Reinventing Firefox for Android • Hacker News Board

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#121

Post by michaelmrose » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #118

thisisitnownow wrote: post #84

I have been using Firefox on Android since 2013. It's been constantly improving. I am so glad that it exists so that I am not forced to use a browser (Chrome) that doesn't respect me or my privacy and has every incentive to fuck me over.

I used it in 2013 and found it constantly degrading with each update. They removed a major feature to reflow text to fit your screen nicely, worsened the UI, and other things I don't remember anymore. After using an old version for a while, I tried another browser, and holy crap that was 10 times faster as well as being customizable the way I was used to from Firefox desktop. Not open source, not as featureful (no ad…

The current version of firefox for android works very well and doesn't feel noticeably different from chrome on a several year old phone.

The newest version mentioned in this article actually feels faster than chrome although I'm not crazy about the new ui it is usable without difficultly and a work in progress.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#122

Post by trickstra » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:02 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #114

throwupaway123 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is still a preview, it's nowhere near a finished product. Extensions come after MVP https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/662#issuecomm...

(minimum viable product) Isn't it strange that the big flash announcement comes before MVP?

Yes, that's what "viable" means. Viable for big flashy announcement.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#123

Post by rando9297 » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:03 PM UTC

eco wrote: post #112

bombledmonk wrote: post #74

I just switched to the current Android Firefox a few weeks ago and I must say I find it very hard to go back to Chrome. uBlock and Dark Reader make the phone browsing experience a remarkable amount more pleasant. Chrome's general UI interaction is definitely more polished and snappier all around, but browsing mobile with good ad blocking, and not getting blasted in the face by stark white pages more than covers for F…

It should probably be noted that this Firefox Preview they are announcing doesn't yet have Add-On support. But I agree, uBlock Origin makes the mobile web far less painful. Also, I'll point out that you want to be using uBlock Origin, not uBlock. As I recall, Raymond Hill (the creator of uBlock) decided to hand over uBlock Firefox to one of the contributors to offload some of the maintenance burden but then the new o…

Last time I checked, Raymond Hill's website didn't even have a donation button. This is an incredibly generous stance for him to take but if he doesn't want money himself maybe he could collect funds for a charity. I really feel I owe someone for this software.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#124

Post by basch » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

bombledmonk wrote: post #74

I just switched to the current Android Firefox a few weeks ago and I must say I find it very hard to go back to Chrome. uBlock and Dark Reader make the phone browsing experience a remarkable amount more pleasant. Chrome's general UI interaction is definitely more polished and snappier all around, but browsing mobile with good ad blocking, and not getting blasted in the face by stark white pages more than covers for F…

Behind the Overlay, and uMatrix as well. My favorite quadfecta of extensions.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#125

Post by m-p-3 » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

Not fond of the bottom address bar, I guess I'm not used to it because I always tap the top-right corner to switch tabs... I just need to get it in my muscle-memory, not a big deal. I still cross my fingers this will be configurable at some point.

My main gripe is that I feel like bookmarks are now a second-class citizen in Firefox Preview, they're not as accessible. I could see my mobile bookmarks right on the new tab screen in Firefox, now I have to press ⋮ > Your Library > Bookmarks and then click the bookmark I want.

4 clicks, while it took only one (or two) before with bookmarks as the default panel on my homepage on Firefox "classic".

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#126

Post by jddj » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:06 PM UTC

Ultramanoid wrote: post #28

patrickbolle wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a preview version (as mentioned a billion times in the article). Addons are planned by the end of 2019. This is for testing.

Like others have said, uBlock Origin ( or solid alternative; uMatrix, etc ) at this point is a prerequisite for any browser. I am not testing something that puts me in danger and throws me into the festering garbage dumpster that internet is these days without it. It's like testing a car that doesn't have brakes yet.

Protection in layers.

Pi-hole at the DNS level, ublock origin and fingerprint protection at the browser level.

If the latter two are missing because I'm testing a beta browser which is very likely to a) deliver them and b) help defend against a chrome monoculture, I feel alright about sshing into a VPS to update pi-hole and then taking it for a spin.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#127

Post by lucideer » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:06 PM UTC

- Talks about introducing a browser more focused on privacy

- Comes with Google search suggestions enabled by default on first run

(has a Google logo prominently displayed in the middle of the screen on first run in fact)

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#128

Post by sanbor » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

Small tip: please avoid giving time estimations using seasons "coming this fall", as in the other hemisphere it is going to be spring.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#129

Post by godelski » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:08 PM UTC

To any Mozilla/Firefox developer reading this. I try to convert people to Firefox. The number one reason people switch, by far, is because mobile has add on support. So I say to push this front and center in marketing (I know this is a preview). People are reluctant to switch their desktop browser because chrome pretty much has the same features. But it they switch their mobile browsers they also switch their desktops to take advantage of the full feature suite.

And to anyone trying to convert your friends "mobile supports ublock" is usually all I have to say.

Edit:unblock == uBlock Origin (sorry, on my phone)

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#130

Post by magissima » Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 7:09 PM UTC

I've been using Firefox Preview for a while and I like it, especially the bottom navigation bar, but one thing that I hope survives from the old app is the tab queue, which sends links opened from other apps to Firefox in the background without stealing focus from the original app. To me it's a game changer on the level of tabbed browsing and I don't know why all mobile browsers don't have it.