16 ms·

Firefox 93

279 points by NiekvdMaas 5y ago

theandrewbailey 5y ago
> Firefox now supports the new AVIF image format PARTY! I've been waiting for this for a long time. The last big hurdle for this was that color spaces weren't applied correctly. If you haven't taken a look at AVIF, do. You can get a similar looking image in AVIF at half the size as a JPEG. I find AVIF's image artifacts preferable to JPEG's.
- baggy_trough 5y ago
  Speaking of AVIF, I wonder why Microsoft Edge doesn't support it while the matching version of Chrome does.
- yboris 5y ago
  I'm looking forward to the wide adoption of JPEG XL (.jxl - "jixel") file format. It's the format that will replace JPEG! https://jpegxl.info/ https://jpegxl.info/
  - pupppet 5y ago
    Oy...those poor <picture> tags will soon be just stuffed with different file formats as we try to accommodate all browsers.
    - Zardoz84 5y ago
      Worse... When you are forced to support IE11, and keep limited to the old good JPEG. At least, JPEG-XL offers a solution on this side, like store as JPEG-XL and serve as old JPEG to IE11 users. Now, if only there was a JPEG-XL implementation for Java...
  - Flockster 5y ago
    It's already in Firefox Nightly and Chrome Beta as far as I know.
    - worrycue 5y ago
      It’s available to turn on in Chrome 94 via Chrome://flags For Firefox you need the nightlies I believe - I had no luck with release Firefox 93.
  - bla3 5y ago
    I kind of doubt it. JPEG is good enough, and is pervasive. JPEG XL is better, but removing an incumbent file format requires more than just being better. We'll see.
    - MrRadar 5y ago
      JPEG XL has a party trick where you can losslessly transcode JPEG files to JPEG XL for a ~20% size savings. I imagine that every CDN out there will enable transparent conversion of JPEG to JPEG XL and that will drive adoption just by itself.
      - jodrellblank 5y ago
        Dropbox quietly replaces the insides of JPGs with a better compression system (lossless change) to save their storage costs, and then returns it to normal when the file is read. (It may be they do a JPEG XL transform, for all I can remember about the article which explained it). I wouldn't be too surprised if every big CDN already does something like that internally as a competitive advantage, and if so then the incentives switch around and there's no benefit publically switching to JPEG XL - when everyone has it, there's no easy way to do better than everyone else.
        fuyu 5y ago
        Aren't the biggest costs from bandwidth, not storage? I'm sure they would love to reduce data transmission by 20% for browsers that support it.
        jodrellblank 5y ago
        CDNs would love to bill customers 20% less for bandwidth used? Customers will be able to move to storing JPEG XL files on CDNs and reduce their own storage and bandwidth costs, but I was responding to the claim that it would be in CDN's interest to hurry the transition, and I think it will be a loss for CDNs.
    - yboris 5y ago
  - k4c9x 5y ago
    It's pronounced "jizzle".
    - secondcoming 5y ago
      That's unfortunate since 'jizz' is slang for semen.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - nanna 5y ago
        Downvoters, it's true! At least in British English. In Yinglish (Yiddish-English) jizzle would mean something like 'a drop of seamen'.
  - asddubs 5y ago
    isn't AV1 also a contender for that as a lossy compression algorithm?
- teekert 5y ago
  Do you know when we can expect .heic?
  - theandrewbailey 5y ago
    If you mean the container format, AVIF uses it natively. If you mean the image format, probably never. It's based on the HEVC/H.265 licensing minefield. For that reason, I don't expect it to ever be supported on Chromium or Firefox based browsers.
    - teekert 5y ago
      Hmm, I have no issues viewing the files (iPhone pictures) on my Ubuntu desktop, are they that much braver?
      - Gigachad 5y ago
        Yes. You probably have the extra codecs package added which is arguably illegal to distribute in the US. Other distros like Fedora won’t touch it.
  - yboris 5y ago
    I thought that .heic has patents on it and is thus not free in some cases. Which I think is an overwhelming reason to bury it and not use unless you have a very good reason to. Having fewer browsers support .heic format would be a benefit -- as it would decrease the chances of the format surviving.
    - teekert 5y ago
      Hmm, I really like live photos(the moving pictures of the iPhone) and the advantages that brings. Damn, Apple got me again. I'm going to read up on advantages of Heif and maybe set up script in Nextcloud to auto-convert, so I do have a free format of all my pics.
- baggy_trough 5y ago
  https://libre-software.net/avif-test/ https://libre-software.net/avif-test/
- gardaani 5y ago
  Firefox 93 doesn't seem to support animated AVIF images. I have few AVIF examples animating correctly on Chrome 94 but only showing stills on Firefox 93. Edit: I found few examples here: https://colinbendell.github.io/webperf/animated-gif-decode/avif.html https://colinbendell.github.io/webperf/animated-gif-decode/a...
  - Someone1234 5y ago
    What is really odd is that if you go to the AVIF Wikipedia entry animation isn't even listed as a feature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#AV1_Image_File_Format_(AVIF) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#AV1_Image_File_Format_(AVI... When people were comparing it to GIF I specifically tried to check if it supported animations, but came up with little.
    - SECProto 5y ago
      From that link: > AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an image file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1 in the HEIF file format.
  - oehpr 5y ago
    Oh wow! I hope firefox eventually provides support for this.
- nonbirithm 5y ago
  I've found AVIF's spec to be massive and overly complicated to implement in its entirety. Four years later, ffmpeg doesn't even support AVIF/HEIC encoding or decoding yet, despite those formats arguably becoming ubiquitous thanks to Apple. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/6521 https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/6521
DoingIsLearning 5y ago
OT but is anyone having random <native crash> crashes on Nightly (FF 94.0a1) for Android? Didn't see this on FF93.
- yorwba 5y ago
  Yes, me too. I sent a bunch of crash reports, I guess they'll get looked at and fixed.
Scarbutt 5y ago
When available system memory is critically low, Firefox on Windows will automatically unload tabs based on their last access time, memory usage, and other attributes. This should help reduce Firefox out-of-memory crashes. Switching to an unloaded tab automatically reloads it. This is why I can't switch to firefox, chrome is better at this, doesn't wait until 'system memory is critically low' and supports all platforms not just windows.
- quesera 5y ago
  There are extensions for FF which have done this for many years. I don't like them (automation doesn't make the same choices I would), but I do use an extension which allows me to manually unload tabs.
huuuz 5y ago
How are downloads performed over http "potentially malicious"?
- kevingadd 5y ago
  They can be MITM'd by anyone on a hop between you and the server, and unless they're an authenticode-signed exe they could also have been subtly tampered with at rest Mind you, HTTPS doesn't mean downloads are safe. Not remotely so. HTTP just means they're way less safe, and if you're on a HTTPS website it definitely should not be serving downloads over HTTP
- CodesInChaos 5y ago
  A MitM (e.g. an untrusted WiFi network) could replace a download by a malicious version.
  - huuuz 5y ago
    In that case the html text of the page could be replaced by the attacker so the download link points to an https link.
    - MauranKilom 5y ago
      At least it can't be an HTTPS link to the same domain. But even if a user notices this, it's not worth a lot in the age of CDNs on weirdly abbreviated separate domains...
    - Semaphor 5y ago
      It’s for https sites that link http downloads.
    - peckrob 5y ago
      This absolutely can happen. A few years ago I discovered [0] Atlanta Airport's public WiFi was injecting ads into non-https pages. A malicious actor changing download links is not a far fetched possibility. [0] https://twitter.com/codelemur/status/1052285395575164929?s=20 https://twitter.com/codelemur/status/1052285395575164929?s=2...
hyproxia 5y ago
Whenever I see a new Firefox version, my heart skips a beat.
- suprfsat 5y ago
  It's a highly regular occurrence. If your heart beating is not a highly regular occurrence you should seek medical attention.
- FirstLvR 5y ago
  regular updates is a good thing, even if is a fail theyll just update soon. stay positive!
akie 5y ago
Give me a way to pay for Firefox, please, and use the proceeds to hire a full development team that can hopefully catch up and overtake Chrome? Please?
- mijailt 5y ago
  https://donate.mozilla.org https://donate.mozilla.org ?
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    > Contributions go to the Mozilla Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organisation based in San Francisco, California, to be used in its discretion for its charitable purposes. This goes to the Mozilla Foundation and not to the browser's development. As far as I know there is currently no way to donate to the browser's development.
    - lifthrasiir 5y ago
      Buy products [1] from the Mozilla Corporation if it's your concern. [1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/
      - sedan_baklazhan 5y ago
        It is not something I would want to do from abroad.
      - gpm 5y ago
        That sounds like a way to fund development of their salable products, not firefox.
        lifthrasiir 5y ago
        A browser has long been not a saleable product and buying side products is the closest thing you can do to fund its development. Not that it is satisfactory, but if you aren't doing that already then your complaints sound less credible IMO.
rado 5y ago
Plot twist: FF used to be very slow, but 93 is now as fast as Chrome on Mac, leaving the wretched Safari 15 in the dust. (Testing Google Street View)
- handrous 5y ago
  That's cool, but I'm on an M1. Everything is fast. How's it do on battery life? How often does it turn out to be the culprit behind system-wide performance problems, if you've just got it sitting open in the background while you're doing other stuff?
  - rado 5y ago
    M1 users also reported performance degradation. Second line: do you mean Chrome? I don't know, Safari is my main browser, which might change after v15...
    - handrous 5y ago
      My journey from FF to Safari started back in 2012 or 2013 when I noticed Chrome didn't make my whole system slow, like FF did, so I switched to Chrome. Then I realized that I'd gain like 2+hrs of battery life if I used Safari, and it was even more respectful of multitasking and system resources, so that's what I'm on now. The iOS integration is great too, but I'd switch if someone beat them on overall system resource use (not "speed"—I know Chrome especially has loved that metric for a long time, but I do not care if it runs Quake compiled to WASM at a higher framerate or whatever) [EDIT] FWIW, FF user since Phoenix & Firebird, haven't loved it since IIRC FF3 (yes, 3) when it started to bloat itself into being the sluggish, huge thing it replaced. I still use it on my Windows gaming desktop, but that's because I barely use the browser on there, and it's plugged into wall power. Safari 15's UI is god-awful though, so I'm primed for a switch.
      - rado 5y ago
        Safari’s meteoric rise for me started by the time Metal was introduced ca 2014. It smoked the competition consistently until this year’s v15. I wish the performance drop was scrutinised as much as the UI issues, which are also terrible.
sphix0r 5y ago
Anyone has information about the details of Smart Block 3.0? The "learn more" URL returns a 404.
- wisniewskit 5y ago
  It should be published now.
Nextgrid 5y ago
Still no built-in uBlock Origin (or equivalent) despite it being permissively licensed and Mozilla's "commitment" to privacy...
- loxias 5y ago
  Um, I never stopped using uBlock Origin, and generally run beta Firefoxen and haven't seen a problem.
- samschooler 5y ago
  Whats the problem with uBlock Origin as an extension? https://ublockorigin.com/ https://ublockorigin.com/
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    It's yet another thing to install & configure manually. For a browser that boasts about privacy at every possible opportunity I'd expect something as standard & essential (in this day and age) to be included.
    - diffeomorphism 5y ago
      So bother your distro to include it as a dependency? I much prefer a good third party solution than an included half baked one.
    - yepthatsreality 5y ago
      And I shouldn’t have to think about it. Why even build a browser if I have to understand the concept and reasoning of installing an extension myself? Does Mozilla think I have the seconds it takes to do this?
    - samschooler 5y ago
      To each their own I guess. I like to manually add/remove things based on my use case.
    - falcolas 5y ago
theothermatt 5y ago
Anyone else getting hit with a 404 when trying to visit the 'Learn More' links for SmartBlock 3.0 or the referrer tracking protections? https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/10/05/firefox-93-features-an-improved-smartblock-and-new-referrer-tracking-protections/ https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/10/05/firefox-93-feat...
- jffry 5y ago
  It seems like both that and "Introducing a new referrer tracking protection in Strict Tracking Protection and Private Browsing" link to blog posts that are supposed to exist but maybe haven't been switched to "published" status? Maybe they will show up eventually in the list of security-related blog posts? https://blog.mozilla.org/security/category/security/ https://blog.mozilla.org/security/category/security/ EDIT: Looks like that link works now
  - wisniewskit 5y ago
    The post was finally just published, the link should work now.
pm2222 5y ago
FF92 is much better than Chromium on Arch Linux. I look forward to FF93.
oehtXRwMkIs 5y ago
This seems to mean that pdf.js is now the first FOSS pdf reader to support xfa forms!
andrewshadura 5y ago
A new setting not mentioned in the release notes: layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override = 1 # An override for prefers-color-scheme for content documents. # # Dark (0), light (1), or system (2). I use it to force webpages to use light theme while having dark browser UI elements (menus, tabs etc).
- LeonenTheDK 5y ago
  This is just what I've been waiting for, thank you for pointing it out! I've been using an extension to do it until now.
JonathanBeuys 5y ago
I am currently trying Ubuntu for the first time in a long while and it comes with Firefox as the default browser. My problem is that Firefox has a "snapping" scroll behavior that I find very annoying. When I move my fingers on the touchpad of my laptop, that does not immediately move the page. Instead, it waits until I moved a certain distance and then moves in one big swoosh. Starting Firefox from the command line like this solves it: MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox Is there a way to make this permanent or accomplish the same via a setting in about:config?
- makeworld 5y ago
  You can make it "permanent" by editing the .desktop file your Firefox is launching from when you click it in Ubuntu. You can change the Exec= line to be Exec=MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox, or maybe Exec=env MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox
  - JonathanBeuys 5y ago
    Thanks, the "env" version works! Although the scroll is more fine grained now, it looks kinda wobbly. Almost as if there is a raster interrupt at play, lol. As if the screen gets repainted mid scroll and then needs another round until the whole screen is updated.
- chmod775 5y ago
  You can put export MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 into your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc (edit: or just ~/.profile under ubuntu). You'll have to logout/login to "apply" that. Alternatively you can edit the .desktop file of Firefox, but that might not catch all the ways in which firefox may be launched.
  - JonathanBeuys 5y ago
    Hmm.. I tried to execute "export MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1" in the terminal and then start FF from the GUI and it did not have an impact. So I guess it would also not work in .bashrc. But not sure.
dandellion 5y ago
For once they didn't remove any features I use or introduce any changes that disrupt my usage of the browser, rejoice!
Lendal 5y ago
I hope we can turn off the "unsafe download" thing. I download files every day that I know are perfectly safe, precisely because the file will only ever be downloaded once, by me, because I just built it in Gitlab.
- gostsamo 5y ago
  Isn't it still unsafe, because someone can intercept the downloaded file in transit?
  - sgtfrankieboy 5y ago
    That doesn't matter though, they will still download it either way.
- jffry 5y ago
  If you click through the learn more link, you can see an example of the new warning. Instead of starting the download, it shows a dialog with a warning and there are two buttons, one of which is "Allow download". The second part of this feature is that for <iframe sandbox="..."> elements, regardless of HTTP/S origin, Firefox will no longer allow the iframe to initiate downloads unless the sandbox attribute explicitly includes allow-downloads It appears that there are a pair of preferences in about:config to govern these: dom.block_download_insecure and dom.block_download_in_sandboxed_iframes
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  This is my hope, too. Two additional clicks that give me zero benefits.
HMH 5y ago
Awesome, after reading through the first time contributions I can see my first albeit pretty minor patch is included in this release! Overall contributing has been very pleasant and the people on Mozilla's matrix channels have been helpful getting me on track. But better than taking my word for it, you should try contributing for yourself :)
- heywherelogingo 5y ago
  I started looking into it a little while back, and didn't get much further than pulling the source - my laptop was not up to the task of working on a project that size.
- cute_boi 5y ago
  To be honest firefox community is way better than chrome. They got lot of helpful people in matrix channel. Someone from firefox community does twitch live stream titled Joy of Coding. I am also looking forward to submit my own patch in firefox for implementing some cdp related thing..
- RussianCow 5y ago
  Out of curiosity, what was your contribution?
streblo 5y ago
Here's what I desperately want from Firefox, which I currently have from Chrome: isolated browser profiles tied to an account. I have two browser windows open at all times, one for my personal stuff and one for my work stuff. I want to keep those two windows totally isolated, where I log in with all my work accounts in one window, and all my personal accounts in the other window. Chrome does this by tying the window to a Gmail account, I'd happily sign up for two Firefox accounts if I could do this.
- latortuga 5y ago
  Firefox has this, it's called multi account containers. It's an add-on published by Mozilla.
- CartenLoor 5y ago
  You can use profiles with Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectslug=Managing+profiles&redirectlocale=en-US https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-... You can also use containers on Firefox for isolating specific sites
- ComodoHacker 5y ago
  >isolated browser profiles Firefox can do that. Just run firefox -p. >tied to an account Is that really necessary?
  - streblo 5y ago
    > Is that really necessary? Yes, I'd like extensions, history, cookies, etc to be tied to the account and have them be isolated. I can't do that now.
    - ComodoHacker 5y ago
      You can. Firefox profiles are totally isolated, including extensions, history, cookies and everything else. Why this isn't enough for you? You can log in into accounts in each profile, of course, if you want.
marshall_law 5y ago
I got a kick out of the section about the Y10K problem in the docs for the new datetime-local input type: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/datetime-local#the_y10k_problem_often_client-side https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/in...
- CameronNemo 5y ago
  I am just glad that all major browsers besides IE now support the input type. Granted, you still likely want compatibility with Firefox ESR. But it is nice to know that the polyfill will gradually become less and less necessary.
Mizza 5y ago
Why did it take so long to get rid of 3DES? Hasn't it been known as insecure for.. ages now?
rahoulb 5y ago
Slightly off-topic but John Gruber has been writing about the new version of Safari[1] (and it's tabs and how they do or don't work) - and he linked back to some posts of his about Camino, which I'd forgotten about. Camino was the Gecko engine from Firefox in a "proper" Mac UI (unlike Firefox at the time, which was their cross-platform XUL UI). I used to use it as my primary browser and I really liked it. What killed it was Apple launching Safari - which didn't use Gecko, but instead used KDEs QT-based HTML engine. They named it Webkit, Google later used it for Chrome - then forking it - and leading to the situation we have today where the two QT-derived engines (Blink and, because of iOS, Webkit) dominate. Personally, I still use Firefox, mainly because I would like there to be another option, but I also use Safari (and I quite like the colour in the header thing). [1] https://daringfireball.net/2021/10/the_tragedy_of_safari_15_quote_unquote_tabs https://daringfireball.net/2021/10/the_tragedy_of_safari_15_...
- batterylow 5y ago
  Part of that journey is visualised here https://plotapi.com/gallery/posts/showcase/desktop-browser-market-share-pie-fight/ https://plotapi.com/gallery/posts/showcase/desktop-browser-m...
- pram 5y ago
  I'm not sure how you arrive at Safari "killing" Camino. It was frankly always marginal. You had Mozilla, Firefox, and IE all available on OSX contemporaneously.
  - neurobashing 5y ago
    well there's Dave Hyatt, co-creator of Camino, who left to work on Safari. That didn't help.
    - gsnedders 5y ago
      I mean Hyatt is also co-creator of Firefox, and Firefox survived. (IIRC he also did the tabbing implementations for both Camino and Firefox!)
jiehong 5y ago
To me, one of the biggest news is that <input type="datetime-local"> is now implemented[0]. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/datetime-local https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/in...
- asddubs 5y ago
  I wish browser makers gave more attention to implementing form widgets. Natively accessible widgets optimized for the device it's being displayed on? yes please I've been waiting for some of the more advanced options of <input type="range"> for ages. <input type="color"> is supported but often a bit clunky in its implementation. Hence people don't use them, hence they don't get improved. Some sort of drag and drop reordering widget would be really nice as well
  - jiehong 5y ago
    Range input is supported, actually: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/range https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/in...
    - asddubs 5y ago
      Yes, but not the advanced options like the datalist labels on the mdn article you linked
dbg31415 5y ago
Any performance improvements, or will it still use like 50x more battery and turn my MBP into a toaster when I hop on a video call?
dr_kiszonka 5y ago
I'd love to move to FF, but it has a virtual desktop bug dating back to 2007 [0], which is a showstopper for me. When reopening FF, e.g., after restarting Win or Linux, all FF windows are restored to a single virtual desktop, even if they were on different desktops previously. Chromium-based browsers don't seem to have this problem. They tried fixing it a few times [1,2], but the bug persists, and I am not aware of any add-ons that could serve as workarounds. 0. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=372650 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=372650 1. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1401143 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1401143 2. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=890125 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=890125
- evilpie 5y ago
  All the bugs you linked are marked as fixed, so unless you open a new bug with clear steps of reproducing your specific issue, it's probably never going to happen.
  - dr_kiszonka 5y ago
    Right. There a few more bug reports that I didn't link to. I have just found one saying that the bug will be fixed in FF 94. I don't have high hopes because this bug seems to come back from the dead soon after being fixed, but fingers crossed!
baud147258 5y ago
I'd wish Firefox wasn't locked to an old lts version on my work laptop; it's bad enough some websites won't open (like regex101 or twitter) and I have to switch to chrome for those

279 points by NiekvdMaas 5y ago

> Firefox now supports the new AVIF image format PARTY! I've been waiting for this for a long time. The last big hurdle for this was that color spaces weren't applied correctly. If you haven't taken a look at AVIF, do. You can get a similar looking image in AVIF at half the size as a JPEG. I find AVIF's image artifacts preferable to JPEG's.

baggy_trough 5y ago
Speaking of AVIF, I wonder why Microsoft Edge doesn't support it while the matching version of Chrome does.
yboris 5y ago
I'm looking forward to the wide adoption of JPEG XL (.jxl - "jixel") file format. It's the format that will replace JPEG! https://jpegxl.info/ https://jpegxl.info/
- pupppet 5y ago
  Oy...those poor <picture> tags will soon be just stuffed with different file formats as we try to accommodate all browsers.
  - Zardoz84 5y ago
    Worse... When you are forced to support IE11, and keep limited to the old good JPEG. At least, JPEG-XL offers a solution on this side, like store as JPEG-XL and serve as old JPEG to IE11 users. Now, if only there was a JPEG-XL implementation for Java...
- Flockster 5y ago
  It's already in Firefox Nightly and Chrome Beta as far as I know.
  - worrycue 5y ago
    It’s available to turn on in Chrome 94 via Chrome://flags For Firefox you need the nightlies I believe - I had no luck with release Firefox 93.
- bla3 5y ago
  I kind of doubt it. JPEG is good enough, and is pervasive. JPEG XL is better, but removing an incumbent file format requires more than just being better. We'll see.
  - MrRadar 5y ago
    JPEG XL has a party trick where you can losslessly transcode JPEG files to JPEG XL for a ~20% size savings. I imagine that every CDN out there will enable transparent conversion of JPEG to JPEG XL and that will drive adoption just by itself.
    - jodrellblank 5y ago
      Dropbox quietly replaces the insides of JPGs with a better compression system (lossless change) to save their storage costs, and then returns it to normal when the file is read. (It may be they do a JPEG XL transform, for all I can remember about the article which explained it). I wouldn't be too surprised if every big CDN already does something like that internally as a competitive advantage, and if so then the incentives switch around and there's no benefit publically switching to JPEG XL - when everyone has it, there's no easy way to do better than everyone else.
      - fuyu 5y ago
        Aren't the biggest costs from bandwidth, not storage? I'm sure they would love to reduce data transmission by 20% for browsers that support it.
        jodrellblank 5y ago
        CDNs would love to bill customers 20% less for bandwidth used? Customers will be able to move to storing JPEG XL files on CDNs and reduce their own storage and bandwidth costs, but I was responding to the claim that it would be in CDN's interest to hurry the transition, and I think it will be a loss for CDNs.
  - yboris 5y ago
- k4c9x 5y ago
  It's pronounced "jizzle".
  - secondcoming 5y ago
    That's unfortunate since 'jizz' is slang for semen.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - nanna 5y ago
      Downvoters, it's true! At least in British English. In Yinglish (Yiddish-English) jizzle would mean something like 'a drop of seamen'.
- asddubs 5y ago
  isn't AV1 also a contender for that as a lossy compression algorithm?
teekert 5y ago
Do you know when we can expect .heic?
- theandrewbailey 5y ago
  If you mean the container format, AVIF uses it natively. If you mean the image format, probably never. It's based on the HEVC/H.265 licensing minefield. For that reason, I don't expect it to ever be supported on Chromium or Firefox based browsers.
  - teekert 5y ago
    Hmm, I have no issues viewing the files (iPhone pictures) on my Ubuntu desktop, are they that much braver?
    - Gigachad 5y ago
      Yes. You probably have the extra codecs package added which is arguably illegal to distribute in the US. Other distros like Fedora won’t touch it.
- yboris 5y ago
  I thought that .heic has patents on it and is thus not free in some cases. Which I think is an overwhelming reason to bury it and not use unless you have a very good reason to. Having fewer browsers support .heic format would be a benefit -- as it would decrease the chances of the format surviving.
  - teekert 5y ago
    Hmm, I really like live photos(the moving pictures of the iPhone) and the advantages that brings. Damn, Apple got me again. I'm going to read up on advantages of Heif and maybe set up script in Nextcloud to auto-convert, so I do have a free format of all my pics.
baggy_trough 5y ago
https://libre-software.net/avif-test/ https://libre-software.net/avif-test/
gardaani 5y ago
Firefox 93 doesn't seem to support animated AVIF images. I have few AVIF examples animating correctly on Chrome 94 but only showing stills on Firefox 93. Edit: I found few examples here: https://colinbendell.github.io/webperf/animated-gif-decode/avif.html https://colinbendell.github.io/webperf/animated-gif-decode/a...
- Someone1234 5y ago
  What is really odd is that if you go to the AVIF Wikipedia entry animation isn't even listed as a feature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#AV1_Image_File_Format_(AVIF) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#AV1_Image_File_Format_(AVI... When people were comparing it to GIF I specifically tried to check if it supported animations, but came up with little.
  - SECProto 5y ago
    From that link: > AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an image file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1 in the HEIF file format.
- oehpr 5y ago
  Oh wow! I hope firefox eventually provides support for this.
nonbirithm 5y ago
I've found AVIF's spec to be massive and overly complicated to implement in its entirety. Four years later, ffmpeg doesn't even support AVIF/HEIC encoding or decoding yet, despite those formats arguably becoming ubiquitous thanks to Apple. https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/6521 https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/6521

DoingIsLearning 5y ago

OT but is anyone having random <native crash> crashes on Nightly (FF 94.0a1) for Android? Didn't see this on FF93.

yorwba 5y ago
Yes, me too. I sent a bunch of crash reports, I guess they'll get looked at and fixed.

Scarbutt 5y ago

When available system memory is critically low, Firefox on Windows will automatically unload tabs based on their last access time, memory usage, and other attributes. This should help reduce Firefox out-of-memory crashes. Switching to an unloaded tab automatically reloads it. This is why I can't switch to firefox, chrome is better at this, doesn't wait until 'system memory is critically low' and supports all platforms not just windows.

quesera 5y ago
There are extensions for FF which have done this for many years. I don't like them (automation doesn't make the same choices I would), but I do use an extension which allows me to manually unload tabs.

huuuz 5y ago

How are downloads performed over http "potentially malicious"?

kevingadd 5y ago
They can be MITM'd by anyone on a hop between you and the server, and unless they're an authenticode-signed exe they could also have been subtly tampered with at rest Mind you, HTTPS doesn't mean downloads are safe. Not remotely so. HTTP just means they're way less safe, and if you're on a HTTPS website it definitely should not be serving downloads over HTTP
CodesInChaos 5y ago
A MitM (e.g. an untrusted WiFi network) could replace a download by a malicious version.
- huuuz 5y ago
  In that case the html text of the page could be replaced by the attacker so the download link points to an https link.
  - MauranKilom 5y ago
    At least it can't be an HTTPS link to the same domain. But even if a user notices this, it's not worth a lot in the age of CDNs on weirdly abbreviated separate domains...
  - Semaphor 5y ago
    It’s for https sites that link http downloads.
  - peckrob 5y ago
    This absolutely can happen. A few years ago I discovered [0] Atlanta Airport's public WiFi was injecting ads into non-https pages. A malicious actor changing download links is not a far fetched possibility. [0] https://twitter.com/codelemur/status/1052285395575164929?s=20 https://twitter.com/codelemur/status/1052285395575164929?s=2...

hyproxia 5y ago

Whenever I see a new Firefox version, my heart skips a beat.

suprfsat 5y ago
It's a highly regular occurrence. If your heart beating is not a highly regular occurrence you should seek medical attention.
FirstLvR 5y ago
regular updates is a good thing, even if is a fail theyll just update soon. stay positive!

akie 5y ago

Give me a way to pay for Firefox, please, and use the proceeds to hire a full development team that can hopefully catch up and overtake Chrome? Please?

mijailt 5y ago
https://donate.mozilla.org https://donate.mozilla.org ?
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  > Contributions go to the Mozilla Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organisation based in San Francisco, California, to be used in its discretion for its charitable purposes. This goes to the Mozilla Foundation and not to the browser's development. As far as I know there is currently no way to donate to the browser's development.
  - lifthrasiir 5y ago
    Buy products [1] from the Mozilla Corporation if it's your concern. [1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/
    - sedan_baklazhan 5y ago
      It is not something I would want to do from abroad.
    - gpm 5y ago
      That sounds like a way to fund development of their salable products, not firefox.
      - lifthrasiir 5y ago
        A browser has long been not a saleable product and buying side products is the closest thing you can do to fund its development. Not that it is satisfactory, but if you aren't doing that already then your complaints sound less credible IMO.

rado 5y ago

Plot twist: FF used to be very slow, but 93 is now as fast as Chrome on Mac, leaving the wretched Safari 15 in the dust. (Testing Google Street View)

handrous 5y ago
That's cool, but I'm on an M1. Everything is fast. How's it do on battery life? How often does it turn out to be the culprit behind system-wide performance problems, if you've just got it sitting open in the background while you're doing other stuff?
- rado 5y ago
  M1 users also reported performance degradation. Second line: do you mean Chrome? I don't know, Safari is my main browser, which might change after v15...
  - handrous 5y ago
    My journey from FF to Safari started back in 2012 or 2013 when I noticed Chrome didn't make my whole system slow, like FF did, so I switched to Chrome. Then I realized that I'd gain like 2+hrs of battery life if I used Safari, and it was even more respectful of multitasking and system resources, so that's what I'm on now. The iOS integration is great too, but I'd switch if someone beat them on overall system resource use (not "speed"—I know Chrome especially has loved that metric for a long time, but I do not care if it runs Quake compiled to WASM at a higher framerate or whatever) [EDIT] FWIW, FF user since Phoenix & Firebird, haven't loved it since IIRC FF3 (yes, 3) when it started to bloat itself into being the sluggish, huge thing it replaced. I still use it on my Windows gaming desktop, but that's because I barely use the browser on there, and it's plugged into wall power. Safari 15's UI is god-awful though, so I'm primed for a switch.
    - rado 5y ago
      Safari’s meteoric rise for me started by the time Metal was introduced ca 2014. It smoked the competition consistently until this year’s v15. I wish the performance drop was scrutinised as much as the UI issues, which are also terrible.

sphix0r 5y ago

Anyone has information about the details of Smart Block 3.0? The "learn more" URL returns a 404.

wisniewskit 5y ago
It should be published now.

Nextgrid 5y ago

Still no built-in uBlock Origin (or equivalent) despite it being permissively licensed and Mozilla's "commitment" to privacy...

loxias 5y ago
Um, I never stopped using uBlock Origin, and generally run beta Firefoxen and haven't seen a problem.
samschooler 5y ago
Whats the problem with uBlock Origin as an extension? https://ublockorigin.com/ https://ublockorigin.com/
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  It's yet another thing to install & configure manually. For a browser that boasts about privacy at every possible opportunity I'd expect something as standard & essential (in this day and age) to be included.
  - diffeomorphism 5y ago
    So bother your distro to include it as a dependency? I much prefer a good third party solution than an included half baked one.
  - yepthatsreality 5y ago
    And I shouldn’t have to think about it. Why even build a browser if I have to understand the concept and reasoning of installing an extension myself? Does Mozilla think I have the seconds it takes to do this?
  - samschooler 5y ago
    To each their own I guess. I like to manually add/remove things based on my use case.
  - falcolas 5y ago

theothermatt 5y ago

Anyone else getting hit with a 404 when trying to visit the 'Learn More' links for SmartBlock 3.0 or the referrer tracking protections? https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/10/05/firefox-93-features-an-improved-smartblock-and-new-referrer-tracking-protections/ https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/10/05/firefox-93-feat...

jffry 5y ago
It seems like both that and "Introducing a new referrer tracking protection in Strict Tracking Protection and Private Browsing" link to blog posts that are supposed to exist but maybe haven't been switched to "published" status? Maybe they will show up eventually in the list of security-related blog posts? https://blog.mozilla.org/security/category/security/ https://blog.mozilla.org/security/category/security/ EDIT: Looks like that link works now
- wisniewskit 5y ago
  The post was finally just published, the link should work now.

pm2222 5y ago

FF92 is much better than Chromium on Arch Linux. I look forward to FF93.

oehtXRwMkIs 5y ago

This seems to mean that pdf.js is now the first FOSS pdf reader to support xfa forms!

andrewshadura 5y ago

A new setting not mentioned in the release notes: layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override = 1 # An override for prefers-color-scheme for content documents. # # Dark (0), light (1), or system (2). I use it to force webpages to use light theme while having dark browser UI elements (menus, tabs etc).

LeonenTheDK 5y ago
This is just what I've been waiting for, thank you for pointing it out! I've been using an extension to do it until now.

JonathanBeuys 5y ago

I am currently trying Ubuntu for the first time in a long while and it comes with Firefox as the default browser. My problem is that Firefox has a "snapping" scroll behavior that I find very annoying. When I move my fingers on the touchpad of my laptop, that does not immediately move the page. Instead, it waits until I moved a certain distance and then moves in one big swoosh. Starting Firefox from the command line like this solves it: MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox Is there a way to make this permanent or accomplish the same via a setting in about:config?

makeworld 5y ago
You can make it "permanent" by editing the .desktop file your Firefox is launching from when you click it in Ubuntu. You can change the Exec= line to be Exec=MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox, or maybe Exec=env MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox
- JonathanBeuys 5y ago
  Thanks, the "env" version works! Although the scroll is more fine grained now, it looks kinda wobbly. Almost as if there is a raster interrupt at play, lol. As if the screen gets repainted mid scroll and then needs another round until the whole screen is updated.
chmod775 5y ago
You can put export MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 into your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc (edit: or just ~/.profile under ubuntu). You'll have to logout/login to "apply" that. Alternatively you can edit the .desktop file of Firefox, but that might not catch all the ways in which firefox may be launched.
- JonathanBeuys 5y ago
  Hmm.. I tried to execute "export MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1" in the terminal and then start FF from the GUI and it did not have an impact. So I guess it would also not work in .bashrc. But not sure.

dandellion 5y ago

For once they didn't remove any features I use or introduce any changes that disrupt my usage of the browser, rejoice!

Lendal 5y ago

I hope we can turn off the "unsafe download" thing. I download files every day that I know are perfectly safe, precisely because the file will only ever be downloaded once, by me, because I just built it in Gitlab.

gostsamo 5y ago
Isn't it still unsafe, because someone can intercept the downloaded file in transit?
- sgtfrankieboy 5y ago
  That doesn't matter though, they will still download it either way.
jffry 5y ago
If you click through the learn more link, you can see an example of the new warning. Instead of starting the download, it shows a dialog with a warning and there are two buttons, one of which is "Allow download". The second part of this feature is that for <iframe sandbox="..."> elements, regardless of HTTP/S origin, Firefox will no longer allow the iframe to initiate downloads unless the sandbox attribute explicitly includes allow-downloads It appears that there are a pair of preferences in about:config to govern these: dom.block_download_insecure and dom.block_download_in_sandboxed_iframes
hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
This is my hope, too. Two additional clicks that give me zero benefits.

HMH 5y ago

Awesome, after reading through the first time contributions I can see my first albeit pretty minor patch is included in this release! Overall contributing has been very pleasant and the people on Mozilla's matrix channels have been helpful getting me on track. But better than taking my word for it, you should try contributing for yourself :)

heywherelogingo 5y ago
I started looking into it a little while back, and didn't get much further than pulling the source - my laptop was not up to the task of working on a project that size.
cute_boi 5y ago
To be honest firefox community is way better than chrome. They got lot of helpful people in matrix channel. Someone from firefox community does twitch live stream titled Joy of Coding. I am also looking forward to submit my own patch in firefox for implementing some cdp related thing..
RussianCow 5y ago
Out of curiosity, what was your contribution?

streblo 5y ago

Here's what I desperately want from Firefox, which I currently have from Chrome: isolated browser profiles tied to an account. I have two browser windows open at all times, one for my personal stuff and one for my work stuff. I want to keep those two windows totally isolated, where I log in with all my work accounts in one window, and all my personal accounts in the other window. Chrome does this by tying the window to a Gmail account, I'd happily sign up for two Firefox accounts if I could do this.

latortuga 5y ago
Firefox has this, it's called multi account containers. It's an add-on published by Mozilla.
CartenLoor 5y ago
You can use profiles with Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectslug=Managing+profiles&redirectlocale=en-US https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-... You can also use containers on Firefox for isolating specific sites
ComodoHacker 5y ago
>isolated browser profiles Firefox can do that. Just run firefox -p. >tied to an account Is that really necessary?
- streblo 5y ago
  > Is that really necessary? Yes, I'd like extensions, history, cookies, etc to be tied to the account and have them be isolated. I can't do that now.
  - ComodoHacker 5y ago
    You can. Firefox profiles are totally isolated, including extensions, history, cookies and everything else. Why this isn't enough for you? You can log in into accounts in each profile, of course, if you want.

marshall_law 5y ago

I got a kick out of the section about the Y10K problem in the docs for the new datetime-local input type: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/datetime-local#the_y10k_problem_often_client-side https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/in...

CameronNemo 5y ago
I am just glad that all major browsers besides IE now support the input type. Granted, you still likely want compatibility with Firefox ESR. But it is nice to know that the polyfill will gradually become less and less necessary.

Mizza 5y ago

Why did it take so long to get rid of 3DES? Hasn't it been known as insecure for.. ages now?

rahoulb 5y ago

Slightly off-topic but John Gruber has been writing about the new version of Safari[1] (and it's tabs and how they do or don't work) - and he linked back to some posts of his about Camino, which I'd forgotten about. Camino was the Gecko engine from Firefox in a "proper" Mac UI (unlike Firefox at the time, which was their cross-platform XUL UI). I used to use it as my primary browser and I really liked it. What killed it was Apple launching Safari - which didn't use Gecko, but instead used KDEs QT-based HTML engine. They named it Webkit, Google later used it for Chrome - then forking it - and leading to the situation we have today where the two QT-derived engines (Blink and, because of iOS, Webkit) dominate. Personally, I still use Firefox, mainly because I would like there to be another option, but I also use Safari (and I quite like the colour in the header thing). [1] https://daringfireball.net/2021/10/the_tragedy_of_safari_15_quote_unquote_tabs https://daringfireball.net/2021/10/the_tragedy_of_safari_15_...

batterylow 5y ago
Part of that journey is visualised here https://plotapi.com/gallery/posts/showcase/desktop-browser-market-share-pie-fight/ https://plotapi.com/gallery/posts/showcase/desktop-browser-m...
pram 5y ago
I'm not sure how you arrive at Safari "killing" Camino. It was frankly always marginal. You had Mozilla, Firefox, and IE all available on OSX contemporaneously.
- neurobashing 5y ago
  well there's Dave Hyatt, co-creator of Camino, who left to work on Safari. That didn't help.
  - gsnedders 5y ago
    I mean Hyatt is also co-creator of Firefox, and Firefox survived. (IIRC he also did the tabbing implementations for both Camino and Firefox!)

jiehong 5y ago

To me, one of the biggest news is that <input type="datetime-local"> is now implemented[0]. [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/datetime-local https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/in...

asddubs 5y ago
I wish browser makers gave more attention to implementing form widgets. Natively accessible widgets optimized for the device it's being displayed on? yes please I've been waiting for some of the more advanced options of <input type="range"> for ages. <input type="color"> is supported but often a bit clunky in its implementation. Hence people don't use them, hence they don't get improved. Some sort of drag and drop reordering widget would be really nice as well
- jiehong 5y ago
  Range input is supported, actually: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/range https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/in...
  - asddubs 5y ago
    Yes, but not the advanced options like the datalist labels on the mdn article you linked

dbg31415 5y ago

Any performance improvements, or will it still use like 50x more battery and turn my MBP into a toaster when I hop on a video call?

dr_kiszonka 5y ago

I'd love to move to FF, but it has a virtual desktop bug dating back to 2007 [0], which is a showstopper for me. When reopening FF, e.g., after restarting Win or Linux, all FF windows are restored to a single virtual desktop, even if they were on different desktops previously. Chromium-based browsers don't seem to have this problem. They tried fixing it a few times [1,2], but the bug persists, and I am not aware of any add-ons that could serve as workarounds. 0. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=372650 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=372650 1. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1401143 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1401143 2. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=890125 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=890125

evilpie 5y ago
All the bugs you linked are marked as fixed, so unless you open a new bug with clear steps of reproducing your specific issue, it's probably never going to happen.
- dr_kiszonka 5y ago
  Right. There a few more bug reports that I didn't link to. I have just found one saying that the bug will be fixed in FF 94. I don't have high hopes because this bug seems to come back from the dead soon after being fixed, but fingers crossed!

baud147258 5y ago

I'd wish Firefox wasn't locked to an old lts version on my work laptop; it's bad enough some websites won't open (like regex101 or twitter) and I have to switch to chrome for those