• parpol@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        It is open source so not really a corporation’s product.

        They just maintain it, and the moment they screw up, a fork will take over from there.

        • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Chromium (Google Chrome’s base) is also open source.

          And yet, we’re still at a corporation’s mercy as to whether everything Chromium-based gets ruined by Google’s fuck-what-the-users-want policies. Like with Manifest V3. And JXL support. And extensions on mobile.

          • parpol@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            You can easily branch off from before manifest v3, and some browsers do. The problem with manifest v3 is that most users do not care. But let’s say chromium loses its ability to use tabs, you can bet it gets rolled back before it reaches news media.

            • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Users don’t know what the fuck Manifest is period. They just click the internet button. And for the longest time that meant the E with a loop around it. Now that means the multicolored circle.

              • John Richard@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Users know that they want more security. MV3 makes a major of users that use Chrome safer from malicious extensions.

                • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  I get what you’re saying, but the average person has no idea what it is, why they should care, or anything about it. All they see is Google making their extensions stop working. And when that includes some of the most popular extensions, that directly affect Googles revenue, they’re going to think that’s the reason.

                  The overwhelming majority of users get their extensions from the Chrome Web Store… Which Google has full control over. Users expect them to be blocking almost all malicious extensions before they’re even available to download.

                  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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                    5 months ago

                    This. Google is pushing MV3 to single out and neuter the more robust and customizable ad blockers, like uBO. They’re trying to appease their advertising investors by force feeding ads to you and they’re plugging the leaks/workarounds savvy developers have created to block them.

                    If Firefox ever gets popular enough, what do you wanna bet money bags Google, their primary monetary contributor, will put a condition on the next round of funding that they stop support for MV2?

                    Stay small and crazy customizable Firefox.

              • John Richard@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Because it makes a majority of users that use Chrome much safer. Do you do any basic research? Do you need me to point you to the getting started guide?

                • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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                  5 months ago

                  It doesn’t though. An adblocker is your VERY most important tool in a good security posture. Googles playing any users who ask for MV3 for fools

                  • Jarix@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    The average user is and always will be an ignorant and careless user. And they are the majority. As in over 50%

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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              5 months ago

              the minority of people complaining about it are the only ones who know what it even is

        • AWittyUsername@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          So is Android. So is Chromium. So is React, and Flutter. So is Java.

          Open source doesn’t mean FOSS.

          • parpol@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            These are maintained by corporations, but for every screw up, there are superior forks maintained by someone else.

            The best forks of android are degoogled forks. The best forks of chromium are degoogled forks.

          • bamboo@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            Open source does mean FOSS. It doesn’t mean community-oriented.

            • AWittyUsername@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              No it doesn’t. Different licenses dictate what you can and can’t do with open source software. Some are more restrictive than others. Open source simply means that the source code is freely available.

      • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I’m grateful for FF, but they also annoy me at times. Just little stuff probably not worth bitching about in detail. But also a peek at the potential for problems that you’re talking about.

        So of course I’ll bitch about it.

        I call it the “stop whatever you think you’d rather do right now and pay attention to our product” type shit.

        Imagine you have a combination wrench and whenever you take it out of the toolbox it starts yammering at you about how great of a wrench it is and all if its shiny features. Fucking ridiculous, right?

        So why do we tolerate software that does that?

        Way too much software does this pushy shit. Just stay outta my face and do your actual job, software.

        • Blaster M@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Because people have the attention span of a goldfish and if you aren’t reminding them every 5 seconds of the features they have available they’ll forget they do in fact use them and then complain to support because they can’t spend 5 seconds on the help page.

          I say this, not in defense of mozilla, but in frustration at having to deal daily with these kinds of issues. You can put giant screen-size arrows on where to go / what single “do the thing” button to press and people will still forget 5 seconds later.

          • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Good point. That’s true, there is definitely that side of it. I think what you’re talking about is less obnoxious than the stuff that feels forced and make-the-boss-happy promotional. Push notifcations for no reason, etc. It’s a spectrum from necessary to uneccessary, and there’s too much of the latter IMO.

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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          5 months ago

          We’re so fucking used to ads we don’t even always realize we’re getting pushed propaganda

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        Firefox is a foundation, not a corporation. And I’m already using Fennec instead of the official release.

      • Chozo@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, it’s strange just how readily the blinders go up wherever Mozilla is concerned. They’re a corp, just like any other; if they had the money and leverage, they’d be just as aggressive as Google. Have people already forgotten that time they laid off 200+ employees and then gave all the execs bonuses?

        E: Apparently y’all have forgotten. In 2021, Mozilla laid off a few hundred employees. CEO’s salary doubled that year. Fuck Mozilla, they’re no more your friends than Google or Microsoft; they’re the same evil, just smaller-scaled evil, is all.

        • snooggums@midwest.social
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          5 months ago

          But they haven’t threatened to undercut ad blocking yet, so as a comparison they are better.

        • John Richard@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          You forgot to also mention that they are a cult where you get attacked if you say anything negative about Mozilla.

            • John Richard@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I’m not shilling for anyone. If you want to discuss actual technical details I’m happy to do so. If you’re here just to share your feelings absent facts then I don’t care what you have to say.

          • Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org
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            5 months ago

            Looking around, I don’t think that’s true. Lots of bad things are freely said about Mozilla and the people running it.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          This is the first I’ve heard of LibreWolf. Is it compatible with Windows 7? And also, why is it good?

          • ivn@jlai.lu
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            5 months ago

            You really shouldn’t connect windows 7 to the internet.

          • parpol@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            Librewolf is a fork of firefox that removes bloat and telemetry. You can “harden” firefox to do the same thing, but librewolf comes out of the box hardened.

            By the way, If you’re on win7 and don’t want to upgrade, Linux Mint might be a good alternative. It looks and feels similar but isn’t a security risk to connect to the internet.

          • jrgd@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            https://librewolf.net/

            A summary from its site and known technical details:

            • no telemetry by default
            • includes uBlock Origin
            • has sane privacy-respecting defaults
            • prepackages arkenfox user.js
            • relatively well-maintained fork of Firefox that keeps up with upstream
            • No major controversies AFAIK

            As for Windows 7, nobody should really need to install Librewolf anyway on such a device. No device running Windows 7 should have access to the internet at this point. If you are asking about compatibility intending this use case, you have bigger problems to worry about than your choice of browser. If you just need to view HTML files graphically, even Internet Explorer or an older firefox ESR will do.

            • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 months ago

              Main features: … Continued support for NPAPI plugins like Silverlight, Adobe Flash and Java

              Picture this in your minds eye: a Windows 7 machine running a browser with still working Flash and Java plugins, connected to the internet in 2024.

              what do you see?

              i see a flourishing ecosystem of worms, viruses and rootkits, all trying to be the one species to get to be the one who does the most damage to the prey species, the common user.

              • can@sh.itjust.works
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                5 months ago

                Sounds like an interesting experience to me. Admittedly I hadn’t looked that far into it. If Win 7 is a must I’d say just go with latest Firefox.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        5 months ago

        You’re overreacting. Firefox knows their users. I am a huge “stan” for Firefox, but I will delete it like a time traveller if they make it impossible to ignore ads. I will salt the earth and poop on Firefox’s grave and actively avoid it everywhere… However. If I’m wrong, there will be a Next Thing…

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        Yeah I’m using Fennec, which doesn’t have that. But as long as it’s a flick of a switch to disable, I don’t really mind. Still a million times better than manifest v3.

      • TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        If you use a DNS solutions you can block all the telemetry shit. Frankly FF has been phoning home in a lot of undesirable ways for many years even before this, like most browsers.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Anyone else been having issues of not being able to load YouTube videos past the first few seconds on Firefox using ublock? I couldn’t find any recent information online. I don’t know if this is part of the war on ad blockers, or unrelated.

    • Matriks404@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Besides the fact that Mozilla sucks, Firefox is an amazing piece of software. It’s PITA that it’s about to be enshittified.