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Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

blog.mozilla.org

221–230 of 482 posts

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#221

There's a lot of hate any Firefox and the "blessed apps." But come on, chrome and Safari don't sorry add-ons at all! I know there are other apps that support add-ons but the fact is that Firefox is __the only__ "mainstream" browser that does this (quotes because it's 0.25% in the US, as the 4th most popular, behind Samsung fucking Internet). It's popular to hate on Firefox, but this is the nerdiest of nerd issues and…

I think Firefox's addon policy is one of the reasons they lost market share. Moving from oldscool extensions to webextensions they lost their unique selling point. Firefox was the only browser that you could really theme. It's adblock existed earlier and was better than others (and is soon again due to Manifest v3?).

Especially for non-tech-savvy people, who don't know what a browser is, if they need a certain feature then you just replaced their chrome with firefox + this feature and they were happy. But if Firefox is just another Chrome clone, then it is neccessarily an inferior one.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS Safari has supported declarative content blocking extensions since iOS 9 in 2015 and a full extension API since iOS 15 released about two years ago.

Declarative blocking is the weakest, it barely removes the simplest ads. uBlock doesn't exist for iOS because it is made impossible by apple, their extension API is not a "full" API.

I’ve been using 1Blocker since day one and have nothing but praise for their product. Not as powerful as uBlock Origin, but pretty good nonetheless.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#223

There's a lot of hate any Firefox and the "blessed apps." But come on, chrome and Safari don't sorry add-ons at all! I know there are other apps that support add-ons but the fact is that Firefox is __the only__ "mainstream" browser that does this (quotes because it's 0.25% in the US, as the 4th most popular, behind Samsung fucking Internet). It's popular to hate on Firefox, but this is the nerdiest of nerd issues and…

I think Firefox's addon policy is one of the reasons they lost market share. Moving from oldscool extensions to webextensions they lost their unique selling point. Firefox was the only browser that you could really theme. It's adblock existed earlier and was better than others (and is soon again due to Manifest v3?). Especially for non-tech-savvy people, who don't know what a browser is, if they need a certain featur…

FF has had better adblocking capabilities than Chromium before Manifest v3 was announced

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#224

There's a lot of hate any Firefox and the "blessed apps." But come on, chrome and Safari don't sorry add-ons at all! I know there are other apps that support add-ons but the fact is that Firefox is __the only__ "mainstream" browser that does this (quotes because it's 0.25% in the US, as the 4th most popular, behind Samsung fucking Internet). It's popular to hate on Firefox, but this is the nerdiest of nerd issues and…

I see people hating on Mozilla, not Firefox. They absolutely deserve it too. They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead. One would think they'd try to fix the web by making Firefox the dominant browser.

Half that billion has probably been spent on interviews that they randomly decide they no longer are hiring for right before they take the entire company to Hawaii.

I'm not salty about the 6+ interviews or anything.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#225

There's a lot of hate any Firefox and the "blessed apps." But come on, chrome and Safari don't sorry add-ons at all! I know there are other apps that support add-ons but the fact is that Firefox is __the only__ "mainstream" browser that does this (quotes because it's 0.25% in the US, as the 4th most popular, behind Samsung fucking Internet). It's popular to hate on Firefox, but this is the nerdiest of nerd issues and…

I've complained a lot about the crippled add-on support on Android and other poor decisions Mozilla has made, BUT I also donate monthly and encourage everyone who asks to just use Firefox.

So I think that on the balance, I'm a supporter.

This decision, to finally re-enable add-ons on Android, is a good one and I applaud Mozilla for making it!

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#227
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people hating on Mozilla, not Firefox. They absolutely deserve it too. They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead. One would think they'd try to fix the web by making Firefox the dominant browser.

Half that billion has probably been spent on interviews that they randomly decide they no longer are hiring for right before they take the entire company to Hawaii. I'm not salty about the 6+ interviews or anything.

Ha, you made it to 6, that's impressive! I only got scheduled for one interview, the interviewer was a no-show, and they never answered any of my attempts to reschedule or even find out what happened.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#228

There's a lot of hate any Firefox and the "blessed apps." But come on, chrome and Safari don't sorry add-ons at all! I know there are other apps that support add-ons but the fact is that Firefox is __the only__ "mainstream" browser that does this (quotes because it's 0.25% in the US, as the 4th most popular, behind Samsung fucking Internet). It's popular to hate on Firefox, but this is the nerdiest of nerd issues and…

all this has accomplished in the last decade is a decrease in market share

You are confusing cause and effect. We've been saying the same things as we watch Mozilla slowly strangle Firefox to death for a decade.

That said, this is great news. I'm very much looking forward to being able to capture embedded videos on Android and maybe even get back my precious DownThemAll.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#229
post #213

I want to load my own XPI files. Because apparently, I'm not allowed to embrace the full potential of my browser by installing any extensions that haven't been hand-delivered and serenaded by the majestic Firefox Marketplace. Please share if you're familiar with a method. I'm contemplating the creation of my own customized version of Android Firefox, incorporating code to enable installation from XPI files.

SmartCookieWeb preview. Pretty sure it's the only browser that supports it on Android. I have bypasspaywalls clean set up on it.

That was exactly my use case. I'll look into it.

Re: Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

#230
post #48

even though i am an exclusively firefox user both on desktop and mobile, i don't even know what kind of desktop version's extension that i would use on mobile. currently, i only use adblock and so far my experience is quite stellar. though it should be noted that i use browser on phone just to consume text. no video, no audio, and even picture is rarely the focus. so, what do i miss?

I use the nightly firefox app so I can use the bypass paywalls extension. Looking forward to being able to use it on the stable app

How do you do that since the extension is not listed in the Mozilla repository and has to be installed via XPI?
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