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Firefox 78

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181–190 of 269 posts

Re: Firefox 78

#181
post #2

Of note for those using Wayland/Mutter Firefox 78 now has the option of Partial Present[0] and better supported VA-API for video playback. Interestingly there was a recently discovered Mutter bug[1] where the Culling code to prevent rendering of windows that were not visible was not working. This fix will need to be deployed to see the biggest benefit of Partial Present. [0] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?…

When did they start supporting VA-API? I didn't notice. Lacking that was one of the reasons I got a new computer.

With this release

Re: Firefox 78

#183
post #25

I recently tried to move to Firefox (again). I try to to this every couple years. I run into the same three blockers every time. 1. The omnibar completion isn't as good. Chrome figures out where I go pretty regularly, and autocompletes extremely well based upon habits. 2. The dev tools aren't as good. I mostly work in the frontend, and simple things like how you write css overwrites with tab completion is just not as…

3. https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx has tweak to have multi-row tabs. I use pretty much switched to FF just because of this.

Re: Firefox 78

#184
post #94

Great. Unlike many, I walk my talk and have always used Firefox since more than a decade with no exceptions. The very commonly given reason that DevTools are better in Chrome still doesn't stop one from using Firefox for all other general browsing. Unless we support alternatives we really shouldn't complain when they gradually die off in a space that is increasingly coming under the control of giant corporations with…

I really wanted to switch to Firefox, but after several weeks the thing that pushed me back was janky scrolling. It seems like a trivial thing, but it absolutely drove me first up the wall, and then back to Chrome.

It's significantly better (I would say on par with Chrome) if you set general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics to true in about:config. No one seems to talk about it but the difference is like night and day on my system. No clue why it's not on by default.

Also using Wayland (on Linux), gfx.webrender.all and a few other options can help quite a lot. For more details, I suggest you check out these two pages:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox/Tweaks

I applied most of the recommended (and some of the not recommended) tweaks documented there, and I'm very happy with the results.

Re: Firefox 78

#185
post #79

Hate to be cynical, but I feel like they're just releasing a new one every week just to stay in the news.

They are on a 6 week release cycle. Every 6 weeks they release the changes that are ready. Sometimes the changes are large, sometimes small. Over time, rapid releases tend to get new features out sooner than delayed releases. Don’t get hung up on the version number. It doesn’t mean this is a major release, it is just the 78th release in a series.

Netscape 1.x and NCSA Mosaic were originally on a ~6 week release cycle. This is just returning to your roots.

I think we have this revisionist history where the signers to the Agile Manifesto invented these processes from whole cloth, when it's more accurate to think of it as 80% curated list of existing practices, >10% discovered, I ran a Kanban board in 1995, and I wouldn't learn about Deming, Goldratt or Ohno for another ten years. I think a couple people were upset or at least perplexed by my 'yeah ok' reaction to some of their revelations.

Re: Firefox 78

#186
post #83

Great. Unlike many, I walk my talk and have always used Firefox since more than a decade with no exceptions. The very commonly given reason that DevTools are better in Chrome still doesn't stop one from using Firefox for all other general browsing. Unless we support alternatives we really shouldn't complain when they gradually die off in a space that is increasingly coming under the control of giant corporations with…

That was one of my bigger reasons for a long time, but last I checked FF's dev tools were finally comparable to Chrome's. At this point I'm just blocked on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042 . I've seriously tried switching to Firefox a few times, and I really want to switch, but it's just not acceptable to have my CPU regularly pinned at 200%.

You should also switch to Linux (or Windows with WSL if you insist on running a proprietary OS).

Re: Firefox 78

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did they start supporting VA-API? I didn't notice. Lacking that was one of the reasons I got a new computer.

With this release

Oh that's wonderful. I'll get back some of the CPU of my new computer. I've pretty much have a core dedicated to it.

Re: Firefox 78

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a similar reason, I took some advice years ago (after the last mosaic virus scare) to eat multi-grain bread even though it's not entirely my favorite. Without demand, supply dries up. Without supply, the knowledge base dries up. When the shit hits the fan you have to start over from first principles. And if the 'shit' is someone flexing their muscles, then the world looks like extortion while people scramble to p…

I find multi-grain bread just awful to eat, but I'm at the point where I'm suspecting that, if I ate it exclusively for a while, I would forget that other bread is better and accept multi-grain as the new normal. It would certainly be healthier at least.

Multigrain for a PB&J is kind of a weird experience, but at least in my mind is de rigeur for a deli-meat sandwich or even a better grilled cheese sandwich (Colby Jack. It is the way.)

If you haven't tried a PB&J on multigrain toast, it can be messy but a different flavor profile.

ETA: Also there's multi-grain and there's multi-grain. Some brands get their 'N-grain' by making wheat and X bread and then sprinkling N-2 grains on the crust, not unlike a poppy-seed bagel. I think my brain was more comfortable with the latter. Perhaps I expect the crust to get stuck in my teeth anyway, but chunky bits in the middle remind me of badly-made bread.

Re: Firefox 78

#189

Great. Unlike many, I walk my talk and have always used Firefox since more than a decade with no exceptions. The very commonly given reason that DevTools are better in Chrome still doesn't stop one from using Firefox for all other general browsing. Unless we support alternatives we really shouldn't complain when they gradually die off in a space that is increasingly coming under the control of giant corporations with…

Mozilla has continually put Linux last in nearly everything they do. Hardware acceleration on Linux has been absent but works on Chromium. Wayland support is broken with noticeable artifacts but works on Chromium. In their recent VPN announcement there is no support for Linux. In their password manager announcement revamp they don't support Linux. Why would I support a company that doesn't put open source first?

Hardware acceleration works just fine for me on Linux (granted, I had to flip a few values in about:config). And all the Wayland glitches have been fixed months ago.

Re: Firefox 78

#190

Great. Unlike many, I walk my talk and have always used Firefox since more than a decade with no exceptions. The very commonly given reason that DevTools are better in Chrome still doesn't stop one from using Firefox for all other general browsing. Unless we support alternatives we really shouldn't complain when they gradually die off in a space that is increasingly coming under the control of giant corporations with…

Agreed. FF is my "browser"-browser, mostly because the Awesomebar is better than what Chrome has. Chrome, for obvious reasons, tries to nudge you towards searching via Google whereas FF searches through your history which is so much nicer.

I also have an instance of Brave open. I use this for "apps" like my email and Spotify which are always open. It seems to perform slightly better for this and it supports media keys, so that works well.

The thing that made this easy was using a password manager which synchronizes across all my browsers.

As for dev tools, I find that they both have strenghts and weaknesses and so, I switch back and forth.

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