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It's funny that vimperator is mentioned every single time Firefox extensions are brought up on HN even though it only has about 11,000 users out of the hundreds

It's funny that vimperator is mentioned every single time Firefox extensions are brought up on HN even though it only has about 11,000 users out of the hundreds of millions that use Firefox.

kibwen 9y ago
In my defense, one of my own housemates is one of those who has refused to update for want of vimperator. :P
- imiric 9y ago
  Same here. I've tried alternatives like Waterfox and Pale Moon, but Waterfox is incompatible with some sites, and Pale Moon is dog slow, so I reverted back to Firefox 56. Not upgrading a browser is a scary situation to be in, but I just can't sacrifice the usability of Vimperator.
  - sundarurfriend 9y ago
    > I've tried alternatives like Waterfox and Pale Moon, but Waterfox is incompatible with some sites Oh, I haven't experienced that in a few months of usage. What kind of incompatibilities did you come across? I was initially reluctant about trying Waterfox and made several backups of my then-Firefox profile, but it's been a smooth sail and an easy switch so far.
    - imiric 9y ago
      In Waterfox, Slack shows a message that it doesn't support the browser and refuses to load. This could possibly be bypassed by changing the UA, but I don't agree with that workaround. Although, if hard pressed, I might have to. And I mistakenly wrote Pale Moon above, when I meant IceCat. I've yet to try Pale Moon, but it's on my list.
      - kazinator 9y ago
        I use Slack at work as a requirement. I tried going into its video chat feature and it said that it's not supported on Firefox, please use Chrome. So that's where Slack is w.r.t. Firefox; never mind FF derivatives.
  - KwanEsq 9y ago
    Please consider using ESR 52 instead of 56. ESR 52 gets security patches until June 2018. https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2017/10/04/firefox-support-for-windows-xp-and-vista/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2017/10/04/firefox-s...
  - kazinator 9y ago
    I'm posting this comment using FF 56 also. I don't agree with the decisions they made. I think that the old extension mechanism is fine; add-ons should be able to integrate deeply into browser internals.
Macha 9y ago
(a) It's dispoprotionately used among the tech audience. (b) Users went back and forth between than and pentadactyl for a while, and both have the same issues in a webextension world (c) There are more people who would like to use it but may not have due to the instability.
- pricechild 9y ago
  11,000 users (if true) isn't disproportionate among the tech audience, just HN commenters.
bringtheaction 9y ago
Well, 1) it's a legitimate use-case and 2) certainly the amount of Vimperator / Pentadactyl / Vimium etc users are a much higher percentage of HN users than among the population at large. I used to be one of the users, but after the millionth time that an upgrade broke the extension I gave up on being able to use it. I don't think about it often but even though I am mostly over it I get a little sad thinking about it. But only a little. I've also stopped using tiling window managers. Most of my time is spent either reading in the browser, writing code or typing in the terminal. I have sufficiently few windows most of the time that alt + tab does the job just fine. I prefer tabbing between windows now because it gives me bigger windows and more flexibility. I think the scroll wheel is better for web browsing than hjkl. But my code I will still often edit with Vim, though I sometimes use an IDE also.
- icebraining 9y ago
  For me, macros alone are worth installing Vimperator. Just record a series of steps once, then you can effortlessly play them back how many times you want. I just used it today to skip 20 pages in a dumb interface that only offers previous/next links. qafnextq20@a
setr 9y ago
I think its largely a showcase of an ideal: it changes the entirety of the interaction model, and this is ideally what the extension system should be capable of, even if relatively few people want such a significant change. And, ideally, we should see extensions upturning the interaction model as users experiment with alternatives; that this is no longer possible, that the fundamental model is defined and hardcoded (with minor flavour differences), is, I think, a significant loss. Its a shame there are few extensions like vimperator; its a greater shame there are none.

It's funny that vimperator is mentioned every single time Firefox extensions are brought up on HN even though it only has about 11,000 users out of the hundreds of millions that use Firefox.

kibwen 9y ago

In my defense, one of my own housemates is one of those who has refused to update for want of vimperator. :P

imiric 9y ago
Same here. I've tried alternatives like Waterfox and Pale Moon, but Waterfox is incompatible with some sites, and Pale Moon is dog slow, so I reverted back to Firefox 56. Not upgrading a browser is a scary situation to be in, but I just can't sacrifice the usability of Vimperator.
- sundarurfriend 9y ago
  > I've tried alternatives like Waterfox and Pale Moon, but Waterfox is incompatible with some sites Oh, I haven't experienced that in a few months of usage. What kind of incompatibilities did you come across? I was initially reluctant about trying Waterfox and made several backups of my then-Firefox profile, but it's been a smooth sail and an easy switch so far.
  - imiric 9y ago
    In Waterfox, Slack shows a message that it doesn't support the browser and refuses to load. This could possibly be bypassed by changing the UA, but I don't agree with that workaround. Although, if hard pressed, I might have to. And I mistakenly wrote Pale Moon above, when I meant IceCat. I've yet to try Pale Moon, but it's on my list.
    - kazinator 9y ago
      I use Slack at work as a requirement. I tried going into its video chat feature and it said that it's not supported on Firefox, please use Chrome. So that's where Slack is w.r.t. Firefox; never mind FF derivatives.
- KwanEsq 9y ago
  Please consider using ESR 52 instead of 56. ESR 52 gets security patches until June 2018. https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2017/10/04/firefox-support-for-windows-xp-and-vista/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2017/10/04/firefox-s...
- kazinator 9y ago
  I'm posting this comment using FF 56 also. I don't agree with the decisions they made. I think that the old extension mechanism is fine; add-ons should be able to integrate deeply into browser internals.

Macha 9y ago

(a) It's dispoprotionately used among the tech audience. (b) Users went back and forth between than and pentadactyl for a while, and both have the same issues in a webextension world (c) There are more people who would like to use it but may not have due to the instability.

pricechild 9y ago
11,000 users (if true) isn't disproportionate among the tech audience, just HN commenters.

bringtheaction 9y ago

Well, 1) it's a legitimate use-case and 2) certainly the amount of Vimperator / Pentadactyl / Vimium etc users are a much higher percentage of HN users than among the population at large. I used to be one of the users, but after the millionth time that an upgrade broke the extension I gave up on being able to use it. I don't think about it often but even though I am mostly over it I get a little sad thinking about it. But only a little. I've also stopped using tiling window managers. Most of my time is spent either reading in the browser, writing code or typing in the terminal. I have sufficiently few windows most of the time that alt + tab does the job just fine. I prefer tabbing between windows now because it gives me bigger windows and more flexibility. I think the scroll wheel is better for web browsing than hjkl. But my code I will still often edit with Vim, though I sometimes use an IDE also.

icebraining 9y ago
For me, macros alone are worth installing Vimperator. Just record a series of steps once, then you can effortlessly play them back how many times you want. I just used it today to skip 20 pages in a dumb interface that only offers previous/next links. qafnextq20@a

setr 9y ago

I think its largely a showcase of an ideal: it changes the entirety of the interaction model, and this is ideally what the extension system should be capable of, even if relatively few people want such a significant change. And, ideally, we should see extensions upturning the interaction model as users experiment with alternatives; that this is no longer possible, that the fundamental model is defined and hardcoded (with minor flavour differences), is, I think, a significant loss. Its a shame there are few extensions like vimperator; its a greater shame there are none.