I actually don't agree, and the reason is - non tech people. You and me can install plugins but ordinary people don't do that. So the default experience must be good, offering improvements to the experience over Google Chrome.
Otherwise all privacy features could also be plugins. Imagine if that was true. Firefox would have no identity and you would have to install plugins and make it your own.
So some features should be built in. Maybe the ability to get pop-ups about false reviews will actually make users go "wow that is so useful".
Compromise: Develop it as a Plugin and then install it by default. That way people who don't want the feature can easily remove it completely. That approach would likely also reduce the number of Firefox forks whose sole purpose is to remove the new features some consider bloat.
I do get that and used to do a lot of it myself, but usually the results are just fairly minor. That's what I meant by it seeming more like a hobby than something hugely beneficial
As far as I can tell (not a native speaker myself) it was properly worded and I only acted as if I had misunderstood it for humouristic purposes.
I've done it for actual expressions used by native speakers by simulating language ignorance and interpreting them in a literal way, for fun, just like I did here.
Sorry if it sounded like a criticism - I meant to just take the piss in a friendly way.
Probably handle it similarly to how Chrome handles an extension asking for new permissions. It disables the add-on and gives the user a small non-intrusive notification on the options menu. Opening the notification notified the user about the change in permissions and asks them if they want to re-enable the add-on or remove it from Chrome.
Sure, as long as we still have options to disable their blocker and use a 3rd party one if we choose. It's astounding how many users don't bother to install an adblocker and it would be a massive improvement for those users who don't know better.
There's been more than one occasion that I've used a family member's PC and they have Firefox installed without a single extension, they didn't even know that extensions existed.
Use LibreWolf. It's Firefox with pre-installed uBlock Origin and pre-configured privacy settings. It also doesn't have any of the Firefox bloat like Pocket
Maybe it could be a plugin that's automatically installed by default. The people who don't want it can remove it to reduce bloat, but it would still be there for most people.
Agreed. This is well outside the scope of native browser functions. Firefox already has a rich extensions ecosystem. They can just include the extension with the browser by default for all I care, but as a native feature, this makes no sense.
I agree and I worry about what options they'll remove from about:config next to make room for or force the acceptance of new features like they have a habit of doing.
There's LibreWolf. It allows you to disable many things that you can't disable in normal Firefox. It also has uBlock Origin pre-installed and it's pre-configured for privacy.
Librewolf isn't just a debloated version of Firefox. It's built with a completely different goal of being extra locked down for privacy. More so than the defaults of Firefox. Also, it doesn't even include auto update functionality unless you're using a package manager.
It’s built with a completely different goal of being extra locked down for privacy. More so than the defaults of Firefox.
That's good, isn't it?
Also, it doesn’t even include auto update functionality
I completely forgot this was even as thing because I exclusively use Linux and install/update everything with a package manager. You can also use Chocolatey on Windows or Homebrew on macOS. I feel like more people should use package managers, by using them you avoid having to download some random executables from shady websites and your system doesn't get bloated up by 423942389 update daemons that are constantly running in the background.
Also, I strongly don't expect everyday users to use package managers. And personally, I like having notifications in the app whenever it's time to update so I can take action right there.
Amazon only operates in 58 countries, so it's basically useless for everyone else. But the company they acquired (fakespot) seems to do more than amazon, but that still does not make it worth packaging it with the browser