[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I switched to Ublock for the same reasons about a year ago, if not two.

I haven't updated Firefox since 54.01, which was when I discovered that the guy who wrote the OmniSidebar extension and a couple of others gave up after trying to redo his extensions with the new API.

That was my motivation in setting up Firefox ESR while I waited to see if Web Extension versions would become available to replace core functionality. At this point, enaough have to make Firefox Quantum usable.

Firefox is still my default browser. The only things that use Edge are MS tools such as Weather, Cortana etc, which is fine by me. I've never liked the concept of a single default browser into which applications can stuff their URL's; for example the calibre server. IMO every application that needs access to an HTTP client (web browser) should have a user accessible setting as to which one it is required to use, it would of course default to the system browser default.

I'm happy enough to use Firefox, given the level of control and customization possible. Edge is actually usable, given that it now has an extension capability (and uBlock Origin works in it), but if I need to spin dedicated browser instances, I prefer to create Firefox profiles customized for those purposes and run more than one Fireefox instance at a time.

If and when Firefox 54.01 no longer works, I will try to switch to Edge before looking at anything else. Twenty years ago browsers were of some interest, but today I'm prepared to use the one that comes with the OS, same with AV scanners, HIPS detectors, firewalls, even file system managers.

I don't go that far, and "the one that comes with the OS" will depend upon the OS you use. I run Win10 and Linux here, and the nice thing about Firefox is that it's cross platform and works under both OSes. (For that matter, I run it on my new Android tablet, though the Android version lags the desktop version in polish and feature set.)

Firefox 54 will continue to work - the question is how well.

Web standards are a moving target, and I've lost count of the number of browsers that couldn't keep up and no longer exist.

People elsewhere recommend Firefox forks like Pale Moon and Waterfox. They're worthy efforts, but keeping the core rendering engine up to date to be able to handle new web standards is a massive job. Chrome, Edge, and Firefox have fairly large staffs of developers working on stuff like that. With the best will in the world, I simply don't see how the developers of forks of Firefox can can keep up. They simply don't have the resources, and may lack the knowledge.

I made a conscious decision that I was simply going to have to stay current on Firefox releases, or switch to Chrome or Edge. Edge doesn't exist for Linux, and I've never particularly like Chrome, so Firefox got the nod.

It took a while for Quantum to have enough extensions that replicated the functionality I had before, but enough exist that I was able to switch and have been quite pleased. In my environment, Quantum is a lot faster than previous Firefox versions, and faster than Chrome too. Making it fast was the point of the development exercise that produced Quantum, and while it's still a work in progress, they succeeded.

I decided I couldn't be bothered building any more computers. One of our big banks has been deploying Dell Workstations for mission-critical LOB usage for a few years; their Chief Technology Officer (who once reported to me) waxes lyrical about them. So I got one of those, cost considerably more than a regular off-the-shelf system, but I didn't have to compromise too much on the build components.

I got cured of building my own systems too.

My current desktop is a refurb HP off-lease corporate box. Quad-core i5-2400 CPU at 3.1-3.4ghz, 8GB RAM, 500GB SATA drive, Intel HD2000 graphics and a few other things. It came with Win7 Pro. I cost a whopping $250USD.

The previous desktop was a refurb Dell box with a 2.6ghx quad-core Xeon CPU, 4GB RAM, and a 250GB SATA HD. I added RAM to bring it to teh 8GB that was the max it would take, a 240GB SSD, and an ATI low profile graphics card. Total cost when teh dust settles was just over $500 USD.

The Dell had a power supply failure, and the design was such that I couldn't just replace the PS, so a new machine was called for, and HP was the replacement. I swapped in the SSD, old drive from the DELL, and the ATI card, but discovered the built in Intel graphics were better and pulled the ATI card.

I've been quite pleased. I can boost RAM to up to 32GB, and have other expansion capacity. And the HP was designed for easy service, so it's easy to pop the hood and play with hardware. The Dell was a PITA is I had to open it up.

Its a bit light on doco, but what isn't these days. When I bought my new phone a few weeks ago, the young woman who helped me select it was puzzled by my query, "Where's the doco?" Her colleague looked across and explained was 'doco' was, she then said, "Don't worry there are plenty of videos on Youtube?" Being very grateful that, at my request, she was setting it up for me, including sorting out the sim card, the telco, and my google account I kept schtum and smiled.

Video as doco is a peeve of mine. I can read far faster than I can watch, and usually have other things to do with the time than watch a video like that.
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Dennis