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Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

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Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#51

Post by flflflldsl »

jonkoops wrote: post #34
dblohm7 wrote: post #29

(Former Mozilla developer here, who worked on GeckoView[1], the modern way to embed Gecko into Android apps, including all currently shipped Mozilla browsers on Android) From an engineering perspective, the sad thing about this is that the work to finish extensions in GeckoView was essentially completed in the months after the initial Fenix release. When GeckoView was still being rolled out into release, we understan…

This pretty much feels to me what is happening to Mozilla as an organization from an outsider perspective. Engineering is no longer as important as the evangelism and management is making strange decisions that lack focus on what the target audience really is.

No post body was provided.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#52

Post by bklaasen »

contravariant wrote: post #38
therealmarv wrote: post #7

That's not true. It's more that Mozilla white lists only very few of the addons for the mobile browser. The fork Iceraven whitelists/allow all (?) of the addons (not all work fully, so the whitelist has a purpose): https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser

There is in fact a way to plug in your own whitelist if you use Firefox Nightly [1]. It's a bit of a hassle though, and it's so obscure that I'm fairly sure almost nobody is aware of it. [1]: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

Excellent, thank you! This also works in Mull, the "...privacy oriented and deblobbed web browser based on Mozilla technology." https://www.f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#54

Post by slightwinder »

sbcd wrote: post #23
mmmrk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a decade-long user and am perfectly fine with modern Firefox (plus uBlock), both on the desktop and on Android. In fact, I don't want to go back to the before-times. Speak for yourself.

>Speak for yourself Haha. Firefox went from above 20% marketshare in its early days, to below 4% today, and the number is continually dwindling. At this point it's the few defensive, aggressive fanboys left who are "speaking for themselves". We'll probably still hear this kind of comment from the likes of you even when usage drops below 0.01%. And I don't want to hear the "it's chrome's fault" again from the FF briga…

Firefox decline started long before they switched the extensions-system, In fact they lost majority of their share before that point, and seem to have gained a bit momentum back because of it, temporary.

> And I don't want to hear the "it's chrome's fault" again from the FF brigade,

Sure, who cares about facts when you can have guts-feeling...

> IE had more marketshare in the IE vs Netscape days than Chrome has today, and it didn't stop Firefox from eating at IE's shares.

IE had no marketing at that point, while Firefox did had significant marketing at the time. Chrome then started also with big marketing, while Firefox was busy with dying projects. Coincidence? Seems like marketing is a major factor for success even here.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#55

Post by Filligree »

pessimizer wrote: post #39
jonkoops wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pretty much feels to me what is happening to Mozilla as an organization from an outsider perspective. Engineering is no longer as important as the evangelism and management is making strange decisions that lack focus on what the target audience really is.

The evangelism is even bad. It was more coherent and convincing back when the browser was better.

The evangelism is mostly about stuff that nobody outside the USA cares about.

It just looks like the browser is made by crazy people.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#56

Post by slightwinder »

guelo wrote: post #2

Mozilla doesn't seem to have a clue why people prefer firefox. It's not because of privacy or security, though that's nice. It's certainly not because it behaves similarly to chrome. It was always the extensibility. The power of plugins that allowed adblocking to be invented on firefox. They threw that away in the name of security and supposed clean code. Clean code doesn't get you users.

> It was always the extensibility.

Going by the numbers, that's far from the truth. Majority of user never used addons, not even adblockers. Even the most popular addons are only used by a small minority of users.

I'm also a big addon-user and complain what firefox has lost over time. But we should also admit that we are a minority, and addons are simply not the major selling point for a mainstream product's success.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#57

Post by seszett »

superkuh wrote: post #14
mmmrk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a decade-long user and am perfectly fine with modern Firefox (plus uBlock), both on the desktop and on Android. In fact, I don't want to go back to the before-times. Speak for yourself.

Don't worry, he's speaking for the majority of long term firefox users. You're the exception. I started using Firefox when it was Gecko/Phoenix in 2002, then Firebird, then Firefox. I started using it because it was so customizable. I stopped using it at version 37 in 2015 because that was when Mozilla destroyed the browser by removing user freedoms to install their own add-ons without Mozilla's approval. And no, usi…

Just to chime in, I also started using Phoenix in 2002, but it wasn't because it was customizable. I've never used more than a couple of extensions and I actually have every extension I need on Android, so I'm fully satisfied for my particular use case.

I still think most of what Mozilla does with Firefox is absolutely stupid and I wish it was different because attracting or retaining more users would make Firefox less likely to die, and generally help the web.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#58

Post by lucb1e »

freemint wrote: post #41
dblohm7 wrote: post #29

(Former Mozilla developer here, who worked on GeckoView[1], the modern way to embed Gecko into Android apps, including all currently shipped Mozilla browsers on Android) From an engineering perspective, the sad thing about this is that the work to finish extensions in GeckoView was essentially completed in the months after the initial Fenix release. When GeckoView was still being rolled out into release, we understan…

Can you elaborate how engineering on an open source product is prevented from doing the right thing™ by management?

Because the person in charge of the repository said so?

Just because something is open source (like most of my projects are open source), that doesn't mean the project owner must now accept any changes anyone in the world wants to make. Particularly when this 'anyone' is being paid by a company to implement what this company wants in a repository owned by said company.

That's not to say that open source is useless: if it were closed source, you wouldn't have been able to tell that the code is in the repo, just not activated, and you wouldn't have the option to fork it and enable it yourself and make your own custom build (freedom to study, modify, redistribute, and run), or pay someone else to make this change for you. Try that with Microsoft Windows source code, you can't study or modify that or even run it without permission.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#59

Post by oynqr »

freemint wrote: post #41
dblohm7 wrote: post #29

(Former Mozilla developer here, who worked on GeckoView[1], the modern way to embed Gecko into Android apps, including all currently shipped Mozilla browsers on Android) From an engineering perspective, the sad thing about this is that the work to finish extensions in GeckoView was essentially completed in the months after the initial Fenix release. When GeckoView was still being rolled out into release, we understan…

Can you elaborate how engineering on an open source product is prevented from doing the right thing™ by management?

Getting fired.

Re: Add-on support in new Firefox for Android (2021)

#60

Post by schroeding »

dblohm7 wrote: post #29

(Former Mozilla developer here, who worked on GeckoView[1], the modern way to embed Gecko into Android apps, including all currently shipped Mozilla browsers on Android) From an engineering perspective, the sad thing about this is that the work to finish extensions in GeckoView was essentially completed in the months after the initial Fenix release. When GeckoView was still being rolled out into release, we understan…

That explains why all add-ons I tested in Nightly with the custom add-on list workaround[1] worked fine (ignoring the jank here and there due to missing optimization for small touch screens).

It's quite irritating, as AMO even asks whether or not an add-on is compatible with Android when uploading.

[1] https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

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