6 ms·

The lack of extensions (switch from Gecko -> Webkit means none of the pre-existing extensions will work, but looking at the product page I'm not seeing extensio

The lack of extensions (switch from Gecko -> Webkit means none of the pre-existing extensions will work, but looking at the product page I'm not seeing extensions at all as an option) sorta kills the prime draw of Firefox for me. I mean, the only reason I use it on Android over Chrome is so that I can have uBlock Origin on it.

michaelmior 11y ago
This is the first I've heard of Firefox having extensions on Android. Didn't realize this was possible. Good to know :)
- soapdog 11y ago
  You can have more info about that at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Firefox_for_Android https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Firefox_for_Andr... but be aware that Mozilla is moving its extension development system to WebExtensions which are different than the current system. You can check more about WebExtensions at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions This movement towards WebExtensions will take some time and new APIs are being developed as they figure out the needs of the developers. WebExtensions are easier to write and make them cross-platform (Firefox OS, Firefox for Android, Chrome...). It might not be ready now but its a good thing to check out.
- ionised 11y ago
  I'm running NoScript, uBlock Origin and Self-Destructing Cookies on my Android Firefox. I normally run BetterPrivacy too (for long-term storage/flash cookies) but it doesn't seemt o have been updated for the lastest Firefox mobile yet.
soapdog 11y ago
Apple doesn't allow an app to "download code that alters the application inner workings" so extensions are a not possible. This can be seen on the following shot: http://i.imgur.com/faxbdBK.png http://i.imgur.com/faxbdBK.png from the iOS Review Guidelines located at: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ This is Apple with its silly policies preventing competition again. I have no idea how a lawsuit against these practices has not happened. In the meanwhile you can vote with your wallet and use some other operating system and/or donate to efforts that fight against such practices such as EFF, Mozilla and others. We can have a better mobile internet than what Apple offers...
- dijit 11y ago
  you both have good points, but I disagree with the tone of yours. Apple has a policy that prevents things 'becoming' malware later in life. There is a fairly rigorous review board (at least for initial application submissions) which check the quality of code but also it's intent. It would undermine that whole process if Apple just allowed you to alter the function of an application after it had been installed by the end user. Personally, I have used iOS and Android, and I find the play store to be riddled with the CNET/Softpedia style applications that look dubious even if they're not. And as much as I hate online ads I'm definitely not willing to allow laxer rules on my phone than it currently has. I'm not saying that android can't be secure, I'm just pointing out that because "Android does it" in regards to security, is not a valid reason to go ahead. My phone runs my life, I don't care if it's a walled garden, just that it's a secure walled garden.
  - jrcii 11y ago
    Supposing this line of reasoning is valid, why don't we have Apple decide what we can and can't do with our laptops as well? If you'd make a distinction, why?
    - dijit 11y ago
      they kinda do already, and so does microsoft (application signing?), you can just opt out of it, and that's the key exception. also, a general purpose computer is exceedingly different from a cell phone and they have notoriously bad security models. Like I said, my phone runs my life, I don't have a reasonable means to keep it secure (not even on android), a PC, I can attach debuggers to processes and I can lock down my firewall, or I can sniff my network. - I can do none of this on a phone platform reasonably well (AF+ firewall on android requires jailbreak and breaks applications). and I shouldn't have to.. to put it bluntly; I can be responsible for my laptop, I can't be responsible for my phone.
    - hyperpape 11y ago
      1) Apple is actually doing things that limit what you can do on your laptop. There's issues where you have to disable security policies to install OpenVpn or HomeBrew on El Capitan. 2) Apple sees laptops and iOS devices as serving different purposes. It's no secret that there are things you can't do on iOS. While Apple is trying to make iOS more capable in some ways, in other cases, their view is "go buy a laptop or desktop if you can't do what you need on iOS". It's not a crazy view. I'm giving the new restrictions in Mac OS X a serious side-eye--to the extent that I'm halfway considering going back to Linux on the desktop, even though I dislike Linux desktops. However, I find the restrictions on my iPhone painless. I'll just never even consider making an iPad my primary machine.
Kronopath 11y ago
The reason for this is so that you can use your Firefox account to synchronize data between your mobile and your desktop browser, so that you can have these features while still using Firefox on the desktop. This is a pretty big deal regardless of rendering engine. Personally, it's what made me switch from Firefox to Chrome years ago: Chrome supported sync, Firefox didn't.
- zobzu 11y ago
  Firefox supported sync long before chrome in fact ;-)
  - sogen 11y ago
    yes but it was an awful and awkward experience, this feature was hidden and not obvious how to use for regular folks, required long passwords AFAIR, and failed to sync many many times.
    - zobzu 11y ago
      But facts arent agreeable to your opinion;-) Loved the old sync personally. New one's okay
  - sogen 11y ago
    yes but it was an awful and awkward experience, this feature was hidden and not obvious how to use for regular folks, required long passwords AFAIR, and failed to sync many many times.
- AdmiralAsshat 11y ago
  I suppose I'd be more enthused if Firefox syncing had worked from day 1. I've had Firefox as my desktop browser for ten years, and Firefox on my android devices for a couple. My experience was always that the syncing was irregular--i.e. I could have tabs open on my desktop window and see them from across the room, yet they wouldn't show up under the "synced" tabs on my tablet, even after manually triggering a sync on both devices. So at some point, I stopped relying on that and just installed Pushbullet to bounce stuff around from my desktop to my phone or to my tablet. That has worked flawlessly. Syncing logins has never really been something I've bothered with. I'm afraid of someone grabbing my tablet and then having access to all of my emails, message boards, payment stores, etc. All of my devices have LastPass installed, which is how I manage that. So yeah, this would be a bigger deal for me I suppose if I hadn't already found other solutions for Firefox Mobile's old shortcomings.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- rockdoe 11y ago
  XUL requires engine support, so I have no idea how you think that could have worked.
  - sawwit 11y ago
    Make it based on WebKit?
    - rockdoe 11y ago
      That presumes Apple's Webkit has the necessary support, or even worse, that if Mozilla would improve a competing rendering engine (i.e. Webkit) to support it, then Apple would take these improvements and expose them to non-Safari browsers. That's just a retarded effort to do with zero guarantee it can be used at all.
  - st3fan 11y ago
    XUL is dead.
- soapdog 11y ago
  Apple doesn't allow the rendering engine to be ported. For people who use Firefox on the desktop, being able to have their bookmarks, logins and tabs sync'd is a big deal.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
guelo 11y ago
Totally off topic, but when you look at the new mobile friendly HN with Firefox for Android is the comment nesting broken? Mine shows no text indentation but the up arrows are indented randomly. Been miffed that apparently nobody is complaining about this.
- a_e_k 11y ago
  Discussed a couple of days ago in the "HN now mostly readable on mobile" story. I'm affected by it too, but fortunately dang acknowledged it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10536591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10536591
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

michaelmior 11y ago

This is the first I've heard of Firefox having extensions on Android. Didn't realize this was possible. Good to know :)

soapdog 11y ago
You can have more info about that at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Firefox_for_Android https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Firefox_for_Andr... but be aware that Mozilla is moving its extension development system to WebExtensions which are different than the current system. You can check more about WebExtensions at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions This movement towards WebExtensions will take some time and new APIs are being developed as they figure out the needs of the developers. WebExtensions are easier to write and make them cross-platform (Firefox OS, Firefox for Android, Chrome...). It might not be ready now but its a good thing to check out.
ionised 11y ago
I'm running NoScript, uBlock Origin and Self-Destructing Cookies on my Android Firefox. I normally run BetterPrivacy too (for long-term storage/flash cookies) but it doesn't seemt o have been updated for the lastest Firefox mobile yet.

soapdog 11y ago

Apple doesn't allow an app to "download code that alters the application inner workings" so extensions are a not possible. This can be seen on the following shot: http://i.imgur.com/faxbdBK.png http://i.imgur.com/faxbdBK.png from the iOS Review Guidelines located at: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ This is Apple with its silly policies preventing competition again. I have no idea how a lawsuit against these practices has not happened. In the meanwhile you can vote with your wallet and use some other operating system and/or donate to efforts that fight against such practices such as EFF, Mozilla and others. We can have a better mobile internet than what Apple offers...

dijit 11y ago
you both have good points, but I disagree with the tone of yours. Apple has a policy that prevents things 'becoming' malware later in life. There is a fairly rigorous review board (at least for initial application submissions) which check the quality of code but also it's intent. It would undermine that whole process if Apple just allowed you to alter the function of an application after it had been installed by the end user. Personally, I have used iOS and Android, and I find the play store to be riddled with the CNET/Softpedia style applications that look dubious even if they're not. And as much as I hate online ads I'm definitely not willing to allow laxer rules on my phone than it currently has. I'm not saying that android can't be secure, I'm just pointing out that because "Android does it" in regards to security, is not a valid reason to go ahead. My phone runs my life, I don't care if it's a walled garden, just that it's a secure walled garden.
- jrcii 11y ago
  Supposing this line of reasoning is valid, why don't we have Apple decide what we can and can't do with our laptops as well? If you'd make a distinction, why?
  - dijit 11y ago
    they kinda do already, and so does microsoft (application signing?), you can just opt out of it, and that's the key exception. also, a general purpose computer is exceedingly different from a cell phone and they have notoriously bad security models. Like I said, my phone runs my life, I don't have a reasonable means to keep it secure (not even on android), a PC, I can attach debuggers to processes and I can lock down my firewall, or I can sniff my network. - I can do none of this on a phone platform reasonably well (AF+ firewall on android requires jailbreak and breaks applications). and I shouldn't have to.. to put it bluntly; I can be responsible for my laptop, I can't be responsible for my phone.
  - hyperpape 11y ago
    1) Apple is actually doing things that limit what you can do on your laptop. There's issues where you have to disable security policies to install OpenVpn or HomeBrew on El Capitan. 2) Apple sees laptops and iOS devices as serving different purposes. It's no secret that there are things you can't do on iOS. While Apple is trying to make iOS more capable in some ways, in other cases, their view is "go buy a laptop or desktop if you can't do what you need on iOS". It's not a crazy view. I'm giving the new restrictions in Mac OS X a serious side-eye--to the extent that I'm halfway considering going back to Linux on the desktop, even though I dislike Linux desktops. However, I find the restrictions on my iPhone painless. I'll just never even consider making an iPad my primary machine.

Kronopath 11y ago

The reason for this is so that you can use your Firefox account to synchronize data between your mobile and your desktop browser, so that you can have these features while still using Firefox on the desktop. This is a pretty big deal regardless of rendering engine. Personally, it's what made me switch from Firefox to Chrome years ago: Chrome supported sync, Firefox didn't.

zobzu 11y ago
Firefox supported sync long before chrome in fact ;-)
- sogen 11y ago
  yes but it was an awful and awkward experience, this feature was hidden and not obvious how to use for regular folks, required long passwords AFAIR, and failed to sync many many times.
  - zobzu 11y ago
    But facts arent agreeable to your opinion;-) Loved the old sync personally. New one's okay
- sogen 11y ago
  yes but it was an awful and awkward experience, this feature was hidden and not obvious how to use for regular folks, required long passwords AFAIR, and failed to sync many many times.
AdmiralAsshat 11y ago
I suppose I'd be more enthused if Firefox syncing had worked from day 1. I've had Firefox as my desktop browser for ten years, and Firefox on my android devices for a couple. My experience was always that the syncing was irregular--i.e. I could have tabs open on my desktop window and see them from across the room, yet they wouldn't show up under the "synced" tabs on my tablet, even after manually triggering a sync on both devices. So at some point, I stopped relying on that and just installed Pushbullet to bounce stuff around from my desktop to my phone or to my tablet. That has worked flawlessly. Syncing logins has never really been something I've bothered with. I'm afraid of someone grabbing my tablet and then having access to all of my emails, message boards, payment stores, etc. All of my devices have LastPass installed, which is how I manage that. So yeah, this would be a bigger deal for me I suppose if I hadn't already found other solutions for Firefox Mobile's old shortcomings.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

rockdoe 11y ago
XUL requires engine support, so I have no idea how you think that could have worked.
- sawwit 11y ago
  Make it based on WebKit?
  - rockdoe 11y ago
    That presumes Apple's Webkit has the necessary support, or even worse, that if Mozilla would improve a competing rendering engine (i.e. Webkit) to support it, then Apple would take these improvements and expose them to non-Safari browsers. That's just a retarded effort to do with zero guarantee it can be used at all.
- st3fan 11y ago
  XUL is dead.
soapdog 11y ago
Apple doesn't allow the rendering engine to be ported. For people who use Firefox on the desktop, being able to have their bookmarks, logins and tabs sync'd is a big deal.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

guelo 11y ago

Totally off topic, but when you look at the new mobile friendly HN with Firefox for Android is the comment nesting broken? Mine shows no text indentation but the up arrows are indented randomly. Been miffed that apparently nobody is complaining about this.

a_e_k 11y ago
Discussed a couple of days ago in the "HN now mostly readable on mobile" story. I'm affected by it too, but fortunately dang acknowledged it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10536591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10536591

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]