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Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

marko.fyi

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Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#211

Post by ken »

bhauer wrote: post #119
pcr910303 wrote: post #101

As I have already said in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21026626 : Firefox really should take care of it's native interface, it feels like a cross-platform app, and while it does have some worthy features to consider, for me it's too non-mac (and in that aspect, it really doesn't look like an Window/Linux app either) for someone using Safari to migrate.

> it really doesn't look like an Window/Linux app either) I guess this is a subjective matter because to my eye, it looks fantastic on Windows, matching the Windows 10 dark theme very well. The active tab highlight looks like the open app highlights in my top-docked Windows taskbar. And the Firefox Container color-bars look great below that. Its sharp edges are a match for the sharp look of Windows. To me, Chrome is…

On the Mac, at least, it's painfully obvious that nothing matches. The look is a little off, but the behavior is way off. The scrolling doesn't work the same as native scrolling, nor do the context menus, the toolbars, the tabs, or the keyboard shortcuts. You can't do anything in Firefox without being reminded that you're using an app which is not like any other app on your Mac.

It seems they've been struggling to get more Mac developers for a long time. Unfortunately, their toolchain is so foreign to Mac developers, too, that people don't want to learn it. It's a chicken-and-egg problem.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#212

Post by swebs »

lol768 wrote: post #84
swebs wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only crashes for me after it automatically updates. The devs set it to intentionally crash when you open a new tab. I don't know if that makes it better or worse really. Edit: Here's the related bugzilla report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1463960

>The devs set it to intentionally crash when you open a new tab Is it intentional? It sounds like the distro's package manager is swapping out the binaries from underneath it whilst it's running. I have some sympathy for the devs here, because I suspect it doesn't happen with the built-in updater (which, let's face it, most users will be using) which probably swaps the binaries on next start-up and just invites the u…

>and just invites the user to restart the browser

Chromium invites the user to restart. Firefox redirects every request to about:restartrequired

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#213

Post by pedrocx486 »

bhauer wrote: post #119
pcr910303 wrote: post #101

As I have already said in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21026626 : Firefox really should take care of it's native interface, it feels like a cross-platform app, and while it does have some worthy features to consider, for me it's too non-mac (and in that aspect, it really doesn't look like an Window/Linux app either) for someone using Safari to migrate.

> it really doesn't look like an Window/Linux app either) I guess this is a subjective matter because to my eye, it looks fantastic on Windows, matching the Windows 10 dark theme very well. The active tab highlight looks like the open app highlights in my top-docked Windows taskbar. And the Firefox Container color-bars look great below that. Its sharp edges are a match for the sharp look of Windows. To me, Chrome is…

The new Edge based on Chromium is full of rounded edges (heh). Microsoft has plans to make Windows' UI round (again).

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#214

Post by ivanstegic »

ivanstegic wrote: post #86

Why is it that there is never any mention of Chrome’s profile switcher? It exists in FF but is so cumbersome to use that I just don’t. I spend time in both browsers but if I could use profiles easily on FF I’d just uninstall Chrome.

OK, so the feature I have been using in Chrome (Profiles) and that I thought I was missing in FF, won't ever exist in FF. Because, Multi-Account Containers (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...). I guess I just needed to know that this was a thing and that it had another name. Going to try to now totally forego Chrome. Thanks for the discussion under https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21498452 that made me realize this was a thing.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#215

Post by detaro »

swebs wrote: post #17
Dumblydorr wrote: post #2

I use firefox on ubuntu and the performance is terrible. Its constantly crashing, tabs crash individually, it hangs, launching memory heavy websites seems to crash it most often. When I switched to chromium the performance got a lot better.

It only crashes for me after it automatically updates. The devs set it to intentionally crash when you open a new tab. I don't know if that makes it better or worse really. Edit: Here's the related bugzilla report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1463960

I mean, if you replace application components underneath the running application through a distro-update, it's not that surprising that this doesn't result in a stable state. All kinds of application will become unhappy when you do a upgrade on a running system.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#216

Post by kkarakk »

whalesalad wrote: post #131
Medicalidiot wrote: post #127

I wish Firefox worked well with MacOS, but even with the newest version, which was intended to fix battery issues and such, it still is vastly inferior to Chrome. Pinch to zoom still does not natively work in Firefox. Battery life still sucks compared to Chrome. Video performance lags behind, even on non-Youtube sites. I wish Firefox was significantly closer, but I still find myself limited by it at the moment.

If you think it’s inferior to Chrome – give Safari a shot. I use it all the time now because it’s so incredibly energy efficient. It also feels faster on the butt dyno in many ways than Chrome.

Using safari on macos feels like using edge on windows. you know there are supposed to be some advantages to doing so but the whole thing feels clunky and outdated comparatively

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#217

Post by gshdg »

ubercow13 wrote: post #162
dguo wrote: post #82

The post briefly mentions multi-account containers[1]. I have loved using them and regard them as a killer feature for Firefox. Very few websites support account switching. Google is probably the best example, and even then, I don't really want to log in to both my personal and work Gmail within the same session. But containers effectively and cleanly enable multiple sessions for all websites. Like tabs so many years…

Containers still have quite a bad UX though. It’s OK to open a tab in the desired container and load Facebook, but whenever you leave Facebook via a link, it will stay in the same container. If you eventually end up on a website you want to be logged in to, you’ll have to manually switch to the right container again. It seems like containers are a powerful concept with multiple different uses, but the UX for each of…

Right-click and "open in new container tab" gives you a choice of containers to open the link in, fwiw.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#218

Post by ken »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #182
tzs wrote: post #138

I've used Firefox as my main browser on my Mac for quite a while. I use Chrome when working on my company's web stuff, because I like its developer tools better and its handling of multiple profiles is a lot better [1]. There is one thing that threatens now and then to move me to Chrome. Here is a sample of that thing: prosecutable subtractive tunable epicycle inductor subparagraphs transactional micropayments blacks…

I agree that the dictionary needs to be expanded; It constantly annoys me.

I would say the problem here is that Firefox needs to use the system spell checker. They can't just "expand" it. It needs to support per-user custom dictionaries.

That's the same complaint I have, BTW, with every part of Firefox. If it's part of the UI, I don't want them to try to do better. I want them to just use the built-in one.

Re: Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet

#220

Post by slenk »

ubercow13 wrote: post #162
dguo wrote: post #82

The post briefly mentions multi-account containers[1]. I have loved using them and regard them as a killer feature for Firefox. Very few websites support account switching. Google is probably the best example, and even then, I don't really want to log in to both my personal and work Gmail within the same session. But containers effectively and cleanly enable multiple sessions for all websites. Like tabs so many years…

Containers still have quite a bad UX though. It’s OK to open a tab in the desired container and load Facebook, but whenever you leave Facebook via a link, it will stay in the same container. If you eventually end up on a website you want to be logged in to, you’ll have to manually switch to the right container again. It seems like containers are a powerful concept with multiple different uses, but the UX for each of…

You can set it that certain sites always launch in certain containers, if that would help
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