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by boramalper 2722 days ago
I can see how upsetting this is but let’s go on a hyperbole and compare it with Chrome. The fact that we have a say about the future of Firefox is a feature that no other (proprietary) browser has.

Beware of your negativity bias.
1 comments
tapoxi 2722 days ago
Lets compare. Chrome has never showed me ads. Most developers target Chrome and you're less likely to experience issues. Chrome is also open-source (BSD) as Chromium, and I can use a fork (such as Vivaldi, MS Edge, Opera, Brave, or Ungoogled Chromium) if I have an issue with upstream.
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boramalper 2722 days ago
> Chrome has never showed me ads.

Totally fair, but this alone by no means indicate that Chrome is more privacy-friendly than Firefox.

Firefox was the first browser to implement DNT (Do Not Track) alongside other major browsers in early 2011, whereas Chrome/Chromium implemented it nearly two years later at the end of 2012.[0]

> Most developers target Chrome and you're less likely to experience issues.

…and don’t you find it worrisome that interoperability might one day completely fade away?

> Chrome is also open-source (BSD) as Chromium

Yet Google still has a massive influence over the project. For example, see what I wrote about DNT above. Chromium also syncs all your data to Google’s servers the moment you login to any Google service.[1]

[0]: https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome?revision=156566&view=...

[1]: https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2018/09/23/why-im-l...

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kodablah 2722 days ago
> Chromium also syncs all your data to Google’s servers the moment you login to any Google service.

You said something about Chromium and supported it with a link to a blog about Chrome. Though the terms can be confusing, it is very important to get them right if you run around making charges like this. I built a Chromium-based browser and it doesn't sync data with Google.

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boramalper 2722 days ago
> I built a Chromium-based browser and it doesn't sync data with Google.

AFAIK Chromium, by default, syncs data with Google as well unless you can disable it by some custom compile flags or something. Do we seriously expect (the majority of) users to compile their own browser?

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dependenttypes 2722 days ago
I would expect at least the major linux distros to turn said flags by default.
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boramalper 2722 days ago
As I've just checked, Ubuntu doesn't. Don't know about other distros.
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tln 2722 days ago
Chrome shows me ads for Google products all the time!
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