edit: just installed WaterFox and apparently they use bing, very interesting choice. I am not sure if I am for that, but heck I can change the default engine. So, I don't care
also, I like Waterfox
already uninstalled Chrome. I can't believe I didn't know this until now. Why can't Firefox do this btw?
I know firefox is the only non-chrome browser out there, but how hard is it to make an extension for firefox along with chrome?
I cry myself to sleep knowing that the extensions I want are available on Chrome and not on Firefox. And it's not going to get any better as Firefox is not gaining any users. Also, why the hell is this the case? I would pay to use Firefox! It's FOSS and it has so many features, Idk, deserves to be no 1, but it's f*cking dying!
There are some extensions I can't live without and only for those extensions I am forced to keep Chrome on my computer. I don't like Chrome and I don't want Chrome but I want them extensions :(
Also, how safe is Chromium? Is it de googled? I think I might go for de-googled chromium + Firefox from now on. I will uninstall Chrome. I have disabled updates for it anyways!
Firefox uses the Web Extensions standard, just like Chrome. There are minor differences here or there but largely the same, tech wise.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions
Now this makes me mad, I mean, if it was super complex and you had to start from scratch, I can understand someone not doing the work to create it for firefox, but this doesn't make sense :'(
To doing an fork you have to be ready to answers to issues, users, and you have to maintain it in the time. An fork isnt just an copy pasta dude.
You don't have to bring out a product with customer support just because you've made small changes, everyone is free to not use it.
If there are extensions you use that aren't available on firefox, just contact the developers. Its a bit more complicated if they are still using the mv2 API as that was far more fragmented. with the implementation of mv3, which is required for all new chrome extensions as of january 2023 and will eventually be a mandatory upgrade for older extensions, most extensions going forward will be 90-95% compatible with firefox and safari. Really there are just a few areas the dev would need to do some specific checking/handling for, and then of course getting the builds to the mozilla addons store or safari app store.
A lot of chrome extension devs simply don't realize its much simpler now to support other browsers since that was definitely not the case up until the last year or two. All the browser teams are working with the w3c to have a unified API for extensions and its been a wildly successful effort over the last 5 years.
I build a chrome extension for my job. The only reason we don't have a firefox or safari build yet is purely because none of our customers have asked (its only useful if you pay for our b2b product) but once someone does or we have time to make it happen proactively, its not going to be a big deal.