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by superkuh 1458 days ago
Don't worry, he's speaking for the majority of long term firefox users. You're the exception. I started using Firefox when it was Gecko/Phoenix in 2002, then Firebird, then Firefox. I started using it because it was so customizable. I stopped using it at version 37 in 2015 because that was when Mozilla destroyed the browser by removing user freedoms to install their own add-ons without Mozilla's approval. And no, using Nightly (alpha renamed aurora renamed nightly) is not an option because it is extremely crashy on non-standard OS/Distros.

Since 2015 Firefox has become rapidly less capable and rapidly more 'secure' for non-technical users. It's just not what I or the original userbase want. But like with all things Mozilla (including the original employees and CEO) we've been replaced. There's plenty of users who just want Chrome that's not labeled Chrome and Firefox modern gives it to them.
4 comments
seszett 1458 days ago
Just to chime in, I also started using Phoenix in 2002, but it wasn't because it was customizable. I've never used more than a couple of extensions and I actually have every extension I need on Android, so I'm fully satisfied for my particular use case.

I still think most of what Mozilla does with Firefox is absolutely stupid and I wish it was different because attracting or retaining more users would make Firefox less likely to die, and generally help the web.

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WithinReason 1458 days ago
I think you got this backwards. Firefox has 362 million users [0], while the uBlock Origin addon has 5,438,169 users [1], which is 1.5% of all users. If you use Firefox addons at all you're probably in a tiny minority of its users.

https://earthweb.com/how-many-people-use-firefox/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...

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soundnote 1458 days ago
> There's plenty of users who just want Chrome that's not labeled Chrome and Firefox modern gives it to them.

Firefox isn't Chrome that's not labeled Chrome, though. Less customization doesn't mean it's necessarily more Chrome-like, especially lately where Chrome's implementing things like tab groups and keeping more or less the same UI design. The new Firefox looks more Safari-ish than Chrome-ish. to me.

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superkuh 1458 days ago
True. I should have been more clear. I meant it's like Chrome in that it prioritizes being a javascript OS for e-commerce applications from corporate persons over a browser for HTML websites made by human persons. And with those priorities come inevitable design decisions re: ability to customize.
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Arnavion 1458 days ago
FWIW my distro's firefox package allows installing my own extensions. I wouldn't be using it if it didn't.
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