this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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It's weird that I've been on firefox for the vast majority of my life and I always had this perception that "everyone" was using it. Here in lemmy you hear about it all the time, my friends use it, I see it on my newsfeeds etc
But when you check the market share it around 2.8% while chrome is 65.1% https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share
I was at my parents house last week because i had to help them with their laptop. I told my mom about firefox and she was very confused because she doesn't seem to understand that google chrome is a browser and that every browser can access google search or their banking site.
It took a bit of effort to explain that firefox works the exact same but is safer and faster.
She is now using firefox on her phone because i showed her ublock origin works with it to block ads.
A lot of people don't seem to understand that google chrome isn't the internet and what exactly a browser is.
I feel like "most people" only learn "one technology per category". They know of, one operative system, one browser, one app to mindless scroll, one program to edit text. As a developer it shocks me a little because I'm always eager to try new programming languages, technologies and ways to interact with things. I guess most people only know about edge/safari because they come pre-installed
How is that shocking?
I use Linux, Firefox, Lemmy, nano. Why would I change?
It's been that way for a lot longer than chrome has been the big one, it used to be the same with internet explorer...
I would even go as far as saying that the left meniscus of the gaussian thinks google chrome is "google" and the "thing that finds webs"
Might have to do with the fact that Firefox was the dominant browser for quite awhile until Chrome arrived on the scene.
Iirc it peaked at around 30% market share. I think IE was around 60% at the time. So never dominant, but definitely very very widespread.
I remember a point around 2015ish where a lot of web apps went from recommending Firefox and Chrome for the best experience to just Chrome. Now I often see "don't use Firefox" as a support tactic.
Yeah I've been using it for at least a decade now. It's great.
I guess average user cares mostly about how fast and smooth the browsing is. Chrome definitely has the edge on that over firefox.
I’m forced to use Chrome quite a bit (workplace silliness) and exclusively use Firefox at home. I seriously cannot see this edge that you claim Chrome has. Do you mean in loading speed? Scrolling speed?
I second you, I don't see any advantage on using Chrome over Firefox.
same for me. no noticeable difference
This is also why there's such a a prevalence of flashing warning banners, fake pseudobluescreens, and other scary shit disguised in chrome notifications.
The notifications in chrome are as close to on by default as you can get and with the right code snippets you can make it look like the FBI locked down your workstation and you need to call them.
Firefox should start hardening against this behavior now because popularity gets targeted even more specifically.
Make it an end user safety feature.
Force every notification to have
"This is a notification from a website that you elected to receive by allowing notifications. You can disable these notifications here"
with a link to the setting on the frame of of every one, no fullscreen allowed, no flashing, double-check and prohibit the words FBI, CIA, NSA, TSA, IRS, Social Security, Microsoft, etc.