Why Firefox, Ray?

[Richard Serkes]

I'm starting a new thread so as not to clutter another thread in this sub-forum. Our webmaster, Ray Bentsen said he's now using Firefox as his primary browser. So if you don't mind Ray, what prompted you to move to Firefox?

I still use Safari as my primary browser with Chrome as my backup.

[Ray Bentsen]

Several issues caused the switch:

First, many times I would find that a website would not load, but just "hang" ... however, it would load once I did a "reload". Annoying.

Second, I found that many embedded videos would not appear, just showing a big white space where the video pane was supposed to be. Also annoying.

Third, I found that neither of these annoyances occurred in Firefox, and that Firefox not only appeared to be faster, but bookmarks could be automatically synced to iOS Firefox. Handy.

I even found an Add-on that would keep a Safari-like appearance in Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... ge-safari/) to keep the Blue and Grey look that I was used to in Safari. Made the switch easier on my brain. (see screenshot)

In addition, 1Password just seems to work better, and ad blockers also seem to work better. Toolbar icons are more modern. Nice.

The only thing I had to get used to is having tabs at the very top of a full page view. But now that I have gotten used to having them there, I have decided that tabs located there are actually easier to use. Cool.

P.S. Shout out to Bill Wrobel who told me that he also prefers Firefox to Safari! I wonder what his reasons are??

[Richard Serkes]

Interesting. I think I'll download it and give it a try.

One more question. Since it syncs with the iOS version what do you think of that. I mean do you like the iOS version of Firefox to other iOS browsers?

[Ray Bentsen]

I mean do you like the iOS version of Firefox to other iOS browsers?

Yes, although the syncing does not change the existing bookmarks in iOS Firefox, but rather provides a folder labeled "Desktop Bookmarks". And on the Mac, the iOS bookmarks are in a folder labeled "Mobile Bookmarks".

With two Macs, like an iMac and MacBook, the bookmarks are kept identical ... as long as they are both connected to the same Firefox account in Firefox Preferences.

By the way, if you do want to import your bookmarks into Firefox(v59) from either Safari or Chrome, the process is a little less than straightforward. Here are the steps:
1. From the Bookmarks menu in Firefox, choose Show all Bookmarks.
2. In the next window (named Library), click the icon at the top that looks like a star with sync icon in its interior.
3. Choose "Import Data from Another Browser…. ", select the correct browser to import from, and then click "Continue".

[Richard Serkes]

I mean do you like the iOS version of Firefox to other iOS browsers?

Yes, although the syncing does not change the existing bookmarks in iOS Firefox, but rather provides a folder labeled "Desktop Bookmarks". And on the Mac, the iOS bookmarks are in a folder labeled "Mobile Bookmarks".

With two Macs, like an iMac and MacBook, the bookmarks are kept identical ... as long as they are both connected to the same Firefox account in Firefox Preferences.

I like the fact that the MacOS and iOS versions of Safari really do sync the bookmarks in both versions rather than using extra folders. That seems a bit awkward.

[Ray Bentsen]

I am also now liking Waterfox (another Mozilla browser). https://www.waterfoxproject.org/en-US/

It syncs with my Firefox account (and therefore to the iOS Firefox app), and uses Add-on Extensions that I find useful.

In addition to the ad blocker, I like to use Roomy Bookmarks Toolbar to make the text on the Favorites toolbar bigger, and I like having colorful tabs using the appropriately named ColorfulTabs extension.

And it may be faster than Firefox Quantum!

The only downside is that it is not compatible with 1Password ... yet.

[Richard Serkes]

Not having 1Password is a deal killer for me.