6 ms·

So to be clear, the existing Firefox on Android which has broad extension support is going to be replaced with a version with less extension support? Why? One o

So to be clear, the existing Firefox on Android which has broad extension support is going to be replaced with a version with less extension support? Why? One of the biggest value adds of Firefox on Android is broad extension support.

NikolaeVarius 6y ago
Only way to make it suck less https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventing-firefox-for-android-a-preview/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventi...
- TomMarius 6y ago
  It sucks? I switched from Chrome last year and am nothing but happy. Who decided it sucks?
  - zapttt 6y ago
    i'm with you. have been using the fdroid one. firefox android esl 68 + all security patches) with uMatrix extension (but for non-web devs I'd suggest gorhill's uBlock extension instead)... and this made a phone usable. I feel like I am back in the late 90s! in the best way! it's super user friendly, just install the app, install extensions like you do on desktop I type a url or click a link, and what do I get? the content I wanted and nothing else! it's great! using chrome or those fly-by-night browsers I get a dozen dhtml popups and "whitelisted"-by-the-browser dev ads all over the place. not to mention the own browser popups wanting me to translate from languages I know how to read or if I want to login with my google account on random sites. PS: the fdroid ESL version of firefox is called by the internal mozilla project name: fennec.
  - ta1771 6y ago
    Single process for all tabs/sites, no sandboxing, for a start. I personally won't touch Gecko anymore, and I've been a FF advocate since it was called Mozilla, ha
- detaro 6y ago
  That link doesn't seem to address why plugins need to be restricted to a whitelist? (Which might not be the end-goal, but Mozilla is quite cagey about it)
- solarkraft 6y ago
  That article doesn't explain anything about it. The previous Firefox runs (almost?) all extensions impressively well, with little required optimization.
gnomewascool 6y ago
> So to be clear, the existing Firefox on Android which has broad extension support is going to be replaced with a version with less extension support? Probably not. By the time the switch for release (non-nightly/beta) Firefox comes, I expect all the currently supported extensions will still be supported. In the long-run, since the new architecture will be generally easier to develop, I hope that some of the WebExtension APIs supported on Desktop, but currently not on Android (on Fennec), will also become available on Android (on Fenix).
- iggldiggl 6y ago
  > Probably not. By the time the switch for release (non-nightly/beta) Firefox comes, I expect all the currently supported extensions will still be supported. I think you're being too optimistic - the fact that the regular Nightly and Beta release channels have already been transitioned to the rewrite means that at the same time you've lost all large-scale capacity of doing any pre-release testing on the old version. While that one has been getting ESR-style bug fixes only for quite a while anyway, even those still need some amount of testing. So barring some major hold-ups, they're now committed to transitioning the Release channels in the near future as well, even if that means mediocre add-on support and quite a few other missing things. And it's been clear for quite a while that they've decided on a https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... -style rewrite for better or for worse...
Fnoord 6y ago
I suppose that is why the replacement is called Firefox Preview, for the time being.

NikolaeVarius 6y ago

Only way to make it suck less https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventing-firefox-for-android-a-preview/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventi...

TomMarius 6y ago
It sucks? I switched from Chrome last year and am nothing but happy. Who decided it sucks?
- zapttt 6y ago
  i'm with you. have been using the fdroid one. firefox android esl 68 + all security patches) with uMatrix extension (but for non-web devs I'd suggest gorhill's uBlock extension instead)... and this made a phone usable. I feel like I am back in the late 90s! in the best way! it's super user friendly, just install the app, install extensions like you do on desktop I type a url or click a link, and what do I get? the content I wanted and nothing else! it's great! using chrome or those fly-by-night browsers I get a dozen dhtml popups and "whitelisted"-by-the-browser dev ads all over the place. not to mention the own browser popups wanting me to translate from languages I know how to read or if I want to login with my google account on random sites. PS: the fdroid ESL version of firefox is called by the internal mozilla project name: fennec.
- ta1771 6y ago
  Single process for all tabs/sites, no sandboxing, for a start. I personally won't touch Gecko anymore, and I've been a FF advocate since it was called Mozilla, ha
detaro 6y ago
That link doesn't seem to address why plugins need to be restricted to a whitelist? (Which might not be the end-goal, but Mozilla is quite cagey about it)
solarkraft 6y ago
That article doesn't explain anything about it. The previous Firefox runs (almost?) all extensions impressively well, with little required optimization.

gnomewascool 6y ago

> So to be clear, the existing Firefox on Android which has broad extension support is going to be replaced with a version with less extension support? Probably not. By the time the switch for release (non-nightly/beta) Firefox comes, I expect all the currently supported extensions will still be supported. In the long-run, since the new architecture will be generally easier to develop, I hope that some of the WebExtension APIs supported on Desktop, but currently not on Android (on Fennec), will also become available on Android (on Fenix).

iggldiggl 6y ago
> Probably not. By the time the switch for release (non-nightly/beta) Firefox comes, I expect all the currently supported extensions will still be supported. I think you're being too optimistic - the fact that the regular Nightly and Beta release channels have already been transitioned to the rewrite means that at the same time you've lost all large-scale capacity of doing any pre-release testing on the old version. While that one has been getting ESR-style bug fixes only for quite a while anyway, even those still need some amount of testing. So barring some major hold-ups, they're now committed to transitioning the Release channels in the near future as well, even if that means mediocre add-on support and quite a few other missing things. And it's been clear for quite a while that they've decided on a https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... -style rewrite for better or for worse...

Fnoord 6y ago

I suppose that is why the replacement is called Firefox Preview, for the time being.