge was using over 2 GB of RAM on my work computer with only one tab open.

It is the only one that can hold my hundreds of tabs. It's also ooensource, but that's a bonus. Recently addblocker is a very good feature too.

Icecat takes too long to compile

Desktop: Google done fucked up. I didnt use FF cause of one of my extensions but I opted out when they started talking about the DRM for webpages.
Mobile: Its just better with Adblock.

Because at the time I started using it, it was still Mozilla and the other alternative was Internet Explorer, the browser from Microsoft - the Evil Empire of that time - which was riddled with security holes (the whole ActiveX stuff, especially, was a complete total mess).

Later Chrome became more fashionable but to me it was already obvious that Google's "Do No Evil" slogal was complete total bollocks (plus it came out in the Snowden revelations how Google was used for civil society surveillance, plus by then they had become mainly an Ad Company with a search engine, hence anti-privacy) and I wasn't about to trust what already back then looked like the up and coming New Evil Empire with access to my computer and browsing habits.

Mind you, I did use Chrome on my Android devices, but that was because I expected the OS itself to be rigged like crazy for privacy intrusion and worse so avoiding Chrome there did very little to reduce my privacy exposure in there, though eventually I moved to Firefox there too.

I don't like Chromium, on mobile it has extension support.

It has a cool logo

Because it works, because I can use ublock on mobile (and a few other cool extensions), and most importantly, because I feel good about using it.

I have Vivaldi installed in case i need a chromium browser but I rarely ever need it.

I like that LibreWolf automatically clears history upon closing.

Why though? History is a useful feature
- Think of it like a burner phone. Plus it helps me focus if im not automatically logged into everything.

Doing my bit to support the open web. Plus, while it's probably just familiarity, I've always felt that Firefox works with me while Chrome works against me.

I used to use it way back when it first came out and I was a huge fan, but about the time Chrome was becoming a mainstream alternative I started to have a lot of difficulty with adblockers not working and webpages that refused to load on anything other than Internet Explorer or Chrome, so I switched.

Heard about some of the shady shit going down recently in the Googlesphere and decided it was time to switch back and I'm happy to report that everything runs smoothly again.

It's the right balance between privacy and usability. Chrome or Edge is a no-go. Librewolf sound nice, but out of the box it's a little too private (refuses to save any state between sessions) making it too inconvenient.

Many reasons, but the main one is being able to self-host the sync server. It's just crazy that the entire browsing history of most people on the internet is stored on Google servers, with no e2e encryption!

If you use google search, it pretty much almost still is, tbh
- True, that's why I also use a meta search engine, instead of Google directly.

I like the old icon, and Google shot itself in the foot with the anti-adblock stuff.

It's the best

Because I can.

Because Chrome kept crashing my GPU driver, and Firefox doesn't.

And I used Chrome in the first place because Firefox let malware onto my Windows XP PC. Chrome updated add-ons automatically at that time, and Firefox didn't (not extensions, we're talking things like Macromedia Flash, Shockwave and Java Applets that are long dead now).

Because I need a browser.

Works good at browser

good privacy

I used Edge, because it's genuinely an extremely feature packed browser, but when Google announced the manifest v3, I jumped to Firefox.

Unpopular Lemmy opinion, but I hate it. Firefox always freezes on desktop, especially on YouTube. Firefox on Android feels like it was developed for Android 8.0 and never updated. And the worst part is there's a bug on the desktop version in the print preview window when it comes to printing shipping labels, so I have not been able to use Firefox for my company for over 8 months now.

I've reported the bug every time Firefox updates and the bug persists, but Mozilla doesn't give a shit. It's so frustrating.

There are no other options.

I hope ladybird will become usable in few years.

Not Chromium, Extremely customizable and configurable, and add-on support on mobile, to name a few reasons.

The developer tools are top notch. Chrome is slower and sucks.

Who's asking?

It's a good compromise of everything I care about regarding a digital product.

I use WaterFox.

It has less tracking and more built-in privacy features than Firefox but is built on the same base

I use Fennec on mobile.

I'm curious: can we match the level of Waterfox with Firefox's add-ons: uBlock, privacy badger, etc.
- Probably to a degree.
  There're some nice UI features that I'm not sure could be achieved with extensions and some of the privacy features include having removed some statistics tracking that can't be disabled in stock Firefox.
  Firefox also comes with some preinstalled extensions like Pocket, and that screenshot tool. With WaterFox you can choose not to install those.

Best non-chromium browser. More customisable.

Primarily because I've been using it for much longer than Chrome has been a thing so I'm used to it. But Google's shenanigans are also a factor.

I've been using FF for years now, probably since the quantum update. Tbh, the thing that prevented me to switch to any other browser since is the ctrl+tab functionality. I HATE cycling through tabs in any other order than by most recent tab. I didn't find a setting to change it on chrome when I was forced to use it for work, but in FF it's easily found in the settings and probably was on by default at some point as I don't recall ever changing it.

In recent years the privacy aspect and the fact that it isn't made by google have also played a role in why I've stuck with firefox. Also extension support on android, although the browser is still a bit slower than chrome on mobile.

Because I like it the best

I use it to protest Google's bullshit, but I still acknowledge all problems Firefox has and that all in all, Chromium is superior in many ways

use librewolf, it gets rid of all the bloat mozilla placed in firefox
Edit: a little bit below i found waterfox which seems better, i still suggest booth over pure firefox
- I need tabs and favourites sync :/

against google/chromium monopoly.

It's the only viable browser engine that isn't chromium-based. And it's open source and very functional.

it's either that or something chromium-based

i mostly degoogled years ago

firefox just works most of the time. still have chromium installed for edge cases

I like Lynx

I dont like Chrome have so big market share. Also it is making less dumb desions for me, you can actually disable stuff I dont like.

To be honest, because it was pre-installed in Linux Mint. I got a first laptop, and I didn't know differences between Windows and GNU+Linux. Hell, I was searching for "pure Linux". I didn't know that's just kernel, neither what kernel is anyway. And I just decided for Mint. At the time, I considered Windows "just another distribution or whatever".

I did get to briefly use school computers before that. There I preferred internet explorer over both Chrome and Firefox. Yeah. Chrome kept crashing, Firefox didn't load many pages (it was probably well outdated) but IE just worked, much faster than Chrome, somehow.

I use Firefox because Internet Explorer 4 kind of sucks, and I haven't re-assessed my browser choice since then.

It’s the default browser on my computer, and it doesn’t suck, so I’m not motivated to seek an alternative.

Because the only thing it doesn't have that I miss from edge is the vertical tabs, otherwise its just better in every way that matter to me.

And before someone mentions it, I am aware there are vertical tab options, but none of them are the close enough.

Containers addon. And it has bookmarks decades old. Remove both and I wouldn't care much. I'm also more familiar with it. It feels more natural due to this. I feel more comfortable on it. More at home, less scared.

Originally (more than a decennia ago) because it had better customizability, later because it was less memory hungry.

Because I used the old mozilla browser back in the 90s and when it switched to calling firefox I kept on using it.

Extension support/customization.

I used Firefox on the desktop since it was called Firebird. I could mix and match and mush all sorts of crazy things into it over the years. I was very happy with it.

Then Australis (sp?) changed everything on the desktop and broke all my extensions. Some still worked, but since the goal was "be Chrome" I just switched to that.

On mobile it was a similar experience. I could add all sorts of extensions and then one day I just couldn't. All the browsers were basically the same so I switched to Chrome.

One day Chrome added the ability to have the URL bar on the bottom and I was so pleased. Then one day they took it away. I looked online how to get it back and discovered Firefox could do it. Then I learned that as long as I used Firefox Nightly I could install extensions. (I think you can do this in stable now?) Then I learned about a handful of other useful customizations.

I use Firefox mainly. I use Chrome sometimes if I'm testing something, mostly to test "Did I fuck up with my constant customization in Firefox or is this website just stupid?"

I use Firefox because it (generally) let's me decide how it should work.

My FFFL Tatoo is gonna be so rad.

I use Firefox because I really like the containers extension that makes sure each tab is its own environment to prevent cross contamination of cookies etc. Also, I can rest assured that ublock origin is working as intended by the author since it is primarily targeted toward Firefox these days I think.

Sadly I had to stop using Firefox on my gaming Windows box because for whatever reason my Firefox install seems to gobble up all of my GPU memory. It's working fine on Mac and Linux though.

It’s not Chrome or a Chromium-based browser.

Because Pale Moon became a dumpster fire.

Was originally an Opera user (before they switched away from Presto), then switched to Firefox afterwards.

Firefox was my pick because it was good enough and extremely customizable.

Was originally an Opera user (before they switched away from Presto)
I miss old Opera.

I just don't like monopolies, and right now everything else is chrome

Because brain.

I was using Mozilla in order to not use Internet Explorer and at some point I switched to their new browser when it was still called Firebird.

Nowadays I stick to it just so Google doesn't get a browser monopoly.

I switched to chrome for a few years but went back to Firefox about 3 years ago. Google can piss off as far as I’m concerned.

On top of what everyone else said: I REALLY hate the UI design of Chrome. We just don’t get along. Firefox always worked well for me.

Privacy, security, speed.
Google has enough of my data and I want to diversify.
Chrome and Edge are pigs full of feature bloat.

Years ago it was the only customizable browser, that's why I started using it. Today it still is the most customizable one, even though other browsers started supporting add-ons and themes too.

Have you ever used it's DevTools? Chrome DevTools feels outdated in comparison

Honestly I'm just used to it. Using it now for probably about two decades.

It works great with Wayland and I switched to Firefox mobile as well.

Privacy primarily and less likely to be targeted for widespread attack because there's a fraction of the user base Chrome enjoys.

Back in the days when Netscape Navigator went down, I switched to then-new Firefox.

I have had no reason to not use it. With mods Firefox even allows me to keep the UI looking exactly the same as it did with version 3.x, where everything is just where I want it to be.

Change just for the sake of change is pointless.

could you link those mods? i wanna see what firefox used to look like

Before Google started being openly evil and Firefox was pretty slow by comparison, I kept using Firefox for 2 reasons: mobile add-ons and the "Container Tabs" addon which doesn't (or at least didn't) have a chome analog. Now I've degoogled and also it seems faster in those occasions when I have to use chrome at work.

I was a big Netscape fan and when Firefox came out, I adopted it pretty soon. Never left it as I never quite get the hang of Chrome.

Like the logo and it works as well as the alternatives

It's a great web browser and it represents the very concepts of choice and freedom. Chrome isn't better at all, I really only used it because the extension availability felt higher for a while.

Honestly, even though I want to say it's for security or something, I use Firefox because of habit. Ive used it ever since I got my first PC over a decade ago and don't remember the reason I switched in the first place.

Because it appeals to furries.

It was my first browser so I stuck with it. I tried other browsers over the years, but I am used to firefox stuff, and ublock works better there.

Tree Style Tab

And lack of (what I would consider) a good alternatives.

Because Google is more profit and ad-focused than Mozilla (though both force ads down my throat), and they are the only viable choices for browsing the web.

I long for an actual non-profit backed, open-source browser to use, but until then, lesser of two evils.

I'm not sure if using Librewolf on desktop or Mull on mobile counts but they are pretty good hardened forks of Firefox.

Firefox is great but the downside is that it isn't as private as browsers I've mentioned by default. Still, it is solid choice from privacy perspective.

Mull would constantly freeze up on my phone
Ended to swapping to Fennec with Cookies disabled

I used to for many years and recently moved to Arc. It’s a totally different experience of browsing the internet and workspace management, however I’d like to go back to Firefox if it’s possible to tweak it as much as possible to Arc.

Just read its website and the related Wikipedia Article, it's kinda different but in a good way. I don't think I'll switch though because it's still based in Chromium, monopolized by Google.

I keep going back and forth between Chrome and Firefox. Maybe it's because of the couple years I spent working with the Chromebook team, but I always go back to Chrome like a drug. I know it's bad for privacy and the add stuff is certainly not cool but I just can't get pulled away from it. Its all about what you're used to.

people on the internet told me to

Because it's good

That's a hard question.

I want Firefox to be better. I've gone back to it many times in 20 years. I'm using it right now.

But I tend to always leave at some point due to performance issues that I can never resolve. I'm having a good run at the moment with the worst of it being a random lockup I can't seem to figure out the cause of (and is pretty much just a task manager close, reopen, and resume...and infrequent enough to not really cause much headache)

But other times i've had memory leaks, or using most of the ram, or terrible addon management. I pretty much tried Chrome in the first place because back whenever Chrome came out, Firefox was using so much memory that I couldn't play games while Firefox was open, and multitasking is one of the things I've always taken as the reason to play games on PC over consoles.

All in all, I think it represents something better, but whether or not it is better is always up in the air. I just hope people stay hard on them to keep trying to improve the system, because i'm sure there's people far further on the fence than I am, and I think firefox is capable of just being a good browser.

You must have gremlins or something! Either that or you browse some really unsanitary stuff!

Idk really. At work I prefer chrome behaviour more. Also the spellcheck is better.
At home I prefer firefox more. Probably more because I like the addon feature like Dark reader and ublock on Firefox mobile.

Guess.

Because sometimes I need to use Not Safari, and the alternatives are too awful to consider.

Because Microsoft and google are abysmal companies.I don't trust either of them (he typed, on an android phone - at least its been ROMmed)

I switched when they added tabs in version 1.5 (I think) and it's pretty much the only browser I've seriously used since.

Because old habits die hard.

I'm happy with Brave for the most part but an update with Webview or something broke all browsers using it on my Android Dash unit so I was actually forced to switch to Firefox simply because it works. Now I'm considering switching over on all my devices.

Because Edge broke JSON files - I couldn't search through an open JSON file anymore, because Edge decided to only partially load the file.

That's nice and all, but stop fucking with my plain text. If I want to fuck with it, I can use my extensions, WHICH THEY DISABLED/BLOCKED...

So yeah, back to Firefox, and it's been fine.

bottom navigation is a godsend these days as phone screens are 7". Also adblocker.

It's got all my addons.

On desktop because of multi account containers On Android I use Vivaldi

It's by far the best mobile browser that let's you run tampermonkey and uBlock on Android and it's not close. I haven't found an add-on that let's me run video/audio in the background, so until then Brave stays installed so that running YouTube with no ads and the phone locked is an option.

Aside from that, Firefox gives fantastic customization options, runs well, and is less vulnerable to attacks specifically because it has a smaller market share and it makes more sense to target Chromium based browsers.

Much more flexibility in the way of custom themesz extensions and i think its called custom js or something its been a while but arkenfox is an example of one and I love all the different forks which while I'm not gonna use I'm happy that exists. Hate it on android like though I use cromite (bromite fork)

Because Lemmy told me to

Because Brave didn't allow add-ons when I tried it. This was years ago so no idea what it's like now

Absolutely. I only use chrome for d&d stuff because some specific formatting gets screwed up on Firefox.

Tried to download a bank statement the other day and Chrome marked it as malware. Also happened with my Internet bill. I'm done with Chrome

I somehow just always followed since Netscape Navigator.

I don't actually remember when I started using it. I remember using Netscape and then Firefox, but there had to be another browser in there. Maybe it was IE. I don't remember it sucking too bad back in the day.

Because Chrome stuffed up my task bar icons one time too many. (eg two Gmail icons, once for each account - randomly start working as bookmarks instead of their own window.) Fixing that takes many attempts

Firefox can't do this at all, but an extension fixed that.

It has good add-ons be I give enough of my data to Google.

Its not Google

For the price of mild inconvenience in some cases I get to add a tiny little bit of resistance against chromium monopolistic rule.

What‘s the alternative if you try to avoid google?

Am a masochist and like to do things in spite others. I've been working through browser wars as a developer and hated every minute of adapting things to look good on IE. These days I really dislike Firefox. Mainly because they pretend things work fine and need no optimization or for being set in their ways. Took them embarrassingly long time to implement adwaita theme or Wayland and just told us to use other display server.

But I keep using it because I don't want Google to be this dominant. Giving them more power is always going to end worse for users. So as before am suffering again. Oh well.

For those claiming everything is still fine...

https://youtu.be/OF9FOxVVUsM?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/sjBmMUl7F4M?feature=shared

Its the default on my Linux distro

The desktop browser was better than IE back in the days and I like how they market/position themselves. Nowadays I switch between Chrome and Firefox just to have different containers (private and work), and yes I know this is also somewhat native supported in Firefox.. but it still felt unintuitive to me.

I recently started using Firefox on Android because of the new privacy sandbox strategy (which I'm not against per se, I don't know all the details yet though), but I must say.. it feels a bit buggy and seems to suffer from input lag. Too bad, the desktop experience is flawless.

So is there like a Firefox equivalent to ChromeOS? Wikipedia mentions a few discontinued projects by companies but that's it. I still like the concept of a really minimal device that outsources storage and heavy computation (probably to a server I also own).

My device doesn't have Firefox and doesn't have the option.

Which device is that?
- Probably an iPhone. There is a Firefox browser, but it’s just a skinned WebKit, which seems pointless.
- Smart fridge.

I actually stopped using it a few years ago because of a weird glitch I kept encountering where it would forget how to render non-standard symbols on websites (I forget the technical description, it's been years). Sites like Twitter became neigh unusable because I couldn't tell what any button was.

With all the recent problems, I know I want to switch back. Just haven't had the time and patience to do it.

Writing Firefox extensions sucked.

I haven't tried web extensions.

Question for those who use unlock origin on Firefox, does the browser hang when loading pages when you first turn it on, I’m having that problem.

Bookmarks sidebar::bookmarks sidebar::bookmarks sidebar

When it first came it out it was slow slow slow. They've fixed that. Admittedly their search engine returns "sparse" results compared to google, but their security and commitment to privacy is worth the dearth of 'hits' to my more esoteric searches.

I personally don't use Firefox as anything except a spare whenever a page doesn't load right in Vivaldi. Not only because I strongly dislike the way Mozilla itself is run (I'm not even going to get into their financial records) but also because of it's glacial development speed. Mozilla does pave the road in some ways with stuff like mobile extensions and an unprecedented amount privacy features. But it still takes them forever to do some of the most basic stuff. Still no native PWA's, Passkeys are still under development. It mildly feels understandable why people don't feel like testing with Firefox as much as they used to.

Even cutting Google's monopoly over the internet out of the equation, Firefox still doesn't feel that good. Sure, it might be the fastest browser on the market at the moment. But for a company being paid 450k for a search engine deal by the very thing that Firefox users hate, what gives with the amount of ads engrained in search and bookmarks, the occasional popups for Mozilla VPN/ FF Relay. And yes, I know you can turn them off, but it's ridiculous that a FOSS product even has them to begin with. Also how difficult it feels to be involved in the development of all Firefox products over on Mozilla Connect + Bugzilla + GitHub.

I have nothing against gecko based browsers, but until I see something truly stunning, I don't really want to bother. I know Librewolf exists and solves some of the problems with modern Firefox (also being even more hardened than Firefox), but given Librewolf is also a hobby project that deliberately doesn't accept donations nor even provide an auto update mechanism on macOS (the main system I use, in combination with my pixel devices), the bus factor is too strong for me to consider.

Because they stopped making new releases of Phoenix

I don|t. I use Edge

I'm not, because I'm lazy and it seems like too much work to protect my privacy when my government doesn't give a fuck.

I used to use Firefox when it had good customization, but Google stepped up their A-game, and put browser customization and password saving too. Firefox didn't have password saving at the time (probably still doesn't) so that's why I haven't switched back to Firefox