I believe I have been using #Firefox continuously since my Bachelors starting in 2005. And now that I think about it, very likely even before that.
For a very long time it fit my desires: tweakable, customizable and opportunistic (suck it G*).
After they slimmed down, streamlined and squeezed Firefox into the corset of Chromium/WebExtensionsism together with all the other browser-bunch it had lost all its appeal in terms of tweakability, customizability for me. Extension APIs on Desktop are way too restricted compared to before, and the number of extensions for the new and shiny Firefox Android speaks for itself. Seriously, it’s a joke.
But I still felt, privacy is important enough to stick to it. So I kept using it. Recently though I got increasingly more frustrated using it, one eye always on the competition. Not really any particular reason, just that I feel that since those major changes it had lost its only unique selling point (Alleinstellungsmerkmal) I guess. Now it’s just one of many browsers, and not really better at any of the tasks than any of the other browsers anymore. Plus, I increasingly feel its development turns slower and slower. Which makes sense in light of news about cutdowns at Mozilla.
Tried several Chromium-based browsers in recent weeks, and it’s shocking how many really good features and good UI decisions other browsers have.
Well, no particular reason why I’m writing this. I guess it’s that I’d love to stay with Firefox and that it feels like betrayel if I switched to another.
I still do have my doubts about most other browsers (especially when using sync features), but seriously as soon as a #browser comes along that combines the chrome engine’s snapiness with Firefox’s privacy and Vivaldi’s (former Firefox’s) customizability I’ll be gone.