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Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

blog.nori.moe

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Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#91

Post by dont__panic »

danShumway wrote: post #39
PostOnce wrote: post #2

I'm perfectly happy with Firefox, both desktop and mobile. It works very well and I never have problems with it. It blocks ads on mobile and chrome doesn't. As far as I have seen, it's fast. I don't notice a difference on the rare occasion I open chromium to check and see that some application will look the same for a client as it does for me. But I guess it's always true: people go out of their way to complain, but…

I'll push back a little bit on this. To preface, I have also been at least reasonably happy with Fenix on Android, although I am frustrated that the add-ons are still limited. I don't feel like I have a lot of friction, the UI works well enough for what I need it to do, and I have pretty much no desire to switch to another browser. And I regularly get annoyed at the level of scrutiny and amount of bad-natured critici…

Agreed. I use FF on my Android devices because it's the best browser by a huge margin (uBlock Origin and AMP redirect alone guarantee that; not being made by Google is icing on the cake).

However, FireFox mobile could always be better. I really hope that Mozilla keeps listening to the users to figure out how to make the browsers better, especially when they have so many engineers that they seem to constantly shuffle the UI around just to give them work to do. There's plenty of actual improvements to make, and more options to give users with different preferences, and that should be where Mozilla spends engineer time with such a mature product. Instead of rewriting the browser every couple of years because the previous one was a mess.

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#92

Post by dont__panic »

ekager wrote: post #60
0xFreebie wrote: post #3

Unfortunately, this is what actual Mozilla developers think about posts like this: https://web.archive.org/web/20200731211652/https://www.twitt... It's sad.

Hello that is me. I left almost a year ago. I posted that as a joke after years of abuse and it was directed towards those abusive community members. I had no ill will towards users. In fact, users are why I stayed so long and tried to improve the product. I agree with some of the criticisms in this post. The fact you’re still using me, the most public facing woman on the project, as a scapegoat and target for your f…

Thanks for all of your hard work on Firefox mobile -- I've read plenty of background about those abusive community members, and I can only sympathize with you. People can be jerks.

That being said; responding to them with that (public!) tweet probably only added fuel to the fire, especially since the tweet wasn't clearly directed at only those abusive community members. If I didn't know about your full story and stumbled upon that tweet, I wouldn't come away from it with the best impression of you or Mozilla.

I'm not sure this person is necessarily targeting you. Or women in general. It seems to me like they're just frustrated with the product and this tweet is a very easy vent for that frustration.

Anyway, hopefully your current role is a little less political than what you dealt with at Mozilla. I definitely wouldn't have lasted as long as you did in that situation!

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#93

Post by troyvit »

PostOnce wrote: post #2

I'm perfectly happy with Firefox, both desktop and mobile. It works very well and I never have problems with it. It blocks ads on mobile and chrome doesn't. As far as I have seen, it's fast. I don't notice a difference on the rare occasion I open chromium to check and see that some application will look the same for a client as it does for me. But I guess it's always true: people go out of their way to complain, but…

I like how the top reply to your comment is two complaints about firefox.

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#94

Post by pcwalton »

0xFreebie wrote: post #3

Unfortunately, this is what actual Mozilla developers think about posts like this: https://web.archive.org/web/20200731211652/https://www.twitt... It's sad.

You might consider that when you start bashing the Firefox developers personally, they are much more likely to just stop working on Firefox entirely than to listen to you. Realize that most engineers working at Mozilla are already giving up some amount of money to do so relative to what they could earn at FAANG.

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#95

Post by atatatat »

betwixthewires wrote: post #65
option_greek wrote: post #55

We will continue to see posts like this till enough users are turned off by them and Firefox will no longer be a viable browser to run as a user or support as a dev. You are comparing the last truly free alternative to a browser built by ad grubby organisation. While a vocal minority keeps doing this the rest of us are happily using it without issues. You don't like Firefox? Great! Chrome is just a click away. Feel f…

Or, bear with me, use a fork of chromium and get google to give you their labor for free while using a piece of software that serves you first and foremost.

Weird that Mozilla could also be doing this.

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#96

Post by atatatat »

caslon wrote: post #31
tomrod wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the changes she was involved in have yet to be rolled back. Long shadows happen when developers have user-hostile attitudes.

It's fine to acknowledge that Firefox for anything but desktop sucks now. I do pretty often, actually: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26762431 But complaining about a problem that Mozilla's already gotten rid of is counterproductive at best.

Just don't mind the gap in security on your desktop, then?

Or do you disable JS?

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#97

Post by cptskippy »

m-p-3 wrote: post #57
PostOnce wrote: post #2

I'm perfectly happy with Firefox, both desktop and mobile. It works very well and I never have problems with it. It blocks ads on mobile and chrome doesn't. As far as I have seen, it's fast. I don't notice a difference on the rare occasion I open chromium to check and see that some application will look the same for a client as it does for me. But I guess it's always true: people go out of their way to complain, but…

I have two complaints for Firefox Mobile (Android. 1. `about:config` is disabled on Stable branch, if you want to access it you need to use the Beta branch. Why is that the case? You don't see the same arbitrary limitation on desktop. 2. It seems to have issue loading a page randomly from time to time, and even trying to reload or open a different URL doesn't work, kinda like as if the tab itself crashed and became u…

The lack of about:config bugs me as well. I believe this lockout coincided with the introduction of Mobile Friendly Add-Ons.

The pages not loading is something that started with-in the last year and it seems to be getting worse. I open a lot of things in new tabs and at least 10% of the time it fails.

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#98

Post by dmz73 »

PostOnce wrote: post #2

I'm perfectly happy with Firefox, both desktop and mobile. It works very well and I never have problems with it. It blocks ads on mobile and chrome doesn't. As far as I have seen, it's fast. I don't notice a difference on the rare occasion I open chromium to check and see that some application will look the same for a client as it does for me. But I guess it's always true: people go out of their way to complain, but…

FF on android WAS a great browser. If it never existed before and you tried current version then it would be OK but lacking some important features and you could hope it would gain those features soon. Knowing what features have been removed since the FF was first released, it's hard to call FF great, good or even OK. And maybe you don't need or use those removed features...until you do need them and they are suddenly not there...and other browsers still have them or have gained them. After all that it becomes clear why FF is down to 1% and browser share and still sliding down. With that level of mismanagement it will either disappear or become unusable in not too distant future.

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#99

Post by spacechild1 »

I have always been using Firefox on Android and it's a shame that the UI keeps getting worse. Why do they regularly remove features? I honestly don't understand it. The most egregious example is that with the latest version you can't move tabs anymore. Wtf? Why?

Re: Firefox for Android is a mess, and something needs to change

#100

Post by 5pecta70r »

I'm still on 68.11.0 on my android and android x86 devices. Even though it's outdated, it is by far the most functional as far as usability goes. A lot of addons will work with it (not all), just go to the base firefox addons page and request desktop site. The extensions are what made firefox great for power users, hobbling it was imho the wrong direction to pursue.
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