Update: Contrary to my original belief, the video problems that I have been having with Firefox apparently do seem to be related somehow to its dwindling support for Flash. My original points stand, however. While I understand tech gurus desire to protect less savvy individuals from harm, those of us who know what we are doing should have a choice whether or not to run "risky" applications. I don't like the fact that browsers are making the decision to degrade apps to the point where it is becoming very difficult to run certain things that you need to use. Notify me that it is risky, then leave me alone and let me do what I want.
I have to admit that I often don't like change. More often than not, it seems that change often does more damage than good. I develop systems to do the things that I need to do, only to have them foiled by some "big tech" genius who thinks they always need to "improve" things for me. Firefox is the latest example of this.
The Firefox browser has long been my favorite because I have been able to use an add-on called "Tab Mix Plus" which enabled me to get the exact behavior I needed from my browser tabs. Especially when I do radio, I have very specific behavioral needs from the tabs. For example, I need to open multiple tabs from links, and have them line up at the end of the last one. I need them to be organized in rows, the number of which I need to be able to specify, etc. I also need to control whether they auto refresh, how media autoplay is handled, etc.
Mozilla destroyed all of that when they released Firefox 57, their "Quantum" release. Admittedly, it is faster. But speed isn't everything. Functionality is very important for me. By not being able to use Tab Mix Plus, I was left with a huge problem. I had to figure out a way to get the functionality back that I used to have with the older versions of Firefox.
I tried several other browsers. Some could get close after extensive modifications of their settings, but none were able to deliver to me the exact functions that Tab Mix Plus was able to provide. I finally found myself having to revert back to an old version of Firefox with the Tab Mix Plus add-on installed. The problem with that solution is that the older version was obviously not going to be updated any longer with the latest security patches. Hence, for security reasons, I had to have the latest version installed also for regular browsing purposes. This required me to dive deep into documentation, to figure out how to install both an old and latest version of the same browser, on the same machine. It can be done; I did it. But it wasn't easy.
You have to use the "profiles" feature in Firefox, and you have to be very careful because the old version will want to keep updating to the new version. If you allow that to happen, you will end up with two copies of the same version and will have to start all over again. After spending several hours on this problem, I finally managed to settle upon a workable solution to what the "big tech" geniuses screwed up for me.
With Quantum, I have encountered a number of sites where the video wouldn't play. After unsuccessfully monkeying around with this, trying to get it to work, I finally had to fall back to Internet Explorer — the most primitive and unsafe browser on the planet — but at least it will play video. Imagine having to use either an older browser of the same brand, or an entirely different browser altogether to accomplish tasks that should be easy — assuming the geniuses didn't keep screwing up their products. They've locked things down so tight that they won't work. Good job, ace.
Oh, look how fast it is, they say! It won't play a lot of videos, but man is it fast! You can't have the tabs the way you want them, but man, the speed! Half the stuff you need won't load, but they were a security risk anyway, and did we mention how much faster it is? Look at all of the additional features we added that you will never use. Aren't you lucky? We've made Quantum DMCA compliant. Of course, this is completely useless to you. But look at that warp speed! The menu bar has been replaced with three lines on the right. You have to figure out how to get it back where you had it. See how thoughtful we are? Oh yeah, and the speed!
Aside from all of the censorship that permeates the cyberscape today, "big tech" companies keep making decisions which negatively impact people every day. Do they care? No! They would argue that the majority of their users agree with what they are doing. Perhaps so.
However, the negative impact that they have upon those of us who don't approve is something they don't make allowances for. Take Microsoft.
It wasn't enough for Microsoft to decide to quit supporting Windows XP — the most stable operating system they ever produced. No, they had to actively go to war with it in an attempt to kill it. Then, they piled on and immediately attempted to kill Windows 7 — the second most-stable OS they ever built — by pushing out what I consider to be MALWARE onto people's machines to force an upgrade to Windows 10. Why do I call it malware? My definition of malware is software that is intended to damage or modify a system against the desires, intents, and without the permission of the owner. Many of us did not want Windows 10. Yet, the geniuses at Microsoft — who think they know better than you what you need and want — utilized a scorched earth policy to attempt to "upgrade" Windows 7 users to the newer system. There were many people who lost their data in these forced "upgrades". Many of us had to install software on our Windows 7 machines to guard against Microsoft's forced "upgrades". It has been well-documented that Windows 10 has many "features" that phone home and spy on its users. For that reason, and the sheer fact that Microsoft tried to force it on me, I don't intend to ever use it. I don't like bullies.
In conclusion, as we move further into a world where technocrats attempt to control our choices and our lives, the only solution that we have to insulate ourselves against "big tech", is to develop our own independent solutions to the largest extent possible. The busybody geniuses will continue to damage and control the people until we develop solutions that are self-hosted, and self-maintained.