Technology

People seem to care more about synthetic benchmarks than using a browser that gives them much less tracking and ads. Remember when chrome was popular because its so fast? I never noticed a difference between that and Firefox in ordinary web pages, except Googles, since they are intentionally making it slow for Firefox.

And with all that going on, people still picked chrome. :)

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

OK you don’t like AI, you can turn in off. They added an option for that. Meanwhile Chrome is automatically downloading 4gb worth of models without your consent. Same with basically each other browser.

Because Chrome is used by normies who have no idea and wont care while Firefox is used by tech-literate users who care and like to tinker. The backlash was because FF implemented AI that you had to go to about:settings to disable. Result of backlash - a switch in settings to disable it.

It would be smart to implement AI and advertise people that they can switch it ON if they want to. Not the other way.

Folks are free to use whichever distro they like, Librefox, Waterfox, but remember that without Mozilla foundation the very engine would stop working. Then these forks will not work anymore

There is nothing to go to. But if we accept the outcome, we just submit to the system. Might as well switch to chrome at that point hoping that Servo gets developed fast enough. Firefox would lose their browser share at an instant once they are not different from chromium based browsers. Basically seppuku themselves.

Not understanding your user base is how you get a backlash.

Yeah - people love to shit on Mozilla while posting from fucking Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

It's laziness. Most people just take the path of the least resistance.

Once you show them the screen, any choice is the same amount of work so they will select what they really want. But without the screen, 90% of people will be good enough with the default option. Or, they might even be mildly uncomfortable with that option, but not enough to do something about it.

We tend to overestimate people's skill in tech. The average user uses what came installed, doesn't like installing and experimenting apps, uses a browser while logged in to google, taps yes on everything, will install apps when sites ask for it, without even noticing, and will register in every site or app that asks for it, and even give their real email, name, etc

i've legit seen many people who have no idea what a web browser is, internet == chrome/safari/edge (which opens automatically when clicking a link on some app) for them. this isn't just older people, actually it's usually worse with younger people.

it’s so easy to install apps on smartphones right now

Providing choice as a default is precisely about people who are influenced by defaults. It's NOT about how feasible something technically is.

It isn't that weird. Users have a very low tolerance for independence, especially as tech markets itself to less and less tech savvy userbases(like Gen alpha and z). They do what their screens tell them to for the most part.

Meet my wife! Since this screen, she uses the duckduckgo browser (iOS) Idk why, she neither, but she is happy with it.

It's like browser war 1.0 all over again but only on mobile...

(Microsoft had to do the exact same thing after they preinstalled Internet Explorer with Windows)

If i want the internet, I tap on the little internet app. Wth is a browser?

If something is good enough to do what you want you have no real motivation to change. People posting here are far more concerned about privacy than most people based on how much people seem to voluntarily share online anyway.

Chrome disabling ad-blocking doesn't hurt either.

Why not LibreWolf?

Isn't waterdox owned by a weird company?