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Mozilla would instantly recover a ton of goodwill by allowing users to install any WebExtension on Firefox for Android without having to go through a strange ac

Mozilla would instantly recover a ton of goodwill by allowing users to install any WebExtension on Firefox for Android without having to go through a strange activation ritual that only works on the Nightly channel.* Considering how stable the extensions have been for me, I'm baffled at how Mozilla is not even letting the Beta channel test them. * https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

jimmaswell 5y ago
Everyone's been gradually removing user empowerment features from browsers for years. I wonder if they just want us to get used to no or only a few curated extensions.
- GravitasFailure 5y ago
  Firefox is odd in this regard, though. Chrome tried to make it so you could only add extensions while signed in to Google, but have since abandoned that policy and currently permits side loading, while Firefox doesn't allow any extensions that haven't been signed by their certificate which means that if they forget to renew that certificate you can't use any extensions...which actually happened. It's bizarre to me that Chrome offers more user agency in this regard than Firefox.
  - commoner 5y ago
    On desktop, Firefox Developer Edition, Nightly, and ESR still allow unsigned extensions after setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config.[1] Firefox for Android doesn't allow sideloading,[2] and only has an advantage because Chrome for Android doesn't support extensions at all in its official relases. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#FAQ https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#FAQ [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11308 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11308 (closed without adequate resolution in https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14034 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14034)
    - GravitasFailure 5y ago
      >On desktop, Firefox Developer Edition, Nightly, and ESR still allow unsigned extensions after setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config. I'm aware, and that's great, but since those come with their own caveats, yabuts, exceptions, eccentricities and bugs, I don't consider any of those useful solutions to that problem for me.
puppet-master 5y ago
original promise: Firefox for Android, like Chrome but with infinite extensions written by people just like you for people just like you new promise: Firefox for Android, underinvestment in UX you'll definitely hate and 12 potential extensions exclusively approved by a committee of parasitic boomers too far gone to be competitive on the contemporary labour market. Absolute garbage. However way this cut, one team or otherwise, they clearly didn't have the SLIGHTEST clue about the primary value prop of their main product for its users. Today's Mozilla is organizationally incompetent, and I genuinely worry (user for decades) that this time it truly is beyond rescue. That the situation on Android has persisted for almost a year already tells you all you need to know: Mozilla appears not to even possess the nervous system to respond to the obvious pain and misery of its users from that disastrous Android UI rewrite. They seem utterly deaf and dumb, almost like it were already a cadaver. Reminds me of Yahoo
anotheryou 5y ago
thanks so much, didn't know there is any way now. Simple Gesture works amazingly well and you can avoid the tabs menu all together with it. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-gesture/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=collection https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-gestur... It just mustn't collide with the "pull down to refresh" so you might want to remap the gestures not to include down without an up before. --- Now I just need to find a way to quickly open new tabs in fore- and even more important: background. Long press for anything frequent is just infuriating.

jimmaswell 5y ago

Everyone's been gradually removing user empowerment features from browsers for years. I wonder if they just want us to get used to no or only a few curated extensions.

GravitasFailure 5y ago
Firefox is odd in this regard, though. Chrome tried to make it so you could only add extensions while signed in to Google, but have since abandoned that policy and currently permits side loading, while Firefox doesn't allow any extensions that haven't been signed by their certificate which means that if they forget to renew that certificate you can't use any extensions...which actually happened. It's bizarre to me that Chrome offers more user agency in this regard than Firefox.
- commoner 5y ago
  On desktop, Firefox Developer Edition, Nightly, and ESR still allow unsigned extensions after setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config.[1] Firefox for Android doesn't allow sideloading,[2] and only has an advantage because Chrome for Android doesn't support extensions at all in its official relases. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#FAQ https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#FAQ [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11308 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11308 (closed without adequate resolution in https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14034 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14034)
  - GravitasFailure 5y ago
    >On desktop, Firefox Developer Edition, Nightly, and ESR still allow unsigned extensions after setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config. I'm aware, and that's great, but since those come with their own caveats, yabuts, exceptions, eccentricities and bugs, I don't consider any of those useful solutions to that problem for me.

puppet-master 5y ago

original promise: Firefox for Android, like Chrome but with infinite extensions written by people just like you for people just like you new promise: Firefox for Android, underinvestment in UX you'll definitely hate and 12 potential extensions exclusively approved by a committee of parasitic boomers too far gone to be competitive on the contemporary labour market. Absolute garbage. However way this cut, one team or otherwise, they clearly didn't have the SLIGHTEST clue about the primary value prop of their main product for its users. Today's Mozilla is organizationally incompetent, and I genuinely worry (user for decades) that this time it truly is beyond rescue. That the situation on Android has persisted for almost a year already tells you all you need to know: Mozilla appears not to even possess the nervous system to respond to the obvious pain and misery of its users from that disastrous Android UI rewrite. They seem utterly deaf and dumb, almost like it were already a cadaver. Reminds me of Yahoo

anotheryou 5y ago

thanks so much, didn't know there is any way now. Simple Gesture works amazingly well and you can avoid the tabs menu all together with it. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-gesture/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=collection https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-gestur... It just mustn't collide with the "pull down to refresh" so you might want to remap the gestures not to include down without an up before. --- Now I just need to find a way to quickly open new tabs in fore- and even more important: background. Long press for anything frequent is just infuriating.