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Quite a lot of negativity from HN so far, so I'll add some counter. I've been using the Firefox preview since it was announced and overall have found it to be

by Zhyl 7y ago

Quite a lot of negativity from HN so far, so I'll add some counter. I've been using the Firefox preview since it was announced and overall have found it to be a vast improvement on the previous incarnation. Tab management is much more intuitive and easier on the thumbs, the URL bar being at the bottom is jarring at first but soon becomes much easier to use, the performance is similar to the Firefox Focus which I had previously switched to from the main Firefox app. Between this version of Firefox and the improvements to servo and webview brought in with v57 on the desktop side, we've seen a massive leap in terms of user experience across the Mozilla portfolio. Granted, addons and notably adblock is an omission, but really when I reflect on what I felt was missing from the Firefoxes of yore, I would always come back to 'look and feel' and 'performance' and I feel like these new releases go a long way to redressing the balance with the competition in my books.

kstenerud 7y ago
This is great, and firefox as a product is also great, but I couldn't decipher this information from their wall-of-marketroid-speak. This is a really big problem for a company such as Mozilla, because marketroid speak makes me distrust them, and they're riding on a reputation of trustworthiness.
barrkel 7y ago
Of course, the reason I don't use Chrome is due to the stuff Firefox has - ad-blocking on mobile and tree-style tabs on desktop. Chrome's look and feel is specifically what I don't like about it.
BlackLotus89 7y ago
> Tab management is much more intuitive and easier on the thumbs It's worse if you have many tabs and the compartmentalisation feature is not flexible enough to be used with many tabs. Oh and the missing preview image is annoying when I'm looking for a site, because it's easier to look for a tab by looking at it then reading every title > the URL bar being at the bottom is jarring at first but soon becomes much easier to use yeah I love the idea and it kind of works. problem is that _it doesn't stay down_ when I want to edit an url I first have to click on the bottom and then at the top as well. I really often want to edit the url I have in my browser and this is so annoying I can't even describe it. > the performance is similar to the Firefox Focus which I had previously switched to from the main Firefox app. No it probably isn't. For me firefox preview has the same slow downs as normal firefox for android. A few seconds to open and then a few seconds to show my tabs (oneplus 5 + ~150 tabs). If I just wanted a fast browser with adblock I would use "Lightning" (available in fdroid), but I want addons. Every other feature is available in every other browser.
- jaynetics 7y ago
  > when I want to edit an url I first have to click on the bottom and then at the top as well. Another annoyance is how it never disappears. I get that it would be less intuitive to have a bar at the bottom disappear when scrolling down a page and reappear when scrolling up, but the way it is now, with the bar always there, some websites are simply unusable in landscape mode on a regular phone. All in all, a great and brave decision, but poorly executed.
  - craftinator 7y ago
    As this release is nightly, feedback like yours will go a long way to fix these annoying UI issues

by Zhyl 7y ago

kstenerud 7y ago

This is great, and firefox as a product is also great, but I couldn't decipher this information from their wall-of-marketroid-speak. This is a really big problem for a company such as Mozilla, because marketroid speak makes me distrust them, and they're riding on a reputation of trustworthiness.

barrkel 7y ago

Of course, the reason I don't use Chrome is due to the stuff Firefox has - ad-blocking on mobile and tree-style tabs on desktop. Chrome's look and feel is specifically what I don't like about it.

BlackLotus89 7y ago

> Tab management is much more intuitive and easier on the thumbs It's worse if you have many tabs and the compartmentalisation feature is not flexible enough to be used with many tabs. Oh and the missing preview image is annoying when I'm looking for a site, because it's easier to look for a tab by looking at it then reading every title > the URL bar being at the bottom is jarring at first but soon becomes much easier to use yeah I love the idea and it kind of works. problem is that _it doesn't stay down_ when I want to edit an url I first have to click on the bottom and then at the top as well. I really often want to edit the url I have in my browser and this is so annoying I can't even describe it. > the performance is similar to the Firefox Focus which I had previously switched to from the main Firefox app. No it probably isn't. For me firefox preview has the same slow downs as normal firefox for android. A few seconds to open and then a few seconds to show my tabs (oneplus 5 + ~150 tabs). If I just wanted a fast browser with adblock I would use "Lightning" (available in fdroid), but I want addons. Every other feature is available in every other browser.

jaynetics 7y ago
> when I want to edit an url I first have to click on the bottom and then at the top as well. Another annoyance is how it never disappears. I get that it would be less intuitive to have a bar at the bottom disappear when scrolling down a page and reappear when scrolling up, but the way it is now, with the bar always there, some websites are simply unusable in landscape mode on a regular phone. All in all, a great and brave decision, but poorly executed.
- craftinator 7y ago
  As this release is nightly, feedback like yours will go a long way to fix these annoying UI issues