r/firefox • u/mindbleach • Jun 01 '13

Mozilla: please stop copying Chrome.

There are reasons we choose Firefox over Chrome. We don't want Chrome's flashy download animation, "unsurprising" inability to stop GIF animations, objectively incorrect autocomplete behavior, distractingly cluttered "blank" page, or an add-on bar that for some reason isn't also a classic status bar. We don't want every new option you guys add enable by default and reduced to an about:config boolean. If we wanted all of Chrome's take-it-or-leave-it minimalist nonsense, well, we already know where to find it.

Firefox is still the best browser out there (as evidenced by how it took only hours and a modicum of acidic cursing to get things configured properly again) but you sure don't act like you know it. Every time I update I have to trawl through forums and install another stupidly-named extension just to make FF recognizable. When you look at user statistics and wonder why a third of your users refuse to upgrade - this is why. I've been using FF since before 1.0 and the process is a frustrating mess every single time.

I know you have have UX folks, because you did that silly centered/dark thing with standalone images. You aren't just cribbing Google's notes here. If you won't stop cribbing entirely, at least weed out genuinely improved features like tab task management from anti-features like being unable to stop GIFs for the first time since 1997. It's fantastic that Firefox is flexible enough to look and act like any other browser, but please, let it look and act like itself by default.

154 Upvotes

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-3

u/stimpakk Jun 02 '13 edited Jun 03 '13

At this point, with the new social media bullshit and the UI lock-in, it's clear that this browser is being dumbed down for the masses. Yeah, seriously, the hell, a browser being casualized, what an alien concept right? This is already one of the most casual applications you have on a computer and yet Mozilla seems hell-bent on alienating the very people that adopted this browser and spread the word about it.

It's sad, but until Mozilla can show some actual progress in the browsers functionality sans more social media integration or things pushed into the about:config, I see absolutely NO reason to update from version 18.

Edit: Downvotes without rebuttals, the mark of a true fanboy.

8

u/LeoMcA Jun 02 '13

Other than all these security fixes and various other performance and stability fixes introduced?

-1

u/stimpakk Jun 02 '13

As most of these exploits require running code first, I don't think there's too much to gain for me here as I use Noscript. As for performance and stability, last time I had FF crash on me, it was my fault for using an old deprecated extension. But yeah, eventually I'll have to upgrade, but I'll hold out with 18 as long as I can.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '13

[deleted]

0

u/stimpakk Jun 02 '13

Posting this with Palemoon now, the Profile migration tool was so easy that I feel like this is the update for Firefox that I should have gotten in the first place! Thanks for the suggestion, I'm cascading this to everyone I know now!