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Firefox desktop extensions coming soon for the upcoming Android release

blog.mozilla.org

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

#381

Post by UtopiaPunk »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #216
godelski wrote: post #58

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.

What agendas are Mozilla pushing?

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

#382

Post by whatshisface »

afavour wrote: post #323
seneca wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the things an organization talks about gives you an idea of their priorities and their values. If a technical org you otherwise supported suddenly started posting blog entries about how Hitler wasn't such a bad guy, and maybe they could write a chatbot to help correct misconceptions about Nazis, you would probably change your opinion about them, regardless of how much effort it took to write the post.

Equating any of the three examples the OP gave with "Hitler wasn't such a bad guy" is... an interesting take. But nevertheless, you're only looking at one thing. Why not look at the Firefox release notes? https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/116.0/releasenotes/ Three releases so far this month! Look at that technical organization iterating on its core product!

Someday HN may learn the difference between equation and comparison...

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

#383

Post by UtopiaPunk »

seneca wrote: post #296
afavour wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There really aren't any software engineering resources taken up with writing those blog entries. Would it help if they posted a weekly blog entry entitled "Yes, we're still working on Firefox"? I don't understand why everyone keeps talking about this as if it's an either/or.

Because the things an organization talks about gives you an idea of their priorities and their values. If a technical org you otherwise supported suddenly started posting blog entries about how Hitler wasn't such a bad guy, and maybe they could write a chatbot to help correct misconceptions about Nazis, you would probably change your opinion about them, regardless of how much effort it took to write the post.

Well today, the Mozilla blog is talking about extensions in the Firefox Android browser, so that seems cool?

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

#384

Post by kikokikokiko »

ReadCarlBarks wrote: post #186
kikokikokiko wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Behindtheoverlay is a little extension that should not be as usefull as it is. I ude it daily, both on mobile and desktop, and I do not use Firefox mobile for this exact same reason.

You don't need a special extension to get rid of annoying overlays. Just go to your uBlock Origin filter lists settings and enable these: * AdGuard - Annoyances * uBlock filters – Annoyances uBlock Origin also has an "element zapper" feature that lets you temporarily remove overlays that aren't covered by the lists.

One single click, versus at least three. And I use the annoyances lists, but they never catch the overlays I encounter, it's just a niche personal taste kind of thing.

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

#386

Post by smarnach »

Springtime wrote: post #165
input_sh wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because extension support wasn't considered ready for normal (non-developer) usage up until now, and this announcement you're commenting on literally starts with saying it's gonna be ready by the end of the year.

The irony is addons were natively supported by the regular version of Firefox for Android up until they made the Quantum update, when they removed them and only later with Nightly allowing them to return. I used to have a number of addons installed at that time, including Stylish (prior to the hostile changes), uBlock Origin and UnMHT.

The Quantum update was an update to the Desktop version of Firefox that happened in 2017. Mozilla did not remove access to any mobile add-ons at that time.

You probably mean the Firefox Daylight release that happened in August 2020. Firefox Daylight or Fenix was a completely new browser, not an update. That completely new browser did not fully support add-ons at the time it was released, which is why Mozilla introduced the restricted list of "supported" add-ons. I'm not quite sure how this is ironic. You seem to think that Mozilla somehow did this to get one over on their users, but I can assure you that this isn't the case.

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

#387

Post by mcpackieh »

afavour wrote: post #319
Rebelgecko wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno if it's their "focus" but it's a big part of their PR. eg their lobbying to get Amazon and NextDoor to cooperate less with law enforcement. The Mozilla incubator has a goal of spending 40% of its money on social justice initiatives. Meanwhile they're cutting staff and resources for browser development, which IMO should be their bread and butter.

> eg their lobbying to get Amazon and NextDoor to cooperate less with law enforcement Maybe that's a great example of the different ways you can look at the exact same thing. To me that's a privacy cause, and it's one I agree with. What percentage of Ring customers are aware they're providing the police with a direct feed of their front yard? "Ring Reveals They Give Videos to Police Without User Consent or a Warrant"…

The claim above, disputed by you: "They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead"

"Privacy cause" is an agenda they're pushing. An agenda I happen to agree with, but promoting that privacy agenda is not software development spending no matter how you look at it. You can't reasonably claim these are equivalent just because you like them both. Telling people that Ring is bad isn't software development, a "different way of looking at it" doesn't cut it.

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

#388

Post by stevehawk »

nfriedly wrote: post #227
flutas wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

what the eff do they need more than 6 interviews for

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

#389

Post by autoexec »

cpeterso wrote: post #378
autoexec wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll always love Mozilla, or at least some fictional idealized version of it, so I'm stuck being increasingly disappointed in Mozilla while holding out for the times they do something right. Giving add-on support back to firefox users is a good thing so here's hoping it won't be done in a way that disappoints me. I hope they bring back about:config next.

Which settings would you like to change in about:config?

There's an ever increasing number of settings I need to change every single time I install firefox. For example network.security.banned.override allows connections to ports firefox blocks by default. I also disable things like prefetch/seer, service workers, WebRTC, autorefresh, normandy, experiments, shield, redirects, searching from the address bar, autoplay, webgl, webassembly, autofill, fingerprinting (battery level, network info, etc), mathml, Beacon, SVG, casting, and of course the recent forced pop-up ads for their VPN service (browser.vpn_promo.enabled).

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

#390

Post by afavour »

mcpackieh wrote: post #387
afavour wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> eg their lobbying to get Amazon and NextDoor to cooperate less with law enforcement Maybe that's a great example of the different ways you can look at the exact same thing. To me that's a privacy cause, and it's one I agree with. What percentage of Ring customers are aware they're providing the police with a direct feed of their front yard? "Ring Reveals They Give Videos to Police Without User Consent or a Warrant"…

The claim above, disputed by you: "They got one billion dollars and they're reducing software development spending to focus on agenda pushing instead" "Privacy cause" is an agenda they're pushing. An agenda I happen to agree with, but promoting that privacy agenda is not software development spending no matter how you look at it. You can't reasonably claim these are equivalent just because you like them both. Telling…

Perhaps there was a time when Mozilla's sole monetary focus was development of the Firefox browser but if there was it was a long time ago.

There aren't only two pots of money in the Mozilla budget, one labeled "software development" and another "agendas", they do all kinds of things. An increase in "agendas" does not automatically mean a decrease in software development. Case in point: Mozilla used to have a "Mozilla Science Lab" from 2013-18[1]. When it was shut down there was presumably extra cash made available. Maybe it went to "agendas", maybe it didn't. And hey, maybe it couldn't: the foundation receives donations for specific projects, they're not able to just say "thanks for the money, we're actually going to spend it on something totally different". If they shut down a program they might well lose the funding associated with it and the whole thing would be a zero-sum exercise.

To interpret this as a binary choice between two activities is an oversimplification.

[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/ScienceLab

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