Well...§

Ever since I got first into Linux (insert random distrohopping moments), I became a full-time Firefox user. The first reason was, it was usually shipped by default. The other reasons are more like it became of a personal belief rather than "it's better!" or "chromium sucks!".

The major reasons I use Firefox can be put into these subcategories:

• Advocacy (?)
• Variety
• Security (?)
• Wayland

But where is the brief history of Firefox?

No :P, everyone knows it's just Netscape reskinned.

Advocacy (?)§

Why the question mark?

The original mission of Firefox was bringing freedom to the web and they still probably do. And I hope it stays that way even after all the funny controversies Mozilla made. *coughs in censorship and blog posts* .

Variety§

I do believe that diversity on the web manifests competition and creativity between competing solutions. And that advocacy about diversity is one thing that keeps me using the browser. All in all, I don't think that Firefox lacks any vital features that would make it inferior than Chromium-based browsers as of the time of writing. I think it's more of a reputation from the past e.g. buggy and slow that might have been the reason why user adoption of this browser was getting less and less over the years. Some people claim it received a little more users though but the trend seems to be saying otherwise:

• Is Firefox OK?
• Firefox Lost Almost 50 million users: Here's Why It is Concerning
• Firefox is great, so why has it lost almost 50 million users?

and so forth...

However, the losing of users are mostly caused by Mozilla's decisions over the years and I do think it's their fault for giving their browser an identity crisis plus controversial blog posts they posted that were really concerning for some users.

But standards?

Standards your mom

Security (?)§

I am no security expert but I believe both Chromium browser and Firefox has their own security issues. I just put it here to let people know security is not a fixed solution, they are just layers of annoyances (like an onion) against any threat actor that any user might not know they will come across. Nothing is fully secure.

So far, I have not experienced any hacks within my go-to web browser, Firefox 🙂.

Wayland§

With Wayland adoption increasing in every major linux distro, Firefox with native Wayland support enabled, never have failed me when I am using it on a Wayland compositor be it GNOME, RiverWM, or SwayWM. Chromium-based browsers are weird on Wayland even with that ozone flag thingy enabled 😅

> It is not popular as popular as Chromium-based browsers. There is Brave too, why are you still using it?§

Uh, ever heard of the word 'variety' and 'choices'? Also Brave is still Chromium under the hood with added Binance crypto and their own ads.

And just because the browser is not as popular anymore, it does not mean it won't work with my daily stuff. Like, I have been using this browser for 2 years now and I only see minor hiccups but it never failed me.