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Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

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Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#41
post #4

> Firefox Quantum’s new engine uses 30% less memory than Chrome This is a pretty appealing claim. I'm ashamed to admit that one thing that might keep me on Chrome is the trove of passwords in my sync'd up account. But I'll definitely give Quantum a test drive.

Firefox will offer to import those (along with bookmarks) when you start it up, and it offers its own syncing service as well. I switched about a month ago and it's been pretty seamless.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#42

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.

For people who are uber concerned about keeping v56 without losing your extensions as part of the 57 update, you can turn off auto update for Firefox:

Go to about:preferences In Firefox Updates choose "Never Check for Updates"

Breathe easy!

I know this is not recommended, but I love my XUL based extensions a little too much (Tab Groups primary among those) to give them up so easily.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#43
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How's the redesign ugly?

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#44
post #35

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.

I'll be doing the same, staying on 56 for quite awhile. This transition has been very poorly managed by Mozilla. I understand the advantages to Quantum but they have left a very large percentage of their extension developers hanging. Web Extensions is not mature enough for many of the large extensions to be ported but despite that they are proceeding with this transition anyhow. If I was an affected extension develop…

The good of the many outweighs the good of the few.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#45
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I will take a look, thanks. I am using basic set of open, tabnew, follow, bmark. Proper follow hint is very important. Also the ability to redefine keys since I use colemak. I was briefly trying chrome and cVim did seem promising but I prefer firefox. Edit: I had to try it immediately and it looks very promising, thanks. Covers all the basic stuff I need.

>Proper follow hint is very important.

Depending on what you mean by this, be sure to check the advanced settings for vimium-ff. It will let you choose which characters to use for the hints, or there's a buried option to use the link text instead.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#46
Frustrated by the new "screenshots" tool. The "save" button automatically uploads your screenshot up to mozilla servers. The "download" button saves it to your computer. It seems completely backwards. The "save" button should save it to my computer (there's no reason call something a "download" when it's already local). The "download" button should be replaced with an "upload & share" button that sends it to mozilla's servers. Also somewhere it claimed it could screenshot the entire page, but I can't figure out how to actually do that.

I'm also might not upgrade to quantum because I will lose my status bar (status 4 evar addon). I don't understand how people browse the web but can't see where links are taking them. Showing me where the link points when I hover the mouse over it is something so fundamental to browsing I just can't figure out why it was ever removed. I think by default it eventually shows up in a tiny popup but it doesn't show the full link and the delay is infuriating.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#47

Frustrated by the new "screenshots" tool. The "save" button automatically uploads your screenshot up to mozilla servers. The "download" button saves it to your computer. It seems completely backwards. The "save" button should save it to my computer (there's no reason call something a "download" when it's already local). The "download" button should be replaced with an "upload & share" button that sends it to mozilla'…

Hopefully someone from Mozilla reads this and takes notes. I completely agree with you on this one.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#48

Frustrated by the new "screenshots" tool. The "save" button automatically uploads your screenshot up to mozilla servers. The "download" button saves it to your computer. It seems completely backwards. The "save" button should save it to my computer (there's no reason call something a "download" when it's already local). The "download" button should be replaced with an "upload & share" button that sends it to mozilla'…

was super shocked when the button uploaded to the servers.

The straightforward way most people use screenshots nowadays is to paste in Slack/Messenger/Google doc. Seems like a no-brainer for the default to be "copy to clipboard", but instead it's "upload to servers with no indication of this on the first click".

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#49

Frustrated by the new "screenshots" tool. The "save" button automatically uploads your screenshot up to mozilla servers. The "download" button saves it to your computer. It seems completely backwards. The "save" button should save it to my computer (there's no reason call something a "download" when it's already local). The "download" button should be replaced with an "upload & share" button that sends it to mozilla'…

On your second point, I'm running the 57 beta and am not sure what you're talking about.

It's true that there is no "always on" status bar at the bottom. However, when I hover over a link, its URL does appear in the bottom-left corner. Exact same behavior as Chrome.

Re: Firefox 56: Last Stop Before Quantum

#50

I need to be able to use Tab Groups, so I won't be going to 57+.

In case anyone listening, plz no quantum till replacement for: tab groups, hiding horizontal tab bar when using tree style/tab center, and hiding window title bar under MATE, that as far as I can tell is only possible with hide caption title bar plus addon.

Pretty sure all being worked on and excited for >>speed>> but I'm scarred this transition gonna be really annoying.

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