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Firefox 94

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71–80 of 340 posts

Re: Firefox 94

#71
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also planning to make the switch. Do you know anyone who's tried Qubes? The finicky hardware requirements are intimidating.

I use qubes for work. I don't like it.

What don't you like about it? I'd like to experience the drawbacks firsthand, but I don't have the hardware yet and Qubes can't be demoed in a VM.

Re: Firefox 94

#72
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to resort to using policies.json in order to disable updates completely. I'm on Firefox 88.0.1 and have zero plans to update and take proton/photon or whatever they are calling the new design.

If you’re lucky, some friendly malicious website will compromise you for the sole purpose of updating your copy of Firefox before someone else compromises you for a more nefarious purpose.

It is a risk, but one I have chosen to take in the short-term. I really dislike the direction Mozilla is going and I will probably have to switch browsers in 2022.

Re: Firefox 94

#73
post #32
post #10

>On Windows, there will now be fewer interruptions because Firefox won’t prompt you for updates. Instead, a background agent will download and install updates even if Firefox is closed. How considerate of them, I felt I didn't have enough auto-updating background agents yet.

I'm sympathetic to this, and usually find these sorts of things annoying, but in this case I'm not so sure. If there is any application I want to autoupdate, it's my web-browser. It's a giant bundle of security vulnerabilities whose main purpose in life is to hit untrusted servers that might be sending me malware, and when an update is available to me, the list of security fixes is also available to attackers.

It's only a vulnerability when you have the browser open though.

Re: Firefox 94

#74
post #28

> Firefox no longer warns you by default when you exit the browser or close a window using a menu, button, or three-key command. Why would anyone want this? On macOS it is infuriantingly easy to press CMD + Q by accident. Why would you not want to confirm that you actually want to close ALL your tabs?

You can always recall recently closed tabs.

Unless they were in a Private Window.

Re: Firefox 94

#75

Firefox: the last remaining mostly independent, maintained and reasonably popular browser. Even if it were inferior in any aspect to other options, I'd still use it for the above mentioned reasons.

As luck would have it: it's inferior in most aspects. Security, Usability (UI, responsiveness), Performance, Defaults (Privacy)...

Re: Firefox 94

#76

Firefox: the last remaining mostly independent, maintained and reasonably popular browser. Even if it were inferior in any aspect to other options, I'd still use it for the above mentioned reasons.

So independent all their funding is provided by Google.

Re: Firefox 94

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Colorways"? Like what everyone else calls "themes"? Yeah, you don't actually need to make up your own word for that. That, plus the fact that this is the lead bullet point for their new release makes me think "way too many marketers, not enough engineers".

'Colourways' is a fairly standard term to describe different colour options on various different product types. Mozilla haven't made this up for themselves. 'Theme', to me, suggests ye olde browser customisation wherein you could have animated gifs of Homer Simpson barking D'OH as your 'Home' button, &c. I'm assuming that's not the case here?

Yeah, these are “colorways” in the manufacturing sense - they don’t change layout, patterns, etc, only swap out what colors are present. I’ve tried them out, they’re nice. You pick a (curated) colour, and choose nether you want a dark/light/mixed theme based on it. It’s not the most complex feature ever, but it’s well done.

Re: Firefox 94

#78
post #32
post #10

>On Windows, there will now be fewer interruptions because Firefox won’t prompt you for updates. Instead, a background agent will download and install updates even if Firefox is closed. How considerate of them, I felt I didn't have enough auto-updating background agents yet.

I'm sympathetic to this, and usually find these sorts of things annoying, but in this case I'm not so sure. If there is any application I want to autoupdate, it's my web-browser. It's a giant bundle of security vulnerabilities whose main purpose in life is to hit untrusted servers that might be sending me malware, and when an update is available to me, the list of security fixes is also available to attackers.

If you already read HN, why would you need an update reminder? Using HN I was able to find out about a new Firefox release sometimes even before "Check updates" feature was able to find one ;)

Re: Firefox 94

#79

> Firefox no longer warns you by default when you exit the browser or close a window using a menu, button, or three-key command. Why would anyone want this? On macOS it is infuriantingly easy to press CMD + Q by accident. Why would you not want to confirm that you actually want to close ALL your tabs?

People complained about not having a warning message for years, and then they finally added it... and now they're taking it away again.

Re: Firefox 94

#80
post #10

>On Windows, there will now be fewer interruptions because Firefox won’t prompt you for updates. Instead, a background agent will download and install updates even if Firefox is closed. How considerate of them, I felt I didn't have enough auto-updating background agents yet.

IMO this is the correct behavior. Programs should never bother the user with prompts or interruptions of any sort unless absolutely necessary. "Do you want to install this security-critical update to your computer's largest attack surface?" does not rise to that level. The answer is obviously yes, so just do it and don't bother the user.

There's probably an advanced setting buried somewhere if you _really_ want to turn that behavior off, but why would you?

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