Should I use chromium based browsers or firefox?

wtry@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.world – 91 points –

Chromium has better features, but with google announcing its plan to 'drm the internet' I 'm not sure if it'd be a good idea.

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Firefox doesn't support background effects in Google Meet so i can't blur my background during my daily work meetings. That's the only reason i still have to use Chromium browsers

Did you try agent spoofing (which probably won't work in the future because of this). This sounds like things Microsoft (and now Google) does to make their product look better.

I haven't tried that. I'll give it a shot tomorrow. Thanks!

I actually tried this last month and it works! Firefox already support features needed to enable background effects on Google Meet, but Google is dragging their ass to actually allow Firefox to use the feature so you'll have to spoof your user agent.

Why do you need to blur your background?

I'm gonna guess it's so that people can't see his background and/or to make the picture look nicer.

The good news is if you have a recent Nvidia GPU you can inject background blur using that on all webcam footage using Nvidia's Broadcast software.

Lots of reasons. You may not want clients or outside vendors to be looking into your home, which is IMO a sort of intimate thing. I have a client who has a custom, branded background so things look more professional and cohesive - very important in the financial field (or so I'm told). Or maybe your WFH setup is in the kitchen because that's the only space you had to put it and you don't want your kids, pets, and spouse ducking into and out of every meeting you have.

That’s part of the fun of working from home though. It lets people see the real you and how you live.

I'm guessing you don't work in corporate environment or no longer work from home.

There are times when video is expected to be on, but you don't want to show your room to everyone.

Having said that I can't think of firefox being able to stream video yet not being able to do this, so likely it is Google's way to make its competitor look subpar. Probably can be fixed by spoofing user agent. Ironically the most recent change in Chrome will make this very difficult in the future.

I’ve worked from home full-time since we were all sent home in March of 2020, and the background of the room I use was one of the first things I figured out that week.

Not sure what you’ve got in your living space that you’re ashamed of, but even if it’s a hovel, the bosses should see that and it should guilt them into paying you more!!

It is privacy. I don't have mess, just don't feel like sharing inside of my house with strangers. Maybe I'm working in weird company, but I noticed that vast majority of coworkers either have camera off, blurs the background or sets up a fake one.

Yeah, I’ve never understood that. I find people like me better when I’m not hiding who I am.