• Tygr@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Firefox is loving every week of this as they head towards launch. Market share is guaranteed to improve.

  • LazaroFilm@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    My 5 years old decided to switch to Firefox after I told him google chrome will not block ads on YouTube anymore.

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      11 months ago

      That’s the iq it takes yeah. :)

      Not saying anything bad about your son, hopefully you understand what I mean.

      • Aasikki@sopuli.xyz
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        11 months ago

        I’ll never understand why so many people seem to be afraid of change. To me change is exciting, something new to explore, a chance to learn something new.

        • krakenx@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It will happen as you get older. You might not even realize it, and it will start with disliking changes that are objectively bad. But soon it will be changes that are neutral, and eventually changes that are positive but not very positive.

  • Synthead@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Firefox isn’t an “alternative browser.”

    I didn’t think Google would play the evil card, but don’t trust the ad blocking abilities of software made by an advertising company, I guess.

    • kubica@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      What do you mean by not an alternative browser?
      Are you trying to say something about the word choice or…?
      Chrome is an alternative browser to Firefox too.

      • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        yes, i think he is speaking about the word itself. it is terrible that it is gaining negative connotation… like when people say bullshit like “alternative facts” or “alternative medicine” and the word itself slowly starts to look slightly suspicious just because it is used by morons.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Of course it’s the alternative. Has always been, even before it was called Firefox: Netscape Navigator is the alternative to Mosaic. Fun fact: Internet Explorer was a fork of Mosaic. All of Chrome, Edge and Safari are descendants of KHTML.

  • Dizzirron@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Not hard to believe these rumors of super low morale within the industry are true.

  • SuperSpruce@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    How is this even legal? So now suddenly every chromium extension has to go through a play store style review? How is Google entitled to do this on their competitor’s browsers?

    • b3nj@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      They can do it if a competitor has forked Chromium but not bothered to provide their own addon store. For example, Edge supports its own store plus Google, Vivaldi only supports Google

  • Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I switched to FireFox slightly before all this Adblock-Drama came up. Simply because i realised Chrome was getting ridiculously slow ._.

  • HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    How is it still a problem for anyone? I haven’t used Google in years and I am unexpectedly still alive

    • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      We have prescribed terminals in our classrooms that are wiped between classes and only have chrome included. It’s a fuckin’ pain to have to load uBlock in each class in each section every day, because for some reason, our uni’s IT department only supports chrome.

      • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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        11 months ago

        Are you able to access anything like USB drives? There are portable versions of Firefox you can carry around with you.

        • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yeah, I have ‘em, but links still default to fuckin’ chrome, which makes “impromptu” PowerPoint supplements awkward.

          • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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            11 months ago

            There are also portable Version of libre office for Windows, which you can configure to open in Firefox.

        • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Nah, they went with the route of least resistence. Gotta remember, they’re dealing with thousands of students (college aged kids now just don’t use computers the same way and don’t want to learn how to, at large) and faculty (people who may be doing this job for decades and refuse to learn computers beyond the minimal requirement).

      • HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Well let’s say they shouldn’t for many reasons, the most obvious being Google’s systematic push at harvesting every last data about your life. In my country, many schools ban chrome from their devices for this very reason

  • Swarfega@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    What happened to the ad blocker detection thing a month ago. Did Google remove it or does uBlock Origin have a permanent workaround now rather than needing to clear cache and reload?

    • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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      11 months ago

      It’s still an ongoing war, but with Manifest V3, Google will have an advantage over adblockers because they will be in full control over the frequency of extension updates, how many ad blocking rulesets they’ll allow, and perhaps when no one is looking, prevents those rulesets from targeting their own domains. The latter is the nuclear option that’ll instantly piss off the whole tech world if implemented now, but perhaps slow boiled frogs won’t notice it once the heat is high enough.

      • Tygr@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Setting up a huge privacy lawsuit by trying to force us to allow these horrendous advertising tracking scripts.

    • micka190@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      They regularly try to add things to break it, and uBlock’s devs update it as fast as possible. They’ll probably slow down on these breaking changes as it falls out of the spotlight and people slowly forget about it.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m wondering if Chromebooks can run Firefox? I’m guessing not. I know you can install adblockers on them. Not after mid-2024, I guess.

    It really sucks that an affordable notebook computer means getting locked into an advertising system. You can get a Chromebook for under $100 and they have a very, very easy-to-use OS. They’re great for poor people and elderly people.

    So much for putting an adblocker on Grandma’s computer now.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      you can have refurbished thinkpad for the same price and you don’t have to deal with some chrome-crap.

      honestly, the fact that people have to be reminded there are alternatives to chrome is the most mindblowing fact from the article.

    • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      You can run the android version or use the Linux VM. Neither are great but are workable. Unless they’ve changed it recently, you can also dual boot them and run Linux off an external drive.

      I’d honestly say skip the Chromebook, get an older used laptop that is known to be fully supported by Linux, install a lightweight distro, and off you go if all Grandma needs is a web browser. Older used laptops are usually far better powered than a cheap Chromebook for the same price anyways. Plus it fights e-waste.

      A further option is to do adblocking at the router or through the computer’s own networking system or something like a Pihole. These all come with their own pros and cons.

    • Vlyn@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      If all you need is a cheap laptop, there’s thousands of deals on refurbished or used ones. You don’t need this year’s model to browse the web and send email.

      Throw Ubuntu or something on it and you can go even cheaper hardware wise.

    • Corgana@startrek.website
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      11 months ago

      If she’d allow you, you could always put a little pihole ($10-20) on her network (with the bare minimum lists so that it doesn’t break things too often). Wouldn’t change anything about her computer.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Just started running PiHole with a couple lists (default + more restrictions) and have seen zero negative effects so far. Surprising really.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Sure, but do you think Grandma who spent $100 on a Chromebook at Walmart is going to be able to figure out Linux even if their grandson knows how to install it? Chrome OS is the push-here-dummy of OSes. You really can’t get much simpler. This is dangling a carrot in front of them so they’ll be forced to look at endless advertising.

        • Keith@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          That’s fair enough although I’d argue some desktop environments and Linux distributions are usable very easily. Remember that people like grandma are using “the operating system as a bootloader for the browser” and if they can open Chrome or Firefox they’re good.

          That being said when writing my response I admittedly had you in mind as the user who simply wanted to save money.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Well I do want to save money, but I’m not interested in a Chromebook for myself. My mother-in-law swears by hers though.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        My mother-in-law, who has a Chromebook, doesn’t want a tablet because she wants a reliable keyboard. That makes sense to me.

        Also, lots of school systems have opted to give their students Chromebooks and turning educational platforms into advertising platforms is criminal. Currently, my daughter’s school Chromebook (thankfully she returns it in a few weeks) is ad-free unless she goes to a third party website. How long is that going to last?

        “Just get a Linux tablet” is not a universal solution. Nor is all of these people saying people should just get older refurbished or used notebooks instead. That will work for some people, sure, but it will not work for all people. Not for school systems and not for people who already own Chromebooks and can’t handle a Linux learning curve.

        That said, according to others, you can install FF on them through their Android compatibility, but how long will Google allow that?

        I’m sorry, but “just switch to X” is really not a solution for a lot of people. And they don’t deserve this from companies like Google.

        • Final Remix@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s not all about advertising. It’s just that Chromebooks are practically disposable and locked down enough to break most LMS, and prevent idiots from breaking / installing stuff. And Netbooks have fallen out of vogue.

    • Vent@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Google is disallowing “remote code” in extensions and classifying blocklists (the lists of urls that ad blockers use to know what to block, which are just text files hosted on remote servers like github) as remote code. As a result, any blocklist updates will need to go through the extension review process, which typically takes anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.

      Google often updates YouTube’s ad delivery on a daily basis. Blocklists must also update as frequently to keep ads blocked on YT. If Google requires that blocklists go through the review process, they can drag their feet and essentially render the ad blockers useless even if they have to allow them to stay in the extension store.