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Extensions is the ONLY reason to use Firefox on Android. It's not good browser compared to Chrome on slower Android phones, apart from being customizable. To m

Extensions is the ONLY reason to use Firefox on Android. It's not good browser compared to Chrome on slower Android phones, apart from being customizable. To me it's even the single biggest reason to use Android over iOS as there's no full featured browser on iOS.

ProAm 7y ago
Give Kiwi Browser a shot on Android. It's a fork of Chrome with all the google tracking removed and fully supports Chrome Add-ons. I love it and it's fast (I was a long time Firefox on Android user but it just got to slow to use).
- gruez 7y ago
  Chromium fork with closed source patches? No thanks.
  - ProAm 7y ago
    You do you [1] [1] https://github.com/kiwibrowser https://github.com/kiwibrowser
    - iokanuon 7y ago
      This is just for show. [1] >No. The browser is not fully open source like open in open source. It is a common myth and misconception about Kiwi Browser. >Damn, 1 commit and nothing else but keeps updating and releasing apks? Looked into the issues and scarcely seen replies. >I think this repo is just to show that "hey, I provided the so-called source code (even though not fully open-source as said above) so trust me and install me" thing. [1]: https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android/issues/30 https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android/issues/30
      - rvnx 7y ago
        The way you share quotes sounds like you personally have a problem with the browser :D Kiwi was started as a fun+independent project, then more and more people asked access to some source to be able to develop their own hacks (new tab page, extensions, bottom toolbar, import/export bookmarks, AMP, etc) and they are shared when the devs ask politely. At the end of the day, if you use Samsung, Kiwi, Fennec or Yandex, what matters is to understand why the developers are doing their project, what do they get from it (not necessarily money), and what are the influences around. The source-code is one indicator, and, unless you actually have reproducible builds (and only Fennec has them from all the mentioned browsers) you have to use your intuition.
        iokanuon 7y ago
        Sorry, I've just copied the first two replies.
        gruez 7y ago
        >unless you actually have reproducible builds (and only Fennec has them from all the mentioned browsers) you have to use your intuition. F-droid does independent builds. Even if it's not reproducible, I trust them more than over some random developer.
        rvnx 7y ago
        Well, that's what I say, Fennec is your only option. For now, there are no Chromium-based browsers on F-Droid (except the WebView-based browsers, which ironically, runs on proprietary software as well in the background). If you find one truly open-source and reproducible Chromium browser, I'm intrigued, but as far as I know, they all pretend to be on F-Droid (= fake external F-Droid repo) but are not done by F-Droid team (which is sad). The closest I found was https://gitlab.com/thermatk/Unobtainium https://gitlab.com/thermatk/Unobtainium but still depends on proprietary code as far as I know.
coldpie 7y ago
> Extensions is the ONLY reason to use Firefox on Android. Well, no. I don't want to use a browser that is developed by an advertising company, and I want to encourage the development of more than one web rendering engine. But yes, killing extensions would be a major regression in Firefox's usability.
- swinglock 7y ago
  True, me neither. But politics aside, it's the only technical reason, for me. I'd rather switch to iOS and Safari than Android and Chrome, which I will consider.
- skrause 7y ago
  > Well, no. I don't want to use a browser that is developed by an advertising company ... on an operating system developed by the exact same advertising company?
  - coldpie 7y ago
    If there was a viable competitor, I would consider using it. There isn't.
    - ulfw 7y ago
      There is. You just don't want to spend the money or use the phones/tablets from said competitor.
      - coldpie 7y ago
        iOS is not a competitor for my needs.
      - Forbo 7y ago
        iOS doesn't allow you to use other browser engines.
      - jsgo 7y ago
        I'm personally a big fan of iOS, but coldpie's (and others in this thread) needs seem to be in third party browser capability that doesn't exist in iOS so with that, I wouldn't recommend it to them. I don't think it is a matter of spending money on competitor's devices so much as competitor's devices don't meet their needs.
nicoburns 7y ago
To be fair, the new Firefox Preview (aka fenix) seems to go a long way towards changing that. I agree that they damn well better release with extension support (and I think they will), but it's pretty reasonable to get the core browser stable first.

ProAm 7y ago

Give Kiwi Browser a shot on Android. It's a fork of Chrome with all the google tracking removed and fully supports Chrome Add-ons. I love it and it's fast (I was a long time Firefox on Android user but it just got to slow to use).

gruez 7y ago
Chromium fork with closed source patches? No thanks.
- ProAm 7y ago
  You do you [1] [1] https://github.com/kiwibrowser https://github.com/kiwibrowser
  - iokanuon 7y ago
    This is just for show. [1] >No. The browser is not fully open source like open in open source. It is a common myth and misconception about Kiwi Browser. >Damn, 1 commit and nothing else but keeps updating and releasing apks? Looked into the issues and scarcely seen replies. >I think this repo is just to show that "hey, I provided the so-called source code (even though not fully open-source as said above) so trust me and install me" thing. [1]: https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android/issues/30 https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android/issues/30
    - rvnx 7y ago
      The way you share quotes sounds like you personally have a problem with the browser :D Kiwi was started as a fun+independent project, then more and more people asked access to some source to be able to develop their own hacks (new tab page, extensions, bottom toolbar, import/export bookmarks, AMP, etc) and they are shared when the devs ask politely. At the end of the day, if you use Samsung, Kiwi, Fennec or Yandex, what matters is to understand why the developers are doing their project, what do they get from it (not necessarily money), and what are the influences around. The source-code is one indicator, and, unless you actually have reproducible builds (and only Fennec has them from all the mentioned browsers) you have to use your intuition.
      - iokanuon 7y ago
        Sorry, I've just copied the first two replies.
      - gruez 7y ago
        >unless you actually have reproducible builds (and only Fennec has them from all the mentioned browsers) you have to use your intuition. F-droid does independent builds. Even if it's not reproducible, I trust them more than over some random developer.
        rvnx 7y ago
        Well, that's what I say, Fennec is your only option. For now, there are no Chromium-based browsers on F-Droid (except the WebView-based browsers, which ironically, runs on proprietary software as well in the background). If you find one truly open-source and reproducible Chromium browser, I'm intrigued, but as far as I know, they all pretend to be on F-Droid (= fake external F-Droid repo) but are not done by F-Droid team (which is sad). The closest I found was https://gitlab.com/thermatk/Unobtainium https://gitlab.com/thermatk/Unobtainium but still depends on proprietary code as far as I know.

coldpie 7y ago

> Extensions is the ONLY reason to use Firefox on Android. Well, no. I don't want to use a browser that is developed by an advertising company, and I want to encourage the development of more than one web rendering engine. But yes, killing extensions would be a major regression in Firefox's usability.

swinglock 7y ago
True, me neither. But politics aside, it's the only technical reason, for me. I'd rather switch to iOS and Safari than Android and Chrome, which I will consider.
skrause 7y ago
> Well, no. I don't want to use a browser that is developed by an advertising company ... on an operating system developed by the exact same advertising company?
- coldpie 7y ago
  If there was a viable competitor, I would consider using it. There isn't.
  - ulfw 7y ago
    There is. You just don't want to spend the money or use the phones/tablets from said competitor.
    - coldpie 7y ago
      iOS is not a competitor for my needs.
    - Forbo 7y ago
      iOS doesn't allow you to use other browser engines.
    - jsgo 7y ago
      I'm personally a big fan of iOS, but coldpie's (and others in this thread) needs seem to be in third party browser capability that doesn't exist in iOS so with that, I wouldn't recommend it to them. I don't think it is a matter of spending money on competitor's devices so much as competitor's devices don't meet their needs.

nicoburns 7y ago

To be fair, the new Firefox Preview (aka fenix) seems to go a long way towards changing that. I agree that they damn well better release with extension support (and I think they will), but it's pretty reasonable to get the core browser stable first.