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EU browser choice rules send millions more users Firefox's way

56 points by geox ago | 11 comments

yoavm |next [-]

People often think that Firefox is losing because it doesn't do this one thing they want it to do, and if only Mozilla listened to them they'd see Firefox skyrocketing. Seems like the truth is that Firefox is losing because users don't have a choice.

okanat |root |parent |next [-]

Both are true. Firefox is losing ground because of multiple reasons It is slower compared to Chromium ones. It is not only slower but more power hungry on mobile phones. Its sandboxing is worse than Chromium. It is less configurable for checkbox-security-applicator Microsoft IT personnel and sysadmins. Mozilla rolls out features, UX changes and removals that constantly annoy its core userbase who can actually install forks of both Firefox and Chromium.

Google has immense power and monopoly over Android phones and the search. Google can also spend practically infinite resources to develop features and force their way into standards. Those features get adopted by developers who are oblivious or ignorant or malicious or simply doing their jobs. Then lack of features reduces Firefox's adoption.

yoavm |root |parent [-]

This is nice in theory, but literally never have I heard a friend saying "I tried using Firefox, but it was too slow / too power hungry / had bad sandboxing / wasn't configurable enough". Not once. What I did hear, tens of times, is "I just use X, it came preinstalled with my phone/laptop. Why should I switch?"

okanat |root |parent |next [-]

I actually have seen this in my current company. Many developers switched browsers away from Firefox. Some even switched to Edge since it plays better with the battery. I know early adopters of Brave from its early years too.

When things get a bit bigger in JIRA, Firefox's JS engine struggles with horrifying amount of JS JIRA throws at it. Same for Google Meet and Zoom.

I tried and realized Firefox has a huge power consumption penalty on my Android phones and a considerable one on my laptop. I still keep it as a secondary but it is still not there yet.

IT people in my both current and previous company prefer deploying Google Chrome. Previous one was a complete Microsoft shop, they didn't use the built-in Edge but removed it and deployed Chrome. There is quite a bit Microsoft sysadmin know-how about Chrome, less for Edge and even less so for Firefox.

If you're privacy-conscious you'd have searched or visited blogs like this[1] or privacyguides.org or privacytools.io. They all point out issues.

They are all a factor. Many people still install Chrome because the apps / websites they visit tell them so. If you used web-based engineering software, they will always recommend Chrome.

Google Docs of course works better on Chrome, intentionally or unintentionally Google will roll out more optimizations for it.

[1] https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.ht...

yoavm |root |parent [-]

Sorry, I should have made it clear: my comment is about the general population. It is about why Firefox is losing market share. Not about IT people, privacy-conscious people or alike. It is about why the average Joe stopped isn't using Firefox.

illiac786 |root |parent |next |previous [-]

I use Firefox because of the multiaccount containers. But it really burns CPU cycles on my Mac, it’s insane. Even with tabs unloading automatically and everything. I don’t get it.

Chrome is not perfect but it’s significantly lighter on the battery. Safari is the lightest on Mac but the addons suck.

Memory-wise I found both to be just as bad.

DangitBobby |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Occasionally I get things that don't work in Firefox that do work in Chrome. I don't have a comprehensive list for such instances but I'm sure that's a contributor as well. uBlock Origin on mobile keeps me using FF.

riedel |root |parent |previous [-]

I am actually only switching to Chromium based browsers because some corps and most notably some captcha/paywalls don't work as expected. But the. I always think I made the right choice (actually I am rather using Zen because I love their UX on top of FF)

thisislife2 |root |parent |previous [-]

Both are true. Firefox could be so much better and innovative with the amount of money it has but ...

extraduder_ire |next |previous [-]

I wondwe how this compares to the increase in users from the "brower ballot" screen that microsoft added to windows years ago.