• dinckel
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    2217 months ago

    Shit like this is exactly why competition is of utmost importance. The internet was never meant to be single-handedly controlled by a corporation with private interests, and more importantly, private pockets

    • DarkThoughts
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      947 months ago

      If we don’t see a somewhat significant rise in Firefox usage increases after this, then I fear that battle is already lost. People can complain a lot but doing something as easy as switching browsers seems to be the hardest thing for most of them.

      • Dojan
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        247 months ago

        Honestly I don’t think most people know or even care.

      • @[email protected]
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        207 months ago

        You Grandma and her Chromebook don’t care though. The numbers aren’t in our favor, but Mozilla absolutely dominating in the features and privacy arenas is.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        Even if Firefox were to win it’s still a bleak future because the ridiculously complexity and scope of browsers prevents new ones being made. Without the possibility of newcomers either the war never ends or there is one victor. We should start to abandon browsers in favor of apps that focus on each part of the browser (e.g. why does a browser need to render video to the screen when the user already has an app for that).

        “Destroying an empire to win a war is no victory, and ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat.”- Kahless

        • @[email protected]
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          287 months ago

          Fuck that. I’m not switching between apps for every god damn function my browser does. I intentionally decline to install apps when I can just use the browser.

            • AWildMimicAppears
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              7 months ago
              • no unified password management (or even worse: everything gets just attached to your google/ios account - i hate apps that do not give me the option to keep stuff separate)
              • no history functions (esp. over multiple devices)
              • single apps getting bought out by marketing corpos or bad actors without getting notified
              • data sniffing apps are harder to reign in than my sandboxed browser tabs.
              • NO ADBLOCKING AVAILABLE IN APPS

              I’m sure there are a lot more reasons, that’s just what came into my mind

              • @[email protected]
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                07 months ago

                Apps being created seperatly doesn’t mean they can’t interact with each other, so I don’t see those concerns as a problem. Is there anything fundamentally preventing the creation of new apps to do tasks currently exclusive to browsers?

                Isn’t the possibility of single apps getting bought out an argument against having all your eggs in one basket? 🙃

                • AWildMimicAppears
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                  27 months ago

                  i think i would get notified in some way if the Mozilla Foundation changes ownership, and since it’s open source that is not much of an argument. open source is getting more common the last few years, but it’s definitely not common

                  sure, it doesn’t mean they can’t. everyone making their own app also means that they don’t per default.

                  and you didn’t touch the point regarding NO ADBLOCKING IN APPS while the whole debate here is because alphabet doesn’t want effective adblocking in their browser.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    7 months ago

                    I don’t know what to say regarding your claim of no ad blocking in apps because I don’t understand why you think that. I disagree because it’s the same game just in different apps, depending on the medium:

                    • images then you could do what ad blockers fo now: block based on domain -video you still disregard other ad files, or have a sysyem like sponser block
                    • text (e.g.) on a Gemini client you’d need to detect the text that looks like ads.
        • @[email protected]
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          27 months ago

          Until apps allow to install ubo I’ll stick to a browser instead of having less control than with manifest v3 and chrome/ium

          • @[email protected]
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            17 months ago

            If the code of your app is like uBlock-Origin then you have the freedom to remove ads from your software. If an app dictates how you do your computing that’s a bigger issue than reckless feature creep leading to the end of browsers.

      • Toes♀
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        87 months ago

        In my experience people have a poor understanding of the software they use, it just needs to continue working as it always has.

      • @[email protected]
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        67 months ago

        I fear that battle is already lost

        I do. I’d be surprised if we see any kind of increase.

        Firefox is going to slide into obscurity. They’ve been in a downward spiral for the last few years. So much money wasted on so many failed projects. They’re a shadow of their former selves. The features of firefox are improving of course but by every metric that matters they’re on life support.

      • Thassodar
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        57 months ago

        I’m not asking this facetiously but: is there an easy way to migrate my bookmarks, tabs, and pinned tabs easily to Firefox? I looked maybe a year ago but didn’t find a 1 to 1 easy switch way to go to Firefox.

        To be clear: my personal laptop is all Firefox, but I don’t use it all the time. My main desktop is an integration of all three (please don’t judge), but I’d like to go full Firefox if it was convenient.

        • DarkThoughts
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          107 months ago

          Every browser has import / export functions. This is a standard feature for many many years.

          • Thassodar
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            17 months ago

            I get your point, but the easier you make it to switch the more people will make the change.

        • @[email protected]
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          27 months ago

          I’m not saying this facetiously but I just don’t understand what could possibly be so important that you need a “1 to 1 easy switch way”.

          Import your bookmarks. Pin some tabs.

          • Thassodar
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            17 months ago

            Convenience, similar to ninite.com. Sure I could download each installer one by one, but when it was made simple I now use it all the time.

            Similarly with Firefox: the easier you make it to switch from any Chromium based web browser, to Firefox, the more people will make the switch. To me your comment is equivalent to someone saying RTFM.

            • @[email protected]
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              17 months ago

              On the contrary.

              With the time you’ve wasted complaining about having to RTFM you could’ve already imported your my little pony bookmark collection and be clop clopping off into the sunset.

              You really don’t need a manual.

              • Thassodar
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                17 months ago

                You are absolutely correct, I could have done it a while ago. But while it is inconvenient, for me specifically, it’s not top priority. Once there’s a convenient method I’ll be all about it.

    • @[email protected]
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      177 months ago

      In retrospect maybe having the worlds most popular browser and the world’s biggest advertiser be the same person, was a bad idea.

    • @[email protected]
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      107 months ago

      Calling it the “Googlenet” now. The rest of us that don’t suck Google dick can stay on the actual Internet.

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      Same thing that happened with the internet also happened with capitalism. It’s like you need some regulation to ensure competition. It could have been so awesome if we had what we were promised.