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A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#71

Post by [deleted] »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #52
lorenzhs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Requires Android 5.0 and up" according to the Play Store listing. Android 4.x is from 2013 and had its last update in 2014. It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version?

"2014 - Ancient version" Sorry, but this mindset doesn't make a lot of good for the technology. It's not 90s anymore in terms of performance growth. The reason a smartphone from 2014 is considered obsolete is not technical.

[deleted]

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#72

Post by fwn »

mcjiggerlog wrote: post #42
jonny383 wrote: post #9

If Firefox pushes this before implementing support for extensions (namely uBlock or other ad-blocking / privacy extensions) then Firefox is well and truly toast on Android. Correct me if I am wrong but the only reason non-tech people use Firefox on Android is to block ads. Perhaps this is a push from Mozilla to try and get some search revenue flowing again?

WebExtension support in theory is coming in Q1 - https://github.com/orgs/mozilla-mobile/projects/44 Regardless, Firefox Preview already blocks ads and trackers perfectly fine the built-in tracking protection. I've not seen an ad in the months I've been using it.

Reddit, Facebook, Amazon, Youtube and Googles search ads aren't affected by the built-in tracking protection at all.

That alone are half the pages most non-tech people (like my parents) usually browse.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#73

Post by squiggleblaz »

lorenzhs wrote: post #66
squiggleblaz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox: "Consider ways to reduce your digital carbon footprint" Also Firefox: "Throw out your perfectly fine phone and buy a new one! Do not think about the slave labor and environmental/climate costs that will go into producing it." (I feel critical of Firefox in this thread, but I wouldn't dream of using Chrome. Mozilla are at least half decent and aim towards ethical behavior. But it would be nice if they let us…

I don't consider a phone that hasn't received security updates in 2.5 years "perfectly fine". I'm all for extending the life of older devices, don't misunderstand me, but that requires software updates. My phone is probably much older than those of most HN'ers (been using it for over 3 years now) and I used my last laptop for 7 years. But I don't run ancient unsupported software on either. What I'm saying is "you sho…

In the rest of life, we don't consider security flaws impose an obligation to replace something. For instance, your average home's door - fundamentally a security device! - is flimsy and does not offer much resistance. More durable doors are available, but not normally considered worth it.

Considering how many Android 4 devices are still in use today, Google and the manufacturers are behaving incredibly unreasonably in not supporting them. Nothing about Android 4 means it should die, any more in 2020 than in 2014. Google could suddenly grow a conscience and stop being evil tomorrow if they wanted; the fact that they have not updated in in several years does not mean they cannot start updating it again. It is not incumbent on the owners of any phone to discard it.

Please do not confuse the intrinsic properties of a product with business decisions. Corporations need to be responsible for the products that they release. Google is no less of a polluter than the company that releases waste chemicals into the local river.

(LineageOS is no be all end all. Many devices are not supported at all, and volunteers have no obligation to clean up for lazy private companies with no sense of obligation to the communities that make them their profits.)

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#74

Post by vanderZwan »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #46
vanderZwan wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that this is about Firefox Nightly, not Firefox regular: > A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly So related to this decision I would say: nothing special, as far as I can see. They're just moving Firefox Preview to Firefox Unstable. > while I do enjoy the new approach (...) this announcement is completely useless and void of information. ("Brand new experience", whoa.) You're mentionin…

> So related to this decision I would say: nothing special, as far as I can see. They're just moving Firefox Preview to Firefox Unstable. But the implication is that Preview is becoming the trunk from which future releases will be cut. If Preview lacks critical features like ad blocking and is as unstable as the previous commenter implies, it's probably not ready for that yet. (I can't comment on the bugginess, since…

Well, I agree that that is a reasonable worry - Mozilla is not exempt from fears of mismanagement (especially not after the news of the layoffs).

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#75

Post by vanderZwan »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #39
boudin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web-extentions are comming, i hope that it will be fully functionnal before it replaces the current firefox https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/pull/7280

"Hope" in this case shouldn't be enough unless they also decide to bake ublock origin right in.

I'm a bit torn on the latter idea, actually: as much as I would love it if Mozilla would give such a well-deserved middle finger to the advertising world for their bad behavior, I also think it would create a kind of relationship between gorhill and Mozilla that would result in an unhealthy power dynamic.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#76

Post by kuschku »

hd4 wrote: post #41
geek-advised wrote: post #16

Is it me or this article is really vague? What's the new experience, exactly? Also, I started using Firefox on my Android phone because of 2 reasons: block ads and Google seems to be more and more for-profit and not for-users. And I love Firefox with one exception: when I press a link on another app Firefox doesn't open but gives me a small notification on the bottom the screen saying the tab opened in Firefox. I fin…

It's not you, I only opened the article to see if they had dealt with input lag and just lag in general and I get 6 paragraphs of unwanted marketing speak until I even get close to something resembling actual changes. If anyone from Mozilla is reading this, just get to the facts next time, don't insult us by throwing a ton of marketing babble at us, we don't care.

Firefox Preview is the complete review that fixes input lag and UI responsitivity - if they managed to bring all of that to today's nightly release, that's not clear.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#77

Post by tiii »

ohazi wrote: post #20
geek-advised wrote: post #16

Is it me or this article is really vague? What's the new experience, exactly? Also, I started using Firefox on my Android phone because of 2 reasons: block ads and Google seems to be more and more for-profit and not for-users. And I love Firefox with one exception: when I press a link on another app Firefox doesn't open but gives me a small notification on the bottom the screen saying the tab opened in Firefox. I fin…

That feature is called tab queue, and it can be disabled in settings.

IIRC a double tap on a link opens the browser.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#78

Post by kuschku »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #52
lorenzhs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Requires Android 5.0 and up" according to the Play Store listing. Android 4.x is from 2013 and had its last update in 2014. It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version?

"2014 - Ancient version" Sorry, but this mindset doesn't make a lot of good for the technology. It's not 90s anymore in terms of performance growth. The reason a smartphone from 2014 is considered obsolete is not technical.

If 2014 isn't an ancient android version and okay without updates, then why do you need updates for Firefox? You can just as well keep using the 2014 version of that, too.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#79

Post by seren »

SwampertX wrote: post #28

For those complaining there is no adblocker, support for uBlock Origin is already implemented upstream. https://twitter.com/FirefoxPreview/status/121564800555626496...

What is "reference browser" in this context ? Is this the repo for Firefox Preview/fenix ? Or an upstream version of Firefox preview ?

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#80

Post by yorwba »

I use Firefox Preview as my main browser on Android, but I think pushing adoption by deprecating the regular Firefox for Android is the wrong approach. How are they going to compete with other browsers if they can't even get existing Firefox users to switch to Preview?

In particular, Nightly users are already deliberately accepting bugginess to help test new Firefox releases. If they're not using Preview, there's probably a reason for that.

> For current Nightly users, it’ll feel like a big exciting upgrade of their browsing experience once they update the app

... is a very optimistic prediction. Add-on support is missing, there are various strange bugs that are no deal-breakers for me personally, but still annoying, and the URL bar at the bottom is confusing to get used to. Forcing the transition before Preview is ready doesn't look like a smart move to me.

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