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Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

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21–30 of 190 posts

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#21

I've been following https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/web/Firefox56AddonW... It's surprised me the amount some people rely on addons for their workflow and the amount of effort they will be going through to resist this change come 57. For my usage, I've found Firefox Klar/Focus (which I believe already include the speed improvements from 57+?) on Android and have been extremely impressed.

> which I believe already include the speed improvements from 57+?

Interestingly Firefox Focus uses WebKit (/Blink?), since that's what Android's webview provides. Firefox for Android should get the improvements around version 58 or 59.

Also good to note, for people planning to stick with an older Firefox for as long as they can: Firefox 52 is an Extended Support Release, and as such will actually be actively supported until June next year. This will give WebExtensions some extra time to mature for more use cases: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#22
post #8

Is there a long term plan from Mozilla to implement declarative and built-in (native-speed) content blockers like Safari? Would love to not have to use an extension to do this.

That's actually there in Private Browsing (and I think you can enable it for regular browsing using about:config? But you'll have to search for that yourself), and Firefox Focus includes that by default as well I think.

I believe they're not including it for regular Firefox by default because they don't want to piss off the content industry as long as there aren't enough viable alternative business models.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#23

I will badly miss vimperator. Yeah 56.0 works smoothly but without ability to use keyboard only that's hollow victory for me. Typing this in vim after viewing hackers news in w3m shows how desperate I am.

I'm not sure what features of Vimperator you're using, but if it's only about being able to navigate through your keyboard only, try Vimium-FF: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vimium-ff/?sr...

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#24

I will badly miss vimperator. Yeah 56.0 works smoothly but without ability to use keyboard only that's hollow victory for me. Typing this in vim after viewing hackers news in w3m shows how desperate I am.

There are various proposals for keyboard shortcut APIs to support extensions like Vimperator. Here's one:

https://github.com/Koushien/keyboard-shortcut-api

It's too late for it (or something like it) to be in Firefox 57, but it seems likely a future Firefox will have this capability.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#25

I've been following https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/web/Firefox56AddonW... It's surprised me the amount some people rely on addons for their workflow and the amount of effort they will be going through to resist this change come 57. For my usage, I've found Firefox Klar/Focus (which I believe already include the speed improvements from 57+?) on Android and have been extremely impressed.

Unfortunately that's also where I'll stop during at least a few months after Firefox 57 is released. Quantum is ultra fast, but my extensions are more important. Greasemonkey and Stylish, for example, have equivalent WebExtensions, but they're not as polished. Same with DownThemAll. I think WebExtensions should have matured a bit longer, with Quantum, electrolysis, and Photon being made available for all with the old…

Absolutely. I won't be upgrading and I'm already looking for alternatives, as long as crucial parts of my workflow (tree tabs, session manager) have no adequate replacement.

The ugly redesign is also a thorn in my side.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#26
post #2

Nice to see FF picking up momentum again. I don't want to use Chrome because I don't trust Google with my data (using Chromium right now). Can't wait to switch back, once it's GA.

Honest question: does Chrome share any data with Google, assuming you turn the right switches off?

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#28
post #8

Is there a long term plan from Mozilla to implement declarative and built-in (native-speed) content blockers like Safari? Would love to not have to use an extension to do this.

It's already in Firefox Developer Edition.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#29
post #2

Nice to see FF picking up momentum again. I don't want to use Chrome because I don't trust Google with my data (using Chromium right now). Can't wait to switch back, once it's GA.

Honest question: does Chrome share any data with Google, assuming you turn the right switches off?

> assuming you turn the right switches off

That's the problem. I shouldn't have to find the switches in the first place. Plus they constantly keep shuffling the settings around(on other google apps and android too) and I can never find the ones I am looking for.

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