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Reinventing Firefox for Android

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#131

Post by yorwba »

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?

The big flash announcement is to get early adopters for testing. There's no reason to delay testing until the MVP is ready, as long as testers remain aware that Firefox Preview is a preview that shouldn't be expected to already have all features implemented.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#132

Post by lucideer »

abdulmuhaimin wrote: post #29

I dont envy Mozilla. The demographic that they're targeting are really hard to please.

You're probably right but, as a member of that demographic:

- I use Firefox, and have done continuously for a long time. I don't intend to switch to anything else, despite being very unhappy with the experience in many ways, as I consider it to be the "least worst"

- I genuinely believe there are very easily achievable low-hanging fruit that Mozilla could implement that would at least please a large swathe of their target demographic. Namely, not talking about privacy and then slapping Google tracking into everything they do. I understand that there's a revenue stream there, and a balance to be met between economic survival and ideal conditions, but this particilar issue is a deal tipped too far towards defying the point of the exercise.

Perhaps I'm in a bubble and this is just my "single issue", but shouting about privacy and sending all that data about their users to Google seems a fairly large deal to me.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#133

Post by lucb1e »

michaelmrose wrote: post #121
lucb1e wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you tried other browsers? I must say that the effect has gotten smaller since I got my second Android phone about a year ago (yes, the first lasted 2013-2018), I think because the webview component itself just got more bulky, but it's still very noticeable how slow Fennec is (Firefox from F-Droid) compared to a bare webview browser.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#134

Post by dochtman »

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…

In my experience the built-in tracking protection (now enabled by default) does a pretty good job.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#135

Post by suby »

orbital-decay wrote: post #64
Touche wrote: post #30

Some feedback: If you are going to market your browser as privacy focused, it has to block ads by default. As far as I can this one does not block ads at all. Good initial experience but please block ads.

>If you are going to market your browser as privacy focused, it has to block ads by default A privacy-focused browser should care about the privacy part of the online advertisement, which is tracking. Completely preventing the site from showing any ads is a different feature.

Considering that advertisements are a common vector for installing spyware and malware, I think adblocking and antitracking are two sides of the same coin.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#136

Post by asveikau »

One reason I like FF on Android better than Chrome:

The Chrome user agent has your device model, even in incognito mode.

If you have a relatively rare Android device in your market, I think you can be tracked fairly uniquely on that alone. I was creeped out when I discovered this.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#137

Post by kumarharsh »

Wow, this preview is incredibly good! I was not expecting such a good quality from a preview app (given how bad some of the other tries from Firefox have been on Android).

And you know what absolutely clinches it for me? That you moved the address bar to the bottom!! Just like Edge on Windows mobile - that's the best position for address bar IMO.

I also hope you do something about better battery management on the android app.

Have a bow!

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#138

Post by Bombthecat »

godelski wrote: post #129

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 desktop…

Tried to Google it, what is mobile supports unblock?

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#139

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

Bombthecat wrote: post #138
godelski wrote: post #129

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 desktop…

Tried to Google it, what is mobile supports unblock?

He almost certainly means uBlock Origin.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#140

Post by [deleted] »

Bombthecat wrote: post #138
godelski wrote: post #129

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 desktop…

Tried to Google it, what is mobile supports unblock?

[deleted]
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