6 ms·

I wish Mozilla spent ten percent as much time un-fucking their old features as they do coming up with new ones. Firefox Mobile still doesn't have a user agent s

I wish Mozilla spent ten percent as much time un-fucking their old features as they do coming up with new ones. Firefox Mobile still doesn't have a user agent switcher. The "tab closed" popup still blocks you from opening the next tab. There's still no option for moving the New Tab button to the top of the screen.

taeric 5y ago
That "tab closed" pop-up is maddening. I've mainly assumed I was just doing it wrong, it is so bad.
temp0826 5y ago
Does "request desktop site" not change the user agent?
- rickstanley 5y ago
  It does change but it only removes the "mobile" part from user agent (through sniffing). But I think he's referring to a broader usage, for instance: MS Teams only works on Chromium-based browsers and Safari, so user agent change façade comes in handy for this.
- causality0 5y ago
  Not fully. It requests a desktop layout but sites still know you're on a mobile browser, hence sites that explicitly block mobile browsers will show the same "this page only viewable on desktop" message. Actual user agent switcher extensions don't have that problem.
floatingatoll 5y ago
“Tab closed” popup?
- deadbunny 5y ago
  On Android.
- LanternLight83 5y ago
  Yes! When attempting to close the last two tabs in the vertical tab list, one after another, the "Tab Closed ↩" popup of whichever tab you close first will arise at the bottom of the list and obstruct the close button ('X') of the remaining tab, for it's full 3 second duration. Hence, to close the last n tabs, you must close the second-to-last tab n - 1 times, and then wait those 3 seconds to close the last tab.
  - pc2g4d 5y ago
    I hate this bug so much. Do the devs/designers not use the product?
    - outworlder 5y ago
      Do they have any that they haven't fired?
  - cycomanic 5y ago
    Ok I now understand what someone earlier was talking about. This is fixed in nightly, because the have a new open tabs representation. Also you can swipe the notification away, and you can close the tabs by swiping also (I'm never using those small close buttons).
    - Y_Y 5y ago
      I just checked this in nightly and the problem persists. Open at least ten tabs, set tab view to list instead of thumbnails, close a tab using the X on the right, try to select the latest tab (the one at the bottom). You can't because there's a helpful little "tab closed" notification.
- j1elo 5y ago
  A video is worth 29.97 pictures: https://twitter.com/j1elo/status/1419907944456638489 https://twitter.com/j1elo/status/1419907944456638489
  - floatingatoll 5y ago
    Indeed, thanks!
phreack 5y ago
More importantly, you can't read long text in small copy by zooming in without having to scroll sideways in FF mobile. That's just such an obvious UX problem it's unfathomable how it hasn't been addressed yet. There's been an issue open on this problem for about 10 years already.
- frosted-flakes 5y ago
  What do you expect it to? Wrap the text? Do any mobile browsers work like that? Zoom doesn't change the viewport size.
  - phreack 5y ago
    Yeah, wrap the text to the viewport. It's what Opera does and it's perfect to me, as I have trouble reading small font sizes, so I got used to just zooming the heck out of text.
    - frosted-flakes 5y ago
      Open Firefox accessibility settings and bump up the font size. Or increase the font size everywhere in system settings.
  - cma 5y ago
    It is what the original Android browser pre-chrome did. Pinch to zoom, then double tap to reflow.
rickstanley 5y ago
You can swipe the "Tab closed" popup to dismiss it.
- edoceo 5y ago
  Thank you!
- causality0 5y ago
  Why should I have to? Why does it have to pop up in the exact damn place the user is most likely to tap?
  - rickstanley 5y ago
    Yeah, I agree. I also didn't know about this, the popup didn't convey the idea of "dismissible"... I learned about this reading a rant on Reddit about the UI.
deadbunny 5y ago
My biggest bugbear on Android is the 1 min+ to load the first page if FF has been closed for a while.
- neogodless 5y ago
  How long does Firefox have to be closed to reproduce this issue?
  - deadbunny 5y ago
    In my experience it could be 5 minutes could be an hour. Pretty much guaranteed after the phone being locked for 30mins+ I have the following add-ons installed: Decentraleyes, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy badger, and uBlock Origin. Running a Nokia 6.1 for reference. Not super powerful, reasonably old, but not bottom of the barrel. I have tried disabling all add-ons but I still get the bug as described. Which reminds me of my second gripe, having tabs refresh after switching apps then back to FF. Super frustrating, especially if it's a login flow or filling in a form.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
clcaev 5y ago
Here is another usability issue that begs attention: when you attempt to type in the search text box of the "new" tab, it jumps focus to the URL bar. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1707701 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1707701
- ajnin 5y ago
  I get the same kind of fascination reading those comment threads as one would get watching a train wreck. To multiple users telling them that their stuff is broken, they reply that this is their actual intent. The thought that maybe there might be a flaw in their design does not cross their minds an instant. "Am I out of touch? No, it is the users who are wrong." I particularly love the suggestion to use https://ideas.mozilla.org/ https://ideas.mozilla.org/ to submit feedback, as if that change went through the same procedure, and as if they didn't moderate away any suggestion that they don't like. And yet they still don't realize that this "we know better than the users what's good for them" attitude is killing their product.
  - causality0 5y ago
    They've been chasing Chrome's market share for so long they forgot the reasons they ever gained market share in the first place. Except nowadays with a 3.5% market share it's less "chasing Chrome" and more "dragging their balls through a mile of broken glass to hear Chrome fart through a walkie-talkie." They could've kept ten percent forever if they didn't forsake the things that made Firefox great in the first place and the people who loved them for it. Now they've thrown that away and along with it any chance to avoid irrelevancy and extinction.
    - nickstinemates 5y ago
      I really don't understand the fascination with Chrome. There must be some killer use case I am really missing out on.
  - sellyme 5y ago
    > multiple users telling them that their stuff is broken You can find multiple people who would describe anything as broken. I'm several dozen comments into that thread and I still haven't found a single person even attempting to explain why the old functionality is needed beyond "I don't like using my `?` and `Ctrl-K` keys", which Mozilla absolutely should not have dignified with as much time as they gave it. The person arguing that the entire search box should just be removed if it isn't actually any new functionality has a point, but that's somewhat tangential to the "bug" they're describing.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
shdufuiddueuu 5y ago
Tbh as much as I'd like a user agent switcher I really like the new stuff too since a lot of it is aimed at convenience out usability. Blemishes aside it's quickly become my favorite mobile browser to use (having already tried Chrome, Edge, Brave, and a few others.
andrepd 5y ago
They removed a proper tablet interface with tabs etc to simply using the phone interface.
cycomanic 5y ago
Maybe it's different on nightly but for me the closed tab notification does not block anything. I can't speak for putting the new tab button to the top, but I was asked if I want the URL bar at the bottom or top when installing Firefox for the first time. For me having the controls at the bottom is one of the killer features, because I can just use my thumb to do things.

taeric 5y ago

That "tab closed" pop-up is maddening. I've mainly assumed I was just doing it wrong, it is so bad.

temp0826 5y ago

Does "request desktop site" not change the user agent?

rickstanley 5y ago
It does change but it only removes the "mobile" part from user agent (through sniffing). But I think he's referring to a broader usage, for instance: MS Teams only works on Chromium-based browsers and Safari, so user agent change façade comes in handy for this.
causality0 5y ago
Not fully. It requests a desktop layout but sites still know you're on a mobile browser, hence sites that explicitly block mobile browsers will show the same "this page only viewable on desktop" message. Actual user agent switcher extensions don't have that problem.

floatingatoll 5y ago

“Tab closed” popup?

deadbunny 5y ago
On Android.
LanternLight83 5y ago
Yes! When attempting to close the last two tabs in the vertical tab list, one after another, the "Tab Closed ↩" popup of whichever tab you close first will arise at the bottom of the list and obstruct the close button ('X') of the remaining tab, for it's full 3 second duration. Hence, to close the last n tabs, you must close the second-to-last tab n - 1 times, and then wait those 3 seconds to close the last tab.
- pc2g4d 5y ago
  I hate this bug so much. Do the devs/designers not use the product?
  - outworlder 5y ago
    Do they have any that they haven't fired?
- cycomanic 5y ago
  Ok I now understand what someone earlier was talking about. This is fixed in nightly, because the have a new open tabs representation. Also you can swipe the notification away, and you can close the tabs by swiping also (I'm never using those small close buttons).
  - Y_Y 5y ago
    I just checked this in nightly and the problem persists. Open at least ten tabs, set tab view to list instead of thumbnails, close a tab using the X on the right, try to select the latest tab (the one at the bottom). You can't because there's a helpful little "tab closed" notification.
j1elo 5y ago
A video is worth 29.97 pictures: https://twitter.com/j1elo/status/1419907944456638489 https://twitter.com/j1elo/status/1419907944456638489
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  Indeed, thanks!

phreack 5y ago

More importantly, you can't read long text in small copy by zooming in without having to scroll sideways in FF mobile. That's just such an obvious UX problem it's unfathomable how it hasn't been addressed yet. There's been an issue open on this problem for about 10 years already.

frosted-flakes 5y ago
What do you expect it to? Wrap the text? Do any mobile browsers work like that? Zoom doesn't change the viewport size.
- phreack 5y ago
  Yeah, wrap the text to the viewport. It's what Opera does and it's perfect to me, as I have trouble reading small font sizes, so I got used to just zooming the heck out of text.
  - frosted-flakes 5y ago
    Open Firefox accessibility settings and bump up the font size. Or increase the font size everywhere in system settings.
- cma 5y ago
  It is what the original Android browser pre-chrome did. Pinch to zoom, then double tap to reflow.

rickstanley 5y ago

You can swipe the "Tab closed" popup to dismiss it.

edoceo 5y ago
Thank you!
causality0 5y ago
Why should I have to? Why does it have to pop up in the exact damn place the user is most likely to tap?
- rickstanley 5y ago
  Yeah, I agree. I also didn't know about this, the popup didn't convey the idea of "dismissible"... I learned about this reading a rant on Reddit about the UI.

deadbunny 5y ago

My biggest bugbear on Android is the 1 min+ to load the first page if FF has been closed for a while.

neogodless 5y ago
How long does Firefox have to be closed to reproduce this issue?
- deadbunny 5y ago
  In my experience it could be 5 minutes could be an hour. Pretty much guaranteed after the phone being locked for 30mins+ I have the following add-ons installed: Decentraleyes, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy badger, and uBlock Origin. Running a Nokia 6.1 for reference. Not super powerful, reasonably old, but not bottom of the barrel. I have tried disabling all add-ons but I still get the bug as described. Which reminds me of my second gripe, having tabs refresh after switching apps then back to FF. Super frustrating, especially if it's a login flow or filling in a form.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

clcaev 5y ago

Here is another usability issue that begs attention: when you attempt to type in the search text box of the "new" tab, it jumps focus to the URL bar. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1707701 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1707701

ajnin 5y ago
I get the same kind of fascination reading those comment threads as one would get watching a train wreck. To multiple users telling them that their stuff is broken, they reply that this is their actual intent. The thought that maybe there might be a flaw in their design does not cross their minds an instant. "Am I out of touch? No, it is the users who are wrong." I particularly love the suggestion to use https://ideas.mozilla.org/ https://ideas.mozilla.org/ to submit feedback, as if that change went through the same procedure, and as if they didn't moderate away any suggestion that they don't like. And yet they still don't realize that this "we know better than the users what's good for them" attitude is killing their product.
- causality0 5y ago
  They've been chasing Chrome's market share for so long they forgot the reasons they ever gained market share in the first place. Except nowadays with a 3.5% market share it's less "chasing Chrome" and more "dragging their balls through a mile of broken glass to hear Chrome fart through a walkie-talkie." They could've kept ten percent forever if they didn't forsake the things that made Firefox great in the first place and the people who loved them for it. Now they've thrown that away and along with it any chance to avoid irrelevancy and extinction.
  - nickstinemates 5y ago
    I really don't understand the fascination with Chrome. There must be some killer use case I am really missing out on.
- sellyme 5y ago
  > multiple users telling them that their stuff is broken You can find multiple people who would describe anything as broken. I'm several dozen comments into that thread and I still haven't found a single person even attempting to explain why the old functionality is needed beyond "I don't like using my `?` and `Ctrl-K` keys", which Mozilla absolutely should not have dignified with as much time as they gave it. The person arguing that the entire search box should just be removed if it isn't actually any new functionality has a point, but that's somewhat tangential to the "bug" they're describing.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

shdufuiddueuu 5y ago

Tbh as much as I'd like a user agent switcher I really like the new stuff too since a lot of it is aimed at convenience out usability. Blemishes aside it's quickly become my favorite mobile browser to use (having already tried Chrome, Edge, Brave, and a few others.

andrepd 5y ago

They removed a proper tablet interface with tabs etc to simply using the phone interface.

cycomanic 5y ago

Maybe it's different on nightly but for me the closed tab notification does not block anything. I can't speak for putting the new tab button to the top, but I was asked if I want the URL bar at the bottom or top when installing Firefox for the first time. For me having the controls at the bottom is one of the killer features, because I can just use my thumb to do things.