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There is a different way to interpret this: Firefox is irrelevant on mobile, but not on Desktop. Will mobile kill desktop? No, these are two different markets/u

by singularity2001 8y ago

There is a different way to interpret this: Firefox is irrelevant on mobile, but not on Desktop. Will mobile kill desktop? No, these are two different markets/use-cases/applications. Just like video didn't kill the radio*. Firefox will stay relevant on desktop a.k.a. in work environments.

snaky 8y ago
> Firefox is irrelevant on mobile That's pretty sad, considering the fact it's the only mobile browser not only with the support of extensions, but the same extensions as the desktop version. Future might not be that grim for mobile Firefox actually, with more and more modern Android smartphones and tablets support more and more RAM, and 4GB is pretty much standard.
- Kye 8y ago
  Mobile Firefox didn't support all extensions last I checked. It at least has uBlock Origin on Android, but almost everything else I looked for wasn't available. Firefox on iOS doesn't support them at all.
  - snaky 8y ago
    I think most of extensions that are not listed as compatible with Android version of Firefox is due the developer's lazyness to test it on Android and check the additional checkbox submitting it to the store. There are some differences in API, but they are minor https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Differences_between_desktop_and_Android https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
- wvenable 8y ago
  What's cool is if you have Firefox sync, your extensions come over automatically. I use Firefox on my tablet because it has all the extensions I use on my desktop.
SandwichTeeth 8y ago
Firefox has some catches that make it not as easy to use in a work environment though and I honestly think will hurt their market share over time, mainly the fact that it doesn't use the OS cert store. This causes issues with most corporate web proxies that do SSL inspection since IT departments will push the proxy CA cert into OS cert stores through whatever endpoint management solution they have. People can disagree all they want about SSL interception in a corporate environment (for good reason), but it's here to stay. When a corporate user downloads Firefox, tries to simply go to Google and gets a cert error page, they're just going to go back to Chrome because the process of exporting your company's CA cert and then importing it into Firefox so you can use the browser is just simply not feasible for most users.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Interestingly enough, a previous customer only allowed for FF ESR and IE, while considering a security breach having anyone to try to install Chrome.
  - SandwichTeeth 8y ago
    Interesting, is that just because of the privacy implications of using chrome? My experience has been that most desktop IT teams don't have the resources to fine-tune browser configs on endpoints around things like corporate web filtering proxies so they just jam the cert in the OS store and call it a day. You can use Chrome, IE, or Firefox if you know how to get and import the cert (which most users do not). Sometimes users would submit tickets saying they wanted to use Firefox but couldn't get to any web pages, to which the IT team would reply "We don't support Firefox, use Chrome or IE" and that was that.
idle_zealot 8y ago
It's a shame that Firefox is so rarely used on mobile. As far as I'm aware, it's the only mobile browser with extension support. I know that you can use system-wide host-based ad blocking, but I tend to find that uBO does a better job.
leeoniya 8y ago
i want to use Firefox mobile but the scrolling experience is terrible. not sure if they use the os's compositor.

snaky 8y ago

> Firefox is irrelevant on mobile That's pretty sad, considering the fact it's the only mobile browser not only with the support of extensions, but the same extensions as the desktop version. Future might not be that grim for mobile Firefox actually, with more and more modern Android smartphones and tablets support more and more RAM, and 4GB is pretty much standard.

Kye 8y ago
Mobile Firefox didn't support all extensions last I checked. It at least has uBlock Origin on Android, but almost everything else I looked for wasn't available. Firefox on iOS doesn't support them at all.
- snaky 8y ago
  I think most of extensions that are not listed as compatible with Android version of Firefox is due the developer's lazyness to test it on Android and check the additional checkbox submitting it to the store. There are some differences in API, but they are minor https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Differences_between_desktop_and_Android https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
wvenable 8y ago
What's cool is if you have Firefox sync, your extensions come over automatically. I use Firefox on my tablet because it has all the extensions I use on my desktop.

SandwichTeeth 8y ago

Firefox has some catches that make it not as easy to use in a work environment though and I honestly think will hurt their market share over time, mainly the fact that it doesn't use the OS cert store. This causes issues with most corporate web proxies that do SSL inspection since IT departments will push the proxy CA cert into OS cert stores through whatever endpoint management solution they have. People can disagree all they want about SSL interception in a corporate environment (for good reason), but it's here to stay. When a corporate user downloads Firefox, tries to simply go to Google and gets a cert error page, they're just going to go back to Chrome because the process of exporting your company's CA cert and then importing it into Firefox so you can use the browser is just simply not feasible for most users.

pjmlp 8y ago
Interestingly enough, a previous customer only allowed for FF ESR and IE, while considering a security breach having anyone to try to install Chrome.
- SandwichTeeth 8y ago
  Interesting, is that just because of the privacy implications of using chrome? My experience has been that most desktop IT teams don't have the resources to fine-tune browser configs on endpoints around things like corporate web filtering proxies so they just jam the cert in the OS store and call it a day. You can use Chrome, IE, or Firefox if you know how to get and import the cert (which most users do not). Sometimes users would submit tickets saying they wanted to use Firefox but couldn't get to any web pages, to which the IT team would reply "We don't support Firefox, use Chrome or IE" and that was that.

idle_zealot 8y ago

It's a shame that Firefox is so rarely used on mobile. As far as I'm aware, it's the only mobile browser with extension support. I know that you can use system-wide host-based ad blocking, but I tend to find that uBO does a better job.

leeoniya 8y ago

i want to use Firefox mobile but the scrolling experience is terrible. not sure if they use the os's compositor.