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

blog.nori.moe

101–110 of 111 posts

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

#101

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?

Resume Driven Development

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

#102
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…

My major problem is that the rewrite in 2019 broke nearly all the addons and ones I use haven't been fixed.

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

#103
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes you must send a proper PDF. And saving a page to PDF (or "printing") is a basic feature of a browser. They shouldn't release a mobile browser without that. Also, sending a low quality screenshot of a mobile screen isn't a professional thing.

>Also, sending a low quality screenshot of a mobile screen isn't a professional thing. Cause a pdf is much more professional just because you open it in Adobe vs your photo gallery... This is bar none some of the most business oriented pretentiousness I've ever read on here. There is nothing wrong with image files and screenshots. It's just a file format. The fact that you save one as a pdf doesn't change the fact th…

Some reading material for you. Being an ass is already annoying, but being an ass without even primary school level knowledge of the topic at hand is unacceptable.

PDF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

Screenshot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics

See also: aspect ratio, custom print CSS, webpages that are longer than one screen height (all of them!)

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

#104
post #37

I have an even more infuriating issue with the urlbar suggestions. About 50% of the time I type something in, it will find an url suggestion for the first letter or so but keep that suggestion at the end as I keep typing, unless I press backspace before enter. e.g. "hot tubs for salettps://news.ycombinator.com"

I experienced that too, but I wrote it off as a keyboard issue since it stopped happening after I switched from AnySoftKeyboard to FlorisBoard. Which keyboard are you using?

Same issue for me on SwiftKey (yes, I know, shame on me). Definitely a browser issue.

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

#105

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.

The problem with using Chromium/Bromite/whatever Blink-based is that Google is using their engine dominance to dictate Web standards, bypassing the standards bodies. They can add and remove features to suit their business goals and nobody can oppose them.

As long as Mozilla stick to Gecko, they can refuse to implement features they see as harmful and good web developers will simply not use them. If everyone uses Google's engine, there will be no practical reason to not use their shiny new feature, so only ethical/philosophical reasons remain. And we all know how much your average person cares about ethics, don't we?

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

#106
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 don't have download notifications neither with its own download manger or the external.

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

#107

Mozilla would instantly recover a ton of goodwill by allowing users to install any WebExtension on Firefox for Android without having to go through a strange activation ritual that only works on the Nightly channel.* Considering how stable the extensions have been for me, I'm baffled at how Mozilla is not even letting the Beta channel test them. * https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

thanks so much, didn't know there is any way now.

Simple Gesture works amazingly well and you can avoid the tabs menu all together with it.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-gestur...

It just mustn't collide with the "pull down to refresh" so you might want to remap the gestures not to include down without an up before.

---

Now I just need to find a way to quickly open new tabs in fore- and even more important: background. Long press for anything frequent is just infuriating.

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

#108
post #47

As an aside, I notice "let me preface this..." introductions more often than I used to. I don't know what to make of it but I've found myself writing it some times, and when I do it, it's because I'm imagining a specific audience and trying to mitigate their backlash. Or I'm being too self-aware in the writing and assuming things readers don't. The article starts off better without the apologetic rationalisation of s…

My personal reason for beginning the post the way I did is because of the ease of misinterpreting someone's tone when the communication is only textual, and that you lose the extra context you might gain when being able to hear someone's voice. I'm not angry at Mozilla because of the frustration I feel when trying to use Fenix as intended. I only wish that there was some way we could have a stable alternative to Chro…

Yeah I get it.

Oftentimes I write a reply and it seems perfectly harmless or half-serious, until I go back and read it later on in a different mood.

I suppose my bug bear is that sometimes it comes across as beating around the bush. Or setting an expectation about the writing that is only true because you described how you might uncharitably interpret your words.

I like it when people take responsibility for their perspectives and interpretations, so it's not up to an author, like you, to lay it all down up front.

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

#109

I have no issue with it at all. As with my desktop Firefox instances I have an embarrassing number of tabs, and have no complaints whatsoever.

I also don't have complaints but then reading the thread I realized I'm on version 68. Apparently some of the issues are regressions introduced in newer versions.

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

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem with using Chromium/Bromite/whatever Blink-based is that Google is using their engine dominance to dictate Web standards, bypassing the standards bodies. They can add and remove features to suit their business goals and nobody can oppose them. As long as Mozilla stick to Gecko, they can refuse to implement features they see as harmful and good web developers will simply not use them. If everyone uses Goog…

This is a good point, and one I have considered quite a bit. To me it is the only selling point for Firefox.

But I have to live my life, I have to use my tools, I need my tools to work on my behalf. If your tool sucks so bad that you have to sell it on what amounts to an ideological argument you need to change how you manage the tool. Why can't Mozilla do what they used to do, offer a competitor to google and a proper, working tool that serves the user?

Also on that note, if keeping a competing rendering engine is all you need, apple maintaining a walled garden with Safari playing that role. People have to use safari, unlike Firefox, so that role is filled.

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