Firefox has an ambitious new roadmap, the browser is also losing millions of users a month

[Win7user]

Firefox is the best, period! Having said that, the only thing Firefox lacks is an easy on/off switch to what ever they change or do. it, would take a lot for me to jump ship, because Firefox is so darn configurable. I've tried most other browsers, but none of them will do everything Firefox will do. I got your back Firefox, keep on keeping on...

 

[Etoyo]

Firefox every day, on every device around me. We're lucky to have a browser of this quality that isn't fully tied to Big Tech. If we squander that opportunity and let it fade away, we'll get what we deserve.

 

[GeoffreyA]

Isn't Chrome supposed to be ending ManifestV2 to support any day now? Stopping Ad blockers from working properly?

I would have thought that would push people to move off Chrome and you'd see Firefox usage grow, but I don't keep up with Chrome, closest thing I get to a chromium based browser is Edge these days.

Most users don't know about ad blockers, and there's a perception of Chrome == internet, much like IE in an earlier age.

Now there's no denying that Chrome is faster (benchmarks can show it), but for regular use I haven't noticed a difference in quite some time. Even YouTube nowadays is fine.

Agreed. Firefox isn't noticeably slow of late. But traditionally, it has been a bit sluggish compared to the competition, and on Android, it shows.

I don't understand why people are using Chrome. I don't want a browser made by an advertising company.

Ever since Google insinuated itself into the web, Chrome became associated with the internet while IE faded away. I think Microsoft might have fought Chrome better if they had kept the Internet Explorer branding. IE was synonymous with the internet: that recognition was flushed down the toilet with Edge.

 

[Win7user]

You cannot tell the difference in speed from one browser to another, benchmarks not withstanding. They're all close. What matters most at least to me, is that they (browsers) do what I want them to do. Configurable.

 

[GeoffreyA]

Because they shoved the browser down the world's throat with the longest, most pervasive, obsessive advertising campaign I have ever witnessed. A few years ago, Chrome was genuinely a great technology product. But I was also calling it the "Lady Gaga browser", because they were advertising the damn thing everywhere and to everyone.

Through their control of search, e-mail, and Android, they were able to push Chrome to the masses. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer was fading into the background—Microsoft's error, I would argue. Imagine 2026 with IE v149; Google would be peeing in its pants.

You cannot tell the difference in speed from one browser to another, benchmarks not withstanding. They're all close. What matters most at least to me, is that they (browsers) do what I want them to do. Configurable.

Generally, one can't. But when comparing, it's easy to see a difference. Yes, user control and exemplary practices are what's important. Firefox (mostly) wins in this regard; that is why effort should be expended on performance and compatibility.

 

[shuryanc]

I am still a Firefox user due to my personal choice. But I think the big problem is still browsing speed. If Firefox could be faster than Chromium based in all aspects,I believe users would be back.

 

[Rapob]

Firefox is gasping for air. So slow and sluggish, especially with many tabs. Hence why they lost millions of users in the last 5-10 years. They tried to re-invent the browser multiple times, and failed. Still slow.

Firefox went from like 20-25% marketshare 10 years ago, to ~5% today.

Most sites are optimized for Blink these days, which powers Chromium and all browsers based on Chromium. Probably has 80-90% marketshare. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, Arc, DDG and many many more, all based on Chromium.

So yeah, kinda lost hope in Firefox and stopped using it myself years ago. Still have it installed, when I want to check progress, still slow.

Gecko and WebKit have little future is my prediction (Firefox + forks and Safari) most web devs optimize and test in Blink.

Chromium based browsers also gets speed advantage in Windows 10/11 due to Edge being Chromium. Nothing new. Firefox is working against the grain.

 

[dangh]

I remember using Firefox from the time it was called Firebird. At some stage I moved to Chrome, dont remember why. But then Chrome started pushing opinionated changes, e.g. the side bar with the bookmarks or history has been removed, changing my workflow badly. Other changes were pushed, and I returned to Firefox and use Brave as an alternative.

As for the ublock support, it is good to have, but not enough. Sure, on a browser it is more or less fine, but your pc or mobile is more than a browser. I have set the ad guard DNS - https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html, option 2 - and now even my phone apps cant display any advertisement, and no matter what browser I use on pc all of them are ads free.

 

[GeoffreyA]

As for the ublock support, it is good to have, but not enough. Sure, on a browser it is more or less fine, but your pc or mobile is more than a browser. I have set the ad guard DNS - https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html, option 2 - and now even my phone apps cant display any advertisement, and no matter what browser I use on pc all of them are ads free.

I used to use Adguard DNS, but switched to Control D this year. It has stronger filtering and there is more to choose from. Been using Hagezi Pro Plus through Control D for a while.

Free DNS Resolvers

Free community DNS resolvers you can use without an account.

docs.controld.com

How to change on different OSes:

How and Why to Change Your DNS Server (Hint: Faster, Safer Browsing)

The Domain Name System is an essential part of your internet experience. We explain why it's important and show you how to upgrade to a better DNS server for increased speed and security.

www.pcmag.com

 

[dangh]

I used to use Adguard DNS, but switched to Control D this year. It has stronger filtering and there is more to choose from. Been using Hagezi Pro Plus through Control D for a while.

Yes, there are different alternatives, I have my own selfhosted DNS server at home network anyway, so I'm adding my own rules as needed. Still, this is not as known as it should be so I think it is good to spread info on DNS options to be really ads free.

 

[ToxicNinja]

I'll still use it over Chrome and edge but I do not like the UI changes, I don't want a stupid side bar, I don't want AI, and none of the current direction is interesting to me so I'm hunting for a new browser these days.

 

[jd666]

As a long-term user of FF since probably 07-08, I think it's also more of a push from Edge and Chrome to capture users that's strangling FF further. Sorry to hear the experiences, but the one time I had issues with FF crashing and losing account information/bookmarks/passwords was actually traced to Windows 11. I downgraded to Windows 10 and FF worked stable.

 

[Ad47uk]

I have been using Zen for months now, on Mac, windows, and linux, it is based on Firefox, but without all the AI rubbish. I have not use a Chromium based browser for nearly a year if not longer. I did think about going back to Firefox, but it is just the extra stuff that is in it like the AI that I have no interest in. Zen has the best bits about Firefox, but not the Ai stuff.

 

[subnex]

The android version of Firefox is also severely underrated. It has add-on support for many add-ons including add blockers, user agent switchers and more.
It's so nice to be able to use YouTube and Facebook Messenger in the browser without adds and not having to install the bloated Facebook app

 

[AnilD]

The market share number is brutal: dropped from 5.88% to 3.79% in a single year.

That's not a slow bleed, that's a wound. And the response is customizable keyboard shortcuts and a design refresh. I genuinely want Firefox to survive but I'm not sure the people in charge understand the severity of what's happening.

 

[steviant]

I really don’t understand why people use Chromium based browsers (which is pretty much anything besides Firefox), especially since the MV3 debacle. It’s like people actually like being pissed on.

Brave and some other Chromium forks use brave's built in adblocker that uses the same lists as uBlock but runs faster and uses less memory.

Unfortunately there's a huge amount of extra crap that needs to be turned off in Brave and most other browsers, as well as some needless bloat that can't be disabled.

Firefox still wins at starting out with less crap and letting you turn most of it off.

Some people think corporations are their friends, they're adversaries whose interests sometimes (less, lately) align with their customers.

 

[Alpine7995]

Firefox users are probably the most loyal browser users on the planet and they're still leaving. That should be the scariest sentence Mozilla has read all year.

 

[steviant]

Firefox turned into utter garbage 2 to 3 years ago...

It turned to garbage the moment they started trying to emulate everything that Chrome does, they have in the last 12 months or so broken away from that and started to have their own identity again and concentrate on being good instead of blindly following.

It was enough to regain me as a user, time will tell whether it was enough to save the browser and pull it out of the death spiral that started when Apple and Google pillaged all their best developers.

 

[daffy duck]

The fact people are turning away from FF for utter swill from Google and all it's clones is a sad indictment of society. Choke on manifest V3.

 

[bclaymiles]

Mozilla rakes in half a billion dollars a year from Google, for making the big goog the default search engine. It does not take half a billion dollars to fund development on the browser (or the other products such as thunderbird). If they spent 1/10th of that on smart advertising across social media, they might stem the flow of blood. Or at least slow it down.

I'll give up firefox when they pry it from my cold, dead, hands. Superior memory management, reasonable library of extensions and themes, highly customizable, and most importantly, NOT GOOGLE.

Admittedly, I also keep an opera browser as my alternative, for sites that just won't work in firefox any more. It's a requirement when one's chosen browser's user base falls in the noise.

 

[jayachar88]

There are 9 total (6 very active) systems in my house are running Firefox very happily, and I couldn't care less about HDR media playback. What makes Firefox even more interesting is the reported cripples that Google continues to add to Chrome, which I believe also affects Edge, leaving us little choice, that is also well maintained, supported and is in no risk of going away too soon (fingers crossed).

 

[Darad]

I just switched to FF and wonder why it’s not possible to natively bookmark tab groups?



Which add-on is best for this?

 

[ActualViking]

Firefox turned into utter garbage 2 to 3 years ago...

Really - elaborate please.

Personally I have been using Firefox forever, the overall performance, the many nice features like how history and bookmarks can be used makes it unbeatable.

On occasion I use Edge at work, but each time I'm reminded how sub-par that part of the World is ie. bad history handling, Microsoft constantly pushing their crap...

 

[Vixiy]

It turned to garbage the moment they started trying to emulate everything that Chrome does, they have in the last 12 months or so broken away from that and started to have their own identity again and concentrate on being good instead of blindly following.

It was enough to regain me as a user, time will tell whether it was enough to save the browser and pull it out of the death spiral that started when Apple and Google pillaged all their best developers.

Firefox seems to finally be addressing the things people complained about for years in recent months.

 

[Win7user]

They aren't losing me. Best browser ever, hands down. Keep on keeping Firefox...