Stack Upgrade: Ditching google Chrome for Firefox Quantum
From Google Chrome to Firefox Developer Edition
With Google Chromes proposed changes to the WebRequest about to render ad blockers as we know them defunct I thought it was time I commit to switching to another browser for both work and personal use.
I attempted to switch to Firefox when their Quantum version was first launched but for some reason I could not make it stick even though I’ve used Firefox as my primary browser on my mobile devices for a year or so now and I honestly think it’s a superior product.
This time it seems to be working. I switched my main browser to firefox about two weeks ago and I’m enjoying it. Firefox isn’t as polished as Chrome but frankly I feel better about using it with Mozilla behind it than Google.
I thoroughly recommend you checkout Firefox Developer Edition even if you don’t want to change your main browser: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/
From Google Search to DuckDuckGo
I have also switched my search engine of choice to DuckDuckGo, the privacy first search engine.
Now, I still use Google products, and I’m not saying people should switch fully. I just personally feel it was the best thing I could do to get around the monopoly Chrome has formed on the browser market. But until I can find an equal competitor to Google maps that will stay a staple of my usage, not to mention my personal projects are often powered by GCP and Firebase, alongside my personal email and life being powered by G-Suite.
Check out DuckDuckGo here: https://duckduckgo.com (Not to mention its supported directly within firefox.)
What about Lighthouse?
I use lighthouse a lot. A benchmark for a website’s quality and a nice nudge in the right direction for development. But alas it’s not a core part of Firefox Quantum. Not to worry though, as it is an open source project you can just download the node version separately and run it through the command line once it is installed, like so:
lighthouse https://jamesrwilliams.caFor more on how to install and use lighthouse outside of chrome I’d recommend you check out the project README on Github.