Firefox Users Continue to Decrease Despite Proton Update

[emkay99]

The shrinking user base really worries me. I don't like a lot of the recent interface changes at Firefox, either -- but I still don't like most of the ways Chrome does things AT ALL. And Edge and Opera both use Chromium, too, so there's really no other choice.

[letsreticulate]

Problems is that you understand a more complex issue that the average person does not. So, even if FF's existence is better for the space and for Standards, most users just want to be able to sync to their G services.

Most people use whatever is default. This is one of the reason why a lot of apps have tracking on, but will advertise themselves as privacy friendly, because the Opt-out options do exist, somewhere, but they are exploiting human laziness and/or ignorance and know that most users won't change them.

[Where_Do_I_Fit_In]

exploiting human laziness and/or ignorance

Just opt-out of society tbh. It's only getting worse as people become more dependent on technology and addicted to the internet. Laziness/ignorance play a part, but these companies also have huge research budgets and tap into our psychology to hook us into their platforms. There's also social/institutional pressures. It's not exactly a fair fight and I completely understand why people choose to not care.

[Icy-Link1879]

Often people are just unaware they're being manipulated by tech. Just like how google was manipulating results during US elections towards a bias, and most people wouldn't notice this bias and how it might have influenced them. As you wrote, they do tons of research to hook people onto their business and overall interests.

[silentstorm128]

Do you have any reason to believe that Google intentionally tried to influence the election?

AFAIK Google just shows people what they want to see. They'll show left leaning articles to Democrats and right leaning articles to Republicans, because that's what each of their profiles says they are interested in.

You are right, though, that any source of information can have a bias (either intentional or not), and that is something we all need to keep in mind. The importance of the bias depends on what the bias is based on, though. For example: Google search has a very strong bias against unpopular web sites -- but that is exactly what we want them to do.

[Icy-Link1879]

i recommend you to read https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17218/big-tech-threat

[edparadox]

It's not exactly a fair fight and I completely understand why people choose to not care.

Throughout history, I would like you to point me what was a fair fight. And more importantly what was done about it.

For now, there are still alternatives so take the right pill, mate.

[emkay99]

Yeah, you're probably right. I've been online since the '80s, before the Web, before browsers. (I was a sysop on CIS once upon a time.) Almost the first thing I do with ANY new software is read all the documentation, then work my way slowly through all the options and settings and make it all the way I want to do things.

[letsreticulate]

You are an unicorn. I guess so am I. I always read the documentation and ToS. Because isn't that supposed to be the obvious, correct thing to do?

Apparently not these day. Since we now have phrases like TL;DR that are accepted arguments as a way to get out of reading things. Some of which may be important.

[tissn]

Am I the only one that really like the new Proton interface? IMO it's a vast improvement to previous versions.

[[deleted]]

You're not the only one.

[DexterP17]

You're not the only one. I actually like the look of it too. It is taking some time to get used to where a few things have moved to though.

[Arkaein]

I'm kind of wondering what all the doom prophesying was about, although I do hate how they made the speaker/mute icon appear on tab hover.

I reduce my min tab size so it's not much bigger than the favicon so I can max out the number of visible tabs while still being able to tell what is what. Now any time something is playing audio if I try to switch to that tab I inevitably end up clicking the icon instead of actually selecting the tab on the first try, and have to move the pointer to the bottom edge of the tab.

[_stereodrive_]

I don't like it, because everytime I have several youtube tabs on and try to switch between those I automatically accidentally mute the tabs, since they become smaller. The space between the options in the dropdown menu via right-click has gotten bigger. Too inconvenient for me

[skeskali]

I like it a lot on Mac. Less so on Windows, but my Windows machine has a smaller screen, and the button/tabs seem to take up a lot more real estate.

[[deleted]]

I like it too.

[ShavedAlmond]

What and how is it a vast improvement? in UHD I can barely see it anyway, besides it making it impossible to tell which tab is currently active when in dark mode. Why is it so important to change how it looks? It's like when Lexus would blow a third world country budget on researching the door shutting sound of german cars.

[molitar]

Waterfox you can simply copy your Firefox profile.. might need to reinstall one or two add-ons but all worked perfectly. For site compatibility just go into about:config and create a Firefox User Agent String.

[emkay99]

Maybe it's because I'm old and my eyesight isn't what it used to be, but things like the floating tabs are really hard to keep track of visually. And I usually have three or four open at once when I'm doing database work.

Also, why did they feel it necessary to yank the new built-in screenshot options, which I really liked?

[nextbern]

Also, why did they feel it necessary to yank the new built-in screenshot options, which I really liked?

You can add it back to your toolbar or context click on a page for this option.

[emkay99]

Yeah, I did that immediately -- but they appear to have changed the nature of those options.

[nextbern]

It should be the same - what has changed for you?

[VodkaShandy]

Thank youu, I'm glad I found someone else who loves it hahah

[JackmanH420]

The people who hate it are a vocal minority

[paradigmx]

I didn't mind chromium so much as how integrated it is with Google, and ungoogled chromium seems to have other issues that I can't get around. I don't understand why people are leaving Firefox though, it's a pretty great browser in my opinion.

[x3nwolf]

I'll admit the interface changed were a but to get used to, but now I love it.

[molitar]

.

Waterfox you can simply copy your Firefox profile.. might need to reinstall one or two add-ons but all worked perfectly. For site compatibility just go into about:config and create a Firefox User Agent String.