this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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I love Firefox. Love it.
But I keep coming across sites that don't function properly with it. Is this Firefox's fault? No - Firefox follows standards nicely. But growing numbers of sites don't, and this is a big problem at a micro and macro level.
Chrome seems to have such a foothold that it is getting away with embrace/extend/extinguish and I think it's a very sad thing.
That was Internet Explorer 20 years ago and look where we are now.
I personally can't remember the last time I had issues with a site on Firefox in the last few years since I switched.
The teams web app was borked for me on Firefox at one point. Idk if it's still like that. Also Google Chat or whatever tf it's called now disables a bunch of features on Firefox.
Still worth it to switch. 99% of websites work just fine. They basically have to intentionally design sites to not work with FF.
Ah yes wtf is Teams doing!? Some arbitrary features are blocked on Firefox, like you can't direct call someone but you can be part of a group call 🤪
But I don't think Microsoft's online suite is a reference, most of it feels buggy or bloated at best.
Makes sense since the browser microsoft pushes on it's users is chrome based.
Just spoof the user agent and it works fine.
Those are literally restrictions placed by the site in question, not a limitation of Firefox. Get a user agent changer, and set the user agent to the “required” browser, and ~magically~ it will work!
When I was using Firefox I felt like spoofing user agent was essential to make websites work the way they were supposed to. I could loose some rounded corners here and there but it was still better that some features completely missing
Chrome turning into Internet Explorer was something that I didn't foresee some years ago.
Heck they have literally done that with Edge lol.
Been using it for years, and the only few times I had issues was due to worthless websites creating artificial obstacles with an "unsupported browser/OS" page or banner rather than something actually breaking for being incompatible.
Discord and spotify web versions don’t work on Firefox for me. On discord in can’t connect to a call and Spotify doesn’t play songs or it takes a long time after pressing play for the song to start playing.
Both work flawlessly for me. In fact, discord on Firefox works much better than the standalone app specifically for calls.
Sounds to me like something is broken or misconfigured on your system.
Interesting. I will have to try discord. I've used Spotify with no issues.
Good to know. I’ll try reinstalling Firefox. Both of these work flawlessly on edge for me.
This is an especially common problem on Android. I have found many sites whose mobile version simply does not work in Firefox. It's very frustrating.
I also feel their number grew in the last year. I've recently tried using Mull again (mobile firefox privacy-focused fork) after using Bromite for a year, and it was so unbearable I had to switch back. I'd say I had less websites that worked than ones that did not
Unfortunately tracker blocking can lead to even more issues as many sites have started relying on it for basic functionality.
Have you got an example I can test? I switched to Firefox mobile over a year ago and I can't think of any time I've come across a site that didn't work.
The most recent issue I had was Birds and Beans "manage subscription" page so I don't think you can test that without a coffee subscription. But here is a screenshot:
I'm not sure why it says "nightly" as I'm on the stable version.
This isn't Firefoxs fault though, is it? Just a bad Website putting arbitrary restrictions in place
Not Firefox's fault at all. Just a website not following web standards.
I keep seeing this sentiment on these posts, often with a suspicious number of up votes that don't seem to correlate how many up votes everything else in the topic get.
Literally the only place I have EVER seen this issue was a state toll road website, which was using a timezones that didn't actually exist but chrome added (and documented on the Internet to trick people into using it). A simple email to the website with an explanation and the correct timezones name and the problem was fixed.
Pretty sure a lot of this sentiment is either astroturfing, or people passing on astroturfing trying to be helpful.
Yeah, I’ve been exclusively using Firefox dev edition for the last 2-3 ys. I can’t remember one site not functioning properly apart from the odd visual bug from time to time.
Typically banking sites for me. And a few others.
I tried to bring this up as an issue back on Reddit, and I got downvoted into oblivion.
I think sometimes switching your use agent to Chrome can bypass some issues.
So many tech minded people, but at same time, so many of us fail to consider others POV and priorities.
JUST DON'T VISIT THAT WEBSITE! - sure bro, that means i won't be able to pay the bills this month because the only traditional way of doing this is visiting a physical kiosk at working hour. Did i mention that i gotta work?
Similar with messaging apps.
YOU NEED BETTER FRIENDS LOL - trust me I've tried. i also need to send my resume using this app to whoever interviewing me. no, no email. yes, i tried teling that. no, i won't be that guy preaching about software freedom when all i want is a fucking job.
The first sites I really noticed it on were banking sites. Pretty much essential. Then I noticed more and more sites. Switching to chrome based solved it. But it really, really bothers me that I had to resort to that.
Would love to just ignore such sites, but that becomes a pretty big ask... Sigh
Where do you live where banking sites don’t follow industry standards, even for web development?
I’ve never had a problem with a website outright not working on Firefox, although in some cases features are restricted which usually just require a user agent change (like huddles on slack).
Do you have concrete examples of websites that outright don’t work on Firefox?
There is an addon that does this automatically.
Some pages load weird like a pop-up on mobile that should take over your view window is a side bar instead. Still fully functional but slightly harder to read.
But you know what makes it way harder to read? Ads
I've visited pages in Chrome without an ad blocker... Almost unusable, my eyes couldn't even focus on what I actually needed to do.
I'm not sure if it's better, or worse, than the cancer that was the dot come era. Pop-ups everywhere. Random fucking toolbars. So many toolbars. A clippy version of a titty dancer if you're unlucky.
Make sure to only do that temporarily and only if it's absolutely necessary. Otherwise just avoid using said website and look for alternatives.
We should add another E... Embrace, extend, extinguish and enshittify.
Mr. Lahey?
"Eye am the liquor, Bobandy."
That’s such bullshit. People keep saying SO MANY SITES DONT WORK ON FOREFUX
with zero examples.
I see no examples. You’re making a ridiculous claim with no proof and I’m astounded at how many people believe you here.
I think someone needs a hug.
I still see only empty claims lawl
Give me examples. I've been using Firefox exclusively for over ten years and I can recall one website I've had to use chrome on. That was draw.io to get shared drawing through a Google drive to work.
For me there are certain sites where the site icon doesn't show up in my bookmarks. While not world shattering, it can be annoying.
Reminder for others that they can report to Web Compat
This is a good comment! I've reported to them in the past. A good reminder.
on desktop I don't think I ever notice an issue, but on mobile it's really noticable