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Reinventing Firefox for Android

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#171

Post by davidgerard »

rando9297 wrote: post #123
eco wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

He wants people to donate to the people compiling the block lists.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#172

Post by briffle »

magissima wrote: post #130

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.

I agree, one of the best parts about FF on android was the queue. I hate the clicking a link, and it forces you to task switch right then to that link. I like to read things, click for more info, and then follow up when I am done. I rate it higher than add-ons and ublock (I use a DNS server that filters out many ads for me already, https://www.nextdns.io/ )

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#173

Post by SXX »

amenod wrote: post #157
readams wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS Firefox is not really Firefox. It's a Safari skin, because Apple doesn't like competition.

Not that I want to defend them, but it does have a nice side effect that web developers must run their sites in some browser other than Chrome (even if they ignore Firefox).

So much of this. Too bad many people who love Firefox don't get how important that Apple decision is for survival for non-Chromium browsers..

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#174

Post by bscphil »

Causality1 wrote: post #83

Now if they could just fix Firefox Mobile's abysmal tab management. Chrome Mobile's tab screen is a stack of pages in the Z-axis with the one closest to the user being the most recent tab and so on. Firefox Mobile's is a grid with the number of rows and columns being variable depending on screen dimensions. Figuring out which ones you opened in what order is not immediately apparent. It also suffers from the frankly…

> Now if they could just fix Firefox Mobile's abysmal tab management. Chrome Mobile's tab screen is a stack of pages in the Z-axis with the one closest to the user being the most recent tab and so on. Firefox Mobile's is a grid with the number of rows and columns being variable depending on screen dimensions.

You can change it to a linear list easily. Settings -> General -> Compact Tabs.

Personally I strongly prefer the way Firefox does it. The order is actually pretty simple. Left to right, top to bottom is oldest to newest.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#175

Post by a_f »

Droobfest wrote: post #113

I'm a huge fan of the navigation bar on the bottom. I've missed it since I had to give up Windows Phone. It's hard to believe that neither Apple or Google ever added the option. I can't think of a single reason it would be better on top, It's simply harder to reach and less usable. This also goes for all other apps...

Its such a nice change, I cant believe I haven't come across this yet. From what little I have used of the app it feels really nice and slick.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#177

Post by mncolinlee »

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…

We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now.

We already support a very limited set of the WebExtensions API to offer features like Reader Mode. Rest assured that more features will land in the coming months.

If you're a developer and you want to help us, our Github site is at this link. We mark easier issues with a Good First Issue label. We also need help with translations, documentation, and even getting issues filed.

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#178

Post by iggldiggl »

addicted wrote: post #7
mjw1007 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, it's very disappointing to see such a long article without any mention of their plans for addons. It isn't even clear that they're not going to replace Android Firefox with Fenix before getting extensions working. As far I know this issue is the most recent source of information: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/574 It says «We are currently finalizing the transition plan».

It's not comprehensive, but I prefer the strategy of publicly releasing the information as they have it available, even if it means it often raises more questions. Even if they don't have the entire transition planned out, I think it was important for Mozilla to communicate their Android dev focus was gonna shift to GeckoView, from existing apps, to allow external devs, and customers to have a better plan, even if th…

> I think it was important for Mozilla to communicate their Android dev focus was gonna shift to GeckoView, from existing apps

Focus has already shifted for quite some time, though - the current Firefox for Android ("Fennec") code base has already been in maintenance mode since the end of 2017, i.e. over 1½ years, including a few months at the start of 2018 were almost nobody was regularly working on it at all other than watching Bugzilla for any immediate priority bugs and reacting to those in case any happened.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#179

Post by jeroenhd »

sciurus wrote: post #162
jeroenhd wrote: post #153

I can't get it to work with my custom certificate authority (which I use to analyse traffic coming from my phone every now and then to see if any apps are leaking personal info). Also, though I know better, I also have some intranet services running with a certificate signed by that authority because the domains are dynamically generated and I can't automate my DNS to get wildcard letsencrypt certificates. Normal mob…

There's an issue for this at https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2286

Thanks, I just subscribed to the issue. Seems like it's blocked by a Bugzilla issue that didn't get updated in five months. I guess it's gonna be a while until I switch browsers.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#180

Post by ec109685 »

lucideer wrote: post #127

- 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)

Google pays a large amount to be default search engine.
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