Can the open source browser get its mojo back before turning into history’s footnote?
Stop cramming AI into the browser and you might get some people back.
Was on FF for years and then they announced AI so i went to WaterFox and have LibreWolf ready just in case WF starts fucking around.
Dont believe the article at all. Everyone I talk to is switching back to Firefox. I never left.
Mozilla’s own numbers tells the same story. https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity
Didn’t know they have those data. Some c/dataisbeautiful material here!
Some things are really interesting. I’d expect more people with extensions, but the majority don’t use. I’d also expect more linux users, but it seems the popularity among linux users is about same level as the general users. It’s also interesting to see a reasonable amount of 32 bit systems
Both are true, I’m not sure I’d call it “millions per month” though…
Usage has been slowly dropping year on year since 2022 but also this year usage is up
Looks basically the same to me in absolute numbers (although good luck getting a clear picture here), lower percentage of relative users.
In the same 12 months, Brave reported a 33% increase in monthly active users.
screenshots
(That small rise in the previous screenshot is 2.33%)
Brave
88100000 to 117600000
I was with Netscape 1.0. Never left.
Mosaic.
Never left.
(btw)
I never finished downloading Netscape from the university gopher because my roommate took the phone cable. And they only had 24 connections available to the while place.
Same, and I personally know two people who I would describe as college educated white-collar folks, but definitely not into “tech”, who recently told me they switched to Firefox.
Article is fluff, just read the source of info: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/whatsnext/
I like built in ad blocking and further privacy protection. I’d like to see more of it, to firmly establish where firefox stands in the big tech war against personal freedom.
Unpopular opinion - for me Firefox is a joy to use. I appreciate that we still have a strong alternative to web monopoly. Sure things could be better but when was this not true? I’ve used it for many many years and there’s nothing on the horizon that I would consider as alternative.
I don’t think it’s that impopular. I’ve never switched to Chrome or any derivative. I never felt a need to migrate, and with Google tightening rules on extensions, I feel even better standing by FF.
I’ve loathed the higher management giving themselves raises while market share was in free fall, but I have no complains about that piece of software. Over time, all the performance and weight issues have been dramatically improved, so what’s greener on the other side??
Leaving where? There is no safe harbor. You are using WebKit, Gecko, or Chromium and thats final.
I’ve started using canada post.
Falkon will be viable aaaaany day now!
Sarcasm aside, I do hope it picks up steam. It’s a nice browser.
I actually ended up switching from Firefox to Chromium, Chromium overall is just faster and nicer to use (also a bit more secure I think, if it matters)
Ublock origin and mv3 aren’t as much of an issue as I assumed at first, ubo lite works fine
You’re about to have a rough few months, methinks.
The deprecation of Manifest V2 is almost guaranteed to kick off a glut of advertisement systems that exploit the intentional weaknesses of V3. Outside of building a uBlock Origin compatible filter system into the browser, which is what Brave did (and Mozilla copied into Firefox recently), there’s not really a way to get around this.
If chromium ever gets too shitty to use there’s about a billion other chromium based browsers like Helium that will fix the issues so
Huff that copium hufffff.
You know that V2 is just now on its way out? wait until Alphabet decides that they have waited long enough to deliver the death blow to ublock lite, which can’t update blocklists without a lengthy, weeks-long alphabet-controlled update process.
There are chromium based browsers that integrate the mv2 version of unlock origin if I ever need it
No, there won’t be. Not one of those spin-offs has the manpower available to keep V2 running when Alphabet introduces breaking changes in their code. Many of those forks have been removing (often silently) the statement reassuring their users.
Helium advertises UBlock Origin as one of their selling points so I don’t see them giving that away without a fight
tbh it’s working really well enough now, i just wish they focus on technical stuff like optimization instead of messing with the UI and adding useless ai “features”
I’m bought in. Whatever Firefox is doing is better than Chrome in every way. The VPN feature is useless though. I can’t get any website that I actually care about to work with it turned on. Same with the email and phone number masks (Mozilla features not Firefox specific). Can’t use any Mozilla email/phone mask to work with 90% of the services I use. Amazing ideas in theory, but in practice they’re mostly useless.
I love zenbrowser, just try it and you’ll see why, I’ve left too many comments in the past detailing it, if you like swapping workspaces and having them organized without pausing all of your tabs everytime, and having essential tabs that stick around no matter what for easy access, like im jut rambling idk, it made me enjoy browsing the web again since I don’t lose tabs anymore, everything is organized in folders, pinned tabs, or essential tabs
Easily the best browser for widescreens too, vertical tabs take like a day or so to get used to, can’t go back now tho
Not too fond of it on multiple screen setups though. Perhaps that has changed? Also last time I tried it, videos played horribly (especially live like Twitch/YouTube Live)
Do you have hardware acceleration enabled?
No issues with videos, I use yt in my essential tab daily with pip and have a bunch of folders/pinned tabs for blender tutorials. In the past I would sometimes get a crash and lose tabs but that hasn’t happened in months. I use it on windows, linux on the same laptop, and linux on my handheld daily with no issues anymore.
I wish it was easier to export and import configs and bookmarks. Main reason I stopped using it.
They’re about to get a BIG bump in usership, when Manivest V2 goes dark.
We don’t need ai for browsing
I’m sure since people are buying Chromebooks, where Chrome is the default and Windows, where Edge browser is the default — and they both use WebKit, it doesn’t help since now, people no longer see benefits over Gecko.
I use browsers that ARE NOT the default. I want my Web traffic in a different app than the system’s “Explorer.exe” (shell). For example, I refused to use Konqueror on KDE for the same reason as (Internet) Explorer and such.
I’m an outlier. People, sometimes due to work constraints, literally see the app as “the internet app.” They don’t compare and they often follow their cliques advice (or ads).
The latest round of widgets they threw into the browser was annoying.
The more cash Creepy Goose injects into Mozilla, the higher the CEO’s salary will be and the less users there will be. I’d like to thank Mozilla for being a money-sink for about 15 years now. It’s like Creepy Goose has been carrying a tiny ball and chain just so that authorities can say “oh yeah, they have competition”.
Once LadyBird reaches v1, Mozilla will be in deep shit as it won’t be necessary to pay them as a token competitor anymore.
