It’s interesting if not telling, that the first feature they advertise is AI.
Secondly, I have mixed feelings about advertising Firefox VPN this way when it’s not universally available. For some inexplicable reason, I only have it in one FF Profile. I have 2 FF profiles I use every day simultaneously. They are connected to the same VPN IP every day at all times. And yet, I’ve had the VPN in one profile for months, but am still waiting for the other to get it.
I’ve noticed that when I have the “Allow Firefox to improve features, performance, and stability between updates” toggled off, the vpn feature doesn’t appear. Try enabling it and restarting Firefox it might help.
The ad looks sterile. Feels like yet another ad from Microsoft or Apple. “Cool”, “Smooth”, “You can customize everything you want”.
They tried to look like they care about privacy, but then boiled it down to “We remove trackers” which is already handled by Ublock.
For now I believe Brave is the better alternative as it actually supports modern features.
Besides my doubts, I think it’s a step in the right direction. Firefox has been in a bad spot for a while. I wonder if they are going to do anything for privacy, not just features and supposed security.
That’s possibly because the vast majority of people would see it as a plus. Let’s not jump to the conclusion that they are AI boosters (I almost typed pushers) as well.
Us tech-savvy or privacy-forward folk are a very small minority…
Exactly. And it goes beyond the AI stuff as well. The CEO even talked about the thinking behind the makeover, and a big part of the goal seems to be making Firefox more appealing to Chrome users, to try and get them to switch over.
I’m sure everyone browsing these forums could list a few dozen things they’d rather see Firefox prioritize before trying to be the prettiest girl at the dance. But at the same time, we can’t exactly expect the UI team to fix the underlying problems Firefox has either. That gets back to the bigger issue, a lot of tech savvy users just wish Mozilla would prioritize and allocate resources differently.
Firefox has been losing users for years, so Mozilla has to try something. Maybe a redesign brings some people over from Chrome. I’m not sure it moves the needle much, especially since almost everyone hates the new design lol. But I understand why they’re trying.
The problem is that they also risk alienating the people who already choose Firefox specifically for other reasons. Trying to broaden its appeal makes sense when your market share is shrinking, but if you sand away too much of what your existing users actually like about it, you can end up pleasing neither group. I can see why some people would just finally start getting fed up and would just switch to Brave. A lot of them are waiting for a ship that’s not going to come in.
How many redesigns has it been at this point? I don’t know. I just think at some point, you have to stop repainting the car and start fixing what’s under the hood.
Thanks. I have enabled it. Let’s see what happens.
I didn’t realize the ad I shared was for a new FF I hadn’t updated to yet. I just did. It looks pretty slick. Still no VPN, but I’ll wait a couple of days to see.
Even though FF is my default browser and will remain so for the foreseeable future, Brave continues to be my default recommendation. Especially for newbies to privacy who still use Chrome.
I agree, and I share your hopes. My hope is that Firefox becomes known for privacy to newbies, as in it’s the first thing people think about when they are asked what they stand for.
I here you. I just don’t think it should be a priority.
Really?! I literally just got it and so far I find it pretty cool! Visually I mean. I wish they had added more icons and colors for containers, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
I don’t know what is everyone’s history with Firefox, but I never stopped using it. What happened for me is that I stopped using it as my default, but I still used it. I’m the kind of person who uses at least two browsers every day simultaneously.
Like most people, I felt FF became too slow and clunky, which is why I switched to Chrome as my default. But I still used FF as my secondary browser. Then I got tired of Google’s spying, so I switched to Brave as my default, and I loved it. But when FF came out with containers, I had to return to it as my default. I still use and love Brave, but not as much as FF (with 2 profiles).
I would argue that convenience matters a great deal to privacy conscious people too. There are many advanced users in the privacy community who prefer Brave because of its superior convenience (in many but not all aspects) compared to FF, and that’s totally fair.
Overall, I completely understand why many people opt for Brave. However, I still think that FF has unique privacy features that makes it better in some aspects, such as containers. Yes, I’m aware Brave launched containers not long ago. I use them. It’s pretty darn good, but I sill think FF’s implementation is better.
I use Mullvad every day for specific uses and it’s great.
I want FF to grow its userbase and to be a trusted browser in the privacy community. But I’m not particularly interested in converting Brave users to FF. If you’re using Brave, you’re already makind a good decision. We have to move people away from Chrome and other crappy Chromium based browsers.
