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by pawadu 3230 days ago
I still think Chrome has some advantages. For example you can disable a lot of things like location services in the settings. In Firefox you can decline access to location once a site asks for it but I would rather disable it once and for all if I am setting up a machine for a less tech-savvy person.

Also, firefox comes with tons of built in features you cannot disable. In past they have caused security issues (e.g. the pdf.js exploit).
3 comments
cesarb 3230 days ago
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/geolocation/ "How do I turn off Location-Aware Browsing permanently?"

Just set geo.enabled to false.

There's also a preference to permanently disable pdf.js there. Or you can change the default PDF reader: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/disable-built-pdf-viewe...

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floatboth 3230 days ago
You can disable everything in Firefox. Have you ever browsed about:config?
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baby 3230 days ago
> the pdf.js exploit

Overall having pdf.js is a benefit to internet browsing. Should we not innovate and try to improve our tools just to preserve security?

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snakeanus 3230 days ago
> Overall having pdf.js is a benefit to internet browsing

I would doubt it. The experience that pdf.js provides is inferior to dedicated programs like xpdf.

> Should we not innovate and try to improve our tools just to preserve security?

We should, but we should not make such things like pdf.js unable to be disabled by the user.

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baby 3230 days ago
> I would doubt it. The experience that pdf.js provides is inferior to dedicated programs like xpdf.

That's not the point, I open dozens of PDF daily and I don't want to have to switch programs all the time. An integrated light PDF viewer is one of the best new feature of modern browsers.

PS: You can set the pdfjs.disabled pref to true on the about:config page to disable the build-in PDF viewer

PS2: Not sure this still works.

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snakeanus 3230 days ago
I will admit that I just took pawadu's word for it. I personally had no idea if it is possible to disable pdfjs or not.

That being said, I will also agree that it is convenient sometimes but it is much slower and much less compatible than native viewers, making it useless for me about half the time. Still, I see no reason why it needs to be integrated into firefox instead of being just an addon (even if it is installed by default).

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