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Why we Forked Firefox and Not Chromium (0x65.dev)

483 points by nikbackm · 2491 days ago · 122 comments on HN

Article summary

The article discusses why Cliqz, a company that offers a search engine and privacy-focused products, chose to fork Firefox instead of Chromium for their desktop browser. The decision was based on the company's values aligning more closely with Mozilla's, as well as technical reasons such as Firefox's open APIs and modular architecture. Cliqz also wanted to support a non-Google dominated web platform. The company has been maintaining their Firefox fork for over four years and has found it to be a great host for their features.

Main themes

  • Browser choice
  • Google services optimization
  • Firefox vs Chrome
  • Web platform diversity
  • User experience
  • Market share and competition
  • Tracking and analytics
  • Browser monoculture

What commenters say

  • Some users have experienced a worse experience on Google services when using Firefox, which may be due to Google's optimization for their own browser, Chrome.
  • Google's recaptcha system can be more difficult to use on non-Chrome browsers, which may be a deliberate attempt to discourage the use of other browsers.
  • The difference in user experience between Chrome and Firefox on Google services may be due to A/B testing or slow rollouts of new features, rather than a deliberate attempt to penalize non-Chrome users.
  • Spoofing the user agent to pretend to be Chrome can sometimes improve the experience on Google services, but this is not a reliable solution.
  • The market share of Chrome is growing, which may lead to a monoculture that makes it harder for other browsers to compete.
  • Firefox's market share is potentially underreported due to its built-in tracking protection, which may block analytics scripts.
  • Some users are concerned that Firefox will eventually die out if its market share continues to decline, while others argue that the browser still has a loyal user base.
  • The experience on YouTube and other Google services can be slow or buggy on non-Chrome browsers, which may be due to a lack of optimization or testing by Google.