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How Firefox Got Fast Again

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Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#381

Post by Splines »

k__ wrote: post #376

How long will it take to forget about this again? The whole story reminds me of something a project manager, who worked at the Google homepage, once said. They worked their asses off to get the page smaller and smaller so the UX was unbeatable. Then, after they got enough users, they focused on different things, and more and more stuff was included. Somehow Firefox went the same way, right? First they created it so i…

Performance is usually death by a thousand cuts, and (imo) the best way of mitigating this is by standardizing some measurements and making that automated. Block changes that move performance past this bar, make sure the organization buys off on this approach. Any changes to a critical area that impact performance need to be zero-sum - if you add something, you need to take something away.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#382

Post by DiThi »

iterati wrote: post #333
DiThi wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it some time. I was expecting not to switch because of lack of Tree Style Tabs until around end of year. But I switched some weeks ago. Some addon authors use this opportunity to make a better addon. A few days ago GreaseMonkey has been released with a new API. And of course there will be new addons made by other people to replace lost functionality. It's happening, just not overnight.

That's the issue - there's no real path to making these legacy plugins work. There are open issues for a keyboard api for FF that has had very little movement over months, so while I'm sure it'll eventually get to a point where I can use FF as I used to, that not being the case now has given me little reason to stay with FF and so back to Chrome I went.

It's too soon to judge, I think. I would be happy using the old FF if the new one didn't have already the things I need. In the mean time I would try to collaborate. Once FF 57 is out of beta officially, there will eventually be enough people with itches to scratch. It was in my plans to implement Tree Style Tabs properly if no alternative appeared before end of the year.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#383

Post by drdaeman »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #371
nachtigall wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you could run multiple Firefox instances with different profiles But not at the same time, which is a showstopper to me (still using Firefox Nightly as main browser).

You can absolutely run multiple different instances at the same time. I've been using Firefox this way for over a year, 2 instances open right now.

It is possible, but it's messy in terms of which one is the default (clicking on links outside of the browser), taskbar/launcher buttons (OS- and DE-dependent, some configurations have issues e.g. with pinning) etc. I think there was something else - minor and just slightly inconvenient - but I forgot.

Compared to ProfileManager, Container Tabs are absolutely awesome. Completely different experience, smooth and nice.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#384

Post by unicornporn »

nkkollaw wrote: post #378
nachtigall wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Tree Style Tabs plus the Awesome bar it is not a problem to handle and it's easy to get up to this number over the day.

But, so I guess you open links in a new tab and don't bother closing them?

I easily reach a hundred tabs with Tree Style Tabs when researching a topic. The tree structure makes it easy to understand how you've navigated the web and to traceback where you came from. When I found what I've what I was looking for I start closing tabs. The ones that remain is my catch and I save the URLs and/or contents.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#385

Post by DiThi »

zamalek wrote: post #146
eitland wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends a bit: if devs switch back I'd say definitely. If devs are ready to repeat the IE 6 story, this time with Chrome. Getting companies to do cross browser testing seems hard even if it it should be simpler than ever before.. :-/

I switched to Quantum as my daily driver a few weeks ago, I love it as a user. It has made me hate the Chrome dev tools with white hot passion. Firebug might be gone, but the new dev tools are a masterpiece of usability. I emphatically recommend developer edition as a development browser.

Indeed, I didn't think it could surpass Chrome's dev tools quality so quickly.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#386

Post by acgIssues »

DonHopkins wrote: post #314
ghostcluster wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But now that Google has fundamentally broken users' trust by locking people out of their own Google Docs through automated machine learning algorithm, can't you see why people are wanting to protect themselves from a corporate culture that allows those kinds of zealous and intrusive policies? It was locking out journalists drafting stories! How can you trust Google anymore? There's something rotten festering in Mount…

Sign up for Google Gold and you can make as many abusive documents as you want, without any risk of automated censorship! https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/31/google-docs-users-locked...

Now this is ridiculous. Thanks for sharing this article.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#387

Post by on_and_off »

ared38 wrote: post #362
on_and_off wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My main issue with Chrome was the endless nags to sign in to a Google account, and just generally wanting less dependence on Google One thing they have been doing very well is allowing history to sync between multiple devices on different OSes. Right now I use Chrome everywhere because : - It feels pretty fast (I still have to try the new FF) - Any replacement needs to come with an extension covering this feature an…

Firefox has had syncing built in for a while: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/features/sync/ Haven't tried it on iOS yet, but it worked great on my Android.

and this is where Chrome has a good hook on me.

In order to switch, both FF desktop and mobile need to be better than Chrome.

Does FF support a version of Chrome tabs too ?

Damn, they have built themselves a good moat just with features I will miss.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#389

Post by DiThi »

on_and_off wrote: post #354
mapgrep wrote: post #52

I switched back to Firefox 54 from Chrome when multiprocess browsing ("Electrolysis") came out of beta. It's been absolutely great. It's fast and I trust and like the nonprofit behind it. And all the extensions I care about are available. My main issue with Chrome was the endless nags to sign in to a Google account, and just generally wanting less dependence on Google. I also like that Firefox has a built in tracking…

>My main issue with Chrome was the endless nags to sign in to a Google account, and just generally wanting less dependence on Google One thing they have been doing very well is allowing history to sync between multiple devices on different OSes. Right now I use Chrome everywhere because : - It feels pretty fast (I still have to try the new FF) - Any replacement needs to come with an extension covering this feature an…

I've been using FF sync for at least 3 years now, probably more. And FF 57 is definitely on par with Chrome in browsing speed. Still not quite there with WebGL, though. The debugger is much better now, too, and surprisingly more responsive than Chrome's.

Re: How Firefox Got Fast Again

#390

Post by bjz_ »

davesque wrote: post #262
Touche wrote: post #38

Am I the only one that is confused by Firefox's "fast again" narrative? I remember that they launched the https://arewefastyet.com/ site a few years ago to fight the idea that FF was slow. It feels like there's a new blog post that essentially says the same thing "we're fast now" every couple of months. So I find this all confusing. Am I just remembering incorrectly, or haven't they already declared "we're as fast as…

I recently (a couple of weeks ago) finished giving Firefox another try for about two weeks. Sorry to say, but it just felt laggy compared with Chrome. I'll give it another shot when the new rendering engine is fully integrated into the release channel.

Did you try the nightly or Beta version? If not, you weren't experiencing the new changes. These will drop on the stable channel within the next day or so.
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