this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
94 points (80.5% liked)

Technology

60087 readers
3898 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Chromium has better features, but with google announcing its plan to 'drm the internet' I 'm not sure if it'd be a good idea.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] simple@lemm.ee 160 points 1 year ago (9 children)

What better features? Firefox has pretty much everything nowadays, and is as fast as Chrome.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 93 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

From the comments I'm noticing a trend

  • Google Chromecast issues
  • Not allowed to do background effects in Google meet

and from personal experience:

  • issues using the store to update add-ons on Google docs
  • can't authenticate desktop Google drive

I use a lot of Google products, but avoid Chrome because of nonsense like this. Firefox works fine for everything else EXCEPT certain Google products. Feels intentional

[–] Sabata11792@kbin.social 84 points 1 year ago (1 children)

100% intentional. If you spoof your browser signature most work just fine

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Same with Edge and Microsoft with their Bing bullshit. Big anticonsumer bullies and they wonder why their online share is stuck.

[–] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Google Meet background effects actually work in Firefox if you spoof Firefox user agent to Chrome, I kid you not.

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

It should work soon without it. Google is just being google and takes its time to fix the problem they created in the first place.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1703668#c66

[–] Aggy@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I have the same experience. At my last company they only used Google meet so I had chrome on my computer just for meetings and nothing else.

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The only time I use chromium is to attach a debugger to GWT (yes, the "G" stands for Google). It runs like absolute trash in Firefox.

Everything else runs better in FF.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is exactly why companies spend money on marketing, people remember these ideas and internalize them as their justification long after it stops being true. And Chrome being fast hasn't been true for a long time.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It still wins most benchmarks, so it's technically true. Although not really enough to matter on desktop where it's millisecond differences

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I can confirm this, Chrome wins the benchmark tests and some CSS rendering but lags behind in DX. I'm not sure where OP got the idea that Firefox has fewer features from a developer POV.

[–] lonke@feddit.nu 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Native procedural dark mode, Developer CSS Overview, browser extension file access.

I use Firefox exclusively except for when the second one is useful. I really wish Firefox had those three though.

[–] quantum_mechanic@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It doesn't have translations. I use it anyway, but it's a minor inconvenience as I live in a foreign country.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Translations might be coming soon

https://9to5linux.com/firefox-118-enters-beta-testing-with-the-built-in-translation-feature-for-websites

Done locally on the device, so no risk of personal info going to some company

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I use an extension for translations and it works just fine

[–] GeekFTW@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Chromium browsers have only 1 feature I need: access to the Chromecast API. I have 3, Firefox can't connect to them and the last 2-3 times I tried the listed 3rd party methods (fx bridge, etc), I could never get it to work.

Were it not for that, I'd be back on Firefox.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's part of why I avoided getting new Chromecast devices 😄

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

well? what do you have? I would love to flush my chromecasts but they're so useful.

[–] king_tronzington@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

If you ever find one let me know because I'm in the exact same boat as you. Casting videos to my TV is so damn convenient

[–] raptir@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter. Despite being Microsoft, it uses Miracast.

[–] MowFord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Isn't Miracast an adhoc wifi network as opposed to simply connecting to an established WiFi network?

[–] GeekFTW@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I've had these ones from 3-10 years depending on the unit XD

[–] davetansley@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I had a similar need, and it prevented me from moving to FireFox for a long while. Luckily, I did manage to get fx_cast to work, and it's been flawless ever since. In fact, I'd say it work more reliably than Chrome's casting!

[–] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you tried setting browser.casting.enabled = true in Firefox's about:config settings?

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trust me, I've tried everything there is. For hours, literally. Nothing worked.

(Casting from Firefox (beta) on Android.)

[–] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That's a bummer. Personally, I use an app made to cast web video on android because it has better casting experience (including subtitles support) and wider range of supported websites. The dev is also responsive and would push a fix if you report any site where it doesn't work: Web Video Caster

[–] ohmesocorny@discuss.online 1 points 1 year ago

Agreed, it's an amazing app, well worth the price for premium version.

[–] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely try it out.

[–] Marks@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Edge's vertical tabs and grouping. Every solution on Firefox feels half-baked.

[–] sab@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] whiskers@lemmings.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And with a custom userConfig the top tabs disappear like Edge too

[–] Marks@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That has been the best solution so far for vertical tabs but grouping needs some work.

but to be clear it is not great compared to edge.

[–] c10l@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I settled on Sidebery after trying most similar extensions. Seems more complete and has better usability in my opinion.

[–] Nighed@sffa.community 1 points 1 year ago

Ooh, do you have a link with info for that? Last time I looked into it it wasn't possible

[–] Zerfallen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

On Android tablets, most non-Firefox browsers support a tab bar, and tablet optimised UI. Firefox is just a giant stretched phone layout. I like to use the same browser on all platforms so I can sync tabs, so Firefox being crap on my tablet rules it out for my other devices too.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I uae Fennec, which is a better (but just okay) android browser from f-droid based on firefox. It has firefox sync. Just fyi.

[–] Zerfallen@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I'm really happy with Vivaldi for now, but I'll have a look into Fennec anyway and maybe give it a spin. Thanks for the info!

[–] Rooki@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

even more you can import google addons into firefox ( right now only in nightly builds but it works )

[–] AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Firefox always memory bloats out on me. Mobile app crashes.

I switched to Brave then moved to Vivaldi. I'll revisit if FF gets more stable.