this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
201 points (96.3% liked)

Firefox

20714 readers
60 users here now

/c/firefox

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox.


Rules

1. Adhere to the instance rules

2. Be kind to one another

3. Communicate in a civil manner


Reporting

If you would like to bring an issue to the moderators attention, please use the "Create Report" feature on the offending comment or post and it will be reviewed as time allows.


founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] trk@aussie.zone 63 points 1 month ago (5 children)

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).

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

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?

[–] IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What do you mean by change User Agent?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] freebee@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There's add-ons in Firefox for it

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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.

[–] that_leaflet@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Undertaker@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wifi does not have to do something with browsers

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

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.