6 ms·

We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now

We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now. We already support a very limited set of the WebExtensions API to offer features like Reader Mode. Rest assured that more features will land in the coming months. If you're a developer and you want to help us, our Github site is at this link. We mark easier issues with a Good First Issue label. We also need help with translations, documentation, and even getting issues filed. https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix

anoncake 7y ago
You don't have to release unfinished software.
- wastman 7y ago
  It is the nature of open source. I personally prefer it. Anyways, they didn't claim it was unfinished. Projects like these are never "finished".
- roca 7y ago
  It's not released yet.
- loteck 7y ago
  There's no such thing as finished software.
  - doc_gunthrop 7y ago
    Dead software is finished software.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - loteck 7y ago
      It's abandoned, not finished.
  - kabacha 7y ago
    What a ridiculous claim. Of course there is finished software. If you need a subscration calculator what do you do when it can do substraction? Add addition? That's how we end up with this disgusting bloated software world we live in. Why do I need a calculator app with food delivery service?
- rebelwebmaster 7y ago
  It's almost like it was labeled as a Preview for a reason.
afarviral 7y ago
> We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now. A usable night mode e.g. invert the topbar icons and change the white screen you see before the page loads combined with an existing dark theme would be an easy feature to implement and would put it miles ahead of other mobile browsers too. I presently have to use Swift for Samsung to overlay a proper black theme (with white icons etc), but still get bright white when loading pages.
- alias_neo 7y ago
  I'm sending this from it right now using the dark theme it comes with, dark bar (at the bottom), it has exactly what you're asking for! I'm really happy about this; dark with bar at bottom is what I've always wanted.
- afarviral 7y ago
  Im an idiot.... just tested it. Beautiful. Its nearly perfect now. Still blasts you with white in some situations but maybe thats due to the coding of the webpage as it loads. Im seriously impressed.
  - afarviral 7y ago
    Actually... Id like a black theme as well as just a dark theme. Thanks.
    - iamnotacrook 7y ago
      Fullscreen mode would be good. And bookmarks seem like something of a car-crash. They're in there somewhere but it looks like Collections are easier to get to so obviously they're going to get used instead. I don't care what they're called - i just need a way of getting to frequently used urls. And it would be good if I could rename bookmarks/urls/items in collections because currently i'm stuck with whatever the site owner put there which means I end up with 4 links all called "train timetable" instead of "luton-london","london-luton","luton-tring","tring-luton". I would suggest firefox developers use both collections and bookmarks and see how many clicks they have to use, if they have to stretch their thumbs etc, and ask if there's a better way. And..where to report this sort of thing? There seem to be about 7 different rival official locations.
zamalek 7y ago
The hard work you guys put in is always appreciated, FF in all its forms has become truly the best browser there is. That being said, how on earth was Reader Mode prioritized above adblocking? As it stands, adblocking is "post MVP"[1][2]. QR code scanning, however, is somehow part of the MVP. This doesn't make sense to me: there are many apps that launch the default system browser when scanning a URL QR code. You can easily get by without that functionality in the browser. The comments in this post should be sending you really loud signal: technical users (the type of people who install preview software) don't consider a browser without adblocking MVP. You are drastically underestimating the significance of adblocking extensions. [1]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/96 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/96 [2]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2622 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2622 [3]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/113 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/113
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  When Chrome first came out I stopped using it cause it didnt have adblock. Then when it did it was still crippled and I realized Google is in the Ad business so I never used Chrome since. This is very correct adblocking is a necessity, if they even include a Mozilla Adblocking DNS server for the browser thats fine to me. As long as I dont see ads. I wont give up on Firefox anytime soon. I would love to see some serious competitors though.
  - hdfbdtbcdg 7y ago
    I don't want my browser ignoring my DNS settings!
    - giancarlostoro 7y ago
      I would assume it would be opt-in if they went with this.
  - sharperguy 7y ago
    Everyone switched to ublock once adblock+ starting taking payments to not block certain ads. Most people who care about adblocking will choose whatever browser suppoerts adblocking over anything else honestly.
rrix2 7y ago
Not just ad blocking extensions though. Being able to run Dark Reader and Stylus on my phone is great. I appreciate it a lot, thanks
rorykoehler 7y ago
Ad blocking is the only reason I use Firefox mobile.
iamnotacrook 7y ago
It's very fast. But there's no full screen option, which is surprising.
notyourday 7y ago
> We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now. It is always soft of amusing to watch companies make all kinds of unforced errors with their products because the managers feel that they know much better than the users of the product what should be important to users. They fail all the time just to have someone else come in and say "Oh, those people, they were just holding the instructions wrong" and go repeating the same mistake. So far in this ( software + hardware space ) there has been exactly one company that nailed it. The company is called Apple and the product is called iPhone. Since that point on Apple has not introduced anything that was not a direct play on "Our users want X, we are going to give them X, maybe with a bit of a twist" The users are telling you that the USP of Firefox is ad blocking. If your PM says it is something else, you should replace the PM. That should be your singular focus. Everything else is secondary.
- mrandish 7y ago
  I agree with you 100% both about ad blocking being essential and product managers being tone deaf to user's priorities, however, I don't see Apple as any paragon in this regard. > Apple has not introduced anything that was not a direct play on "Our users want X, we are going to give them X, maybe with a bit of a twist" Unless you want plug-ins in a mobile browser or a headphone jack or ... well, too many things to list really. Apple mobile/tablet software experiences are some of the worst offenders of "We'll tell you how you should want it and if you don't agree, you're just wrong and we're right."

anoncake 7y ago

You don't have to release unfinished software.

wastman 7y ago
It is the nature of open source. I personally prefer it. Anyways, they didn't claim it was unfinished. Projects like these are never "finished".
roca 7y ago
It's not released yet.
loteck 7y ago
There's no such thing as finished software.
- doc_gunthrop 7y ago
  Dead software is finished software.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - loteck 7y ago
    It's abandoned, not finished.
- kabacha 7y ago
  What a ridiculous claim. Of course there is finished software. If you need a subscration calculator what do you do when it can do substraction? Add addition? That's how we end up with this disgusting bloated software world we live in. Why do I need a calculator app with food delivery service?
rebelwebmaster 7y ago
It's almost like it was labeled as a Preview for a reason.

afarviral 7y ago

> We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now. A usable night mode e.g. invert the topbar icons and change the white screen you see before the page loads combined with an existing dark theme would be an easy feature to implement and would put it miles ahead of other mobile browsers too. I presently have to use Swift for Samsung to overlay a proper black theme (with white icons etc), but still get bright white when loading pages.

alias_neo 7y ago
I'm sending this from it right now using the dark theme it comes with, dark bar (at the bottom), it has exactly what you're asking for! I'm really happy about this; dark with bar at bottom is what I've always wanted.
afarviral 7y ago
Im an idiot.... just tested it. Beautiful. Its nearly perfect now. Still blasts you with white in some situations but maybe thats due to the coding of the webpage as it loads. Im seriously impressed.
- afarviral 7y ago
  Actually... Id like a black theme as well as just a dark theme. Thanks.
  - iamnotacrook 7y ago
    Fullscreen mode would be good. And bookmarks seem like something of a car-crash. They're in there somewhere but it looks like Collections are easier to get to so obviously they're going to get used instead. I don't care what they're called - i just need a way of getting to frequently used urls. And it would be good if I could rename bookmarks/urls/items in collections because currently i'm stuck with whatever the site owner put there which means I end up with 4 links all called "train timetable" instead of "luton-london","london-luton","luton-tring","tring-luton". I would suggest firefox developers use both collections and bookmarks and see how many clicks they have to use, if they have to stretch their thumbs etc, and ask if there's a better way. And..where to report this sort of thing? There seem to be about 7 different rival official locations.

zamalek 7y ago

The hard work you guys put in is always appreciated, FF in all its forms has become truly the best browser there is. That being said, how on earth was Reader Mode prioritized above adblocking? As it stands, adblocking is "post MVP"[1][2]. QR code scanning, however, is somehow part of the MVP. This doesn't make sense to me: there are many apps that launch the default system browser when scanning a URL QR code. You can easily get by without that functionality in the browser. The comments in this post should be sending you really loud signal: technical users (the type of people who install preview software) don't consider a browser without adblocking MVP. You are drastically underestimating the significance of adblocking extensions. [1]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/96 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/96 [2]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2622 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2622 [3]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/113 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/113

giancarlostoro 7y ago
When Chrome first came out I stopped using it cause it didnt have adblock. Then when it did it was still crippled and I realized Google is in the Ad business so I never used Chrome since. This is very correct adblocking is a necessity, if they even include a Mozilla Adblocking DNS server for the browser thats fine to me. As long as I dont see ads. I wont give up on Firefox anytime soon. I would love to see some serious competitors though.
- hdfbdtbcdg 7y ago
  I don't want my browser ignoring my DNS settings!
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    I would assume it would be opt-in if they went with this.
- sharperguy 7y ago
  Everyone switched to ublock once adblock+ starting taking payments to not block certain ads. Most people who care about adblocking will choose whatever browser suppoerts adblocking over anything else honestly.

rrix2 7y ago

Not just ad blocking extensions though. Being able to run Dark Reader and Stylus on my phone is great. I appreciate it a lot, thanks

rorykoehler 7y ago

Ad blocking is the only reason I use Firefox mobile.

iamnotacrook 7y ago

It's very fast. But there's no full screen option, which is surprising.

notyourday 7y ago

> We're certainly aware of how significant ad blocking extensions are. This release required a great quantity of features with only a six month timeline until now. It is always soft of amusing to watch companies make all kinds of unforced errors with their products because the managers feel that they know much better than the users of the product what should be important to users. They fail all the time just to have someone else come in and say "Oh, those people, they were just holding the instructions wrong" and go repeating the same mistake. So far in this ( software + hardware space ) there has been exactly one company that nailed it. The company is called Apple and the product is called iPhone. Since that point on Apple has not introduced anything that was not a direct play on "Our users want X, we are going to give them X, maybe with a bit of a twist" The users are telling you that the USP of Firefox is ad blocking. If your PM says it is something else, you should replace the PM. That should be your singular focus. Everything else is secondary.

mrandish 7y ago
I agree with you 100% both about ad blocking being essential and product managers being tone deaf to user's priorities, however, I don't see Apple as any paragon in this regard. > Apple has not introduced anything that was not a direct play on "Our users want X, we are going to give them X, maybe with a bit of a twist" Unless you want plug-ins in a mobile browser or a headphone jack or ... well, too many things to list really. Apple mobile/tablet software experiences are some of the worst offenders of "We'll tell you how you should want it and if you don't agree, you're just wrong and we're right."