6 ms·

Ahhh I accidentally zoomed on the page on mobile, so double tapped to unzoom and hit this. Proceeded to infinite loop Firefox on iOS. Oh well, time for a new ph

• speedgoose 5y ago
  If you want to use Firefox you should get an Android smartphone. Apple forbids other browsers engines on iOS.
  • stjohnswarts 5y ago
    I doubt most people want to switch phone ecosystems over a browser. I love firefox and use it everywhere (linux, windows, freebsd, etc) including macos, but iphone overall is a better experience for me as a mobile OS so I stick with that.
    • account42 5y ago
      Switching phone ecosystems over a browser might not make sense, but switching over being restrictions on which browser engines you are allowed to use does imo.
  • MikePlacid 5y ago
    Lolwhat?? https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/id989804926 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/i...
    • speedgoose 5y ago
      It’s safari with a wig.
      • stjohnswarts 5y ago
        Sorry but the adblocking, night-mode, and sync make it a lot better for me than safari, so it's not just "safari with a wig" which would imply only the interface looked a bit different but otherwise it worked the same, which is not the case.
      • cma 5y ago
        It's like if Microsoft had decreed in the 2000s that Mozilla can only make their browser as an IE6 toolbar, with IE6 still rendering the pages and enforcing weird rules.
        • account42 5y ago
          Thankfully that would have gotten Microsoft in trouble with anti-trust regulators in the 2000s. In 2022 anti-competitive behavior from platform holders is unfortunately tolerated - both for Apple and Microsoft.
    • addaon 5y ago
      Firefox on iOS uses the Webkit rendering engine, not the Gecko rendering engine it uses on other platforms.
    • spijdar 5y ago
      Firefox on iOS uses WebKit for showing web content, it doesn't use Gecko or any other components you'd think of as "Firefox". It does have some Mozilla added plugins and syncs with Firefox logins, but the meat of the application isn't really "Firefox".
    • MauranKilom 5y ago
      "browser engine" != "browser app"
    • thereddaikon 5y ago
      And its really just Safari. Apple forbids other browser engines in iOS so every third party browser in the app store is effectively a safari skin and not at all related to the product's true codebase. Real Firefox uses the Gecko browser engine. iOS Firefox is webkit. To quote Apple's iOS dev guidelines: "2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript." https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
      • stjohnswarts 5y ago
        Sure but in my experience the sync, night mode, and ad blocking are a lot better in firefox, although it is definitely a bit slower because of javascript.
      • jonfw 5y ago
        Most users don't care about the engine, they care about things like where your bookmarks are synched and configured, and the UI. This is like telling people that a lexus isn't a real luxury car, it's just a re-skinned toyota. Most people don't care- they just want materials, tech, and nice seats. The skin is the car
        • thereddaikon 5y ago
          That's a debatable point but the result either way doesn't change the point of my comment. They were dismissing the parent comment because they didn't understand the true nature of what they were talking about.
        • mywittyname 5y ago
          In this case, it's more like telling people that a particular Toyota was built by BMW. It might not seem relevant on the surface, but the underlying technical differences could pose an issue for certain user cases, thus it's an important consideration. Not all Firefox addons work with the iOS version just like not every Toyota dealership carries parts for a Zupr4.
        • suby 5y ago
  • marcellus23 5y ago
    > If you want to use Firefox you should get an Android smartphone. Apple forbids other browsers engines on iOS. How does the first sentence follow from the second? For almost all users, the engine is irrelevant, it's the chrome that matters.
    • Brian_K_White 5y ago
      Unfounded assumption. My own primary reasons for using FF are 2 things: 1 - Use anything other than chromium simply to combat monoculture and preserve some possibility for things that Google and MS or other superpowers may not like and so won't be allowed in Chrome or Edge. 2 - For instance, actually functional, useful, powerful and and user-holds-the-power plugins, like ad-blockers that actually work and don't have un-closable whitelists for paying customers, page editors that can block or modify other things besides just ads like any sort of annoying thing like auto playing videos or chat popups etc. Url-cleaners that strip off all the tracking redirects in search result links and links in facebook comments etc. Some of this kind of stuff is still possible in chrome/edge at least on the desktop, but only because there still is at least some small competition to compare to, and it gets a little worse every day, never better. Meanwhile I have at least some of this even on mobile. Some things if I can't get it in the normal FF, I can get them in whole other special purpose browsers, which couldn't be done with any browser at all on ios. Much of this is core browser engine function, not just the visual style of the buttons.
    • Diesel555 5y ago
      Availability Bias. You are assuming "almost all users" mirrors the users you know. The engine is all that matters to me. Certain sites work differently on different engines. The only reason I leave Safari is for a different engine that often works better on less popular or more niche sites (PKI and some other issues). I can't do that on my iPhone. I wish I could. I know many people, not technologically inclined, that just try different browsers on their computers when a website doesn't work. They don't know they are trying different engines, they just know it works on their computer. They also don't know that this methodology doesn't work on iOS. They still try.
      • 5y ago
  • culi 5y ago
    What do you mean by this? I mainly use FireFox on my iPhone. Are you saying the FireFox app utilizes WebKit?
    • stjohnswarts 5y ago
      Firefox on ios is pretty handicapped vs on Android. Like most things it's a tradeoff. Also the javascript engine isn't nearly as fast as the one for Safari on ios. That said I still use firefox there because i sync everything on firefox, also because of the built in night mode which is close enough to darkreader for my usage.
    • shawabawa3 5y ago
      Firefox on iPhone is a wrapper around Safari.
      • efraim 5y ago
        Webkit is not safari. It doesn't use the same ui or bookmarks for example.
        • smoldesu 5y ago
          It is, in fact, Safari. As another commentor noted, it's an instance of Safari Webview, not just webkit. The only thing you control when developing third-party apps is the UI/UX.
          • marcellus23 5y ago
            > an instance of Safari Webview, there is no "Safari Webview" -- GP is being pedantic but he is right here. WKWebView is not Safari, anymore than Chrome was Safari before it forked off into using Blink. WebKit != Safari
            • account42 5y ago
              Chrome had its own build of WebKit with custom patches even before Blink - in no way comparable to embedding Apples build made for Safari.
  • timwis 5y ago
    Thanks but apparently you can close the tab in iOS Safari so it’s a Firefox issue.
  • andai 5y ago
    Interesting, on iOS Safari you can just close the page.