Firefox... I'm done with you

in #blog6 years ago (edited)

I have been a fan of alternative browsers since Netscape. I just go out of my way to avoid using whatever the mainstream browser happens to be. However, i think Firefox probably is the mainstream browser now. I have been a Firefox user for as long as i can remember in the recent past but I'm afraid I simply can't deal with the problems anymore.


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Let's get straight out there and say that this is not a sales pitch: I honestly don't care what browser you use and I am not encouraging others to follow my lead - I've simply gotten tired of the constant hangups and issues that, as it appears thus far, seems to be exclusive to using Firefox and no, I don't have any idea why that is the case and given there are so many alternatives, I can see no reason to try to troubleshoot it.

The above image is something that was happening daily and I have no idea what triggers it nor do I feel as though that is something that I should have to figure out as a user. It gets me all paranoid too because I start to wonder if perhaps I've done something wrong and will spend a long time using CCCleaner, doing various scans and what not, and eventually resetting my machine only to have the problem return after an hour or so. It comes slowly at first, then it hangs, then it hangs more, then I can't even close the window. WTF Mozilla?

So what are my options for alternatives? I like Chrome, but Google does this annoying thing where they use your IP to determine the language of the area and parts of the interface, by default, will be in that language without your consent. Who is this for? I CAN read Thai, but that doesn't mean I want to. It takes me 10x as long to read Thai and I don't want to do "mind math" when I am digging through some images.

So at the moment, i am trying out a new (new to me) browser called Brave

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Brave is marketed as a browser with built-in ad-blocking but you need to understand that this is not entirely true. They DO block targeted adverts on the website-that-you-are-visiting's end; but then they are replaced with the ads that Brave wants you to see... they kind of skip that part in the description, lol. This sounds like not much of an improvement and it probably isn't, but here is something that is important to me:

I've been using it for 6 days now and it has never gone non-responsive

I have tunnel vision in my browsing. I barely even notice the adverts on webpages. Replacing them with another ad doesn't really have any effect on me because I never noticed them in the first place. Brave does claim to block "ad-trackers" - which if you don't know what that is but have ever noticed you are seeing the same ads no matter which website you visit.... that's what it is.

So I suppose that is a good thing.

The browser is based on Chromium, which I enjoyed years ago when I was using a straight Mint or Ubuntu systems, so again, I dig that.

I still use TOR whenever I am doing something super-secret, but for the most part what I do online would be considered kind of the opposite of "Top Secret."

After nearly a decade of depending on Firefox, it just seems like it has really crapped the bed in the past year or so and for me anyway, it is time to move on. I can not tolerate a browser that stops responding literally every time i spend more than an hour online.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions other than Brave? What do you use? I would be grateful to hear about your own personal experiences.

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If FireDoge was an actual browser, i would feel compelled to at least give it a try

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Welcome to the Brave family. I have been using Brave for some time now and it certainly has proven to be worth the change.

I forgot what it was like to be bombarded with ads etc. Especially on my phone as well. Less data also being used. So all in all the best move I have made.

I wrote a 2 post a while back too.

Happy safe and ad free surfing.

https://partiko.app/michaeljn/brave-browser-reminder-update-after-using-for-quite-a-few-months-also-get-some-bat-cknp633g?referrer=michaeljn

Posted using Partiko Android

I recently dumped Firefox too for a similar issue. It just kept crashing, somrtimes freezing. On my phone im using chrome but thats getting too bloaty now.

I really like chrome but there doesn't seem to be a fix for the automatic language stuff.

Posted using Partiko Android

Yeah that really bugs the hell out of me too lol. Apparently chromium is pretty good

That same reason I uninstalled my firefox and never get back again.

Because of what I do, I use all of the major browsers on a daily basis. I just use them for different things. Some things I do in Chrome and others I do in Firefox. Probably for the majority of things I use Chrome though. I can understand your frustration with it though and why you wouldn't want to switch to that. I have Brave installed, but I haven't used it enough to have an opinion on it one way or the other.

the fox lost its fire, before firefox was my default browser but when I had my first Chromebook, I was seduced by Chrome