this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Firefox
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I don't really understand why more people don't use Firefox. I've been using it almost exclusively for probably a decade without any compatibility issues, aside from the very few sites that specifically request IE or Edge (which I usually just bypass by changing User Agent anyway).
I have been daily driving firefox for a long time too. The other day at work a very heavy site that is a full blown application wouldn't work properly so I had to use chrome for it. I ended up using it for a while during the day and I must admit everything was so much snappier than I was used to. I would never use Chrome but I'm now thinking about testing ungoogled chromium. I just find it hard to let go of my user styles.
One thing you'll often see is that "new" browsers - i.e. with no browser history, extensions, etc. - perform better than one you've been using for a while. Thus, when people switch browsers, the new one tends to feel faster, regardless of what you're switching to.
Possibly, Firefox feels just as fast after a refresh. Alternatively, a fresh profile using the new profile manager might do the same.
On the other hand, it could also be that that specific site has just been tested and optimised in Chrome, with Firefox mostly ignored because too few people use it :(
I am not interested in that performance though. I have two extensions: ublock and darkreader. I care which is faster with these enabled: hardened firefox or hardened ungoogled chromium.
Sure. It could still be worth checking a fresh profile and installing those two extensions - it could still be faster.
I've been on Android since 1.5 and the "snappy" claims remind me a lot of the claims every new version there too. They're likely still going, though I haven't been active on XDA for a long time to know.
Is it actually objectively faster? Or is it a perception thing based on the way animations and screen changes are handled?
Blink and V8 are demonstrably ages ahead of Gecko and SpiderMonkey. It's not even close. I just didn't think it would be this noticable during day-to-day use.
yup. as someone who used firefox in the "wasn't yet called firefox"-day, switched to chrome when it came available on linux, and then had to switch back to firefox a year ago: chrome feels just so. much. snappier.
It's hard to describe, but everything just feels... slightly off
You can try cromite, I think it has a version for PCs
I'd say it's because it's not a default on the most popular operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Android systems, iOS).
How would a typical user discover Firefox?
What do you mean by change User Agent?
The user agent tells the page what the browser is, so the page can tell whether you're runnit Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. The intent is for the page to change behavior depending on the browser since each have different capabilities (web standards change quickly). Unfortunately, pages rarely get updated in a timely fashion when browsers implement web standards so the engine check is frequently inaccurate.
Changing the user agent means changing what web pages think you're running. If a page uses an optimized API on Chrome and a slower one on Firefox because Firefox was slower to implement it, then you can get a speedup by saying your Firefox is Chrome. Some pages refuse to run unless it's a specific browser, so lying can make those pages work.
I hope that makes sense.
Might I ask... how?
There's add-ons in Firefox for it
Yup, look for "user agent switcher." This isn't something you should try to DIY in the settings, because user agents are complex and a small deviation can mean looking like Chrome or being unintelligible.
One thing I don’t like about Firefox is that its security is not great compared to Chromium. It has less sandboxing and weaker sandboxing.
Firefox sandboxing is especially bad on Android and Linux.
They they do make up for it a tiny bit with better support for ad blocking, which lowers the chance of landing on malicious changes.
Though realistically not many people care about security when choosing a browser. They use old versions and resist the prompts to upgrade.
The only two sources for this that I know of are that one article from 2022 and a brief mention on GrapheneOS FAQ which doesn't go into detail. Is there a more detailed and recent source for this?
Largely the same two sources as you describe.
The first source mentions a couple of issues, Of those, the only one I see to be fixed is the GPU process not being sandboxed on Windows.
Thanks for linking Madaidan's guide, been a while since I checked those.
YeS bUt iS It cAlLeD "cHrOMe"?? Thats genuinly the reply I often get.
Also it doesn't work well with our horrible school wifi, the WiFi doesn't even work with Linux or most vpn's.
Wifi does not have to do something with browsers
Is purely a coincidence that when I use Firefox at my school it sometimes doesn't work well, the issues are fixed when using a VPN, using my home network or switching to a chromium based browser.