Firefox 90 • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox 90

#51

Post by hutzlibu » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

signal11 wrote: post #43

handrous wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the one hand I'm OK with removing features to keep the browser slim. OTOH Firefox is vastly fatter than it was in its early versions, which supported FTP (and Gopher!), so it doesn't seem like FTP or other minor protocols are an actual cause of complexity- and bloat-creep. [EDIT] I'd actually be a lot happier with this if FF were more aggressively adding new Internet or alternative-Web protocols, or trying to use…

> OTOH Firefox is vastly fatter than it was in its early versions, which supported FTP (and Gopher!), so it doesn't seem like FTP or other minor protocols are an actual cause of complexity- and bloat-creep. I’m sure someone will correct me, but without looking at the source code, I suspect the following will have played a role in increasing code size since the earliest days of Phoenix: * support for newer media forma…

Or Wasm, or WebRTC, or indexedDB ... plus anything else on that long list:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API

Re: Firefox 90

#52

Post by historyloop » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #42

vbezhenar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is the real alternative keeping web open. Firefox does not serve that role anymore.

Safari is only available on one platform (that internationally has a small market share) and isn't all that great about implementing web standards in a timely manner. To me, Firefox is the far better alternative. But really, why should there be only one?

> isn't all that great about implementing web standards in a timely manner.

It's not good at implementing standards in timely manner which Chrome implements before they're even standards (and then become standards when Google pushes them to become so). Interesting isn't it. That literally goes back to what I said.

Without Firefox and Safari, Google can declare anything it wants a standard and implement it LITERALLY yesterday.

Among standards Safari is slow to implement in "timely manner" is web pages connecting to USB devices, Bluetooth and a plethora of other nonsense which Google keeps pushing through because they want the web to be the application OS for everyone, and then slap ads on it.

Re: Firefox 90

#53

Post by muizelaar » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

wmanley wrote: post #35

> * Most users without hardware accelerated WebRender will now be using software WebRender. > * Improved software WebRender performance This sounds interesting. Does anyone know where I could read more about this?

We plan on writing up some more on Software WebRender some time, but some of the particular changes included in 90 are:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1674396

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1700434

Re: Firefox 90

#54

Post by aendruk » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #11

metalliqaz wrote: post #7

Honestly I'm still not used to the new tab style that was introduced last time. 90 seems fine, but not much to get excited about from the user perspective.

I just made mine look like the old black tab bar again with userChrome.css.

An example for the curious:

https://gist.github.com/7accb09dbddd494f53dc889877c1f524

Re: Firefox 90

#55

Post by deregulateMed » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

vbezhenar wrote: post #31

historyloop wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google already singlehandedly controls the web standards. Firefox and Safari are the last obstacles to them basically privatizing the web. The independent Chromium distributions do very little to that effect, as they're not incentivized to specifically disable features Google puts in. If Firefox goes away, kiss the open web goodbye. We'll have it on paper, but just that. It'll be Google's web.

Safari is the real alternative keeping web open. Firefox does not serve that role anymore.

A closed browser with limited features made by a unethical company is keeping the web open?

I'll take FOSS chromium variants before I give my data to Apple(and by proxy, the US and Chinese government).

Re: Firefox 90

#56

Post by johnchristopher » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

> The "Open Image in New Tab" context menu item now opens images and media in a background tab by default. Learn more

Ahaaaa ! Yes !

I could have sworn it had been the default behavior and it got changed at some point but I never bothered to track that down. Can anyone confirm ?

Re: Firefox 90

#57

Post by akho » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #7

Honestly I'm still not used to the new tab style that was introduced last time. 90 seems fine, but not much to get excited about from the user perspective.

The tab bar is functionally useless if you have > 10 tabs open, so I don't even know why I'd notice. Aesthetically, it's fine for me.

Option to hide it completely (replacing with a mobile-style full-screen modal view with properly sized previews and keyboard navigation / fuzzy finding if you allow me to dream) would be nice.

Re: Firefox 90

#58

Post by NelsonMinar » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

Background updates! Hooray! That may sound like a basic table stakes feature but honestly it's a huge improvement. And a lot of other apps do a terrible job of it, particularly on Windows. It's remarkable how many apps require 8, 10 mouse clicks and a restart to install a minor update. Firefox didn't require any clicks but the nag / need to restart was a nuisance.

Actually now that I type that I wonder what has changed. I guess the upgrade appears to happen faster because it was done before the restart? I assume Firefox itself still has to be restarted for the update to be effective.

(No problem on a Windows system; the OS reboots itself so often Firefox is guaranteed to before too long :-P)

Re: Firefox 90

#59

Post by starik36 » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

tempest_ wrote: post #49

metalliqaz wrote: post #7

Honestly I'm still not used to the new tab style that was introduced last time. 90 seems fine, but not much to get excited about from the user perspective.

I remember seeing a lot of complaining about the tabs in the last release thread but they dont seem to bother me at all. What is the issue with the new tabs?

They bothered me greatly on the first day. To the point where I started messing around with userChrome.css to change them back.

I was fine the second day. I think it was just a case of someone moving my cheese unexpectedly.

Re: Firefox 90

#60

Post by fsflover » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

dopu wrote: post #32

Excited that there's more progress being done in implementing proper site isolation. Would be great to not feel like I'm losing something in sticking with FF over Chromium-based browsers.

If you need real security through isolation, try Qubes OS.