4 ms·

I really wish that firefox and ubuntu would hop on board with this. It seems like they both should be at the forefront of this, but for some reason it's still

I really wish that firefox and ubuntu would hop on board with this. It seems like they both should be at the forefront of this, but for some reason it's still impossible to make a PWA show up in my app list on ubuntu without installing chrome. Firefox on android does a great job of notifying and offering to install PWAs, but on desktop seems to pretend they don't exist. The bug report for adding any PWA support on desktop has been languishing for years. And as far as i can tell, the ubuntu software center team doesn't believe that PWAs exist at all. it seems crazy to me that there's no functionality built into ubuntu that allows me to add youtube to the app list.

k__ 6y ago
Yes, would be cool. Firefox is currently unusable on mobile :/
- notatoad 6y ago
  I find Firefox Preview (with ublock origin enabled) to be the most usable of all the mobile browsers i've tried. Chrome has a few nice things going for it, but i'd rather have ublock.
  - k__ 6y ago
    I liked FFP's main UI, but that was it. Major websites wouldn't work properly (Twitter) and sharing images directly from a website (memes are my bread and butter) also didn't work. I use Chrome with NextDNS on Android.
    - DangitBobby 6y ago
      I have no issues with those things on preview now. It has been a tiny bit unstable but it's getting better
  - iggldiggl 6y ago
    I can somewhat understand why they decided to do the total rewrite, but to my mind it still suffers from all the things described in Spolsky's "Things-You-Should-Never-Do": A standstill on the old version for a very long time (actually that already preceeded the rewrite somwhat, though the latter certainly didn't help in that regard), lots of missing features in the new version (each of which might – mostly – only be a small feature when viewed individually, but taken together it's still a noticeable bit that's currently missing), and of course a number of bugs introduced through the rewrite that need to be ironed out once again (occasionally quite literally "once again").
- skrowl 6y ago
  I'm going to guess you're on iOS where you don't actually have Firefox (or any other actual browsers besides Safari). Firefox on iOS (like all iOS browsers) is required by App store rules to basically just skin Safari. On Android, Firefox is the MOST usable browser.
  - k__ 6y ago
    It's just not as responsive as Chrome :/
  - millstone 6y ago
    Then why doesn't anyone use it? Honest question - Mobile Firefox stands at less than half a percentage point marketshare.
    - DangitBobby 6y ago
      Just speculation on my part but... On Android, the default (Chrome) is good enough that most people won't think of trying something else, and on iOS Safari is really your only choice anyway.
    - realusername 6y ago
      Play Store licensing requires Chrome to be installed
  - rubber_duck 6y ago
    Surfing on Firefox Android ATM, and it has the same issues it has on the desktop of sites glitching out - just even harder to work arround on mobile. I'm car shopping and downloading specs from multiple dealers straight out doesn't work - the downloaded PDF won't open, works like a charm in Chrome. Stuff like this is why I suspect most non tech people would revert to Chrome pretty fast.
    - lolinder 6y ago
      I've been using Firefox for years and never run into any consistent pattern of things not working, except in cases where applications intentionally do not support Firefox and push me over to Chrome. Those I blame less on Firefox than on companies wanting to eliminate a customer support variable.
- lolinder 6y ago
  For me, uBlock origin is the only thing that makes browsing the web even remotely okay on mobile. Its ability to block large images is a complete game changer for me. Maybe it's because I've got an "old" phone (4 years ish), but Chrome's insisting that I must download everything a website throws at my made it extremely difficult to use comfortably. As soon as I found out Firefox had extensions on mobile, I switched both my desktop and mobile browsers, and it's been great.
wffurr 6y ago
Whatever happened to the Mozilla that made FirefoxOS. Just to soon I guess.
- ptman 6y ago
  FirefoxOS lives on in KaiOS. But that's probably not very open source
  - wffurr 6y ago
    I know what happened to FirefoxOS. But the Mozilla that was willing to invest in a web app first mobile OS and all the web capabilities needed to make that great seems to be completely gone. Now they seem to have given up on the promise of the web as an app delivery platform and have aligned with Apple on a pro-privacy stance that seems based more on posturing than safely providing capabilities.
zelly 6y ago
The "app list" in GNOME is a database of XDG desktop files which you can create manually if you want. Refer to the freedesktop.org docs.
- notatoad 6y ago
  Yeah, I get that. But hand-writing a .desktop file and dropping it in the appropriate folder is not what I would consider "supported"

k__ 6y ago

Yes, would be cool. Firefox is currently unusable on mobile :/

notatoad 6y ago
I find Firefox Preview (with ublock origin enabled) to be the most usable of all the mobile browsers i've tried. Chrome has a few nice things going for it, but i'd rather have ublock.
- k__ 6y ago
  I liked FFP's main UI, but that was it. Major websites wouldn't work properly (Twitter) and sharing images directly from a website (memes are my bread and butter) also didn't work. I use Chrome with NextDNS on Android.
  - DangitBobby 6y ago
    I have no issues with those things on preview now. It has been a tiny bit unstable but it's getting better
- iggldiggl 6y ago
  I can somewhat understand why they decided to do the total rewrite, but to my mind it still suffers from all the things described in Spolsky's "Things-You-Should-Never-Do": A standstill on the old version for a very long time (actually that already preceeded the rewrite somwhat, though the latter certainly didn't help in that regard), lots of missing features in the new version (each of which might – mostly – only be a small feature when viewed individually, but taken together it's still a noticeable bit that's currently missing), and of course a number of bugs introduced through the rewrite that need to be ironed out once again (occasionally quite literally "once again").
skrowl 6y ago
I'm going to guess you're on iOS where you don't actually have Firefox (or any other actual browsers besides Safari). Firefox on iOS (like all iOS browsers) is required by App store rules to basically just skin Safari. On Android, Firefox is the MOST usable browser.
- k__ 6y ago
  It's just not as responsive as Chrome :/
- millstone 6y ago
  Then why doesn't anyone use it? Honest question - Mobile Firefox stands at less than half a percentage point marketshare.
  - DangitBobby 6y ago
    Just speculation on my part but... On Android, the default (Chrome) is good enough that most people won't think of trying something else, and on iOS Safari is really your only choice anyway.
  - realusername 6y ago
    Play Store licensing requires Chrome to be installed
- rubber_duck 6y ago
  Surfing on Firefox Android ATM, and it has the same issues it has on the desktop of sites glitching out - just even harder to work arround on mobile. I'm car shopping and downloading specs from multiple dealers straight out doesn't work - the downloaded PDF won't open, works like a charm in Chrome. Stuff like this is why I suspect most non tech people would revert to Chrome pretty fast.
  - lolinder 6y ago
    I've been using Firefox for years and never run into any consistent pattern of things not working, except in cases where applications intentionally do not support Firefox and push me over to Chrome. Those I blame less on Firefox than on companies wanting to eliminate a customer support variable.
lolinder 6y ago
For me, uBlock origin is the only thing that makes browsing the web even remotely okay on mobile. Its ability to block large images is a complete game changer for me. Maybe it's because I've got an "old" phone (4 years ish), but Chrome's insisting that I must download everything a website throws at my made it extremely difficult to use comfortably. As soon as I found out Firefox had extensions on mobile, I switched both my desktop and mobile browsers, and it's been great.

wffurr 6y ago

Whatever happened to the Mozilla that made FirefoxOS. Just to soon I guess.

ptman 6y ago
FirefoxOS lives on in KaiOS. But that's probably not very open source
- wffurr 6y ago
  I know what happened to FirefoxOS. But the Mozilla that was willing to invest in a web app first mobile OS and all the web capabilities needed to make that great seems to be completely gone. Now they seem to have given up on the promise of the web as an app delivery platform and have aligned with Apple on a pro-privacy stance that seems based more on posturing than safely providing capabilities.

zelly 6y ago

The "app list" in GNOME is a database of XDG desktop files which you can create manually if you want. Refer to the freedesktop.org docs.

notatoad 6y ago
Yeah, I get that. But hand-writing a .desktop file and dropping it in the appropriate folder is not what I would consider "supported"