7 ms·

Is this the version that kills Live Bookmarks? Some of us FF old-timers are hopelessly reliant on these things, and it's, as far as I have found, the fastest wa

Is this the version that kills Live Bookmarks? Some of us FF old-timers are hopelessly reliant on these things, and it's, as far as I have found, the fastest way to quickly scan lists of headlines from all your favorite sites at once. Seriously, one click and you can quickly mouse over the sites on your bookmarks toolbar to consume hundreds of headlines. I really, REALLY hate that they're killing this feature, but this addon promises to restore it: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/07/30/livemarks-restores-live-bookmarks-support-in-firefox/ https://www.ghacks.net/2018/07/30/livemarks-restores-live-bo... Edit: here's the official GitHub: https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/ https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/

fao_ 8y ago
> but this addon promises to restore it Mozilla did the same with tab groups, then the addon was abandoned. The replacement that is compatible with the new form of extension isn't able to unload the tabs, just hide them, which undoes most of the performance benefits. [abraham simpson voice] It'll happen to you too! [/abraham simpson voice] /jk
- untog 8y ago
  > Mozilla did the same with tab groups, then the addon was abandoned. Wouldn't that indicate that the extension was not that widely used, and as such Mozilla were correct in removing it from the central codebase?
  - usrusr 8y ago
    “Not that widely used" is an incredibly elastic term. When you axe twenty "5% features" your worst case is offending 100% of your users.
    - kiriakasis 8y ago
      Which can be worth it depending on what you trade it for. I really liked the tab group feature but the new extension API is vastly more secure and can (probably) be extended to allow for most addons. At Mozzila they need to prioritize many different things and I can understand how a constant push to make the browser leaner is foundamental. (especially in cases like RSS feeds)
  - c0nducktr 8y ago
    It's true that it wasn't widely used, but it seems as if Mozilla did their best to make it that way. It wasn't exposed to the user by default, but instead was hidden as something you could get to by the toolbar customization screen, so you had to modify the toolbar to even get access to the feature. I don't think most people even knew it was there.
    - AnaniasAnanas 8y ago
      Just like RSS in modern versions, and just like tab groups they will be removing it too.
- Paul-ish 8y ago
  The addon was abandoned by its author because Mozilla was making major changes to the addon API at the time. Extensions used to have carte blanche to change the browser, which was a security risk, not to mention it made threading/parallelizing the browser hard. The new extension API removed a lot of that freedom. After the API change, it wasn't possible (and might still not be) to develop a useful tab groups addon with the new API, so the author ceased development. I can't imagine Mozilla crippling the addon API to the point where it can't grab data off an RSS feed and display it.
  - zeveb 8y ago
    > Extensions used to have carte blanche to change the browser, which was a security risk … I don't buy that. It's my browser running on my computer, it's my choice whose code I choose to run on it. If, say, emacs or vi had this kind of handholding, neither one would be much more than a text editor.
    - reubenmorais 8y ago
      Emacs and vi are used by programmers. Browsers are used by nearly every single person on the Internet. The threat model is completely different.
      - piyush_soni 8y ago
        Time for a developers only Browser! Anyone wants to grab that? :)
        bovine3dom 8y ago
        Qutebrowser and next browser are both quite programmer-focused. They are WebKit based, however.
        The-Compiler 8y ago
        qutebrowser uses QtWebEngine, which is based on Chromium/Blink - I wouldn't call that WebKit anymore ;-)
- matthewn 8y ago
  > The replacement that is compatible with the new form of extension isn't able to unload the tabs, just hide them, which undoes most of the performance benefits. I believe this information is out of date. Firefox 58 brought extension developers the ability to unload tabs: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322485 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322485 And Totally Not Panorama takes advantage: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/basic-panorama/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/basic-panoram...
- nine_k 8y ago
  FWIW, Tree Style Tab solved tab groups (and more) for me. I wish tab handling had a first-class API in Firefox, so that different tab managers could interact with the default tab menu, etc.
  - nine_k 8y ago
    Also: Firefox 64 introduces an entirely new API, browser.menus.overrideContext, which allows complete customization of the context menu shown within add-on content like sidebars, popups, etc. This is illustrated right in the post by my favorite pain point, the Tree Stye Tab custom tab menu mixing with the regular tab menu. Finally!
  - fao_ 8y ago
    > FWIW, Tree Style Tab solved tab groups (and more) for me. Yes, but I don't really want tree-styled tabs, I want tab groups :P The interface is vastly different.
ChrisSD 8y ago
After installing the update it opens this page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/live-bookmarks-migration https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/live-bookmarks-migratio...
- jjordan 8y ago
  arrrr... what they don't realize when they review their telemetry data is that most people that use this feature have turned off sharing telemetry data. Combine that with the fact that they haven't advertised the feature in the past decade and it leads to devs thinking nobody uses it.
  - gknoy 8y ago
    This is why I tend to leave telemetry data on. :) .. now if only Google had used that to notice the things I like about Inbox and keep them :-(
  - orf 8y ago
    Then perhaps you can see why telemetry is useful to responsible companies like Firefox, and maybe people who disable it have no right to complain about decisions based off telemetry data?
    - dman 8y ago
      This is a fascinatingly coercive take on the privacy / observability tradeoff.
      - kiriakasis 8y ago
        No, this is supporting direct feedback. How can mozzila know which features are useful in your opinion? how should they know that you wanted [feature X]? Maybe they are also in the wrong if the telemetry is excessive, but the alternative is to never deprecate any feature ever.
        8y ago
alvar0 8y ago
You can use firefox ESR until it too gets phased out: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/
kgwxd 8y ago
Whats wrong with just using a proper RSS client?
- jjordan 8y ago
  Nothing's "wrong" with it, but I have yet to find one that allows me to read more headlines in a shorter time than Live Bookmarks.
- pndy 8y ago
  The best thing about RSS reader in Firefox for me was the fact it blended perfectly with bookmarks feature - it was easy to reach especially when you had bookmarks bar enabled. The way it displayed content also suited me - I didn't have to break my browsing flow to open another tab like in Presto-based Opera or special feed with summaries like in Safari; links in form of bookmarks changing titles were absolutely best.
- Koshkin 8y ago
  A web browser today is essentially an Internet-facing client-side operating system. You are suggesting to use something that runs outside this OS. (Just pointing out.)
Felz 8y ago
I added Livemarks. It helps, but it's still missing a critical feature of the old extension- the icon showing which RSS links you've already visited. That'll be added at some point at least: https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/issues/17 https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/issues/17 Still, this update felt particularly user hostile. My user experience was: - I'm in the middle of browsing and open a tab to do a search, but the new tab shows the "Firefox needs to restart because updates are more important than you!“ page. - I'm forced to restart. Manually, since the automatic restart is probably broken on my system. Tab state in some SPA tabs are lost. - Now I have to migrate my live bookmarks. They converted themselves to regular bookmarks- I have to right click and delete those one by one. Then I install Livemarks, import the exported bookmarks data, and then drag those one by one to my bookmarks toolbar. I'm half considering Chrome. If Firefox is going to be like this, why bother? Might as well start the Chrome dominance and stagnation part of the browser cycle.
mr_woozy 8y ago
I upgraded and instantly regretted it, as usual.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
lunchables 8y ago
I am a _huge_ RSS user (TinyTiny-RSS) but I don't think enough people used these features to continue supporting them. Plus, I really do not want my web browser to be an RSS reader. Have you considered moving to a dedicated RSS reader ?

fao_ 8y ago

> but this addon promises to restore it Mozilla did the same with tab groups, then the addon was abandoned. The replacement that is compatible with the new form of extension isn't able to unload the tabs, just hide them, which undoes most of the performance benefits. [abraham simpson voice] It'll happen to you too! [/abraham simpson voice] /jk

untog 8y ago
> Mozilla did the same with tab groups, then the addon was abandoned. Wouldn't that indicate that the extension was not that widely used, and as such Mozilla were correct in removing it from the central codebase?
- usrusr 8y ago
  “Not that widely used" is an incredibly elastic term. When you axe twenty "5% features" your worst case is offending 100% of your users.
  - kiriakasis 8y ago
    Which can be worth it depending on what you trade it for. I really liked the tab group feature but the new extension API is vastly more secure and can (probably) be extended to allow for most addons. At Mozzila they need to prioritize many different things and I can understand how a constant push to make the browser leaner is foundamental. (especially in cases like RSS feeds)
- c0nducktr 8y ago
  It's true that it wasn't widely used, but it seems as if Mozilla did their best to make it that way. It wasn't exposed to the user by default, but instead was hidden as something you could get to by the toolbar customization screen, so you had to modify the toolbar to even get access to the feature. I don't think most people even knew it was there.
  - AnaniasAnanas 8y ago
    Just like RSS in modern versions, and just like tab groups they will be removing it too.
Paul-ish 8y ago
The addon was abandoned by its author because Mozilla was making major changes to the addon API at the time. Extensions used to have carte blanche to change the browser, which was a security risk, not to mention it made threading/parallelizing the browser hard. The new extension API removed a lot of that freedom. After the API change, it wasn't possible (and might still not be) to develop a useful tab groups addon with the new API, so the author ceased development. I can't imagine Mozilla crippling the addon API to the point where it can't grab data off an RSS feed and display it.
- zeveb 8y ago
  > Extensions used to have carte blanche to change the browser, which was a security risk … I don't buy that. It's my browser running on my computer, it's my choice whose code I choose to run on it. If, say, emacs or vi had this kind of handholding, neither one would be much more than a text editor.
  - reubenmorais 8y ago
    Emacs and vi are used by programmers. Browsers are used by nearly every single person on the Internet. The threat model is completely different.
    - piyush_soni 8y ago
      Time for a developers only Browser! Anyone wants to grab that? :)
      - bovine3dom 8y ago
        Qutebrowser and next browser are both quite programmer-focused. They are WebKit based, however.
        The-Compiler 8y ago
        qutebrowser uses QtWebEngine, which is based on Chromium/Blink - I wouldn't call that WebKit anymore ;-)
matthewn 8y ago
> The replacement that is compatible with the new form of extension isn't able to unload the tabs, just hide them, which undoes most of the performance benefits. I believe this information is out of date. Firefox 58 brought extension developers the ability to unload tabs: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322485 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322485 And Totally Not Panorama takes advantage: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/basic-panorama/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/basic-panoram...
nine_k 8y ago
FWIW, Tree Style Tab solved tab groups (and more) for me. I wish tab handling had a first-class API in Firefox, so that different tab managers could interact with the default tab menu, etc.
- nine_k 8y ago
  Also: Firefox 64 introduces an entirely new API, browser.menus.overrideContext, which allows complete customization of the context menu shown within add-on content like sidebars, popups, etc. This is illustrated right in the post by my favorite pain point, the Tree Stye Tab custom tab menu mixing with the regular tab menu. Finally!
- fao_ 8y ago
  > FWIW, Tree Style Tab solved tab groups (and more) for me. Yes, but I don't really want tree-styled tabs, I want tab groups :P The interface is vastly different.

ChrisSD 8y ago

After installing the update it opens this page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/live-bookmarks-migration https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/live-bookmarks-migratio...

jjordan 8y ago
arrrr... what they don't realize when they review their telemetry data is that most people that use this feature have turned off sharing telemetry data. Combine that with the fact that they haven't advertised the feature in the past decade and it leads to devs thinking nobody uses it.
- gknoy 8y ago
  This is why I tend to leave telemetry data on. :) .. now if only Google had used that to notice the things I like about Inbox and keep them :-(
- orf 8y ago
  Then perhaps you can see why telemetry is useful to responsible companies like Firefox, and maybe people who disable it have no right to complain about decisions based off telemetry data?
  - dman 8y ago
    This is a fascinatingly coercive take on the privacy / observability tradeoff.
    - kiriakasis 8y ago
      No, this is supporting direct feedback. How can mozzila know which features are useful in your opinion? how should they know that you wanted [feature X]? Maybe they are also in the wrong if the telemetry is excessive, but the alternative is to never deprecate any feature ever.
      - 8y ago

alvar0 8y ago

You can use firefox ESR until it too gets phased out: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/

kgwxd 8y ago

Whats wrong with just using a proper RSS client?

jjordan 8y ago
Nothing's "wrong" with it, but I have yet to find one that allows me to read more headlines in a shorter time than Live Bookmarks.
pndy 8y ago
The best thing about RSS reader in Firefox for me was the fact it blended perfectly with bookmarks feature - it was easy to reach especially when you had bookmarks bar enabled. The way it displayed content also suited me - I didn't have to break my browsing flow to open another tab like in Presto-based Opera or special feed with summaries like in Safari; links in form of bookmarks changing titles were absolutely best.
Koshkin 8y ago
A web browser today is essentially an Internet-facing client-side operating system. You are suggesting to use something that runs outside this OS. (Just pointing out.)

Felz 8y ago

I added Livemarks. It helps, but it's still missing a critical feature of the old extension- the icon showing which RSS links you've already visited. That'll be added at some point at least: https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/issues/17 https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/issues/17 Still, this update felt particularly user hostile. My user experience was: - I'm in the middle of browsing and open a tab to do a search, but the new tab shows the "Firefox needs to restart because updates are more important than you!“ page. - I'm forced to restart. Manually, since the automatic restart is probably broken on my system. Tab state in some SPA tabs are lost. - Now I have to migrate my live bookmarks. They converted themselves to regular bookmarks- I have to right click and delete those one by one. Then I install Livemarks, import the exported bookmarks data, and then drag those one by one to my bookmarks toolbar. I'm half considering Chrome. If Firefox is going to be like this, why bother? Might as well start the Chrome dominance and stagnation part of the browser cycle.

mr_woozy 8y ago

I upgraded and instantly regretted it, as usual.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

lunchables 8y ago

I am a _huge_ RSS user (TinyTiny-RSS) but I don't think enough people used these features to continue supporting them. Plus, I really do not want my web browser to be an RSS reader. Have you considered moving to a dedicated RSS reader ?