this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 161 points 1 year ago (9 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 94 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

[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 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

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 33 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.

[–] [email protected] 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

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I use an extension for translations and it works just fine

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 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!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 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.)

[–] [email protected] 3 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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 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

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 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.

[–] [email protected] 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!

[–] [email protected] 1 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

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