Firefox

Firefox is an open-source web browser created by Mozilla. It is my daily driver on desktop and mobile, and I strongly recommend it as a main browser in nearly all use cases.

Why Firefox?

Because fuck google.

Google and mobile browsers have the vast majority of the browser market share. Nearly every desktop browser these days is an adapted form of Chromium and Chromium goes where Google wills it. We are ceding web standards creation to google, which I think is a bad path to go down.

But also because Firefox is a genuinely good browser that is focused on the rights of internet users. But seriously it's such a good browser.

Why is it such a good browser?

Aside from being privacy-forward and performing well, I love the extensions, I love multi-account containers, I love that it grants users a high degree of control of their web browsing experience, and I love that it's never a fight to use an ad blocker. I never worry that I'm going to open Firefox one day and find that Facebook is tracking me around the web. I never worry that I'm going to install an update and suddenly find that my adblocker is permanently disabled. I never worry that Firefox is even going to attempt to break adblocking.

Chrome is a festering pile of shit, Brave is a crypto investment scheme, Edge is intrusive and clunky, and Opera is doing that stupid fucking thing with the startup noise. You might think a splash screen and a startup noise isn't a big deal but I actually think it's indicative of a greater problem; if a tech company has no problem with introducing something that delays the program launch and blares over the speakers, they're not going to have a problem dropping in functionality that shows you handy tips on every page, or introducing a constantly rotating series of promoted pinned pages for their partners (something else that opera does). It's a sign that the creators do not give a shit about their users or the user experience. It's a sign that your control of your machine is not important to them.

Firefox isn't like that. As time has gone on, Firefox has become more hands off, more customizable, and more interested in having users in the driver's seat.

It's just good browser, Bront.

Also I really like their screenshotting tool and the option to right click and copy links without tracking kicks ass.

Don't you need like a million extensions to make it work?

Nah. You *can* use a bunch of extensions but it has the potential to slow the browser down. I would recommend taking a deep dive into what's available to see if there are extensions that really suit your needs specifically, and I'd say to try to stick to the ones that Mozilla recommends, but you can run Firefox fresh from the download just fine. Even with no changes it'll be better and less intrusive than Chrome. That said, I think you should add at least a couple of sprinkles to your vanilla.

Extensions Everyone Should Run

• uBlock Origin. Best ad blocker bar none. It's highly adaptable and can be used for targeting and removing specific elements on individual websites as well as for blocking all ads.
• Multi-Account Containers. I've got like eight ProtonMail addresses for various reasons. I'm editing this wiki in a container with a yellow header because that's the one I've designated for staying signed in to my web host. Next to the tab with the yellow header there's an orange header, which is the container I've set up for work. It's where I stay signed into my work purchasing accounts so that I don't accidentally order a refurbished hard drive from ebay on my personal credit card; I also have a user-agent switcher installed and the orange tabs are set to project "Chrome!" to websites I visit because some of my work vendor sites only load on "Chrome" so that container is Firefox wearing a Chrome mask. The blue header and pink header are for two separate Ao3 accounts where I write wildly different stories for wildly different fandoms. All of these things can be logged in at the same time in the same window because Multi-Account Containers is an absolute gift to the world.
• Bitwarden. Everyone should be running a password manager (one that is NOT browser-based) and Bitwarden is my recommendation.
• Auto Tab Discard. The name is a little misleading: what this extension does is lets inactive tabs go to sleep so that your computer saves resources. Since I'm someone who constantly has 100+ tabs open, this is a lifesaver. You can set it not to snooze tabs with video playing, and not to sleep tabs with partially filled forms, and you can set how long you want the inactivity to sleep interval to be.

Extensions I Wish Everybody Would Run

These are pure selfishness. I think that if everyone used these extensions the internet would be better and I want the internet to be better.

• Wayback Machine. NOTE: this is not monitored by Mozilla so install with caution. It's the wayback machine. THEE Internet Archive Dot Org. If you navigate to a site that has been taken down the extension will ask you if you want to see an archived version. If you see a post you want to document for posterity the extension makes archiving a page a two-click process. You may have noticed that many links on this wiki go to archives of the pages in question; that is because I archived a lot of those links with this extension. This is also something that I do when I'm researching. If I find a PDF of a journal article I make sure the archive has a copy. If I find an old website that hasn't been explored I archive it. If I happen across a great recipe, it goes in the archive. If I'm reading my three free stories from The New Yorker this month they get archived before the paywall lands on me. I fucking love this extension.
• RECAP. NOTE: this is not monitored by Mozilla so install with caution. Recap is a site for a very specific flavor of nerd. It is a project that seeks to open up access to court documents. As things are now, if you want to access court documents you need a PACER account, which is free, but if you access more than a certain threshold of pages you have to pay to see the pages. With RECAP installed and active, any legal documents you view in your browser get saved to RECAP. If you want to go and access a document and it's in RECAP already, the extension will alert you so that you don't risk going over your quarterly threshold and paying for pages. It's a fantastic example of people working to free information.

Extensions that I run for Reasons

• Easy Youtube Video Downloader because fuck google and yo ho.
• User Agent Switcher and Manager because fuck google and trackers and websites that only "run properly" on Chrome.
• Simple Tab Groups lets you create groups of tabs in a window then close the window and open it as needed with the tabs open. Works better for me than things like OneTab.
• Decentraleyes because fuck google.

Also logo is little fox friend 🦊🟣

Love my little fox friend, so warm and sleepy.

We've Been Through This Before

Netscape Navigator didn't die in the First Browser War for you to run Chrome learn your herstory.