Using Firefox for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet • Hacker News Board

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

#351

Post by robbrown451 » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 4:03 AM UTC

xen2xen1 wrote: post #335

robbrown451 wrote: post #262

My biggest gripe with Firefox is that it doesn't support MIDIAccess. So any web app that works with an electronic piano, doesn't work. They've been saying they are working on it for years. Works in Chrome, Brave, Opera, Edge, etc. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MIDIAccess https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=836897 It's actually pretty bizarre since the basic functionality (hit a note on the…

Your biggest problem is that it doesn't work with a MIDI keyboard? Ok? I have to ask why this is so important? What is the use case here?

Browsers are essentially operating systems, and can allow replacing desktop apps with web apps. I mean, I don't use a stylus, but if I did a lot of graphics stuff and liked using a stylus, but I couldn't use a stylus within one brand of browser, suddenly the browser is far less useful to me.

Same goes for other things. WebGl is very rarely useful for me. But if I liked playing (or developing) games, it would be awesome if the browser allowed that sort of thing rather than forcing developers to build for a specific native platform. So an immense amount of work has gone into webGl, even though it appeals to a fairly small subset of users right now.

I'd guess you could imagine desktop apps that use a midi keyboard. Like, ones to learn piano, or otherwise do interesting musical stuff. I mean, they have WebAudio, but its usefulness is limited if they can't do anything with a keyboard.

In my case, I develop a web app that does music stuff. (and it actually has to be a web app because of the way it uses YouTube) It's disappointing that I have to say "Chrome/Blink only."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rytYcOUZH30

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

#352

Post by hu3 » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 5:46 AM UTC

hilbert42 wrote: post #298

There's no way I'll use Mozilla's stock-standard Firefox. Why would I when: 1. When Mozilla has forced us to use WebRTC, it kowtowed to this line out of fright of the likes of Google et al . Well tough, by Mozilla nuking important differences that differentiate Firefox from other browsers I may as well use Chrome (its user-base is bigger anyway and most of Firefox's users have already deserted to Chrome for probably…

I'll try Pale Moon! Thanks for the tip.

https://www.palemoon.org/

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

#353

Post by yoasif_ » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 7:24 AM UTC

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…

Went ahead and filed it for you: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=499593#c408

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

#354

Post by wtmt » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 7:34 AM UTC

LordLandon wrote: post #295

gshdg wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Might want to be careful with something like this, since facebook/google/etc decorate links with outward redirects for tracking purposes.

On the other side of this tracking, there are also URL parameters like fbclid, gclid, etc., that can tell the opened site where you came from and which post/content piece on that platform you came from. Additional extensions to remove these parameters are also necessary.

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

#355

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 7:35 AM UTC

jwalton wrote: post #79

paulcarroty wrote: post #77

Stop sending my data to Google ( https://twitter.com/jonathansampson/status/11658588961766604... ) and make Firefox fast on Linux (minimum as Chrome) - reason't why I'm not use Fox anymore.

What are you using instead, then?

[deleted]

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

#356

Post by tripzilch » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 8:55 AM UTC

pfranz wrote: post #313

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…

I work remotely and use separate browsers for work and personal stuff. I was hoping Firefox would allow me to use one browser, but it didn't quite work out like I had hoped. There's no keyboard shortcuts, so you're forced to use mouse/menus (I did find an extension to open a new window in a container using shortcuts). I'm pretty sure history/cookies are global--I couldn't delete all cookies from a container (I think…

I wish Firefox had customizable shortcuts for everything, tabs, bookmarks, etc. It's just weird that you can't.

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

#357

Post by tripzilch » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 9:04 AM UTC

maaaats wrote: post #242

2ion wrote: post #223

The only drawback I have with FF nowadays is history management. I have enabled 'infinite history' (do not delete old history, ever) so I can keep a journal of what I've visited when. The history, as large as it might turn out, is just a few MB of an sqlite3 database (places.sql) -- problematic is the management of it using the Firefox UI. Searching is laggy and deletion of swaths of entries is impossible as it makes…

At least Firefox gives proper suggestions from history when typing in addresses. Chrome is way off, as if it wants you to search in google instead.

Actually it only gives a limited numer (10 or so) hits from your history. I remember years ago, this wasn't the case and you could keyword search your history/bookmarks and the dropdown would get longer and get a scrollbar, but you could actually scroll through 100s of hits that way.

I used that a LOT, and I'm still sad they removed it for some reason. 10 is very often not enough, because it lists too many similar domains.

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

#358

Post by toastal » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 9:05 AM UTC

microcolonel wrote: post #161

No, you make it function properly before I consider “[giving] it a chance”. Firefox is ridden with decade-old compliance bugs, and is generally a pain to write applications and documents for. That's just part of why web applications and documents work worse in Firefox than they do in Chromium. Mozilla should derive from Chromium, if they want to actually deliver a web browser worth choosing. They can even fight their…

I still have issues with Blink's CSS columns 7 years later, so this isn't a one-sided deal.

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

#359

Post by neop1x » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 10:22 AM UTC

egze wrote: post #18

I recently ditched both Chrome and Firefox. Now super happy with Safari.

Eats lot of RAM, has limited number of extensions, doesn't support royalty-free VP9 video codec. Feature-wise better than Edge, worse than FF ( https://caniuse.com/ ).

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

#360

Post by onurtag » Mon, Nov 11, 2019, 12:03 PM UTC

tripzilch wrote: post #357

maaaats wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least Firefox gives proper suggestions from history when typing in addresses. Chrome is way off, as if it wants you to search in google instead.

Actually it only gives a limited numer (10 or so) hits from your history. I remember years ago, this wasn't the case and you could keyword search your history/bookmarks and the dropdown would get longer and get a scrollbar, but you could actually scroll through 100s of hits that way. I used that a LOT, and I'm still sad they removed it for some reason. 10 is very often not enough, because it lists too many similar do…

It is possible to get that feature back with two advanced tweaks (which I had to use):

1) Increase the number of results in about:config: Set browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to your desired value (like 60).

2) Make the results scrollable with a userchrome.css tweak: Using this example or your own: https://github.com/MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks/blob/master/c...