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Firefox 89: Can this redesign stem browser's decline?:
Mozilla has released Firefox 89, proclaiming it a "fresh new Firefox," though it comes amid a relentless decline in market share.
Firefox matters more than most web browsers, because it uses its own browser engine, called Quantum, and its own JavaScript engine, called SpiderMonkey. By contrast, most other browsers, including Chrome and Chromium, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi use the Google-sponsored Blink engine, while Apple's Safari uses WebKit (from which Blink was forked). The existence of multiple independent implementations is important for web standards, helping to prevent a single vendor from pushing through changes without consensus, and ensuring that the standards are coherent.
A glance at a statistics site like W3Counter is telling. In April 2008, Microsoft enjoyed a 63 per cent market share with Internet Explorer, and with Firefox performing strongly behind it at 29.3 per cent. By April 2010, IE was down to 48.6 per cent, Firefox up to 32.7 per cent, and Google's newer Chrome was starting to make an impact, at 8.3 per cent.
In April 2012, the three were almost on a par, though Chrome (26.8 per cent) had overtaken Firefox (25 per cent). Today, Chrome is at 65.3 per cent, Safari second at 16.7 per cent, IE and Edge has 5.7 per cent, and Firefox has just 4.1 per cent share. Despite numerous updates, Mozilla's browser has declined from 6.1 per cent share a year ago. Statcounter tells a similar story, reporting a 3.59 per cent share for Firefox, down from 4.21 per cent a year ago.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Sunday June 06 2021, @01:21PM (2 children)
OK, I am oblivious. I use Firefox semi-regular, but it wasn't until I saw articles like this that I realized the UI had changed.
It's a Browser. It has tabs. I almost never need anything off the menus. So...looking now, the tabs seem to occupy a bit more space, and have slightly rounded corners. Wow.
I do agree that gratuitous UI changes are detrimental. And that companies could better invest their time in functionality. That said, the problems with Mozilla lie elsewhere. They have way too many managers, and pay too much attention to being woke.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @02:00PM
>. That said, the problems with Mozilla lie elsewhere. They have way too many managers, and pay too much attention to being woke.
1. Get woke
2. ???
3. Go broke
Hint: The missing #2 involves pointless UI design changes as much as it does over-investing in transsexual bathrooms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:34PM
Because of the forward facing nature of the UI and the tendency of most users to be fairly complacent, alterations to it are naturally upsetting. The best thing that a UI can do is be historically consistent. Every time somebody makes a UI change it alters the way you interact with it, this breaks the cycle of complacency and nets user frustration. This particular change being that it's so benign is probably really good evidence of this. They made several trivial alterations to tabs, yet people are still upset because they've got to relearn all the cues they use to interface with the application. And to be fair, because it is trivial, it should no have been altered because of user frustration. If they were actually adding functionality it'd be another thing, and users would at least be able to assume that it was to the benefit of their "workflow" (shitposting), though there would be criticism because, again, they have to relearn cues and perhaps how the system functions... I think it's fair to conjecture the compromise between adding something beneficial and relearning would help users assume a more positive attitude.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Sunday June 06 2021, @02:25PM (17 children)
I wonder what this entails for Palemoon, I'm not super happy about the 29.x changes so far as it broken like more or less all the addons. Seems 29.1.1 is still the "best" old one but I figure it will be an issue eventually and then I'm not quite sure what I'm going to swap to. Recommendations?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Socrastotle on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:16PM (5 children)
As per the post right below you, I went from Pale Moon to Brave.
Brave is essentially Chrome with all of the Google bloat removed, and a bunch of natively implemented features added. So you get native ad-blocking, https everywhere, anti-finger printing, third party cookies blocked (changeable in two clicks if necessary), etc. You also get stuff like two click script disabling on a per-site basis. With three clicks you can select specific scripts. Makes getting rid of pop-overs, pay-walls, etc generally take about 2 clicks. It also has native TOR support so you have things like the ability to open a single link in TOR which is handy for cases when things are geo-blocked or geo-'tweaked' in a way you'd like to change. And all other sorts of little goodies. You also get the compatibility and breadth of plugins available to Chrome.
The only "negative" thing about it (in my opinion, of course) is generally a misunderstanding. Some people thought that it replaces ads from sites and puts 'Brave ads' there instead. This is simply not true. There is an opt-in program that can let you earn currency for seeing an ad every once in a while (from Brave) that can then be used to do things like 'tip' content creators through the browser, but it's all opt-in. I do not opt-in because I despise advertising, even when coming from a company I am currently quite fond of.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @08:30PM (1 child)
I just looked at Brave and about half the features are tied to cryptocurrency nonsense. I don't need my browser giving me live quotes on Bitcoin, blockchain-based tip jars, etc. In fact this makes me wonder if it isn't using my CPU in the background to do some mining. No thanks, I'll stick with Ungoogled Chromium.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @01:32PM
What, this is just a really weird lie. There is literally nothing in the browser tied to crypto besides some opt-in program they give where you can see an add every once in a while in exchange for some crypto that can be used to do things like tip content creators (from within the browser as well).
And it is also completely open source. Your conspiracy about it secretly mining can be disproven by simply looking at the code, or relying on the fact that given its demographic - this would have been discovered about 0.1 seconds after release.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hash14 on Sunday June 06 2021, @09:35PM (2 children)
And it's closed source. So who knows whether any of those features actually work, or whether they're backdoored for whoever's willing to pay for the privilege.
At this point, your best bet is Pale Moon. It's the only browser that you can really trust your privacy to. Even Firefox is removing pro-privacy features in the name of catering to the moron demographic.
Plus, Brave is based on Chrome's engine, so if Google really does follow through with its plans to cripple adblocking, it's not certain Brave will be able to continue to support that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hash14 on Sunday June 06 2021, @09:40PM (1 child)
Ok, I read your other comment and guess I was wrong about it being open/closed source. According to wikipedia, it's MPL.
Still, the fact that it's based on Chrome still bothers me a bit and makes me wonder if Google will try to pull the rug from under their feet. Does it have anything to replace ematrix [palemoon.org] on Palemoon?
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @01:48PM
Yip, the source code [github.com] is 100% open, and they're actively involved with a large community working to improve and develop the browser.
I have not used ematrix, but I read that it was based on uMatrix. Brave is 100% compatible with any Chrome extension and so uMatrix would work on Brave. However, depending on exactly what it does - you probably have native support in Brave itself. Right click -> Brave -> Block Element and you get into an interactive UI enabling you to create block filters (with wild cards) on any element or element type. Scripts and dynamic content can be selectively loaded/unloaded by using the Brave Symbol (right of address bar) and then clicking on the drop down element beside "Scripts". You can disable/enable scripts (on a per site or global basis as preferred) with two clicks from the same UI.
Brave is also based on Chromium, not Chrome. Chromium is 100% open source as well. And anything that doesn't fit the ethos of Brave is (and will continue to be) removed. So there's nothing Google could really do at this point even if they wanted. The worst would be something like no longer updating Chromium, but that would not be a show-stopper in the least, and is probably not in Google's best interest anyhow.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:40PM (10 children)
As a fellow Pale Moon user, have you noticed any recent problem with google/youtube sites?
Videos will load and play, but clicking view replies on a comment will consistently lock the browser up. (It happens randomly on other google sites too.) I have ematrix and ublock origin installed. The status bar text will say "transferring from ***.com" but nothing happens and pale moon responds very slowly, if at all. eg. click the close tab button and it might take a full minute to respond. Once the tab finally closes everything else responds normally. It is only google sites that do this. Started a few weeks ago.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:08PM (6 children)
Yes, I have similar experiences. It's similar if you open up multiple tabs of say Youtube at once they stall out the entire browser until they slowly start to pop in one after another. But it in essence freezes up the entire browser while that is happening.
I'm not entirely sure tho that it's a issue that is entirely to blame on Palemoon but a matter of Google/Youtube messing about with their site and code. Their constant need to mess with the code and implement new features and stuff that I'm not sure anyone but their advertisement buddies asked for. Since most of those issues are just around their sites, gmail has no issues but a lot of other sites that rely on adsense and the various api-sites they have for fonts and what now seem to be slow as heck. Part of it could also be the blocking addons and that Google to fuck with the blockers are just trying for longer or more before giving up. Some pages work better if or after you abort the loading and just reload again so it can just fetch cached information. Possibly that is all in my head but it seems to work better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @12:38AM (1 child)
Youtube and Reddit are becoming unusable.
Youtube is the worst. It locks up the whole Pale Moon browser loading all its garbage. The old YT interface used much fewer resources compared to the current bloated version. My guess is that it is related to the ad shoving they are doing.
Reddit gets slower the more you scroll down the main page. All those little videos try to load and freeze. Scroll down to a spot and the video autoplay spins then starts to play and moves the page up or down further on its own.
We need to push that Chrome is not the Internet and get real teeth behind web specifications so they can be implemented in other browsers.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @02:52AM
With reddit, try replacing the www with old, https://gist.github.com/simshaun/eeb342bf8c5130147fa01546d218163a [github.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Monday June 07 2021, @03:50AM (3 children)
Yeah, YouTube did something recently that screwed up SeaMonkey too. Now the only way it can see any monetized video is if it's embedded somewhere. On YT.com itself, all it sees is an endless parade of unskippable ads, and the requested video never does play. This happens even if I bug out to Hooktube or some other proxy. (Unmonetized vids play normally.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday June 07 2021, @11:29AM (2 children)
That seems odd. I don't have that problem. I can watch things just fine. It's just once it loads youtube Palemoon just freezes up for about 5-10 seconds (per tab) as it loads in. I assume it's something with or in the code that is utterly borked and loops around and just steals all priority in the program. I can still use other things on the machine so it's not the machine that is locking up, it's just Palemoon that stalls out. It only happens on youtube tho, other video sites doesn't have that issue, or other sites in general. But beyond that things are as before. That said it never used to do this say a year ago or so with the old UI. But they changed things and now it's kind of annoying from a user perspective, or at least from mine. But I can still see all teh videos I want etc.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday June 07 2021, @01:27PM (1 child)
It might be the same code, handled differently -- PM wheezing until it goes past, SM (and Borealis) getting stuck on it entirely.
Come to mention it, this started about when my YT adblockers stopped working on the linux boxen too, and I had to switch their Chrome installs from dedicated YT adblockers to uBlock Origin.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @05:43AM
I've come to the conclusion it is anti-adblocker code doing it deliberately. If you turn off all the adblocking and hosts files you will get slow piles of shit, but not the lock-ups. Someone at youtube has gone "Well, if you're going to block ads, we'll lock up the browser until they play."
It never times out or triggers an error either, whatever it is doing it is on-purpose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:16PM (2 children)
Simple fix. Never read the comments. Youtube is a cesspool.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday June 07 2021, @12:16AM (1 child)
Simply scrolling down to see the related videos on the side can sometimes trigger it.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @12:25AM
Simple fix. Cut your fingers off, DON'T read the comments.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Socrastotle on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:00PM (12 children)
FireFox, by the time Chrome began its ascent, was left targeting a marketshare of higher-than-average information users with an interest in privacy and a probable aversion to companies like Google. Then Mozilla decided to get political, added unwanted advertisements [cnet.com] within the browser itself, swapped to Google for search (by default - changeable, but come on). And the thing that left a particularly sour taste in my mouth over them was when they started engaging into an overt astroturfing campaign on sites like Hacker News that entered well into the realm of spam.
So they targeted one demographic, and then did a lot of stuff that's going to annoy that specific demographic. Just makes no sense. And this was happening at the same time that Brave Browser was entering into the picture. Brave has always been leagues ahead of Firefox on security and privacy, especially now a days, and also has the compatibility of Chrome. So you get the compatability of Chrome with a browser that's a million times more performant with all sorts of native privacy/tech tools (disabling scripts per-site with two clicks = good bye pay walls 90% of the time, native TOR support, single click open link in TOR window, native anti-finger printing, native ad blocking, etc).
Brave and Firefox are going to target a very similar demographic. Firefox marketshare is plummeting, Brave recently announced a doubling [brave.com] of their marketshare from 2020 to 2021. Maybe a coincidence, but I doubt it. As for tracking, for better or for worse, all we have is Brave's word. The browser intentionally passes itself off as a generic Chrome install to sidestep fingerprinting mechanisms. The more your browser looks like the mean, the more difficult it is to create a distinct trackable fingerprint.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:53PM (5 children)
brave is hard to trust. https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html [neocities.org]
(Score: 3, Disagree) by Socrastotle on Sunday June 06 2021, @05:35PM (4 children)
Just because you read something on the internet, doesn't mean it's true.
Brave is completely open source. If you'd like to see what they're connecting to, or what they're doing you're free to check out the entire source code. [github.com] If you're not the sort to do so - and would rather just read an article, they did a startup comparison [brave.com] with other browsers a while back comparing what each browser does, connects to, and so on after being started up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @02:19AM (3 children)
Just because you read something on the internet, doesn't mean its true. Especially when it comes from the marketing department.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @01:26PM (2 children)
Of course not, but in this case it's trivial to falsify if you think they're lying because the code is completely open source. You can see exactly what is connecting where, what it's sending, and so forth - all in the code itself. No need for speculation, innuendo, or conspiracy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @09:39PM (1 child)
Where are the independent builds of brave then? The "code" is "open" source?
Firefox, numerous forks, independent builds
Chromium, independent forks and independent build
brave - we say we're open yeah. trust us. here is our binary.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Tuesday June 08 2021, @08:09AM
Here [github.com] are step by step instructions on how to grab the source code and build it all from scratch if you see fit. There are currently hundreds of published forks.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:53PM (3 children)
Actually, for me the main selling point of Firefox was its customizability. If they make it about as customizable as Chrome, then what exactly is the advantage over chrome?
I'm now using Waterfox Classic, with other browsers installed for the cases where a server won't accept it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Sunday June 06 2021, @05:47PM (2 children)
Depends on exactly what you mean. Like mentioned above the browser is 100% open source [github.com]. If you mean something like running unsigned extensions or sideloading extensions then yeah - you can. That specific issue was what drove me away from Chrome and on to Firefox onto Pale Moon and eventually on to Brave. Google blocked YouTube downloaders from their store, and then blocked the running unsigned extensions. Yay for monopolies. But all's well, ends well I suppose!
If you're just going vanilla then Brave, out of the box, is substantially more performant than Chrome, comes with a bucket of useful features and tools absent in Chrome, and does not include Google's "special additions" to Chromium.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday June 07 2021, @04:47AM (1 child)
Does Brave has Tree Style Tabs? Or All-in-One sidebar? This is more important to me than a YouTube downloader extension (youtube-dl does that quite fine, without browser help).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @02:08PM
Interesting stuff on tree style tabs. Does seem like it could be handy! And the answer seems to be nope for now. There is an open issue on it here [github.com] though, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It might be worth it to give it a bump if you have a github account. They definitely do get around to issues, and it does seem like this is one that could be pretty neat!
There is a sidebar that can be enabled (also mentioned from that same issue), but I haven't used it so I can't offer too much on that.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Monday June 07 2021, @06:41AM (1 child)
You say all this, but wasn't Brave founded on the idea of having advertising built into the browser itself? Have they gotten rid of that yet? Presumably if that's their mission statement, I doubt they allow decent adblockers to exist/be effective...
Personally I find the idea of advertising in general distasteful. Letting people know your product exists, fine, but...these days it's an entire industry built around convincing people to buy things they don't need. As Worf would say, "They have no honor." And it permeates every corner of our economy.
Cf. person elsewhere in this thread, "why is SN so full of Brave shills??"
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @03:09PM
No, Brave wasn't founded on the idea of having built-in advertising. The main issue Brave has had since day 0 has been the spread of intentional and malicious misinformation. The main idea behind Brave is to take all of the million mish-mashed pieces advanced users have to cobble together to create a decent web experience, and package them natively into a browser with clean native support. In short, "fix the web". So, the one thing you are probably referencing or heard of is that you can opt-in to a program to get a crypto in exchange for viewing some ads once in a while. The amount you get is equal to 70% of the revenue generated by the ad. That money can then be used to do things like tip content creators or sites you like. The idea is to create a system of revenue where the user is a voluntary partner instead of an exploited target. For those that opt-in all ad-selection is also done 100% locally - none of your personal information is ever sent to anybody.
Like you, I also generally find the idea of advertising distasteful, and so I do not opt-in even though I obviously am quite fond of Brave. And for the same reason. I have no desire to have artificial desires seeded in me. I'm happy with what I have, why imperil that by making me want things I currently have no desire for? And in any case, good stuff tends to spread by word of mouth. That is also why just about everywhere is increasingly full of "Brave Shills". Similar to how there were "Chrome shills" everywhere when Internet Explorer was still on top (due to inertia) and Chrome was just a vastly better browser. Today, Brave is better than Chrome in literally every single way, including speed. And the main slowing uptake is mostly people being unaware of it, or being misinformed. So it creates a great motivation for folks like to me to put in a kind word or 10 for it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:49PM (2 children)
FF, imo, burned itself out after 38. I moved to cyberfox and then waterfox "classic". They still allowed UI customization sans one giant XML file. Kept my extensions.
But now those old versions are falling way behind. Sites are increasingly incompatible. New forks are based on new ESRs. Each time they rebase, say waterfox, the FF devs change things and remove features again. Devs have to start almost all over. Nobody can have a good consistent browser anymore.
Chrome is a little better at this and so we have ungoogled chromium and all of those other forks. But I don't exclusively want to use chrome forks. Firefox HAD some good ideas and gave more control to the user.
Now every new release they take more and more of what I liked about FF away and add more and more of the things I don't like about chrome. Instead of listening they double down and ban any dissenters.
(Score: 2) by EEMac on Sunday June 06 2021, @05:33PM (1 child)
I miss SeaMonkey [seamonkey.org] at least once a week.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Monday June 07 2021, @03:56AM
Your calendar needs updating. :)
https://www.seamonkey-project.org/ [seamonkey-project.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @07:25PM (8 children)
Seamonkey is still close to what browsers used to be.
So far seamonkey has useful controls in Preferences. I can turn JavaScript on/off, disable Cookies or enable all except third parties. Tab behavior is reasonable.
That browser should be considered if like me, you'll never support Google and are dismayed with the path Firefox took.
The only issue I have with it is how cookies are deleted. Some programmer wanted to maximize the number of clicks to do that. Once seamonkey has a "Remove All" button, it will be perfect to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @07:41PM (6 children)
Might be worth checking out Brave on this as well. Literally all of the things you mentioned are stored on a per-site basis available from a UI 1-click away. Quite useful for killing paywalls, pop-overs, and other annoying site behaviors. The same tab also controls finger-printing resistance, auto-https, and a native adblocker. Plus, there is a delete all cookies option, if so desired!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @08:33PM (5 children)
Is there some sort of brave shilling consipiracy on here? The browser that pays you in their own crypto for your browsing history? The browser that whitelists fb/twitter so the stupid buttons work? The browser who's devs defend the "honey" ad company extension and also are an ad company?
Yea, no thanks.
As to seamonkey... nice but hella old. In the same place as palemoon or just using an older unsupported browser in general. The main reason to upgrade at all is because too much stuff begins to break on a regular basis and extensions become outdated.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @09:49PM (2 children)
Welcome to SN where there is a massive alt-right infestation. Brave has been pushed many times around here even though a preliminary search shows how bad it is. A libertarian Firefox, which means it will screw you over even more but provide options for you to config it how you want.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @02:30PM (1 child)
Lol. Brave is promoted by just about everybody with an interest in security and privacy. Even places like the NYtimes have wrote glowing articles [nytimes.com] about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @09:44PM
NYtimes recommends it? Does CNN too? How about fox news? Think I'll pass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @02:16AM
I think a bit to do with it is that they see the surface decisions and the publicity but don't pay attention to what happens below the surface. Brave and other browsers have had their history of problems but they get a pass because people don't hear about them or, if they do, they are considered the lesser evil.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Monday June 07 2021, @02:24PM
I expect it's mostly because, at this point, Brave is arguably the best browser out there. You get the compatibility of Chrome, all of the Google stuff stripped out (which results in a substantial boost in speed as well), privacy features advanced well beyond any other browser (including Firefox), and then a whole bunch of useful natively developed features - like ad block, https everywhere, anti-finger printing, completely integrated TOR support, easy script blocking, and much more.
The only thing really deterring most folks is extreme misinformation, such as you're spreading. Brave doesn't operate in any way whatsoever as you've suggested. There is an opt-in option to see ads on occasion in exchange for some crypto that can then be used for tipping site creators, and other such things. But even if you opt in to that it's all done 100% locally - *none* of your personal information is ever sent in any way, shape, or form to Brave (or any other entity). The entire source code to Brave right here [github.com] so you can see absolutely everything that's collected, how it's collected, and where it's sent. You can see that in article form here [brave.com]. While you are relying on their word there, you also have some indirect protection in that Brave has a disproportionate appeal to high-information technically literate users who do go through the source code and many of whom are actively involved in its development. So even if you might not be the type to dig through source, there are many of us who are!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @08:25PM
How is Seamonkey following the recent rash of Javashit expansions that are making many web pages fail with non-recent Chrome or Firefox?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @10:21PM
lots of that "chrome" market-share is probably 'cause of android?
still using (linux) firefox here.
happy there is a "selection" to chose from ...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @12:05AM (1 child)
Cunts. Wokester cunts. Their clique is only kept alive because it is cheaper for Google than antitrust lawyers. Ant these retards believe they are somehow technically important. Scum. Almost down there with outbound telemarketers, IP lawyers, and politicians.
"Can This Redesign Stem Browser's Decline?": A solid NO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @12:29AM
Hands off my damn Medicare! Bah!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Monday June 07 2021, @01:37AM (4 children)
My old car has its emergency blinkers button right in the middle of the console. Never really used it, but in the case of an emregency it is right there, where I would need it.
If that had been designed using "metrics", it would be hidden in the glove compartment or gone. Then I would be fucked when I really needed it.
Ah, but new cars are obviosuly designed using "metrics" now. You have consoles lit up with blue LEDs that one can't see over at night, advertisements flashing at them on the backup screen, dangerous media center touch screens that you have to look down at while driving... all because metrics let them know that is what consumertards get a boner seeing.
Common sense and logic? Those are ooooollld!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @02:12AM (1 child)
I've warned people about this for years. The power users are most likely to turn off telemetry. Because of that decision, most everything they do is invisible to Firefox developers. Every setting they change, every button click they do, etc. Of course some decisions should be made regardless of the metrics. But of the ones that are made pursuant to metrics, bias is a very real issue that should always be in your mind.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @09:47PM
Yes, we turn off telemetry. But we also go create bug reports and talk on their boards. For this we get marked "off topic" and banned.
Stop victim blaming.
THEY ARE ACTIVELY HOSTILE
(Score: 4, Informative) by Tokolosh on Monday June 07 2021, @03:16AM (1 child)
That button is there, hard-wired, on every US car, because the government mandates it. Manufacturers have limited scope for changing the design and implementation.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:14PM
And I remember a day when Microsoft mandated a standard "File" drop down menu - at least if you wanted that pretty "Designed for Microsoft Windows 95" logo everyone was looking for.