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A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#101

Post by lorenzhs »

jerrtik wrote: post #99
lorenzhs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Requires Android 5.0 and up" according to the Play Store listing. Android 4.x is from 2013 and had its last update in 2014. It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version?

> It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version? Because ALL of their big competitors namely Chrome, Brave, Opera, and now Edge, support the "ancient" Android 4.x version.

Brave stopped supporting Android 4.x as well, see https://community.brave.com/t/installing-brave-on-android-wi.... The last version that supported 4.4 was 1.3.2, they're at 1.6.3 now for Android 5.0+.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#102

Post by Macha »

dutchCourage wrote: post #85
lol768 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you've brought up what the current state of affairs is, the article says: > For current Nightly users, it’ll feel like a big exciting upgrade of their browsing experience once they update the app Which sounds to me like Fennec is going away and the update will replace it with Fenix. >as of right now both Nightly and Preview Nightly exist side by side; regular nightly users are not impacted at t…

> What will happen when the "new experience" the article talks about is launched? Can't people use the stable version then? I fail to see the issue here.

The issue is that their roadmap has the stable version being replaced automatically in early 2020 with one that doesn't support extensions (full support of which is late 2020), unless you pause updates on your mobile device and had an unsecured browser.

So that means for at least most of 2020, I won't have the option for the browser experience I like and will have to go use brave mobile or something.

As someone who wants to avoid a Chromium hegemony, this is pretty disappointing. I would like to support Mozilla on mobile, but they'll leave me no options to do so.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#103

Post by pwg »

calpaterson wrote: post #35

Lots of comments in this thread about why they have implemented this before implementing addons. Based on Mozilla's public project board it looks like they are well underway on implementing add-ons: https://github.com/orgs/mozilla-mobile/projects/44 Check the done column

The comments here re. "why before addons" is because the marketing-speak (tm) blog post leaves everyone with the impression that this new version is just about to replace the existing FF for Android that does support uBlockOrigin.

And as many comments here indicate (and I am with those who feel this way), for a huge swath of FF for Android users, the ability to have uBlockOrigin is the critical reason why they have FF for Android installed in the first place.

As in, if there is no uBlockOrigin, there is no remaining compelling reason to run FF for Android. This is a failure of the mozilla marketing droids to understand their customers.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#104

Post by jerrtik »

lorenzhs wrote: post #101
jerrtik wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version? Because ALL of their big competitors namely Chrome, Brave, Opera, and now Edge, support the "ancient" Android 4.x version.

Brave stopped supporting Android 4.x as well, see https://community.brave.com/t/installing-brave-on-android-wi... . The last version that supported 4.4 was 1.3.2, they're at 1.6.3 now for Android 5.0+.

Not true

I have Brave v1.6.2 installed on my 4.4.2 phone

Edit: just now i've upgraded to the latest v1.6.3, as you can see brave's still receives updates on a android 4.x

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#105

Post by BlackLotus89 »

If the nightly beta is like firefox preview then it's too early for it.

1) addons don't work yet

2) sharing of media files doesn't work https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/3621

3) you can't add exceptions for ssl certificates https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/1168

And it's all in all more buggy then firefox for me....

I really welcome a new approach, but since in my extensive testing it performed as bad as firefox and had more crashes it will more or less force me either to stick to an older firefox release (mask updates) or use a different browser (maybe install gecko as html framework and use lightning or something)

Edit: formatting and added conclusion

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#106

Post by psv1 »

endothrowho333 wrote: post #92
hd4 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not you, I only opened the article to see if they had dealt with input lag and just lag in general and I get 6 paragraphs of unwanted marketing speak until I even get close to something resembling actual changes. If anyone from Mozilla is reading this, just get to the facts next time, don't insult us by throwing a ton of marketing babble at us, we don't care.

That marketing babble is there for the same reason the majority of YouTube videos are >10 minutes and filled with the same filler: Google's ranking algorithm. For YouTube videos it's mean watch time. Filler babble pumps up those numbers. For Google, it's mean read time. Filler babble also pumps up this number. However, it also ranks higher directly because it's considered a "long form" piece instead of a soundbite, a…

> Blame Google, for its algorithms that are directly shaping our communications and culture. Hell, blame all tech companies that use algorithms to determine culture

> Mozilla, and every other website owner, must play the game

No. Mozilla and every other contributor still have a responsibility for what they put out there. Google and Facebook messing up the overall environment doesn't let individual contributors off the hook.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#107

Post by tablethnuser »

jonny383 wrote: post #9

If Firefox pushes this before implementing support for extensions (namely uBlock or other ad-blocking / privacy extensions) then Firefox is well and truly toast on Android. Correct me if I am wrong but the only reason non-tech people use Firefox on Android is to block ads. Perhaps this is a push from Mozilla to try and get some search revenue flowing again?

I had bought into the Firefox ecosystem down to their password manager and would have paid for premium services. Remove the ability to adblock on mobile and I'm pulling out of the entire ecosystem. What a betrayal. They don't even have any skin in the ad game

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#108

Post by geppetto »

I've just gave it a try but nightly is still on the older version here. Anyway Firefox Preview is my default browser with Firefox Beta as a backup on Android. Preview is much faster but lacks extensions and many settings. Moreover I'm not sold on the new UI: address bar at the bottom is fine as long as it goes on top for some tasks, history is hard to find and I miss the favorites sites start-page (have to create groups but it's not the same).

I use Firefox over Chrome because Google - you know... there's a submission a day about that - and I trust Mozilla much more to be-not-evil and such. So it's kind of a political-ethical thing. On PC performance is on par so it's not a compromising choice. On Android Chrome still has an edge.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#109

Post by endothrowho333 »

psv1 wrote: post #106
endothrowho333 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That marketing babble is there for the same reason the majority of YouTube videos are >10 minutes and filled with the same filler: Google's ranking algorithm. For YouTube videos it's mean watch time. Filler babble pumps up those numbers. For Google, it's mean read time. Filler babble also pumps up this number. However, it also ranks higher directly because it's considered a "long form" piece instead of a soundbite, a…

> Blame Google, for its algorithms that are directly shaping our communications and culture. Hell, blame all tech companies that use algorithms to determine culture > Mozilla, and every other website owner, must play the game No. Mozilla and every other contributor still have a responsibility for what they put out there. Google and Facebook messing up the overall environment doesn't let individual contributors off th…

Hating the game vs. hating the player.

We all have to do things in our own self-interest, especially when there are higher powers bearing down upon us.

They're not off the hook, but they're not the biggest fish that needs to be fried. Going after them won't solve anything except the need to vent one's own emotions.

The cycle will continue to repeat for other websites and other people. We've established that it happens often, and we've even established the root cause. Idling on "who's at fault and what should their punishment be" is just that: idling.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#110

Post by jaynetics »

BlackLotus89 wrote: post #105

If the nightly beta is like firefox preview then it's too early for it. 1) addons don't work yet 2) sharing of media files doesn't work https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/3621 3) you can't add exceptions for ssl certificates https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/1168 And it's all in all more buggy then firefox for me.... I really welcome a new approach, but since in my extensive testing it perfor…

> And it's all in all more buggy

I've used it as main browser for a while and have the same impression. For instance it simply crashes when logging in to certain websites, even after a clean install. Probably some bug with cookies.

Edit: it also still uses more battery than Chrome for me. Apart of that it's a top browser.

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