view the rest of the comments
Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
Uninstall Chrome.
Install Firefox.
Stop letting Google dictate web standards and accept that they plan on removing adblocking from Chrome.
Firefox is the last widely available, cross-platform browser that isn't based on Chromium. The only other is Safari for macOS/iOS which is not generally cross-platform.
Drop any browsers that use Blink as the rendering engine, and yeah, it's most of them.
Google has made it completely clear where they stand on this war, which is that they will remove your access to content if you don't agree to see their ads.
I've been on firefox since 2018 and I do not regret it, fuck monopolys, don't let a single company to have control and manage the web as it pleases
I've been on Firefox since way back. I understand they've made a lot of missteps and I'm not going to defend some of their worst decisions, but they're at the very least not an advertising company that wants to remove adblocks from how the web works.
I'm out of the loop here, what would you say are the missteps and bad decisions from Firefox?
A few things come to mind:
The "Mr. Robot" promotion was pretty bad - they force installed an extension without user interaction. This is IMHO still the worst thing they've done.
Their finances could be seen as a little sketchy, at times, like executive pay vs. layoffs at the start of COVID. The fact that they're hanging off the teat of Google (or maybe Microsoft, which ever search engine has the higher bid at the moment) could also be seen as a conflict of interest.
Some might criticise Mozilla for a lack of focus. While Firefox was getting stale they invested in Pocket, and VPNs and stuff.
It's a thing of the past, but there was this whole thing about Brendan Eich …
Honestly most of these things seem pretty par for the course under capitalism.
At least those products could have given Mozille a source of income in the long term if they became popular enough. Money that could have gone towards keeping Firefox going.
I’m not OP, but a big one was breaking a fair number of extensions/add-ons with a major browser update. I forget the exact details, and am not privy to the technical arguments within Mozilla, but I can see how it is a huge turn off for users.
FireFox was also extremely resource intensive at one point.
And their mobile apps are stubbornly bad. There’s no reason not to implement a real tab bar, for example. Card view is terrible on tablet devices.
It just seems like there are a lot of little things they do with FireFox.
Still, it isn’t FireFox trying to end adblocking and start blacklisting people from using services with no actual alternative.
Alphabet needs to be broken up, as does Microsoft and Apple.
Safari was mildly cross-platform... about 10 years ago. Then Apple realized they can't fight that specific market share.
What about email? Firfox have email. How will I be able to switch my android device away from Google?
I like to have alternative but they pretty much control everything on most devices I use.
K-9 Mail from Mozilla is an Android-version of their Thunderbird email client.
Shit forgot all about Thunderbird. Long time since I have used Mozilla. I have been way to comfortably with Chrome and Google.
You can degoogle android by removing or sandboxing google play services. CalyxOS and LineageOS dothisb AFAIK.
How do I do that? You have instructions or a walk through?
Both Roms have extensive instructions on their website. The important thing is whether your device is supported.
calyxos.org
wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
You will need to unlock the bootloader and wipe the device. If you've never installed android, here be dragons. A backup device is recommendable to say the least. Not liable, etc..
How does that work? Can you walk me through how to do that?
how are they in terms of user interface?
They use the stock android interface. They’re (oversimplification but) basically android with all the proprietary and Google stuff removed.
LineageOS is derived from the normal android ROM and CalyxOS is similar to android as well, as far as I remember. The look and feel is supposed to be what people are most used to.
How does that work? Have instructions?
Just because you can't completely degooglize doesn't mean there is no value in reducing their place in your life.
Degooglize what you can, step by step.