18 ms·

Firefox 81.0

604 points by amake 6y ago

Jaruzel 6y ago
Does anyone know if Firefox supports --app= type mode yet, like Chrome does? I want to fully switch to Firefox, but I use Chrome's app mode all the time.
- de_watcher 6y ago
  Breaking news: apps are still in the process of being deprecated in Chrome.
  - fpoling 6y ago
    In Chrome "general support for Chrome Apps will end in June 2021', https://9to5google.com/2020/08/10/chrome-apps-deprecation/ https://9to5google.com/2020/08/10/chrome-apps-deprecation/
  - rnotaro 6y ago
    I believe the parent is talking about Application shortcuts. The chrome "Kiosk" mode that allows you to create a shortcut on your desktop that opens any URL as a "WebApp". I don't think this is being depreciated.
    - Jaruzel 6y ago
      Yes, that's what I meant. :)
- chrishawes 6y ago
  It does. Set browser.ssb.enabled to true in about:config.
  - gilrain 6y ago
    A courtesy warning that this is hidden in about:config because it's still unstable.
- wicket 6y ago
  As far as I can tell, kiosk mode does pretty much the same thing. firefox -kiosk [URL]
  - rglullis 6y ago
    Close, yet so far. Kiosk opens in fullscreen mode, no window controls. Chrome's --app opens a normal desktop window but without browser controls so that it looks like a desktop app.
    - wicket 6y ago
      I don't know what desktop environment/window manager you are using, but in i3 I can just press $mod+f to exit fullscreen and it will appear as a normal desktop app.
      - rglullis 6y ago
        hum, standard XFCE for me. I tried only F11 (default shortcut to enter/exit fullscreen and did not work) but Alt-F11 did the trick. Nice.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
51Cards 6y ago
Some great updates in this release. Credit card saving and PDF filling will both be very useful for me. I've become used to the CC feature on Android and just last week was noting its absense in Firefox. Note further down looks like PiP mode is also getting more enhancements soon. Hopefully some of the open tickets around remembering window position and resize borders being too hard to hit get addressed as well.
- war1025 6y ago
  > Credit card saving and PDF filling will both be very useful for me How is the credit card saving thing from a security perspective? Seems on the one hand like a weird thing to let a browser keep track of for me, but maybe it's adequately protected to not be an issue.
  - the_pwner224 6y ago
    It's e2e encrypted and synced with your Firefox account's password.
  - MayeulC 6y ago
    > How is the credit card saving thing from a security perspective? One more threat vector to worry about (someone getting ahold of your password manager). One less also (keyloggers). Unfortunately, I worry more about the first, so I won't use it, thanks (and already I know it by heart, anyway).
  - kbenson 6y ago
    I'm far more worried about someone gaining access to my main email than my credit card. I cancel the old card and then there's fraud protection and consumer laws to help with credit card charges, and then I just get a new card and replace the old one. Getting access to my main email account is a whole difference can of worms (but thankfully not as immediately bad as it used to be with the proliferation of 2FA for difference services).
    - GekkePrutser 6y ago
iruoy 6y ago
> We have expanded our supported file types - .xml, .svg, and .webp - so files you’ve downloaded can be opened right in Firefox. This is very welcome. Especially XML.
- hdjdbtbgwjsn 6y ago
  Hasn't XML opened in the browser since forever?
  - djsumdog 6y ago
    Maybe they're talking about default file associations, so you can do "Open with" on Win/Mac?
  - victorheld 6y ago
    I've opened SVGs plenty of times as well, maybe something to do with file association?
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    Isn't this about the Android version? It says that here but perhaps it's because I was reading it on Android.
0xffff2 6y ago
>For our users in the US and Canada, Firefox can now save, manage, and auto-fill credit card information for you... Can anyone explain why this feature would need to be region-locked? Are they doing something more than simply storing CC info locally?
- reader_mode 6y ago
  Maybe it's synced with FF account ?
- OJFord 6y ago
  Probably compliance - haven't/yet/don't want to confirm that it's adhering to data protection/similar laws in multiple jurisdictions?
- gostsamo 6y ago
  I'd suspect the need of local partnerships to curate the content.
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    Curate what content? How?
    - gostsamo 6y ago
      What recommendations show up. Someone needs to read the articles in order to recommend them, don't they? It'd be better if this someone is someone local who has the context. Edit: The heck, I haven't read carefully the OP. Thought that the question is about Pocket.
      - fuzxi 6y ago
        I was so confused by your comment, haha. "Recommendations, not autofill? They're going to recommend a credit card and address for me?"
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
yepthatsreality 6y ago
Very purple new theme!
- po1nter 6y ago
  You can create your own with the Firefox Color official extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-color/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-color...
  - yepthatsreality 6y ago
    Very nice, I usually use a dorky space theme and this new one is a bit too purple (IMO) for readability so I may try to make a hybrid of the two themes.
tumetab1 6y ago
> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard or headset, giving you easy access to control your media when in another Firefox tab, another program, or even when your computer is locked. Yes :)
iamdamian 6y ago
Have they made it any easier to disable the ‘megabar’? https://www.userchrome.org/megabar-styling-firefox-address-bar.html https://www.userchrome.org/megabar-styling-firefox-address-b... Edit: Added link
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ptato 6y ago
  what is the megabar?
  - garaetjjte 6y ago
    That addressbar grows extra margins after clicking, making it look like some layout bug. Also it fully expands automatically, even after single click.
conradfr 6y ago
> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard Doesn't seem to work for me on Windows 7 (while working on Chrome on Youtube, Soundcloud and a side project of mine). Basically navigator.mediaSession still returns undefined. edit: it's win8.1 and above.
- Rusky 6y ago
  The linked documentation (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-audio-or-video-playback-your-keyboard?redirectslug=control-audio-or-video-playback-your-headset-or-keyboard&redirectlocale=en-US https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-audio-or-video-...) mentions that this is only supported on Windows 8.1 or newer.
  - conradfr 6y ago
    It does, thanks I missed it skimming the page.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- alastor0325 6y ago
  That's still hiding behind the pref. But the media keys support would be ebabled by default on Fx81, and support for media session would be enabled by default on Fx82. The pref for media keys : media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled The pref for media session : dom.media.mediasession.enabled See more details on https://bit.ly/2WJDEY0 https://bit.ly/2WJDEY0
  - pityJuke 6y ago
    Thanks for listing the pref so I can disable the darn thing. I don't currently see a user facing setting.
- morsch 6y ago
  Used to work fine many years ago using an addon. Of course the addon is mostly broken since the demise of XUL. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-keys/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-keys/
olah_1 6y ago
I keep hoping to see "font rendering looks better on Windows" in one of these releases. I don't think it'll ever happen though.
- theandrewbailey 6y ago
  Is there some API or technique that you're wanting implemented? Or is ClearType misconfigured on your machine? Edit: the Control Panel has a Cleartype wizard that works like an optometrist exam: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/80598-turn-off-cleartype-windows-10-a.html https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/80598-turn-off-cleartype...
  - runxel 6y ago
    I think he refers to the slightly "biggening" of fonts. Which is a great thing, btw! because it helps with all that nonsense-designers-bs of suuuuper thin fonts nobody can actually read.
    - olah_1 6y ago
      They're not "biggened". They're bolder and more blocky. Which from a design perspective appears louder, more brash, and not calm.
  - WorldMaker 6y ago
    DirectWrite does have some improvements over GDI only ClearType. Although a lot of DirectWrite's real improvements people notice are interestingly in the other direction. (ClearType is designed to optimize sub-pixel rendering on LCDs when rendering fonts at small sizes; a bunch of DirectWrite improvements are in multi-pixel aliasing and smoothing when rendering higher font sizes on higher DPI devices.)
  - ZeroCool2u 6y ago
    That wizard is amazing, thank you!
- TonyTrapp 6y ago
anorakoverflow 6y ago
Sadly, the new PDF viewer still doesn’t support smooth two-finger zooming on macOS. The new theme is kind of neat though.
magicalhippo 6y ago
I wish Containers would get some love. Ability to set root domain for example would be great, so I could keep all Bandcamp sites in a single container without micromanagement for example. I also wish there was a simple way to suspend tabs, essentially turning them into the "ghosts" they are when you start the browser. So many times I want to keep a tab around for easy access, but they got some stupid JS framework running sucking CPU for no good reason. That said, overall I'm quite pleased with Firefox and hope Mozilla keep developing it. We need a proper Chrome alternative.
- thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
  I agree on the containers. It's such a powerful feature, but it feels weird to need extensions to make containers work the way many feel they should intuitively. For instance I have a Google container, but I can't figure out how to make outbound search links open in a different container.
  - gruez 6y ago
    afaik multi account containers should work, if you set google as "always open in google container". temporary containers (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...) would also work.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
      I use multi account containers and it doesn't work for me. For instance, if I go to amazon.com directly, I get my Amazon container. But if I do a search in Google and then click an Amazon link I will still be in the Google container.
      - bickeringyokel 6y ago
        You can right click to open in a specific container. Take a bit of forethought though.
filereaper 6y ago
Related, Firefox 80 landed the VA-API Changes for Linux [1] It has drastically improved viewing 4k Videos on Linux for me where before the video would use up 100% of my integrated GPU, and now its down to 0% AFAIK Chrome isn't using this as seen from intel_gpu_top so this was a major improvement for me. [1] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-80-VA-API-X11 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-...
- ylere 6y ago
  Firefox on wayland has been a joy to use recently (webrenderer, dmabuf, webgl, vaapi). Everything including video and scrolling is butter smooth and doesn't clog the cpu, even with 200-300+ tabs (i know...) over several windows. Much better than Chrome (on Linux at least). Interestingly, RAM usage also seems to be better in ff (both with plugins), but that might be anecdotal.
  - jhoechtl 6y ago
    Do we still need moz_enable_wayland env variable or is this the default now?
TonyTrapp 6y ago
> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard or headset, giving you easy access to control your media when in another Firefox tab, another program, or even when your computer is locked I really hope that this is is going to be a user-facing option and not hidden away in about:config (or not configurable at all). I already have a media player using global media shortcuts, thank you. Browsers need to stop assuming that they are the only app in the room.
- skymt 6y ago
  I looked for a way to disable the media keys feature when it landed in Developer Edition and it seems to be only in about:config. The key is "media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled".
  - TonyTrapp 6y ago
    Oh well. I guess "having an actual media player that observes to media keys" is "very advanced PC usage" in the year 2020, so that fully justifies hiding it in about:config. Sad.
    - bickeringyokel 6y ago
      I'm starting to think that the concept of "files" is starting to be a very advanced concept for some people these days.
    - Dahoon 6y ago
      If the OS is worth its salt it knows which media player is playing and lets you control it. I don't see how this could ever be a problem. It is no different than having two mediaplayers installed. I have never seen the wrong mediaplayer suddenly being controlled. Just set whatever as standard/default. Works fine in Android, Linux and Windows.
      - the_pwner224 6y ago
        On Android you can't (almost always) play multiple media at the same time, so that's not an issue. The first media will pause when you start the next. However this is a stupid limitation, only plausibly appropriate for phones. On computers you frequently have multiple medias playing at the same time and it is not possible to control all of them with one set of media control keys. The OS can guess but will often get it wrong. You have music playing in the background and you start a YouTube video and then hit pause. What gets paused? On my current system, it's (usually) the YT video in Firefox. This is wrong because I want to pause the background music so that I can listen to the video. On another system it might instead pause the background music. That is wrong because I wanted to pause/unpause the active YT video that I've been watching for the past 15 minutes. I ended up disabling Firefox's thingy in about:config because this gets pretty frustrating after a while.
domenicd 6y ago
List of web platform changes to Gecko: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/81 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Rel...
jojo14 6y ago
Firefox is my browser of choice and I gladly appreciate much of the improvement the devs put in it. However under Linux an improvement would be to get rid of Pulseaudio and to directly interface with ALSA. The benefit would be that installing FF wouldn't require unwanted dependencies and audio quality would be improved.
- yabones 6y ago
  I believe on Gentoo you can compile Firefox without pulseaudio by disabling the USE flag. I'm not sure if that forces it to use ALSA or disables audio entirely though. I do use pulse, so I've never disabled it globally/for Firefox. https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/www-client/firefox https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/www-client/firefox https://packages.gentoo.org/useflags/pulseaudio https://packages.gentoo.org/useflags/pulseaudio
- esaym 6y ago
  >and audio quality would be improved Only one audio stream at a time can use ALSA, how would that be an improvement?
  - donio 6y ago
    I don't have PA on my system and I am able to play audio from many sources at the same time using ALSA only. Not sure if this requires hardware/driver support or something, I don't have any special ALSA config. I don't know about the audio quality improvement though, unless OP is talking about avoiding latency that comes from going through PA.
    - pera 6y ago
      You may have hardware support or dmix in your config.
    - esaym 6y ago
      I avoided PA for years because "alsa just works". It is not until one tries to build a native linux app that you see the issue with alsa once you venture into the alsa library docs. Indeed, alsa only supports one audio stream. This was the purpose of all the other sound daemons (arts, esd, etc) of times past. Alsa added "native" software mixing via a "dmix" [0] plugin. The end user is left with a setup that can handle multiple streams to a single sound card, however, one looses the ability to better tune how those streams are mixed. For instance, most sound cards only support sample rates of 48khz. What happens when you have one application playing 44.1khz 16bit sound with another playing 44.1khz 32bit all while something else is playing 48khz sound? Dmix will resample and mix them into one 48khz stream, but it does so in the sloppiest way. It can be tuned somewhat, but that just makes the application linked into the alsa library consume even more CPU cycles. Pulseaudio is much more better in this situation. It can change its sample rate on the fly. For the above scenario, it could have upsampled the one 44.1khz 16bit stream to 32 bit, and resampled the 48khz stream to 44.1khz and then piped this single 44.1khz stream to the sound card (if it supports 44.1khz audio) at much better efficiency and less work. There is really no reason to fight it anymore. [0]: https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc#dmix https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc#dmix
sreejithr 6y ago
Firefox for life
ziml77 6y ago
I immediately updated for the media controls. I hate getting a call and having to fumble around trying to scroll around and find the tab with the little speaker on it so I can stop it before answering.
maddyboo 6y ago
I’ve been a Firefox user on Linux for the past 2 years. I recently had to open Chromium to accommodate a site that refused to work with Firefox, and I was quite shocked at how much snappier Chromium’s UI felt. Going back to Firefox the sluggishness is palpable. My machine is in the upper-mid range with a TR 1950X + Vega 56, so I can’t imagine it’s a spec issue. I’ve read the entire Arch Wiki article on Firefox performance [1], ensured that hardware acceleration and other performance settings/flags are enabled, and tested different configurations of theses settings. Nothing made a discernible difference. Chromium, even with hardware acceleration disabled, is dramatically more responsive than Firefox. I have been very tempted to go back to Chromium. Ideologically and privacy wise, I really want to support Firefox, but I can’t help craving a lightning fast UI. 1: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox/Tweaks https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox/Tweaks
- pbsds 6y ago
  Have you tried enabling pixel-perfect scrolling?
  - maddyboo 6y ago
    Scrolling is fine, it’s most other UI interactions like button presses (both browser UI and in-page).
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    Funny, for me this is something i need to turn off to make it snappier. Especially the mousewheel scrolling really feels laggy with it on.
- lytedev 6y ago
  This is curious to me. Were you using any extensions?
  - maddyboo 6y ago
    I have tested with a clean profile and didn’t notice a speed up. This is not to say Firefox is slow, but that Chromium feels much snappier.
krbzsq 6y ago
Is there any way to change the default dark/light themes for Firefox on macOS yet? I don't like the 'Default' theme but I do like the 'Light' theme, so when I use dark mode I want Firefox to use the 'Dark' theme but then change to 'Light' when i go back to light mode and not the 'Default' theme. Is this possible? If not is it in the pipeline anywhere? Other than that, Firefox is incredible and I'm always happy to see new updates.
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  You can set it to the Light theme and install the Dark Reader extension, which, in addition to making all the websites dark-moded, also changes the browser chrome's colors while active.
kuon 6y ago
Firefox has been a joy to use under linux with wayland, it is smooth, fast, can handle hundreds of tabs (I use tree style tabs). I have only one issue, is that copy past is broken under wayland: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631061 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631061
- jhoechtl 6y ago
  I rhink its actually gtk which developers think is doing it right?
  - kuon 6y ago
    I have not digged deep into this bug, and I am not able to reproduce it, when it happen "I don't have time for it", so I just restart firefox, so I am not sure. But I had this bug only with firefox. But that doesn't say anything because firefox is one of the only GTK app I keep running for very long period of time.
bit_logic 6y ago
Firefox may have to eventually switch to Chromium, just like Microsoft did for Edge. I've noticed more and more sites not working or breaking with Firefox. It's bad enough now that I switch to Chrome when doing anything important. It's a sign that companies and developers are starting to accept that testing on Firefox is optional.
- dmit 6y ago
  I'm not sure what the difference is between sites "not working" and "breaking", but as a counter point, I've seen neither in the past three or four years of exclusively using Firefox as my web browser.
  - olvy0 6y ago
    As yet another counter point, I haven't had any problems with any site either. Actually, I think I haven't had any real problems with any site in Firefox since the IE6 days. Been using Firefox forever, since it was called Firebird, migrated to it from Netscape at some point.
  - nl 6y ago
    I use Firefox almost exclusively. One example of a page that doesn't work is Amazon's "Today's Deals"[1] page. [2] is screenshots of the same page in Firefox (top) and Chrome (bottom). I do have uBlock Origin installed but disabled for Amazon. [2] https://imgur.com/a/VBNrKpS https://imgur.com/a/VBNrKpS [1] https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/goldbox?ref_=nav_cs_gb https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/goldbox?ref_=nav_cs_gb
    - fuyu 6y ago
      That page works fine in my FireFox (v81 on Windows, also with uBlock Origin enabled). Have you checked the behavior with a clean profile?
- bleepblorp 6y ago
  I agree with this, except for different reasons. Without a good source of funding Mozilla won't have the resources to keep up with new requirements in the web stack. The current Firefox rendering engine isn't going to last forever and the Servo layoffs suggest Mozilla doesn't have the resources to do the R&D to keep up. Without R&D any non-monopoly product is a dead man walking. I think Firefox's best shot for relevance is to switch from being a complete browser codebase and into being a maintained patch set for Chromium that retains user-focused features (such as adblock APIs and limits on media autoplay) as they are removed by Google. The required resource commitment would be far lower and might be viable in the long run.
bad_user 6y ago
> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard or headset You could already do that, if you turned on those options from about:config. You can also turn on the forward button for skipping to the next song. The two settings were: - media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled = true - dom.media.mediasession.enabled = true
- mkskm 6y ago
  Does this mean integration with AirPods will work now as well?
  - bad_user 6y ago
    Not sure what you mean, but my AirPods have been working fine with Firefox, including the double tap for skipping to next song gesture. Provided that you have those options enabled. To make it clear, I mostly listen to YouTube Music in Firefox. If the website has support for media keys, then it should work.
    - mkskm 6y ago
      I mostly mean pausing and playing when taking them out or switching devices. Currently when watching YouTube videos the audio just starts playing on speaker. Will try out these options and see if that fixes it.
MaxLeiter 6y ago
I found the bug about the colorblind mode being inaccurate and misleading interesting: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1655053 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1655053 The [dev tools colorblindness] simulation is inaccurate, using color matrices with no scientific basis. While the source cited in devtools/server/actors/accessibility/constants.js does not list its source, the matrices appear to be the "colorjack.com matrices" [1] (and do not originate from the scientific literature). As far as I'm concerned, this is worse than not having such a simulation at all, since it gives people a false sense of accommodating individuals with color vision deficiencies.
- Liquix 6y ago
  That poor intern is going to get.. a stern talking to.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  This kind of disparaging really doesn't contribute anything in open source. It's not perfect, it's a work in progress. We don't disparage something, we bring a pull request with a wrapping text that explains why it's an improvement. And see, that gives the author the credit for contributing whatever they think is a solid solution, too.
  - zamadatix 6y ago
    To be clear submitting a patch to fix it is exactly what the author of the above reporter did.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
throwaway41597 6y ago
Could anyone link to the APK for the Android version, please? I can't find it on Mozilla's servers. Thank you and thanks to all involved in Firefox! edit: I mean how to download without the Play store? the support docs seem outdated
- mdaniel 6y ago
  Looks like the versioning scheme is completely different: https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mobile/releases/ https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mobile/releas... only goes up to 68.11 and even that one is from July (the URL came from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-android-release https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-android-r... which even for nightly shows 68.5(?!)) As best I can tell, they really, really want you to get it from the Play store, which correctly lists the 81 version number: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fi... I believe there are extensions which allow one to download apks from the Play store, but I've never tried them F-Droid is similarly crazy: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ with an issue about it still unaddressed https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/2161 https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/2161 I'd guess you'll have to build 81 yourself, or investigate those Play store extractors
  - throwaway41597 6y ago
    The Wikipedia page [1] has this jump from 68.11.0 to 79.0. The version scheme just changed to get consistent with Firefox for desktop AFAICT. I don't know of a trustworthy extension to download APKs from the Play store. I'm reluctant to let one access my Google account indeed. Regarding "their" intention, I'm mostly afraid the person who maintained the FTP got laid off. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_for_Android#Release_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_for_Android#Release_hi...
    - GekkePrutser 6y ago
      The reason for the big jump is that they were mainly working on the preview version and that went live with version 79 :)
siquick 6y ago
I wish they'd make the URL bar expandable
Scottn1 6y ago
This release feels so much faster to me than 80. The snappiness of UI and webpage loading. Thanks for all your work Firefox devs!
chris_wot 6y ago
Is it bad I found a typo in the release notes? "aded"
known 6y ago
I install all addons that are in tor-browser :)

604 points by amake 6y ago

Does anyone know if Firefox supports --app= type mode yet, like Chrome does? I want to fully switch to Firefox, but I use Chrome's app mode all the time.

de_watcher 6y ago
Breaking news: apps are still in the process of being deprecated in Chrome.
- fpoling 6y ago
  In Chrome "general support for Chrome Apps will end in June 2021', https://9to5google.com/2020/08/10/chrome-apps-deprecation/ https://9to5google.com/2020/08/10/chrome-apps-deprecation/
- rnotaro 6y ago
  I believe the parent is talking about Application shortcuts. The chrome "Kiosk" mode that allows you to create a shortcut on your desktop that opens any URL as a "WebApp". I don't think this is being depreciated.
  - Jaruzel 6y ago
    Yes, that's what I meant. :)
chrishawes 6y ago
It does. Set browser.ssb.enabled to true in about:config.
- gilrain 6y ago
  A courtesy warning that this is hidden in about:config because it's still unstable.
wicket 6y ago
As far as I can tell, kiosk mode does pretty much the same thing. firefox -kiosk [URL]
- rglullis 6y ago
  Close, yet so far. Kiosk opens in fullscreen mode, no window controls. Chrome's --app opens a normal desktop window but without browser controls so that it looks like a desktop app.
  - wicket 6y ago
    I don't know what desktop environment/window manager you are using, but in i3 I can just press $mod+f to exit fullscreen and it will appear as a normal desktop app.
    - rglullis 6y ago
      hum, standard XFCE for me. I tried only F11 (default shortcut to enter/exit fullscreen and did not work) but Alt-F11 did the trick. Nice.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

51Cards 6y ago

Some great updates in this release. Credit card saving and PDF filling will both be very useful for me. I've become used to the CC feature on Android and just last week was noting its absense in Firefox. Note further down looks like PiP mode is also getting more enhancements soon. Hopefully some of the open tickets around remembering window position and resize borders being too hard to hit get addressed as well.

war1025 6y ago
> Credit card saving and PDF filling will both be very useful for me How is the credit card saving thing from a security perspective? Seems on the one hand like a weird thing to let a browser keep track of for me, but maybe it's adequately protected to not be an issue.
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  It's e2e encrypted and synced with your Firefox account's password.
- MayeulC 6y ago
  > How is the credit card saving thing from a security perspective? One more threat vector to worry about (someone getting ahold of your password manager). One less also (keyloggers). Unfortunately, I worry more about the first, so I won't use it, thanks (and already I know it by heart, anyway).
- kbenson 6y ago
  I'm far more worried about someone gaining access to my main email than my credit card. I cancel the old card and then there's fraud protection and consumer laws to help with credit card charges, and then I just get a new card and replace the old one. Getting access to my main email account is a whole difference can of worms (but thankfully not as immediately bad as it used to be with the proliferation of 2FA for difference services).
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago

iruoy 6y ago

> We have expanded our supported file types - .xml, .svg, and .webp - so files you’ve downloaded can be opened right in Firefox. This is very welcome. Especially XML.

hdjdbtbgwjsn 6y ago
Hasn't XML opened in the browser since forever?
- djsumdog 6y ago
  Maybe they're talking about default file associations, so you can do "Open with" on Win/Mac?
- victorheld 6y ago
  I've opened SVGs plenty of times as well, maybe something to do with file association?
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Isn't this about the Android version? It says that here but perhaps it's because I was reading it on Android.

0xffff2 6y ago

>For our users in the US and Canada, Firefox can now save, manage, and auto-fill credit card information for you... Can anyone explain why this feature would need to be region-locked? Are they doing something more than simply storing CC info locally?

reader_mode 6y ago
Maybe it's synced with FF account ?
OJFord 6y ago
Probably compliance - haven't/yet/don't want to confirm that it's adhering to data protection/similar laws in multiple jurisdictions?
gostsamo 6y ago
I'd suspect the need of local partnerships to curate the content.
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  Curate what content? How?
  - gostsamo 6y ago
    What recommendations show up. Someone needs to read the articles in order to recommend them, don't they? It'd be better if this someone is someone local who has the context. Edit: The heck, I haven't read carefully the OP. Thought that the question is about Pocket.
    - fuzxi 6y ago
      I was so confused by your comment, haha. "Recommendations, not autofill? They're going to recommend a credit card and address for me?"

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

yepthatsreality 6y ago

Very purple new theme!

po1nter 6y ago
You can create your own with the Firefox Color official extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-color/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-color...
- yepthatsreality 6y ago
  Very nice, I usually use a dorky space theme and this new one is a bit too purple (IMO) for readability so I may try to make a hybrid of the two themes.

tumetab1 6y ago

iamdamian 6y ago

Have they made it any easier to disable the ‘megabar’? https://www.userchrome.org/megabar-styling-firefox-address-bar.html https://www.userchrome.org/megabar-styling-firefox-address-b... Edit: Added link

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ptato 6y ago
what is the megabar?
- garaetjjte 6y ago
  That addressbar grows extra margins after clicking, making it look like some layout bug. Also it fully expands automatically, even after single click.

conradfr 6y ago

> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard Doesn't seem to work for me on Windows 7 (while working on Chrome on Youtube, Soundcloud and a side project of mine). Basically navigator.mediaSession still returns undefined. edit: it's win8.1 and above.

Rusky 6y ago
The linked documentation (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-audio-or-video-playback-your-keyboard?redirectslug=control-audio-or-video-playback-your-headset-or-keyboard&redirectlocale=en-US https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-audio-or-video-...) mentions that this is only supported on Windows 8.1 or newer.
- conradfr 6y ago
  It does, thanks I missed it skimming the page.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
alastor0325 6y ago
That's still hiding behind the pref. But the media keys support would be ebabled by default on Fx81, and support for media session would be enabled by default on Fx82. The pref for media keys : media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled The pref for media session : dom.media.mediasession.enabled See more details on https://bit.ly/2WJDEY0 https://bit.ly/2WJDEY0
- pityJuke 6y ago
  Thanks for listing the pref so I can disable the darn thing. I don't currently see a user facing setting.
morsch 6y ago
Used to work fine many years ago using an addon. Of course the addon is mostly broken since the demise of XUL. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-keys/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-keys/

olah_1 6y ago

I keep hoping to see "font rendering looks better on Windows" in one of these releases. I don't think it'll ever happen though.

theandrewbailey 6y ago
Is there some API or technique that you're wanting implemented? Or is ClearType misconfigured on your machine? Edit: the Control Panel has a Cleartype wizard that works like an optometrist exam: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/80598-turn-off-cleartype-windows-10-a.html https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/80598-turn-off-cleartype...
- runxel 6y ago
  I think he refers to the slightly "biggening" of fonts. Which is a great thing, btw! because it helps with all that nonsense-designers-bs of suuuuper thin fonts nobody can actually read.
  - olah_1 6y ago
    They're not "biggened". They're bolder and more blocky. Which from a design perspective appears louder, more brash, and not calm.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  DirectWrite does have some improvements over GDI only ClearType. Although a lot of DirectWrite's real improvements people notice are interestingly in the other direction. (ClearType is designed to optimize sub-pixel rendering on LCDs when rendering fonts at small sizes; a bunch of DirectWrite improvements are in multi-pixel aliasing and smoothing when rendering higher font sizes on higher DPI devices.)
- ZeroCool2u 6y ago
  That wizard is amazing, thank you!
TonyTrapp 6y ago

anorakoverflow 6y ago

Sadly, the new PDF viewer still doesn’t support smooth two-finger zooming on macOS. The new theme is kind of neat though.

magicalhippo 6y ago

I wish Containers would get some love. Ability to set root domain for example would be great, so I could keep all Bandcamp sites in a single container without micromanagement for example. I also wish there was a simple way to suspend tabs, essentially turning them into the "ghosts" they are when you start the browser. So many times I want to keep a tab around for easy access, but they got some stupid JS framework running sucking CPU for no good reason. That said, overall I'm quite pleased with Firefox and hope Mozilla keep developing it. We need a proper Chrome alternative.

thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
I agree on the containers. It's such a powerful feature, but it feels weird to need extensions to make containers work the way many feel they should intuitively. For instance I have a Google container, but I can't figure out how to make outbound search links open in a different container.
- gruez 6y ago
  afaik multi account containers should work, if you set google as "always open in google container". temporary containers (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...) would also work.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
    I use multi account containers and it doesn't work for me. For instance, if I go to amazon.com directly, I get my Amazon container. But if I do a search in Google and then click an Amazon link I will still be in the Google container.
    - bickeringyokel 6y ago
      You can right click to open in a specific container. Take a bit of forethought though.

filereaper 6y ago

Related, Firefox 80 landed the VA-API Changes for Linux [1] It has drastically improved viewing 4k Videos on Linux for me where before the video would use up 100% of my integrated GPU, and now its down to 0% AFAIK Chrome isn't using this as seen from intel_gpu_top so this was a major improvement for me. [1] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-80-VA-API-X11 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-...

ylere 6y ago
Firefox on wayland has been a joy to use recently (webrenderer, dmabuf, webgl, vaapi). Everything including video and scrolling is butter smooth and doesn't clog the cpu, even with 200-300+ tabs (i know...) over several windows. Much better than Chrome (on Linux at least). Interestingly, RAM usage also seems to be better in ff (both with plugins), but that might be anecdotal.
- jhoechtl 6y ago
  Do we still need moz_enable_wayland env variable or is this the default now?

TonyTrapp 6y ago

> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard or headset, giving you easy access to control your media when in another Firefox tab, another program, or even when your computer is locked I really hope that this is is going to be a user-facing option and not hidden away in about:config (or not configurable at all). I already have a media player using global media shortcuts, thank you. Browsers need to stop assuming that they are the only app in the room.

skymt 6y ago
I looked for a way to disable the media keys feature when it landed in Developer Edition and it seems to be only in about:config. The key is "media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled".
- TonyTrapp 6y ago
  Oh well. I guess "having an actual media player that observes to media keys" is "very advanced PC usage" in the year 2020, so that fully justifies hiding it in about:config. Sad.
  - bickeringyokel 6y ago
    I'm starting to think that the concept of "files" is starting to be a very advanced concept for some people these days.
  - Dahoon 6y ago
    If the OS is worth its salt it knows which media player is playing and lets you control it. I don't see how this could ever be a problem. It is no different than having two mediaplayers installed. I have never seen the wrong mediaplayer suddenly being controlled. Just set whatever as standard/default. Works fine in Android, Linux and Windows.
    - the_pwner224 6y ago
      On Android you can't (almost always) play multiple media at the same time, so that's not an issue. The first media will pause when you start the next. However this is a stupid limitation, only plausibly appropriate for phones. On computers you frequently have multiple medias playing at the same time and it is not possible to control all of them with one set of media control keys. The OS can guess but will often get it wrong. You have music playing in the background and you start a YouTube video and then hit pause. What gets paused? On my current system, it's (usually) the YT video in Firefox. This is wrong because I want to pause the background music so that I can listen to the video. On another system it might instead pause the background music. That is wrong because I wanted to pause/unpause the active YT video that I've been watching for the past 15 minutes. I ended up disabling Firefox's thingy in about:config because this gets pretty frustrating after a while.

domenicd 6y ago

List of web platform changes to Gecko: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/81 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Rel...

jojo14 6y ago

Firefox is my browser of choice and I gladly appreciate much of the improvement the devs put in it. However under Linux an improvement would be to get rid of Pulseaudio and to directly interface with ALSA. The benefit would be that installing FF wouldn't require unwanted dependencies and audio quality would be improved.

yabones 6y ago
I believe on Gentoo you can compile Firefox without pulseaudio by disabling the USE flag. I'm not sure if that forces it to use ALSA or disables audio entirely though. I do use pulse, so I've never disabled it globally/for Firefox. https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/www-client/firefox https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/www-client/firefox https://packages.gentoo.org/useflags/pulseaudio https://packages.gentoo.org/useflags/pulseaudio
esaym 6y ago
>and audio quality would be improved Only one audio stream at a time can use ALSA, how would that be an improvement?
- donio 6y ago
  I don't have PA on my system and I am able to play audio from many sources at the same time using ALSA only. Not sure if this requires hardware/driver support or something, I don't have any special ALSA config. I don't know about the audio quality improvement though, unless OP is talking about avoiding latency that comes from going through PA.
  - pera 6y ago
    You may have hardware support or dmix in your config.
  - esaym 6y ago
    I avoided PA for years because "alsa just works". It is not until one tries to build a native linux app that you see the issue with alsa once you venture into the alsa library docs. Indeed, alsa only supports one audio stream. This was the purpose of all the other sound daemons (arts, esd, etc) of times past. Alsa added "native" software mixing via a "dmix" [0] plugin. The end user is left with a setup that can handle multiple streams to a single sound card, however, one looses the ability to better tune how those streams are mixed. For instance, most sound cards only support sample rates of 48khz. What happens when you have one application playing 44.1khz 16bit sound with another playing 44.1khz 32bit all while something else is playing 48khz sound? Dmix will resample and mix them into one 48khz stream, but it does so in the sloppiest way. It can be tuned somewhat, but that just makes the application linked into the alsa library consume even more CPU cycles. Pulseaudio is much more better in this situation. It can change its sample rate on the fly. For the above scenario, it could have upsampled the one 44.1khz 16bit stream to 32 bit, and resampled the 48khz stream to 44.1khz and then piped this single 44.1khz stream to the sound card (if it supports 44.1khz audio) at much better efficiency and less work. There is really no reason to fight it anymore. [0]: https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc#dmix https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc#dmix

sreejithr 6y ago

Firefox for life

ziml77 6y ago

I immediately updated for the media controls. I hate getting a call and having to fumble around trying to scroll around and find the tab with the little speaker on it so I can stop it before answering.

maddyboo 6y ago

I’ve been a Firefox user on Linux for the past 2 years. I recently had to open Chromium to accommodate a site that refused to work with Firefox, and I was quite shocked at how much snappier Chromium’s UI felt. Going back to Firefox the sluggishness is palpable. My machine is in the upper-mid range with a TR 1950X + Vega 56, so I can’t imagine it’s a spec issue. I’ve read the entire Arch Wiki article on Firefox performance [1], ensured that hardware acceleration and other performance settings/flags are enabled, and tested different configurations of theses settings. Nothing made a discernible difference. Chromium, even with hardware acceleration disabled, is dramatically more responsive than Firefox. I have been very tempted to go back to Chromium. Ideologically and privacy wise, I really want to support Firefox, but I can’t help craving a lightning fast UI. 1: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox/Tweaks https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox/Tweaks

pbsds 6y ago
Have you tried enabling pixel-perfect scrolling?
- maddyboo 6y ago
  Scrolling is fine, it’s most other UI interactions like button presses (both browser UI and in-page).
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Funny, for me this is something i need to turn off to make it snappier. Especially the mousewheel scrolling really feels laggy with it on.
lytedev 6y ago
This is curious to me. Were you using any extensions?
- maddyboo 6y ago
  I have tested with a clean profile and didn’t notice a speed up. This is not to say Firefox is slow, but that Chromium feels much snappier.

krbzsq 6y ago

Is there any way to change the default dark/light themes for Firefox on macOS yet? I don't like the 'Default' theme but I do like the 'Light' theme, so when I use dark mode I want Firefox to use the 'Dark' theme but then change to 'Light' when i go back to light mode and not the 'Default' theme. Is this possible? If not is it in the pipeline anywhere? Other than that, Firefox is incredible and I'm always happy to see new updates.

the_pwner224 6y ago
You can set it to the Light theme and install the Dark Reader extension, which, in addition to making all the websites dark-moded, also changes the browser chrome's colors while active.

kuon 6y ago

Firefox has been a joy to use under linux with wayland, it is smooth, fast, can handle hundreds of tabs (I use tree style tabs). I have only one issue, is that copy past is broken under wayland: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631061 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631061

jhoechtl 6y ago
I rhink its actually gtk which developers think is doing it right?
- kuon 6y ago
  I have not digged deep into this bug, and I am not able to reproduce it, when it happen "I don't have time for it", so I just restart firefox, so I am not sure. But I had this bug only with firefox. But that doesn't say anything because firefox is one of the only GTK app I keep running for very long period of time.

bit_logic 6y ago

Firefox may have to eventually switch to Chromium, just like Microsoft did for Edge. I've noticed more and more sites not working or breaking with Firefox. It's bad enough now that I switch to Chrome when doing anything important. It's a sign that companies and developers are starting to accept that testing on Firefox is optional.

dmit 6y ago
I'm not sure what the difference is between sites "not working" and "breaking", but as a counter point, I've seen neither in the past three or four years of exclusively using Firefox as my web browser.
- olvy0 6y ago
  As yet another counter point, I haven't had any problems with any site either. Actually, I think I haven't had any real problems with any site in Firefox since the IE6 days. Been using Firefox forever, since it was called Firebird, migrated to it from Netscape at some point.
- nl 6y ago
  I use Firefox almost exclusively. One example of a page that doesn't work is Amazon's "Today's Deals"[1] page. [2] is screenshots of the same page in Firefox (top) and Chrome (bottom). I do have uBlock Origin installed but disabled for Amazon. [2] https://imgur.com/a/VBNrKpS https://imgur.com/a/VBNrKpS [1] https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/goldbox?ref_=nav_cs_gb https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/goldbox?ref_=nav_cs_gb
  - fuyu 6y ago
    That page works fine in my FireFox (v81 on Windows, also with uBlock Origin enabled). Have you checked the behavior with a clean profile?
bleepblorp 6y ago
I agree with this, except for different reasons. Without a good source of funding Mozilla won't have the resources to keep up with new requirements in the web stack. The current Firefox rendering engine isn't going to last forever and the Servo layoffs suggest Mozilla doesn't have the resources to do the R&D to keep up. Without R&D any non-monopoly product is a dead man walking. I think Firefox's best shot for relevance is to switch from being a complete browser codebase and into being a maintained patch set for Chromium that retains user-focused features (such as adblock APIs and limits on media autoplay) as they are removed by Google. The required resource commitment would be far lower and might be viable in the long run.

bad_user 6y ago

> You can pause and play audio or video in Firefox right from your keyboard or headset You could already do that, if you turned on those options from about:config. You can also turn on the forward button for skipping to the next song. The two settings were: - media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled = true - dom.media.mediasession.enabled = true

mkskm 6y ago
Does this mean integration with AirPods will work now as well?
- bad_user 6y ago
  Not sure what you mean, but my AirPods have been working fine with Firefox, including the double tap for skipping to next song gesture. Provided that you have those options enabled. To make it clear, I mostly listen to YouTube Music in Firefox. If the website has support for media keys, then it should work.
  - mkskm 6y ago
    I mostly mean pausing and playing when taking them out or switching devices. Currently when watching YouTube videos the audio just starts playing on speaker. Will try out these options and see if that fixes it.

MaxLeiter 6y ago

I found the bug about the colorblind mode being inaccurate and misleading interesting: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1655053 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1655053 The [dev tools colorblindness] simulation is inaccurate, using color matrices with no scientific basis. While the source cited in devtools/server/actors/accessibility/constants.js does not list its source, the matrices appear to be the "colorjack.com matrices" [1] (and do not originate from the scientific literature). As far as I'm concerned, this is worse than not having such a simulation at all, since it gives people a false sense of accommodating individuals with color vision deficiencies.

Liquix 6y ago
That poor intern is going to get.. a stern talking to.
kzrdude 6y ago
This kind of disparaging really doesn't contribute anything in open source. It's not perfect, it's a work in progress. We don't disparage something, we bring a pull request with a wrapping text that explains why it's an improvement. And see, that gives the author the credit for contributing whatever they think is a solid solution, too.
- zamadatix 6y ago
  To be clear submitting a patch to fix it is exactly what the author of the above reporter did.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

throwaway41597 6y ago

Could anyone link to the APK for the Android version, please? I can't find it on Mozilla's servers. Thank you and thanks to all involved in Firefox! edit: I mean how to download without the Play store? the support docs seem outdated

mdaniel 6y ago
Looks like the versioning scheme is completely different: https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mobile/releases/ https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mobile/releas... only goes up to 68.11 and even that one is from July (the URL came from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-android-release https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-android-r... which even for nightly shows 68.5(?!)) As best I can tell, they really, really want you to get it from the Play store, which correctly lists the 81 version number: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fi... I believe there are extensions which allow one to download apks from the Play store, but I've never tried them F-Droid is similarly crazy: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ with an issue about it still unaddressed https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/2161 https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/2161 I'd guess you'll have to build 81 yourself, or investigate those Play store extractors
- throwaway41597 6y ago
  The Wikipedia page [1] has this jump from 68.11.0 to 79.0. The version scheme just changed to get consistent with Firefox for desktop AFAICT. I don't know of a trustworthy extension to download APKs from the Play store. I'm reluctant to let one access my Google account indeed. Regarding "their" intention, I'm mostly afraid the person who maintained the FTP got laid off. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_for_Android#Release_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_for_Android#Release_hi...
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    The reason for the big jump is that they were mainly working on the preview version and that went live with version 79 :)

siquick 6y ago

I wish they'd make the URL bar expandable

Scottn1 6y ago

This release feels so much faster to me than 80. The snappiness of UI and webpage loading. Thanks for all your work Firefox devs!

chris_wot 6y ago

Is it bad I found a typo in the release notes? "aded"

known 6y ago

I install all addons that are in tor-browser :)