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MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
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This is an open discussion to read people's opinion on why they choose or not to use Firefox.

If you don't use Firefox what did you find in this browser that you did not like?
 
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Haven't used it in years, I no longer have it installed.

Safari meets 99% of my needs. For the rare occasion it doesn't, I use Opera, which has a built-in VPN.
 
Firefox used to be my browser of choice when it was fast, snappy, buzzwords!. Then it slowed down to a crawl and started eating resources and at the same time Safari matured and had better developer tools. Safari is now my go to browser because Firefox bloated, this is likely also why Chrome took off. People wouldn't have switched from Firefox to Chrome if it was not for the formers growing issues that were addressed too late.
 
I use Firefox and a bunch of other Windows browsers at work to check the web pages I write, but I have no reason to use it otherwise. Safari works perfectly for me and is available on all my personal Apple devices.
 
Chrome is a hog in every way and I don't use it when I don't have to. Safari is what I use on modern Macs but on my older Macs and all Windows machines it's Firefox or a fork of it. Mozilla is not quite what it used to be, IMO, but it's still the best one out there.
 
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Firefox used to be my browser of choice when it was fast, snappy, buzzwords!. Then it slowed down to a crawl and started eating resources and at the same time Safari matured and had better developer tools. Safari is now my go to browser because Firefox bloated, this is likely also why Chrome took off. People wouldn't have switched from Firefox to Chrome if it was not for the formers growing issues that were addressed too late.

Have you downloaded it recently?
I would like to hear what you think of it, they had major overhaul. I don't mean for you to switch from Safari, I would just like to know if you think whatever issues you had with it are no longer there.

I am trying to understand why people generally don't prefer this browser as it has the lowest market share..and diminishing as it seems.
 
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Use Firefox on mac but Safari on ios devices. I like Firefox and the ability to manage resources when I exit (delete some cookies, etc).
 
I use Firefox because Safari sucks now!!!
Safari is pop-up /advert Hell!!!

ETA: many years ago I liked Safari-Now it Blows!!
 
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Good question.

I used to use Firefox when it was blazing fast and new. When Chrome came out, it was much faster so I switched to that. Then eventually, I fell out of love with Google and its practices ... started using Brave. I got Mac in 2015 and ... loved Safari (iMessage password prompts auto-entry, etc) but work was still Windows. So I used Brave for years.

When the Edge chromium clone came out, I hopped on that and ... use that when at work.

I tried Firefox earlier this year. I liked that they had full syncing like Chromium does but ... within a day of use, I had some problems with it crashing and having issues with some of the sites I frequent (Safari / Chromium work fine). So I just went back to Edge and Safari.

I much prefer Safari with AdGuard Pro. But Edge with AdGuard Pro and 1Password is a speed demon.

While I support and like Firefox I .... uh. I like Safari and Edge (Chromium) more.

I do use Duck Duck Go.
 
Safari is irritating. Chrome is too intrusive. Edge is another half effort from Microsoft. The others? I'd have to try em. So I use Firefox.
 
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Habit. It all started with Netscape on Mac Os 8, I went through all Firefox versions till newest one, always transferring on settings, bookmarks. Meanwhile I tried Camino, iCab, MS Explorer (Mac version), Safari, Opera, Chrome (it was worst of them) etc, I liked none.
 
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Firefox is great for me. More reliable, faster, and easier to navigate than Safari, which I also use on occasion. I am on an older OS so maybe that is part of the reason.

Surprisingly this is also the case for me but I too run older OS. Funny that a 3rd party allows you to install the latest browser version but Apple won't unless you update to their latest OS.

Use Firefox on mac but Safari on ios devices. I like Firefox and the ability to manage resources when I exit (delete some cookies, etc).

Just so you know, all browsers on iOS are Safari with a different skin/theme. They use the same webkit engine.

Habit. It all started with Netscape on Mac Os 8, I went through all Firefox versions till newest one, always transferring on settings, bookmarks. Meanwhile I tried Camino, iCab, MS Explorer (Mac version), Safari, Opera, Chrome (it was worst of them) etc, I liked none.

I am surprised you didn't jump ship when FF was slow/heavy and Chrome was lightening fast in comparison. I think that was before they jumped to Quantum enginge(is it still Gecko?) and their Photon GUI.

BTW, iCab is very capable on iOS. Its the closest to a desktop browser user experience.
 
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I have used various browsers and over the years Firefox has remained on each desktop whether it was Windows or Apple's MacOS/OSX and at times on Linux machines or vm. Sadly, as some have pointed out it can get rather slow and eat up a lot of memory and it seems it doesn't always release memory when exiting a tab/website page. Today I use three browsers on a MBP and none of them are Firefox. Chrome is for school, Brave for some careful surfing and Safari for generic use. This combination has been working out so far during the last few months and I don't have the issues of beachballs and more that were frequent with Firefox. Sadly, I admit I like Firefox's design and the large amount of useful extensions and add ons as well.
 
Because NoScript exists, and because it's possible to modify how it looks through userChrome, so now I have a nice compact-looking Firefox browser that can block practically any script I want it to
 
I use Firefox because it’s cross platform. I don’t like how it’s a pain to save a bookmark into a specific folder in my bookmarks on iOS.
 
Firefox has been great since the Quantum update, and their privacy features at least *seem* better than Safari's and certainly Chrome's. As a professional neckbeard, Firefox tends to play nicer with weirdo admin portals than the others do, but ymmv (conflicting hot take: it kinda doesn't matter; they're all browsers and they work with 1password and have extensions and sync bookmarks and let you view the internet idfk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) .
 
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I have used various browsers and over the years Firefox has remained on each desktop whether it was Windows or Apple's MacOS/OSX and at times on Linux machines or vm. Sadly, as some have pointed out it can get rather slow and eat up a lot of memory and it seems it doesn't always release memory when exiting a tab/website page. Today I use three browsers on a MBP and none of them are Firefox. Chrome is for school, Brave for some careful surfing and Safari for generic use. This combination has been working out so far during the last few months and I don't have the issues of beachballs and more that were frequent with Firefox. Sadly, I admit I like Firefox's design and the large amount of useful extensions and add ons as well.

Have you used FireFox since they turned to their newer Quantum web engine and Photon GUI?

I use Firefox because it’s cross platform. I don’t like how it’s a pain to save a bookmark into a specific folder in my bookmarks on iOS.

Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge also works cross platform

Never mentioned that. Chrome always was heavy and made fans crazy even with few tabs.

Hmmm...why did most people jump ship to Chrome then? It was fastest browser over FF and IE.

Firefox has been great since the Quantum update, and their privacy features at least *seem* better than Safari's and certainly Chrome's. As a professional neckbeard, Firefox tends to play nicer with weirdo admin portals than the others do, but ymmv (conflicting hot take: it kinda doesn't matter; they're all browsers and they work with 1password and have extensions and sync bookmarks and let you view the internet idfk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) .

Firefox is 100% better than Safari privacy wise, its open source.

Of course it matters.
  1. Being open source for a major piece of software that affects 100s of millions if not billions of people's lives better than humanity being controlled by a monopolistic corporate.
  2. Options better than a single option
  3. competition leads to advancement
  4. compatibility and multiplatform. No MS Office Suite for Linux, no Safari for Windows/Linux/Android.
  5. If Firefox dies, then the only web engine option on non-Apple devices is Blink which made and highly influenced by Google's decision. We also have WebKit but that is also owned and influenced by another mega-corporate which is Apple.
  6. Data collection and privacy invasion by different software used.
  7. It is said that Google intentionally makes their services like Youtube work worse on other browsers
  8. Firefox is owned by Mozilla, the only non-proft organization that builds a web engine and a web browser for people to use. Non-profit means they are not motivated to make the most money, they are motivated by social/humanitarian causes.
 
Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge also works cross platform

100% well aware of this, but I don’t like Chrome, I read about questionable issues about Brave, and Edge isn’t on Linux. I do like Vivaldi a little and been using that here and there, but no iOS app.
 
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