4 ms·

Yeah, unfortunately, Mozilla has consistently demonstrated over recent years that it doesn't care about Mac users. It's weird, to be honest. The widespread iss

by jb1991 7y ago

Yeah, unfortunately, Mozilla has consistently demonstrated over recent years that it doesn't care about Mac users. It's weird, to be honest. The widespread issues for many, though not all, Mac users, will not make it a ubiquituous browser.

gnomewascool 7y ago
What's even weirder is that a significant proportion of Mozilla's developers use Macs as their main platform (if I recall correctly the most popular platforms are Linux, then Macs and Windows a very distant third).
disordinary 7y ago
I use a mac and firefox is my main browser, I don't remember having any problems.
- bogidon 7y ago
  So do I. There are things like text replacement, download progress indication on file icons, and other Cocoa-esque things that don't work on Firefox, but outside a probably very small segment of users who would even notice these things, and a smaller yet segment who would actually care, Firefox feels at home enough in macOS. What I think damages Firefox's user-friendliness more is how easy it is to get to setting screens that look scary to the average user. For example Firefox recently started recommending an extension called "Enhancer for YouTube" when a user visits YouTube after upgrading to some new version of Firefox. Upon installing the extension, you get taken to the extension's settings screen which has a design that would definitely throw off my non-techie family members [1]. Also, take a look at the Firefox release notes for iOS [2] – sure it's "nice" for us devs to have access to raw GitHub issue labels or whatever those are – but for non-techie users they might be interpreted as conveying a certain messaging that Firefox is not really designed for them. [1] https://i.imgur.com/8TIetRA.png https://i.imgur.com/8TIetRA.png [2] https://i.imgur.com/QoUG1ZF.png https://i.imgur.com/QoUG1ZF.png
- greyfourth 7y ago
  I think it's crazy how everyone has such different experiences with Firefox on Mac. I want to love it, but even after a fresh install of MacOS every time I go to use it on my 2015 MBP it grinds to a halt. I'm sticking to ungoogled-chromium for now. I really hope it's resolved down the line!
  - wtetzner 7y ago
    Yeah, it seems like there's always this split on every Hacker News thread about Firefox. Personally, I've use Firefox as my primary browser since before I started using Macs, and after 6 different Macs between home and work, I've never had any problems with it.
opencl 7y ago
From reading a lot of mailing list and bugzilla posts I get the impression that they do care about Macs but the current (very old) renderer is just never going to play nicely with MacOS without a major overhaul, and that major overhaul is Webrender which has been in development for several years but has yet to land in stable because writing a new renderer is just a really large undertaking. Webrender and planeshift should bring a pretty huge performance and power efficiency improvement when they finally land in stable.
- wingworks 7y ago
  That's great to hear. I keep Firefox installed on MBP for dev testing and each time do the update and see if it's worth changing too. Hopefully, the answer will be yes once Webrender arrives and smooth Mac like scrolling. It has come a long way, and I want to like it, just really hard in its current form.
  - chupasaurus 7y ago
    Just checked it (I have a recommended setup) - it's whooping fast.
    - akras14 7y ago
      I don't know what these commenters are talking about. I've been using FF on Mac for over a year now on 3 different Mac Machines. It's super fast, as good as Chrome. May be you need to reset it or something to get it working properly. The only issue I had with FF is Developer Tools, which are also have improved a lot with latest release, and continuing to improve.
      - hellofunk 7y ago
        As I noted, the issue affects many, but not all, Mac users. It seems to be a special configuration of display resolution and other factors that can be difficult to replicate. That’s great for you that it’s working, but you shouldn’t discredit this very serious problem for the general user base.

by jb1991 7y ago

gnomewascool 7y ago

What's even weirder is that a significant proportion of Mozilla's developers use Macs as their main platform (if I recall correctly the most popular platforms are Linux, then Macs and Windows a very distant third).

disordinary 7y ago

I use a mac and firefox is my main browser, I don't remember having any problems.

bogidon 7y ago
So do I. There are things like text replacement, download progress indication on file icons, and other Cocoa-esque things that don't work on Firefox, but outside a probably very small segment of users who would even notice these things, and a smaller yet segment who would actually care, Firefox feels at home enough in macOS. What I think damages Firefox's user-friendliness more is how easy it is to get to setting screens that look scary to the average user. For example Firefox recently started recommending an extension called "Enhancer for YouTube" when a user visits YouTube after upgrading to some new version of Firefox. Upon installing the extension, you get taken to the extension's settings screen which has a design that would definitely throw off my non-techie family members [1]. Also, take a look at the Firefox release notes for iOS [2] – sure it's "nice" for us devs to have access to raw GitHub issue labels or whatever those are – but for non-techie users they might be interpreted as conveying a certain messaging that Firefox is not really designed for them. [1] https://i.imgur.com/8TIetRA.png https://i.imgur.com/8TIetRA.png [2] https://i.imgur.com/QoUG1ZF.png https://i.imgur.com/QoUG1ZF.png
greyfourth 7y ago
I think it's crazy how everyone has such different experiences with Firefox on Mac. I want to love it, but even after a fresh install of MacOS every time I go to use it on my 2015 MBP it grinds to a halt. I'm sticking to ungoogled-chromium for now. I really hope it's resolved down the line!
- wtetzner 7y ago
  Yeah, it seems like there's always this split on every Hacker News thread about Firefox. Personally, I've use Firefox as my primary browser since before I started using Macs, and after 6 different Macs between home and work, I've never had any problems with it.

opencl 7y ago

From reading a lot of mailing list and bugzilla posts I get the impression that they do care about Macs but the current (very old) renderer is just never going to play nicely with MacOS without a major overhaul, and that major overhaul is Webrender which has been in development for several years but has yet to land in stable because writing a new renderer is just a really large undertaking. Webrender and planeshift should bring a pretty huge performance and power efficiency improvement when they finally land in stable.

wingworks 7y ago
That's great to hear. I keep Firefox installed on MBP for dev testing and each time do the update and see if it's worth changing too. Hopefully, the answer will be yes once Webrender arrives and smooth Mac like scrolling. It has come a long way, and I want to like it, just really hard in its current form.
- chupasaurus 7y ago
  Just checked it (I have a recommended setup) - it's whooping fast.
  - akras14 7y ago
    I don't know what these commenters are talking about. I've been using FF on Mac for over a year now on 3 different Mac Machines. It's super fast, as good as Chrome. May be you need to reset it or something to get it working properly. The only issue I had with FF is Developer Tools, which are also have improved a lot with latest release, and continuing to improve.
    - hellofunk 7y ago
      As I noted, the issue affects many, but not all, Mac users. It seems to be a special configuration of display resolution and other factors that can be difficult to replicate. That’s great for you that it’s working, but you shouldn’t discredit this very serious problem for the general user base.