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Mozilla Firefox is a Free and Open Source browser from the Mozilla Foundation. The latest Extended Support version is based on the Quantum Engine. Supports privacy critical Extensions like HTTPS only, NoScript et cetera, Firefox started as version of Netscape without the Mozilla suite bloat, and it has evolved into its own browser initially named Phoenix. Beside recreational usage, this browser also also a leader in the web development arena.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Many, many very good add-ons
A great ecosystem of good and very good add-on developers make and maintain many add-ons that allow you to adapt Firefox to your needs, make it even more secure and private, etc.
Pro Ethical and pragmatic company mission
The Mozilla Manifesto outlines the company's mission and principles. Paraphrasing, they want the Internet to be a free and open resource, and to enable individuals to get the best use of that resource. They do this by creating open source software to which anyone may contribute, so long as such contributions fit with their principles (both ethical and technical).
Pro Not as resource heavy as Chromium/Chrome
Unlike Chrome/Chromium, Firefox soars high and flies faster the Chrome/Chromium, without the memory strain. This makes it a better alternative to Chromium/Chrome.
Pro Adds tracking protection in private-browsing mode
Tracking Protection feature will block sites from tracking and storing your browsing activity.
Pro Very customizable
Like any other browser, you can make your Firefox your own with extensions and themes.
Pro Enhanced security features
Firefox gives you full control on what you see and what you send to Mozilla, promoting a degree of privacy.
Pro Built-in reading mode
Reading mode allows removing everything on a page but the text. It removes ads, styling and anything else that could get in the way of a comfortable reading experience (similar to Microsoft Edge's Reading Mode and Safari's reader mode). It's accessed from the address bar by clicking the book icon and offers some customization options.
Pro Search dialog remains visible throughout multiple pages
While searching multiple web pages for the occurrence of a word or phrase, with Firefox the Find dialog remains in place, allowing you to just click next to see if that word or phrase appears on that page.
Pro Multiprocessor enabled
As of Quantum, all processes of Firefox is now multi-threaded, allowing it to excel greatly on multi-core systems.
Pro One of the few browsers not using Chrome's Blink engine
Firefox uses its own rendering engine (called Gecko), instead of Google-controlled Blink like the vast majority of other browsers.
Pro Easy screenshots without extensions
Within the browser itself, you can easily take screenshots and save them to your computer.
Pro Syncs between devices
Firefox Sync is an optional feature in Firefox that allows syncing bookmarks, passwords, and add-ons between devices.
Pro Serious about your privacy
Mozilla's goal isn't to collect as much data about you as possible. Instead focus on what you want.
Pro Uses less resources
Firefox 57 (Quantum) and newer uses less resources than ever. It is proven with benchmark done by AppleInsider.
Pro High performance
The Firefox Quantum update (FF57) greatly increases the render speed and general performance of the browser, by taking better advantage of the user's hardware.
Pro Automatically updated
Firefox is automatically updated on the platforms where it makes sense.
Pro Dark theme
Beyond the toolbar and tabs, it darkens UI elements such as the URL-bar, pop-downs, new-tab page and more.
Pro Fast bookmark management
In order to add an open page to the bookmark bar, the tab can be dragged down and is added immediately.
Pro Tagging bookmarks
Firefox is one of the few browsers that you can tag your bookmarks. You can view a list of tags and can search your bookmarks in the address bar with tags.
Pro Good font rasterizing
Font rasterizing on Linux and Windows is much better than in competitors. Even smaller text is clear and contrast.
Pro Really independent browser
It is really independent browser, unlike many other that are based on Chromium.
Pro Lower memory fingerprint than competitors
Firefox used to be a trailer in memory usage, but as of 2017 it's less hungry for memory than competitors like Edge, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
Pro Android version allows installation of FEW addons
Unlike other browsers in the market, Firefox was the first to use the same codebase on their mobile apps, allowing them to use a FEW addons in Android devices without modifications.
Pro Able to run natively on Wayland
There are patches which enable Firefox to run natively on Wayland and from version 65 these have been mainlined (Fedora already includes then in the default Firefox 63 build).
Pro Uses few resources
Firefox 57 (Quantum) and newer uses fewer resources than ever. It is proven with benchmark done by AppleInsider.
Pro Fast
With new integrations focused on security and performance, Firefox is faster and less likely to have problems during use than ever before.
Pro Respects your privacy
Mozilla is one of the first browsers that advocates privacy. They believe that internet should be in the user's control and not those who run the websites, and so they give tools inside the browser to make the user be more in control.
Pro Built-in Privacy Protection
Blocks tracking cookies, finger print scanners and Cryptominers by default. Can be changed to the user's individual needs.
Pro Open Source
Open Source means that you can see the source code. So everybody even if they don't work for Mozilla is able to look what the browser does in the background. So you can be 100% sure that Firefox doesn't have hidden "spy features" unlike Google Chrome.
Pro Comes pre-installed on most Linux distribution
Because both Firefox and Linux are open source, Firefox often gets bundled with a large number of Linux distribution, including Ubuntu.
Pro Strong developer tool
The built-in developer tools have been merged with the popular FireBug extension since FF57.
Pro Installed by default on many Linux distributions
Many Linux distributions come preinstalled with Mozilla Firefox
Pro Firefox is on most distrobutions depos.
So if it's not pre-installed, you can install it.
Pro About:config
Master about:config and uBlock Origin, and all Firefox-based browsers will be yours.
Pro Built-in privacy protection
Blocks tracking cookies, finger print scanners and Cryptominers by default. Can be changed to the user's individual needs.
Pro Search dialog includes a Highlight All feature
When searching for a word or phrase in any web page, you can click Highlight All to quickly see all occurrences of that word or phrase on the page.
Pro Text-to-speech (with adjustable speed) without add-ons
Firefox Reader Mode includes Narrate, a feature that adds text-to-speech functionality to the browser.
Pro Integration with Pocket
Firefox comes with build-in Pocket integration that can allow users to quickly save the article for a read it later function to easily find any articles saved in Pocket from various sources and devices.
Pro Pocket integration
Firefox integrates with Pocket, a web bookmarking service out of the box without needing any plugins.
Pro HTML5 Video Preload
The only web browser that only preload entire HTML5 video which useful for slow internet.
Pro WebRender
The newer versions of it will soon use WebRender to render webpages, which'll make it much more efficient by utilizing GPU to paint webpages.
Pro 64-bit portable version available on PortableApps App Manager
It automatically detects PortableApps portable 32 and/or 64-bit jre.
Note: It doesn't save your browser cache or temporary files unless on a external/internal drive (not a USB) and is manually configured to do so.
Pro Supports MRU tab order
You can set it to cycle between tabs ordered by how recently you've used them, rather than by the order they appear on the screen. The only other browsers that support MRU tab ordering are slow or don't support common GIF formats.
Pro Firefox Experiments
FF Experiments are Mozilla projects available from FF Test Pilot, such as Firefox Colour, witch lets you customise your browser theme to your liking!
Pro Firefox Lockwise Password Management
Helps store your usernames and passwords. Lockwise also lets you know if any of the sites you have login details for have had their (and potentially your) data leaked!
Cons
Con Doesn't care for its original guidelines/goals
Mozilla originally aimed to be the "good guys" with user choice and privacy in mind. Their current leadership cannot be trusted to hold those goals in high regard:
1) Added Pocket - a privacy data sensitive plugin, made it mandatory
2) Tried to sneak in advertisement as "drive-by hack", backpedaled unconvincingly once users complained
3) Tried to randomly inject a small percentage of Firefox downloads in Germany with a data collecting plugin (Cliqz) that tech-savy Germans consider adware (no opt-out question asked)
Con Installs Addons with updates
Mozilla is installing/integrating addons with every update like the Mr. Robot promotion - it also has integrated Pocket that spams you every time you open the browser or a new tab with partners of Pocket.
Con Some built-in advertising
With their "Pocket" feature, they offer advertisements built-in.
Con Gets slower with every extension
Until the 10th extension it works fine but after that it suddenly becomes slower and slower and at some point it takes forever to start - if it starts at all.
Con Can suddenly crash and lose all open tabs
A very annoying bug, possibly caused by addons auto-updates.
Con It's a memory hog even though Mozilla claims it is not
Mozilla claims it's using 30% less RAM than Chrome but in real life tests it uses much more.
Con Updates may break plugins
Firefox's frequent updates may break plugins and extensions. This is very annoying because you are forced to check if every plugin you use is compatible with the new Firefox version.
Con Uses Google as one of the default search engines
Which is pretty ironic for a browser that's focused on "privacy".
Con Uses Google as its default search engine
Which is pretty ironic for a browser that's focused on "privacy".
Con Sometimes very buggy and slow
On sites like twitch.tv chat scrolling is still not fixed. Compared to other browsers Firefox is still very slow and feels sluggish.
Con Uses GTK on Linux/BSD
This makes the integration on non-GTK Desktop Environments very hard.
Con Heavy and consumes a lot of memory
Mozilla developers should think on this as the new Microsoft Edge browser steals less memory and it just pops up the moment you open it. In the case of Mozilla, you have to wait for after clicking for it to open.
Con As of v. 52, audio support on ALSA systems was dropped
Currently, Devs close all tickets about this issue as "WONTFIX".
Con Slow
Many people might say otherwise. But the truth is, Quantum or not, Firefox is still slower than Chromium.
Con No status bar
There's no status bar. Granted, there is a status tool-tip. But what if you want an actual toolbar, you're out of luck.
Con Cannot directly translate page
Unlike Google Chrome, if you visit a website with a different language, you cannot translate it, which is a bad user experience for some.
Con Poor performance on SSD even without extensions
On a fast SSD such as Corsair Force LE series this browser still performs as if it were installed on a regular hard drive disk, meaning it takes long time to start, even without any extensions. On that matter Google Chrome is light years ahead of Firefox.
Con Can't scroll tabs with mouse wheel
It's pretty basic but you can't switch between tabs back and forth using your mouse wheel. Any add-ons supporting this have been deprecated since FF57.
Con Switches from HTTP version of a page to its HTTPS version without notification
Even though the HTTPS page might have different content (yes, bad website design, but if a browser does something automatically you don't expect, it should tell you).
Con Regularly crashes on some web pages
Compiled from source Firefox ESR 52.6.0 (64-bit) regularly crashes on some web pages, while compiled from source a bit earlier version of it (with the same compile options) does not crashes on the same web pages.
Con Styles HTML-forms with the OS/Desktop theme
At least on X11/Unix that leads to terrible issues, that makes some websites simply unusable for example: If you use a dark GTK theme that uses white text and come to a webpage that forces black text on html-forms buttons you will get black buttons with unreadable black text.
Con When you search in a website (Ctrl + F) there are no marks appearing in the right scrollbar
All Chromium based browsers have this feature.
Con GTK Themes styles the HTML forms
If you're in Linux and you use a dark GTK theme that uses white text and come to a webpage that forces black text on html-forms buttons you will get black buttons with unreadable black text.
Con Only partial dark mode
Bookmark, context menu, etc. are not themed. But you can edit themes with an add-on.
Con Poor font rendering
All Mozilla apps display fonts poorly on Linux these days, other browsers do not show this behavior. (I don't see any difference personally)
Con Incompatible to GTK themes
It reads your GTK config and adopts your theme but it won't fully work with 9 of 10 themes.
Con Lack of keyboard shortcuts customization
Keyboard shortcuts can not be changed in a user-friendly way.
It is also difficult to manipulate addons with hotkeys.
Con Updates not in sync with updates of (key) extensions
A key extension can suddenly becomes useless because extension updates tend to fall behind the updates of Firefox.
Con False positives in virus-scanner
All Downloads in Firefox are scanned for viruses, but there are a lot of false positives.
Con Not good for very long screenshots
When the user wants to take a very long screenshot, the address bar appears over the screenshot, covering horizontally part of the content of the webpage from where the user is taking the screenshot.
Con Multi-profile function is not user friendly
Multi-profile requires command line -no remote to use and open about:profiles to create them manually (on Chrome, you can instantly create them on right top user button).
Con Doesn’t support multiple languages for spell check
If you write in multiple languages, you need to manually switch the spell check language.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Reading mode removes images and videos
Reading mode removes everything that's not text, even if it's desired content.
Con Google obsession
Lately, Firefox has been partnering with Google, leading to some privacy concerns.
Con Can't play Flash videos out of the box
Due to security concerns, Firefox does not include Flash support by default. In order to play Flash videos (you can encounter Flash videos on Youtube, Vimeo, and many other video hosting sites) you need to install the Flash plugin separately.
Con Firefox calls home at startup (Amazon servers), which makes its "do not track" statement of doubtful value.
Just run '# iftop -i eth1' in a terminal, and then start Firefox.
Con Adds more and more bloatware its original target audience (a high percentage of Linux users) doesnt need
1) Pocket is bloatware on top of the sync option
2) Screenshot feature inside the browser - bloat (probably helpful for their helpline when users who don't know how to take screenshots are calling?)
3) Attaching Cliqz plugin for a few random users without notifying them -> unwanted bloat
4) Syncing via a Mozilla account may be helpful for some, for me it's bloat
Con Supporting Gecko makes no sense
Since Blink is available under a more open and permissive license.
Con Downloader includes now a virus checker
All Downloads in Firefox will now be scanned for viruses and there are a lot of false positives. This just shows that Mozilla thinks that all of their users are Idiots.
Con Multi-profile is not user friendly
Multi-profile requires commandline -no remote to use and open about:profiles to create manually (on Chrome, you can instantly create them on right top user button).
Con Multi Profile are not user friendly
Multi profile require commandline -no remote to use and open about:profiles to create manually (on Chrome, you can instantly create them on right top user button).
Pro Reader View
Reader View in Firefox allows users to read an article without any distractions by removing ads, unrelated elements and other distractive objects (similar to Microsoft Edge's Reading Mode and Safari's reader mode).
Con Sometimes stop working for few seconds
Sometimes stop working for 10/15 seconds, then starts working again. Inconvenient when looking streaming video on youtube or twitch
Con Now a Google Chrome clone
Has lost its own way and is now following Google. It has copied Chromes behavior , its stupid-proof design and now its extension system.
Con No support for ALSA since version 52
You must use PulseAudio if you need sound in Firefox.
Con Adds more and more bloatware its original target audience (a high percentage of Linux users) doesn't need
1) Pocket is bloatware on top of the sync option
2) Screenshot feature inside the browser - bloat (probably helpful for their helpline when users who don't know how to take screenshots are calling?)
3) Attaching Cliqz plugin for a few random users without notifying them -> unwanted bloat
Out of Date Pros + Cons
Con Unstable add-ons
E10s has already caused many extensions to not work properly. Also, in November, only add-ons with WebExtension API can be installed.
Con Sometimes stops working for a few seconds
Sometimes stop working for 10/15 seconds, then starts working again. Inconvenient when watching streaming video on youtube or twitch.
Con Uses extremely old browser version
Firefox uses a 15-year old version of Netscape, which has been dead for years.
Con Poor enterprise support
Does not use standard management tools such as GPO or Profile management. No MSI.
Con Very very slow
Not only is it slow to load, but individual tabs take MUCH longer to load than any other browser out there.
Con VOIP (like hang-outs, appear.in, etc.) barely works...
I know this was covered in the top ALSA comment, but for the non-technical:
Calls over VOIP services, like Hangouts or appear.in either completely fail, or performance is degraded to the point where the call is non-functional. Can't dial-out at all in Hangouts... web-based voip performance for vid and voice calls suffers "moon-lag" where data is delayed 6-seconds (+/-2 seconds) for calls.
Con Slow performance in OS X
Uses a lot of resources and feels slower than the Linux and Windows versions.
Pro Great built-in video calling
Firefox includes Hello, a video calling feature. It works without an account and doesn't require the other party to use Firefox. It also allows sharing tabs and windows with the other party.
