4 ms·

Not sure if you tried it, but for me it was an absolute shitshow. It "upgrades" your settings, so if you then downgrade the app, everything is lost (as you have

by nuxi 6y ago

Not sure if you tried it, but for me it was an absolute shitshow. It "upgrades" your settings, so if you then downgrade the app, everything is lost (as you have to uninstall + manually install the old apk). In my case it also decided to reset overridden settings to "defaults" (search engine, save passwords etc.), plus about:config was gone and the homepage cannot be set to bookmarks anymore. I uninstalled it and went back to the latest 68.x, and am now looking for a new browser on Android, possibly one that doesn't treat me like an idiot.

valvar 6y ago
Oh, and add-ons are no longer really a thing. There are only about 10 "officially supported" add-ons. I had to install Fennec from f-droid instead, which is annoying as it is both slower and has some frustrating bugs (for example, you can't customise your search engines properly, so if you select text and then try to launch a search on searx, the query is discarded).
- nemoniac 6y ago
  This! And when are we going to get uMatrix back? The one must-have add-on.
- rhaksw 6y ago
  I hadn't heard of Fennec, does that let you install add-ons that use the somewhat newer WebExtensions API? Specifically I'm curious if this one I made would work, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reveddit-real-time/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reveddit-real...
  - valvar 6y ago
    Fennec is, as I understand it, an older version of Firefox for Android that is no longer supported by Mozilla. I guess it must be more libre or not use Mozilla branding, as it is available in the F-droid store unlikel the normal version. It's a version of Firefox for Android that does indeed support all add-ons, with the caveat that some interfaces might be difficult to use on mobile.
shandor 6y ago
It breaks my heart to say this, but I agree completely on the 'shitshow'. I've been using FF as my main driver for over ten years, and on mobile every second I've been able to. I fail to come up with a thing they didn't ruin with this new "revamp everything". - The home page is worse - THEY BROKE THE BACK BUTTON.Like seriously, you could get your tab's history and jump back more than one page. Now the long-press does nothing - Oh, breaking the back button doesn't end there. Previously you could close your current tab with Back, and FF would either close the tab or go to the FF start screen. Now, all the tabs are left open, and I have to go manually to my tabs list and close them one by one. Why? - probably something else. Or maybe I'm just too angry at my Ol' reliable workhorse so suddenly cheating on me :( Edit: - It's also slower than ever, I've never had any qualms about FF for Androids speed until now.
- person808 6y ago
  The tab history should be back in version 80
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  > THEY BROKE THE BACK BUTTON. This is Google's fault for breaking enhanced back functionality with gesture navigation. Native Android 10 phones can't enable the two button pill nav either so your only choice is the soon to be obsolete three button nav.
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  One more thing: you can't get a desktop-style tab bar on top anymore, instead you are forced to use the tab button to open the view with all your tabs on it. Previously you could go to Android Settings => Developer Options and increase 'Minimum width' / 'Smallest width' which would make the phone think its screen was physically bigger, making it so that the Android UI elements were no longer hilariously large and making Firefox switch to the tablet view with the tab bar, well before the point where the UI got too small to use/read. I figure it'll be a number of years before Android updates make FF 68.x stop working, and while security updates do happen I doubt any of the websites visited by the types of people on HN are going to be compromised and running exploits for old Android FF versions. Plus you have the Android permissions/sandboxing stuff.
wejick 6y ago
I'm on the Beta channel and using this for several months already, even since on the preview. Can't say it's perfect but I'm getting used to it pretty fast, like 2 weeks. Have no complaints since, and it feels snappier subjectively.

by nuxi 6y ago

valvar 6y ago

Oh, and add-ons are no longer really a thing. There are only about 10 "officially supported" add-ons. I had to install Fennec from f-droid instead, which is annoying as it is both slower and has some frustrating bugs (for example, you can't customise your search engines properly, so if you select text and then try to launch a search on searx, the query is discarded).

nemoniac 6y ago
This! And when are we going to get uMatrix back? The one must-have add-on.
rhaksw 6y ago
I hadn't heard of Fennec, does that let you install add-ons that use the somewhat newer WebExtensions API? Specifically I'm curious if this one I made would work, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reveddit-real-time/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reveddit-real...
- valvar 6y ago
  Fennec is, as I understand it, an older version of Firefox for Android that is no longer supported by Mozilla. I guess it must be more libre or not use Mozilla branding, as it is available in the F-droid store unlikel the normal version. It's a version of Firefox for Android that does indeed support all add-ons, with the caveat that some interfaces might be difficult to use on mobile.

shandor 6y ago

It breaks my heart to say this, but I agree completely on the 'shitshow'. I've been using FF as my main driver for over ten years, and on mobile every second I've been able to. I fail to come up with a thing they didn't ruin with this new "revamp everything". - The home page is worse - THEY BROKE THE BACK BUTTON.Like seriously, you could get your tab's history and jump back more than one page. Now the long-press does nothing - Oh, breaking the back button doesn't end there. Previously you could close your current tab with Back, and FF would either close the tab or go to the FF start screen. Now, all the tabs are left open, and I have to go manually to my tabs list and close them one by one. Why? - probably something else. Or maybe I'm just too angry at my Ol' reliable workhorse so suddenly cheating on me :( Edit: - It's also slower than ever, I've never had any qualms about FF for Androids speed until now.

person808 6y ago
The tab history should be back in version 80
kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
> THEY BROKE THE BACK BUTTON. This is Google's fault for breaking enhanced back functionality with gesture navigation. Native Android 10 phones can't enable the two button pill nav either so your only choice is the soon to be obsolete three button nav.
the_pwner224 6y ago
One more thing: you can't get a desktop-style tab bar on top anymore, instead you are forced to use the tab button to open the view with all your tabs on it. Previously you could go to Android Settings => Developer Options and increase 'Minimum width' / 'Smallest width' which would make the phone think its screen was physically bigger, making it so that the Android UI elements were no longer hilariously large and making Firefox switch to the tablet view with the tab bar, well before the point where the UI got too small to use/read. I figure it'll be a number of years before Android updates make FF 68.x stop working, and while security updates do happen I doubt any of the websites visited by the types of people on HN are going to be compromised and running exploits for old Android FF versions. Plus you have the Android permissions/sandboxing stuff.

wejick 6y ago

I'm on the Beta channel and using this for several months already, even since on the preview. Can't say it's perfect but I'm getting used to it pretty fast, like 2 weeks. Have no complaints since, and it feels snappier subjectively.