21 ms·

Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

208 points by Amorymeltzer 4y ago

SV_BubbleTime 4y ago
I love you Firefox, I tolerate you Mozilla. But I’m not sure a private browsing button, and fall colors really show your commitment to “cyber security month”.
- jrootabega 4y ago
  Yeah. There's nothing of substance here. All it is is a shortcut for private mode and a default to dark theme when you're in private mode. Not really noteworthy. It's a user-hostile update, even. Dark theme by default when private? I'll control my own themes, thanks. If people are unsure whether they're in private mode, put a permanent private mode indicator in the UI. And what about people who will now confuse dark theme with private mode? Their privacy story just got worse!
  - groovybits 4y ago
    > put a permanent private mode indicator in the UI. There is. The purple and white mask icon in the upper-right window corner, and in each private tab.
    - jrootabega 4y ago
      Then the dark theme default was not necessary. And I'll note that it's a private mode indicator on NEW private tabs only.
  - throwoutway 4y ago
    The corp speak at Mozilla is getting even weirder. It sounds like something my HR VP would say: > new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web. No, it’s just another color theme setting.
    - BitwiseFool 4y ago
      Marketing prose is to be expected, but this is just too much. I suspect there aren't enough people at Mozilla with the courage to tell the marketing/brand management folks to tone it down. I don't necessarily blame them, though. It isn't easy to give criticism to creative folks with a great deal of enthusiasm.
2Gkashmiri 4y ago
Got the upgrade a few days ago. I am loving it. I reside 12 hours a day within the private window itself and the ui looks quite nice now. The purple and all. Keep it up
- mdaniel 4y ago
  Have you seen the browsing containers^1, including the self-destructing ones? I'm 100% not trying to lobby you out of private browsing, just wondering if you were using the mode that best fit your needs Also, be aware that (unless something has radically changed) all private windows share state with one another, which to the very best of my knowledge isn't true for the browser containers 1: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/multi-account-conta... and https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers#readme https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers#readme
  - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
    yes. i use that too. here is a stupid habit i formed years ago. when i start my machine, the first firefox window i open is the normal window + containers for email and some other website. i open private browsing window. then i go about with my day. any website i have to sign in, like hn, the passwords are saved in firefox so it is just a 2 step process usually. sometimes some website asks for an otp, email or mobile which is a pain but fine. i can access youtube or whatever, amazon or something else and once a window has too many open tabs, i create a new window and pick up the work from there. i like how i can close the private windows and everything gets logged out automatically. No stored prefs, no history, no records on my machine, no recomendations say on youtube based on my previous search history or browsing history. Same for amazon. I can search for any darn thing all day and i don't sign in unless i have to actually order something and if i do, i sign in, order and sign out. This has served me well since 2010 at least and firefox with ABP+noscript at first but then ublock origin.... i am not really concerned about "isp tracking" or google analytics, i have a pihole installed which takes care of most of the things. >all private windows share state with one another yes. my understanding is that is a feature because as i said, i can open youtube and continue the thread if i open too many tabs (unless i want to close all of them) . the upside of this is, unless one window is open "ctrl+shift+t" works on firefox but not on chromium based browsers and private window. that is a 100% useful feature because i do not rely on browser history for my surfing so if i make a mistake, ctrl+shift+t and i am back. edit: i log in to HN 3-4 times a day because of this. sometimes once, sometimes 4 times, depending. that is not a bother
standup 4y ago
The "privacy" provided by so-called private browsing mode is just a smokescreen considering how much device fingerprinting is going on. And widespread surveillance of the Internet backbone not just by intelligence agencies but now private organisations like Team Cymru. It would be better if we spent the resources on a next generation anonymity network to replace Tor, or some kind of alternative data transport like radio or satellite, which can still be used by small niche communities of free speech activists, for example... A one way data broadcasting system, sending compressed text only, provides near complete anonymity for those receiving it. However as it necessitates buying receiver hardware, it doesn't get very much traction.
- kotlin2 4y ago
  Firefox at least tries to restrict fingerprinting. For instance, you can force websites to require permissions to access canvas data.
  - hn92726819 4y ago
    I haven't used chrome in years..does chrome really not allow limiting canvas data?
- andrepd 4y ago
  Firefox includes anti-fingerprint measures, and uBlock origin + advanced mode + all scripts blocked by default helps a lot. Also first-party isolation.
- WallyFunk 4y ago
  > The "privacy" provided by so-called private browsing mode is just a smokescreen And to add insult to injury, browsing artifacts are sometimes remembered in Windows' pagefile and other parts of the OS. Even on Linux, if your distro cares to add stuff to swap, it will dump browsing sessions in plaintext to your hard-drive, incognito/private mode or not. This is why people need to use TailsOS[0] if they're really concerned about not leaving any traces. [0] https://tails.net/ https://tails.net/
  - 4y ago
EbNar 4y ago
hbn 4y ago
> Last year we launched Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web > “‘Independent Voices’ are the voices of the past and present that create a better future,” said Keely Alexis. “I chose this [analogy] as my inspiration for the collaboration because it feels authentic to me but it also aligns with Firefox and the vision that we can make the world better, on the internet and beyond.” Jesus, can you just say "we've got themes?" No one is going to remember Firefox as the next MLK Jr because they let you turn the window chrome orange.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  I remember being able to add a background to Firefox' UI a decade ago. Maybe they've removed it and are now celebrating it as a new feature despite it actually being a casualty of the browser's never-ending devolution.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - Macha 4y ago
    They actually still support legacy themes, persona themes and colorways themes last I checked, so three generations of themes. I'm surprised with how much they like to deprecate stuff
- stoplying1 4y ago
  Does it still have the cursed text with it that says "going away in (some month soon)". It's so stupid and confusing and baffling that I want to rage quit Firefox with this as the absolute last straw. Like wtf, you're gonna take back my color in a few months? Just pull the upsell for it? Why the hell am I having to wonder about any of this? Why on God's green earth was this done instead of spending any effort getting a SINGLE bit of unity among the Bookmarks, Downloads and Add-ons panels, all of which should behave at least rougly similarly. (Because, to be clear, I had a Firefox theme that was imperceptibly similar to this months ago before this Colorways upsell) I don't get it. I do not do not do not get it. And now they're screwing around with another extensions menu that takes space on the toolbar but doesn't de-dupe with the extension buttons themselves (I actually can see where this Might be going, but again, zero clear comms about it). I'm the poster boy for an annoying Firefox advocate and I'm increasingly looking at selling my laptop to build a woodworking shed because it all feels hopeless.
bertman 4y ago
>[...]Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves[...] I'd like to express myself and say that I just want a secure and privacy-respecting browser that gets its priorities straight.
- Y-bar 4y ago
  I kind of like the colourways, but the way they present it is quite a bit over the top. Just call it themes and be done with it.
  - elementalest 4y ago
    From Mozilla's point of view its probably that people might get confused between the old and new themes and wonder why all the highly customisable themes we use to have no longer work. So we have to have a new the colourways name so Mozilla can market the 'new' feature and sidestep the problem.
    - easrng 4y ago
      Themes still work, wdym?
- proactivesvcs 4y ago
  Priorities like mentioning PDF editing before sickly doublespeak about...theming.
  - cptskippy 4y ago
    Do people think it's one person implementing Theming, PDF editing, and Privacy Mode protects; and that he just needs to re-prioritize his backlog? Why can't developer of difference capabilities contribute in different ways? I'm a competent developer but I will never be kernel module, crypto, or netcode competent; does that mean I should just forgo contributing to anything?
    - 4y ago
kotlin2 4y ago
One privacy feature I’d really like is kind of like HTTPS everywhere, except it’s TLS 1.3 w/ SNI encryption everywhere.
- eli 4y ago
  What would happen when you click a link to a site that doesn't support that?
  - kotlin2 4y ago
    You’d get a warning and be asked to proceed. Similar to how https everywhere works.
- mehlmao 4y ago
  Firefox does offer an HTTPS only-mode, which tries to upgrade HTTP to HTTPS and warns you before connecting if it's not enabled. Settings > Privacy & Security > HTTPS-Only Mode As far as I know, there are still no practical attacks against TLS 1.2.
  - kotlin2 4y ago
    The issue I’d like to solve is that, even with TLS, you still leak the SNI as part of the handshake. So your ISP can tell you’re connecting to google.com even if you’re using HTTPS.
    - emptyparadise 4y ago
      Wouldn't the ISP still know that you're connecting to Google, however?
      - kotlin2 4y ago
        Your ISP would know the IP address, but not specifically that you were connecting to google.com.
marcodiego 4y ago
I have to repost it aagain: Firefox: the last remaining mostly independent, maintained and reasonably popular browser. Even if it were inferior in any aspect to other options, I'd still use it for the above mentioned reasons.
- EbNar 4y ago
- aliqot 4y ago
  Qutebrowser is best, I pay for it voluntarily though it's free. But Firefox is mostly independent eh? Did they stop taking google money yet?
  - anycans 4y ago
    Qutebrowser isnt independent if you care that google money is involved, it uses blink. Firefox is the only even vaguely independent browser engine that keeps up at all with google.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - reitanqild 4y ago
      Librewolf is a running fork of the newest Firefox with some small improvements. Unlike other forks it always has latest security updates. I use it these days and I am considering to start chipping in too (I am at my limits currently so I will have to stop something else though). But I really really want something like my old Firefox back...!
      - aliqot 4y ago
        I also chip in :) Librewolf eally saved my bacon on this old laptop I keep flogging into the future.
      - 4y ago
Spivak 4y ago
Everyone in this thread complaining about colorways has got to be a meta-commentary on bikeshedding. This feature isn't for you. But anyway, I'm sad that HTTPS default and isolated cookies are turned on only for Private Browsing (sorry, "Guest Session" from that other silly HN thread, "private" apparently implies you have a rank in the military while using) when both these features aren't super disruptive for general browsing.
- jrootabega 4y ago
  But Mozilla deceived us by indicating they had privacy improvements for us! This particular incident is a minor annoyance, but it's an indicator of how those in charge view those of us who care about actual privacy and functionality.
  - Spivak 4y ago
    Mozilla really can't win on HN, a feature that basically only exists to save one click (efficiency!) for the kind of people who consume PB regularly is very power user and aligns with their brand as being privacy focused when private mode is the thing that is always visible in the bar. Nobody on HN seems to know at all how to market tech to a general audience and play the game of "staying relevant" so they always have something to post to social/newswires.
    - jrootabega 4y ago
      I, and probably many others, feel that the quality of this as an HN submission is related, but not synonymous with, the quality of it as a Mozilla communication. But it was submitted to HN, and so it will be judged as an HN submission. But many of us also believe that, though it's POSSIBLE Mozilla is acting how you describe ("We are committed to privacy at our core but we have to publish this kind of press release to survive!"), they are actually corrupt at their core to the point where they only see privacy-conscious users as customercattle to be milked. I believe we critics have good enough intuition to see this kind of behavior from Mozilla as a canary indicating their true nature. This is kind of an aftershock of the Mr. Robot incident. I think it's unlikely that that kind of bad judgment was not chronic and systemic.
eis 4y ago
Shouldn't a post about a new release mention the version number? (It's 106) I really like Firefox from a usability and features point of view. Multi-account containers are fantastic! I want it to succeed. But a private browsing shortcut and colors don't excite me. I'd love to see improvements in speed and efficiency because FF is still behind the others for me. FF is also the only browser that frequently crashes. Submitted about a dozen stacktraces already so hopefully they'll figure it out one day.
- xg15 4y ago
  Nah. After all, we're in the world of evergreen software now, so there are no release numbers, only happy little surprises when some new feature suddenly pops up on your screen... /s
- chrisjc 4y ago
  Better color/theme support would interest me if it extended to containers. I've searched but I never found a theme switcher that worked with containers. It would be nice to have a little more control over customizing the colors/themes based on the container you're current open on.
user3939382 4y ago
Why don’t you give power users at the very least in about:config an option to disable ALL phoning home by Firefox upon launch and exit. As it stands even with all telemetry off Firefox is extremely chatty and I’ve had Mozilla developers tell me they have no intention to fix this. You can profile this yourself on macOS with Charles Proxy (GUI) or mitmproxy (CLI). Until this is fixed all I can do is roll my eyes when I see the incessant privacy marketing from Mozilla.
- elashri 4y ago
  While it is not a simple change, you can always modify things in about:config to turn off all (probably) telemetry on Firefox. The annoying thing is that you should keep updating the strings that is changing with updates (when they add or remove strings). Also you can keep an eye to updated to arkenfox user.js because while using it by default probably will break many websites but they keep track of privacy updates of Firefox.
  - user3939382 4y ago
    That's the problem, even with every possible option disabled there is currently no way, even through about:config, to keep Firefox from phoning home at these points in its execution lifecycle. The telemetry settings they provided basically amount to, we'll phone home to Mozilla either more or less, depending on your settings.
- SamuelAdams 4y ago
  Is it possible to get a list of addresses and add them to a block list, in PiHole for example?
  - cptskippy 4y ago
    Yes, it's already in one of the Steven Black or Peter Lowe lists: incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org
- coldpie 4y ago
  > As it stands even with all telemetry off Firefox is extremely chatty and I’ve had Mozilla developers tell me they have no intention to fix this. What data is being communicated? What about that data is harmful to you? (Genuinely asking for more information, not trying to convince you you're wrong.)
margarina72 4y ago
ff: hey, we got themes! me: `guiset gui none`
- yewenjie 4y ago
  hello fellow Tridactyl user
bhhaskin 4y ago
Mozilla & Firefox stop trying to be a god-damned social movement. Just be a fucking browser.
- nnopepe 4y ago
- authpor 4y ago
  but that was the plan... part of the great shift from freedom in software, to open source code. "is mozilla about open software? or was it about that old RMS (yuck) what was it? looked like a joke... gnu is not gnu?? wut" /angry-snark just trying to vent some frustration... edit: I actually believe that software should guarantee freedom, but I've understood that gnu's play failed, copyright is not the side of freedom of individuals, but on the side of freedom for corporations-as-individuals. my own ignorant opinion (because I'm just guessing) is taboo https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248402
- cptskippy 4y ago
  Why do people get so worked up about messaging that isn't targeted at them? Mozilla is trying to gain broad appeal beyond mom's basement. There's a certain group of people that this message resonates with.
  - viridian 4y ago
    Clearly not, based on browser trends over time. The real problem is that they aren't even able to keep the low hanging fruit (i.e. "Mom's basement" dwellers), let alone whoever this other audience is.
  - jacooper 4y ago
    And its failing at both.
  - soundnote 4y ago
    That group of people isn't terribly large. It's mostly terminally online wokelets, who are loud, but not a terribly large population.
traceroute66 4y ago
What I want to know is have Firefox fixed the show-stopper bug with their implementation of Private Windows yet ? In Firefox, if I login to something in one Private Window, and open a second Private Window, my session is maintained (e.g. login to Protonmail on one, I open a second private window and I'm already logged in). So I assume Firefox is sharing cookies and whatnot between Private Windows. Brave doesn't do this. If I login in one Private Window in Brave, the new Private Window presents me (correctly) with the login screen. I've been through my Firefox settings with a fine-tooth comb and cannot identify anything that might be causing this. Hence I assume it is a bug. (And yes, I mean new window, not a new tab)
- ris58h 4y ago
  > Hence I assume it is a bug. You probably should report it to Mozilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
  - traceroute66 4y ago
    > You probably should report it to Mozilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ Probably. But I've never had much luck getting any traction on previous reports even when I've made sure to produce great supporting detail to enable reproduction. I suspect you need to know the right people to get traction on Mozilla bugs. Everyone else just seems to get lost in the swamp.
- fotta 4y ago
  I came here looking to see if this was fixed too. This isn’t really a “bug” per se as the text on the Private Window says it does this. But I agree with you it’s the biggest issue with Private Windows. I always check if I have one open now if I want to use one and have started using Safari Private Windows more now because each one is isolated.
- jabiko 4y ago
  Isn't this normal? I just tested it in Chrome appears like sessions are across private windows there as well. So I guess its just an extra feature of Brave.
encryptluks2 4y ago
God this marketing is exactly why I still use Chromium. Not only is it faster but it is just as secure and private as Firefox without all the BS and cult.
- capableweb 4y ago
  I'd love to be able to use Chromium/Chrome/anything Blink-based but the lack of Tree Style Tab makes it unbearable every time I try it. This one extension is the only reason I'm still using Firefox... And the profiler sometimes works better than Chromium's as well, but seldom I use it.
  - mminer237 4y ago
    Vivaldi does have something approaching tree style tabs: https://vivaldi.com/features/tab-management/ https://vivaldi.com/features/tab-management/
    - capableweb 4y ago
      Seems to not be tabs in the style of a tree, which is exactly what I'm using Tree Style Tab for ;) Vivaldi just does grouping which is not enough for me. Also should be on the side rather than keeping the tabs below/above the content. See the following image for an example of a tree of tabs: https://imgur.com/a/fEWp9h0 https://imgur.com/a/fEWp9h0
      - soundnote 4y ago
        Vivaldi does have vertical tabs. Not a tree, though.
chobytes 4y ago
At this point I feel like using a stripped down fork of firefox is basically a requirement. There's nothing left of the Mozilla that cared it seems.
- WallyFunk 4y ago
  https://librewolf.net/ https://librewolf.net/
LaleoDJ 4y ago
yewenjie 4y ago
> Last year we launched Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web. I wonder whether people who write this kind of press-releases even use Firefox as their primary browser. If you care so much about actually letting users customizing the look and feel of Firefox please just support userstyles as a first-class feature.
dekatron 4y ago
Is a desktop shortcut and dark theme really an "upgrade" to private browsing?
traveler01 4y ago
I want to like and use Firefox. Seriously, I really do. But when will they fix the performance of the browser? They're spending devs time on useless crap instead of being improving the engine, which clearly needs improvements. For example, I wanted to send some thousands of pictures to Proton Drive (doesn't have a sync App yet) and tried doing it in Firefox. It literally started to take all the computer RAM (my computer has 32 GB) while with Brave it uploaded the entire thing without me even noticing in the computer performance.
- Ayesh 4y ago
  I don't know the technical details behind this, but Firefox always felt slower in file upload front. It was very late to the directory upload feature that Chrome had (in mostly non-standard ways I don't doubt). It doesn't bother me to a point that I can't use Firefox, but for those who regularly upload files, I can totally see Firefox being a subpar experience.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
    I've noticed something similar with download speed; I accidentally discovered a while back that using wget to download the same file would run far faster than firefox.
- WallyFunk 4y ago
  > It literally started to take all the computer RAM That's probably not Firefox, but the way Proton encrypts data client-side. The browser has to do a lot of heavy crypto operations. At least that's the case with Filen.io[0]. I was told by support to have a beefy machine since the desktop web app encrypts data on-the-fly before uploading to their servers. [0] https://filen.io/ https://filen.io/
  - traveler01 4y ago
    If Chromium works fine it's clearly Firefox fault.
- grangerg 4y ago
denton-scratch 4y ago
There are things about Firefox that need attention; more UI bling isn't one of them. Also, the Private Browsing upgrade appears to be just a theme change and a button. Most of the article is nothing to do with Private Browsing, so the title of the post is incorrect.
- jrootabega 4y ago
  Whoever edited the title of the HN submission somehow made it even more misleading than Mozilla did. The original HN title was the same as the Mozilla article: "Privacy online just got easier with today’s Firefox release" https://web.archive.org/web/20221018134430/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33246593 https://web.archive.org/web/20221018134430/https://news.ycom...
zamubafoo 4y ago
To give some perspective, Microsoft is doing better with VS Code than Mozilla is doing with Firefox. * There are no sponsored ads every time I use common functionality (like opening a new tab) * At least VS Code has a easily available settings page to turn off telemetry To do something half way similar, Firefox requires you to venture into `about:config` where you get a "Here be dragons" message to scare users away from touching settings. Not only that, none of the settings are documented anywhere. Do I trust either of them? No, but at least Microsoft doesn't market "privacy".
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  > At least VS Code has a easily available settings page to turn off telemetry You sure about that? They look pretty similar to me. - https://www.roboleary.net/tools/2022/04/20/vscode-telemetry.html - "It looks like you cannot shut telemetry off 100%. These settings will opt you of most data sharing scenarios; but not all data sharing scenarios." - Apparently even VSCodium can't kill it all - https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md#disable-telemetry
- acdha 4y ago
  This is rather misleading since Microsoft has enormous guaranteed revenue streams and could afford to subsidize VS Code perpetually as a loss-leader for their other services. Saying they're doing better requires a very narrow perspective which assumes you're not competing with them for operating systems, office software, etc. I don't love Firefox having ads but it's also literally a single checkbox which you can choose to uncheck on that page and there's a difference between showing ads and violating privacy. If you want to see a web where privacy is respected more, I'd want it to look at lot like what Mozilla does as an intermediary preventing those advertisers from collecting PII.
TonyTrapp 4y ago
For anyone else being annoyed that private windows now switch their chrome into dark mode by default, completely rendering black favicons (or the toggle icon of the TreeStyleTabs extension) invisible: You can set browser.theme.dark-private-windows to false. I don't want dark mode, period. Who decided that privacy must equal to dark mode, and that there is no easy switch in settings to turn it off?
- WallyFunk 4y ago
  > Who decided that privacy must equal to dark mode It's a visual cue to remember what context you are in. I always done that anyway. I have a Pink theme when surfing NSFW sites :)
  - TonyTrapp 4y ago
    Does the clue have to cover the entire browser chrome, though? Maybe the previous indicator was too small, but messing with font contrast of all UI elements? It seems too much to me.
  - oortcloud42 4y ago
    Out of curiosity, how did you configure it?
    - WallyFunk 4y ago
      I have a dedicated Firefox profile for NSFW stuff. You can add a Pink theme for that profile only. Here's one I use: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pink/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pink/?utm_sou... You can configure themes here: about:addons
aasasd 4y ago
My small wish is that FF on Android supports an intent that opens a URL in a new private tab. That way I'd be able to selectively open pages from HN, Reddit or other apps in private tabs—by the way of Tasker or Automate. I looked a bit through FF code, and there's an intent to open an empty private tab, but not an address. Alas, with my lack of knowledge about data flow in an Android app, I'm not of much help so far.
- mdaniel 4y ago
  I'm super cognizant of the /dev/null that is bugzilla, but have you opened an issue about that? My stance is that I don't have influence over whether they ignore me, but I have more righteous indignation if I did, in fact, open a ticket and then they ignored me
  - aasasd 4y ago
    The Android Firefox, formerly known as Fenix, has a separate tracker on Github. However I wouldn't say that it's radically divergent in habits—more of a different take on the same problem that Mozilla has very limited resources and its own vision, whereas the hordes of users have thousands of their own wishes. E.g. the Fenix' tracker finally clears out stale bugs, at least occasionally, instead of letting them ferment for many years. Anyway, personally I came to terms with the fact that open-source devs aren't my bitches, and just accept with gratitude what they offer to the world, while abstaining from polluting the trackers even further. However, I'm not above a hopeful whisper into the noosphere.
    - sfink 4y ago
      You could also try https://connect.mozilla.org https://connect.mozilla.org which is the official location for ideas like this (and it sounds like a great idea to me!) There's definitely no guarantee that it won't still be ignored, but at least there's a mechanism for popular ideas to get some attention.
- folmar 4y ago
  I know it's not FF, but Bromite has this feature.
perlgeek 4y ago
I've long wondered why there wasn't a command-line option to open an URL in a new, private window. Hope this comes with this new desktop button.
- coldpie 4y ago
  The following worked for me on macOS. Found it at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions firefox -private-window https://google.com/
  - bhearsum2 4y ago
    This should work, and has been there a very long time!
  - perlgeek 4y ago
    You are right, it does. Somehow I tested it some years ago and for some reason it didn't work back then, or I was stupid in the past. Thanks!
ddplusdsr 4y ago
You can right-click -> remove the Firefox View icon, and the new private browsing branding can be styled with: #private-browsing-indicator-with-label Leaving you pretty much in the same spot than version 105 (with a new icon if you are on MacOS)
mawise 4y ago
I saw the screenshot for Firefox View and at first I thought they were bringing back RSS! How slick would it be for Firefox View not to just show you the list of recent sites you've visited, but give you a preview of the _current content_ on those sites using RSS!
Ptchd 4y ago
reidrac 4y ago
When I read this in the what's new page: > Also, private windows have been redesigned to increase the feeling of privacy. What does it mean? It doesn't make me feel very confident that Mozilla know what are they doing any more.
drooopy 4y ago
In case anyone's interested in removing View: about:config and then search for browser.tabs.firefox-view and set to false.
hayst4ck 4y ago
I am extremely surprised by all the negative Firefox sentiment here. I switched from Chrome as soon as manifest v3 was announced and I have been almost completely happy with it. In all the ways I'm unhappy with it, chrome is even worse.
- ericpauley 4y ago
  Whenever all the negative comments come up I mostly just assume there is a silent majority that continues to be happy with Firefox and doesn't say anything. I've been using it for years with basically 0 issues. And I'm not using it to "stick it to Google" either. Containers and tree-style tabs are a huge productivity win.
  - asdff 4y ago
    I love treestyle tabs and being able to autohide it until I mouse over, but I can't get containers to ever work as expected. I would expect when I click a link to e.g. ebay it would open in my ebay container in a new tab, and when I google something it puts me in a google container, and when I click a reddit link it puts me into the reddit container. Instead I am often still in the ebay container. Temporary containers are even worse with this, I would think opening up a new link to a different domain would put me into a new temporary container, but I am still in tmp7 or whatever the numbers have marched up to. I have regressed to just facebook container because its simpler to deal with just one container and associated issues.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 4y ago
      The "Containerise" extension is sadly practically required to ged containers working as you'd expect.
      - asdff 4y ago
        Thanks for this, I had been trying every setting there was in the standard container extensions to no avail. Too bad that the way containers fundamentally works hijacks your back button, this was another annoyance I was remembering.
butz 4y ago
They don't have enough resources (developers) to implement "adding websites to desktop and running them in separate windows, as applications" support, yet they are wasting time to re-add "limited edition" themes. Not to mention video conferencing support still lagging behind, although that's not so important anymore, as it was during lockdown. And still, I'll keep on using Firefox, as other browsers are even in a worse state.
morsch 4y ago
The titular upgrade to private browsing is that you can now launch the application directly in that mode and private browsing mode is displayed in dark theme by default. Oh and private browsing mode has a new logo. Exciting stuff.
_23sd 4y ago
I'm really liking Firefox View. Having to open the hamburger menu and click twice to get recently closed tabs (and a similar story with synced tabs) was never very convenient, having a nice full page in one click is a huge improvement.
hda2 4y ago
I chose to use Firefox because I wanted to regain control over my browsing experience. I did not choose it because I wanted this crap. - Arbitrary Add-ons on Firefox for Android when? - Dev tools on Android when? Note that I switched to using a Chromium-based browser on Android because it actually cared enough to supports both these things. Mozilla, listen to your existing users (what few remain of them). You will never get the userbase you're gunning for by mimicking your competitors.

208 points by Amorymeltzer 4y ago

I love you Firefox, I tolerate you Mozilla. But I’m not sure a private browsing button, and fall colors really show your commitment to “cyber security month”.

jrootabega 4y ago
Yeah. There's nothing of substance here. All it is is a shortcut for private mode and a default to dark theme when you're in private mode. Not really noteworthy. It's a user-hostile update, even. Dark theme by default when private? I'll control my own themes, thanks. If people are unsure whether they're in private mode, put a permanent private mode indicator in the UI. And what about people who will now confuse dark theme with private mode? Their privacy story just got worse!
- groovybits 4y ago
  > put a permanent private mode indicator in the UI. There is. The purple and white mask icon in the upper-right window corner, and in each private tab.
  - jrootabega 4y ago
    Then the dark theme default was not necessary. And I'll note that it's a private mode indicator on NEW private tabs only.
- throwoutway 4y ago
  The corp speak at Mozilla is getting even weirder. It sounds like something my HR VP would say: > new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web. No, it’s just another color theme setting.
  - BitwiseFool 4y ago
    Marketing prose is to be expected, but this is just too much. I suspect there aren't enough people at Mozilla with the courage to tell the marketing/brand management folks to tone it down. I don't necessarily blame them, though. It isn't easy to give criticism to creative folks with a great deal of enthusiasm.

2Gkashmiri 4y ago

Got the upgrade a few days ago. I am loving it. I reside 12 hours a day within the private window itself and the ui looks quite nice now. The purple and all. Keep it up

mdaniel 4y ago
Have you seen the browsing containers^1, including the self-destructing ones? I'm 100% not trying to lobby you out of private browsing, just wondering if you were using the mode that best fit your needs Also, be aware that (unless something has radically changed) all private windows share state with one another, which to the very best of my knowledge isn't true for the browser containers 1: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/multi-account-conta... and https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers#readme https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers#readme
- 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
  yes. i use that too. here is a stupid habit i formed years ago. when i start my machine, the first firefox window i open is the normal window + containers for email and some other website. i open private browsing window. then i go about with my day. any website i have to sign in, like hn, the passwords are saved in firefox so it is just a 2 step process usually. sometimes some website asks for an otp, email or mobile which is a pain but fine. i can access youtube or whatever, amazon or something else and once a window has too many open tabs, i create a new window and pick up the work from there. i like how i can close the private windows and everything gets logged out automatically. No stored prefs, no history, no records on my machine, no recomendations say on youtube based on my previous search history or browsing history. Same for amazon. I can search for any darn thing all day and i don't sign in unless i have to actually order something and if i do, i sign in, order and sign out. This has served me well since 2010 at least and firefox with ABP+noscript at first but then ublock origin.... i am not really concerned about "isp tracking" or google analytics, i have a pihole installed which takes care of most of the things. >all private windows share state with one another yes. my understanding is that is a feature because as i said, i can open youtube and continue the thread if i open too many tabs (unless i want to close all of them) . the upside of this is, unless one window is open "ctrl+shift+t" works on firefox but not on chromium based browsers and private window. that is a 100% useful feature because i do not rely on browser history for my surfing so if i make a mistake, ctrl+shift+t and i am back. edit: i log in to HN 3-4 times a day because of this. sometimes once, sometimes 4 times, depending. that is not a bother

standup 4y ago

The "privacy" provided by so-called private browsing mode is just a smokescreen considering how much device fingerprinting is going on. And widespread surveillance of the Internet backbone not just by intelligence agencies but now private organisations like Team Cymru. It would be better if we spent the resources on a next generation anonymity network to replace Tor, or some kind of alternative data transport like radio or satellite, which can still be used by small niche communities of free speech activists, for example... A one way data broadcasting system, sending compressed text only, provides near complete anonymity for those receiving it. However as it necessitates buying receiver hardware, it doesn't get very much traction.

kotlin2 4y ago
Firefox at least tries to restrict fingerprinting. For instance, you can force websites to require permissions to access canvas data.
- hn92726819 4y ago
  I haven't used chrome in years..does chrome really not allow limiting canvas data?
andrepd 4y ago
Firefox includes anti-fingerprint measures, and uBlock origin + advanced mode + all scripts blocked by default helps a lot. Also first-party isolation.
WallyFunk 4y ago
> The "privacy" provided by so-called private browsing mode is just a smokescreen And to add insult to injury, browsing artifacts are sometimes remembered in Windows' pagefile and other parts of the OS. Even on Linux, if your distro cares to add stuff to swap, it will dump browsing sessions in plaintext to your hard-drive, incognito/private mode or not. This is why people need to use TailsOS[0] if they're really concerned about not leaving any traces. [0] https://tails.net/ https://tails.net/
- 4y ago

EbNar 4y ago

hbn 4y ago

> Last year we launched Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web > “‘Independent Voices’ are the voices of the past and present that create a better future,” said Keely Alexis. “I chose this [analogy] as my inspiration for the collaboration because it feels authentic to me but it also aligns with Firefox and the vision that we can make the world better, on the internet and beyond.” Jesus, can you just say "we've got themes?" No one is going to remember Firefox as the next MLK Jr because they let you turn the window chrome orange.

Nextgrid 4y ago
I remember being able to add a background to Firefox' UI a decade ago. Maybe they've removed it and are now celebrating it as a new feature despite it actually being a casualty of the browser's never-ending devolution.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Macha 4y ago
  They actually still support legacy themes, persona themes and colorways themes last I checked, so three generations of themes. I'm surprised with how much they like to deprecate stuff
stoplying1 4y ago
Does it still have the cursed text with it that says "going away in (some month soon)". It's so stupid and confusing and baffling that I want to rage quit Firefox with this as the absolute last straw. Like wtf, you're gonna take back my color in a few months? Just pull the upsell for it? Why the hell am I having to wonder about any of this? Why on God's green earth was this done instead of spending any effort getting a SINGLE bit of unity among the Bookmarks, Downloads and Add-ons panels, all of which should behave at least rougly similarly. (Because, to be clear, I had a Firefox theme that was imperceptibly similar to this months ago before this Colorways upsell) I don't get it. I do not do not do not get it. And now they're screwing around with another extensions menu that takes space on the toolbar but doesn't de-dupe with the extension buttons themselves (I actually can see where this Might be going, but again, zero clear comms about it). I'm the poster boy for an annoying Firefox advocate and I'm increasingly looking at selling my laptop to build a woodworking shed because it all feels hopeless.

bertman 4y ago

>[...]Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves[...] I'd like to express myself and say that I just want a secure and privacy-respecting browser that gets its priorities straight.

Y-bar 4y ago
I kind of like the colourways, but the way they present it is quite a bit over the top. Just call it themes and be done with it.
- elementalest 4y ago
  From Mozilla's point of view its probably that people might get confused between the old and new themes and wonder why all the highly customisable themes we use to have no longer work. So we have to have a new the colourways name so Mozilla can market the 'new' feature and sidestep the problem.
  - easrng 4y ago
    Themes still work, wdym?
proactivesvcs 4y ago
Priorities like mentioning PDF editing before sickly doublespeak about...theming.
- cptskippy 4y ago
  Do people think it's one person implementing Theming, PDF editing, and Privacy Mode protects; and that he just needs to re-prioritize his backlog? Why can't developer of difference capabilities contribute in different ways? I'm a competent developer but I will never be kernel module, crypto, or netcode competent; does that mean I should just forgo contributing to anything?
  - 4y ago

kotlin2 4y ago

One privacy feature I’d really like is kind of like HTTPS everywhere, except it’s TLS 1.3 w/ SNI encryption everywhere.

eli 4y ago
What would happen when you click a link to a site that doesn't support that?
- kotlin2 4y ago
  You’d get a warning and be asked to proceed. Similar to how https everywhere works.
mehlmao 4y ago
Firefox does offer an HTTPS only-mode, which tries to upgrade HTTP to HTTPS and warns you before connecting if it's not enabled. Settings > Privacy & Security > HTTPS-Only Mode As far as I know, there are still no practical attacks against TLS 1.2.
- kotlin2 4y ago
  The issue I’d like to solve is that, even with TLS, you still leak the SNI as part of the handshake. So your ISP can tell you’re connecting to google.com even if you’re using HTTPS.
  - emptyparadise 4y ago
    Wouldn't the ISP still know that you're connecting to Google, however?
    - kotlin2 4y ago
      Your ISP would know the IP address, but not specifically that you were connecting to google.com.

marcodiego 4y ago

I have to repost it aagain: Firefox: the last remaining mostly independent, maintained and reasonably popular browser. Even if it were inferior in any aspect to other options, I'd still use it for the above mentioned reasons.

EbNar 4y ago
aliqot 4y ago
Qutebrowser is best, I pay for it voluntarily though it's free. But Firefox is mostly independent eh? Did they stop taking google money yet?
- anycans 4y ago
  Qutebrowser isnt independent if you care that google money is involved, it uses blink. Firefox is the only even vaguely independent browser engine that keeps up at all with google.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - reitanqild 4y ago
    Librewolf is a running fork of the newest Firefox with some small improvements. Unlike other forks it always has latest security updates. I use it these days and I am considering to start chipping in too (I am at my limits currently so I will have to stop something else though). But I really really want something like my old Firefox back...!
    - aliqot 4y ago
      I also chip in :) Librewolf eally saved my bacon on this old laptop I keep flogging into the future.
    - 4y ago

Spivak 4y ago

Everyone in this thread complaining about colorways has got to be a meta-commentary on bikeshedding. This feature isn't for you. But anyway, I'm sad that HTTPS default and isolated cookies are turned on only for Private Browsing (sorry, "Guest Session" from that other silly HN thread, "private" apparently implies you have a rank in the military while using) when both these features aren't super disruptive for general browsing.

jrootabega 4y ago
But Mozilla deceived us by indicating they had privacy improvements for us! This particular incident is a minor annoyance, but it's an indicator of how those in charge view those of us who care about actual privacy and functionality.
- Spivak 4y ago
  Mozilla really can't win on HN, a feature that basically only exists to save one click (efficiency!) for the kind of people who consume PB regularly is very power user and aligns with their brand as being privacy focused when private mode is the thing that is always visible in the bar. Nobody on HN seems to know at all how to market tech to a general audience and play the game of "staying relevant" so they always have something to post to social/newswires.
  - jrootabega 4y ago
    I, and probably many others, feel that the quality of this as an HN submission is related, but not synonymous with, the quality of it as a Mozilla communication. But it was submitted to HN, and so it will be judged as an HN submission. But many of us also believe that, though it's POSSIBLE Mozilla is acting how you describe ("We are committed to privacy at our core but we have to publish this kind of press release to survive!"), they are actually corrupt at their core to the point where they only see privacy-conscious users as customercattle to be milked. I believe we critics have good enough intuition to see this kind of behavior from Mozilla as a canary indicating their true nature. This is kind of an aftershock of the Mr. Robot incident. I think it's unlikely that that kind of bad judgment was not chronic and systemic.

eis 4y ago

Shouldn't a post about a new release mention the version number? (It's 106) I really like Firefox from a usability and features point of view. Multi-account containers are fantastic! I want it to succeed. But a private browsing shortcut and colors don't excite me. I'd love to see improvements in speed and efficiency because FF is still behind the others for me. FF is also the only browser that frequently crashes. Submitted about a dozen stacktraces already so hopefully they'll figure it out one day.

xg15 4y ago
Nah. After all, we're in the world of evergreen software now, so there are no release numbers, only happy little surprises when some new feature suddenly pops up on your screen... /s
chrisjc 4y ago
Better color/theme support would interest me if it extended to containers. I've searched but I never found a theme switcher that worked with containers. It would be nice to have a little more control over customizing the colors/themes based on the container you're current open on.

user3939382 4y ago

Why don’t you give power users at the very least in about:config an option to disable ALL phoning home by Firefox upon launch and exit. As it stands even with all telemetry off Firefox is extremely chatty and I’ve had Mozilla developers tell me they have no intention to fix this. You can profile this yourself on macOS with Charles Proxy (GUI) or mitmproxy (CLI). Until this is fixed all I can do is roll my eyes when I see the incessant privacy marketing from Mozilla.

elashri 4y ago
While it is not a simple change, you can always modify things in about:config to turn off all (probably) telemetry on Firefox. The annoying thing is that you should keep updating the strings that is changing with updates (when they add or remove strings). Also you can keep an eye to updated to arkenfox user.js because while using it by default probably will break many websites but they keep track of privacy updates of Firefox.
- user3939382 4y ago
  That's the problem, even with every possible option disabled there is currently no way, even through about:config, to keep Firefox from phoning home at these points in its execution lifecycle. The telemetry settings they provided basically amount to, we'll phone home to Mozilla either more or less, depending on your settings.
SamuelAdams 4y ago
Is it possible to get a list of addresses and add them to a block list, in PiHole for example?
- cptskippy 4y ago
  Yes, it's already in one of the Steven Black or Peter Lowe lists: incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org
coldpie 4y ago
> As it stands even with all telemetry off Firefox is extremely chatty and I’ve had Mozilla developers tell me they have no intention to fix this. What data is being communicated? What about that data is harmful to you? (Genuinely asking for more information, not trying to convince you you're wrong.)

margarina72 4y ago

ff: hey, we got themes! me: `guiset gui none`

yewenjie 4y ago
hello fellow Tridactyl user

bhhaskin 4y ago

Mozilla & Firefox stop trying to be a god-damned social movement. Just be a fucking browser.

nnopepe 4y ago
authpor 4y ago
but that was the plan... part of the great shift from freedom in software, to open source code. "is mozilla about open software? or was it about that old RMS (yuck) what was it? looked like a joke... gnu is not gnu?? wut" /angry-snark just trying to vent some frustration... edit: I actually believe that software should guarantee freedom, but I've understood that gnu's play failed, copyright is not the side of freedom of individuals, but on the side of freedom for corporations-as-individuals. my own ignorant opinion (because I'm just guessing) is taboo https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33248402
cptskippy 4y ago
Why do people get so worked up about messaging that isn't targeted at them? Mozilla is trying to gain broad appeal beyond mom's basement. There's a certain group of people that this message resonates with.
- viridian 4y ago
  Clearly not, based on browser trends over time. The real problem is that they aren't even able to keep the low hanging fruit (i.e. "Mom's basement" dwellers), let alone whoever this other audience is.
- jacooper 4y ago
  And its failing at both.
- soundnote 4y ago
  That group of people isn't terribly large. It's mostly terminally online wokelets, who are loud, but not a terribly large population.

traceroute66 4y ago

What I want to know is have Firefox fixed the show-stopper bug with their implementation of Private Windows yet ? In Firefox, if I login to something in one Private Window, and open a second Private Window, my session is maintained (e.g. login to Protonmail on one, I open a second private window and I'm already logged in). So I assume Firefox is sharing cookies and whatnot between Private Windows. Brave doesn't do this. If I login in one Private Window in Brave, the new Private Window presents me (correctly) with the login screen. I've been through my Firefox settings with a fine-tooth comb and cannot identify anything that might be causing this. Hence I assume it is a bug. (And yes, I mean new window, not a new tab)

ris58h 4y ago
> Hence I assume it is a bug. You probably should report it to Mozilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
- traceroute66 4y ago
  > You probably should report it to Mozilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ Probably. But I've never had much luck getting any traction on previous reports even when I've made sure to produce great supporting detail to enable reproduction. I suspect you need to know the right people to get traction on Mozilla bugs. Everyone else just seems to get lost in the swamp.
fotta 4y ago
I came here looking to see if this was fixed too. This isn’t really a “bug” per se as the text on the Private Window says it does this. But I agree with you it’s the biggest issue with Private Windows. I always check if I have one open now if I want to use one and have started using Safari Private Windows more now because each one is isolated.
jabiko 4y ago
Isn't this normal? I just tested it in Chrome appears like sessions are across private windows there as well. So I guess its just an extra feature of Brave.

encryptluks2 4y ago

God this marketing is exactly why I still use Chromium. Not only is it faster but it is just as secure and private as Firefox without all the BS and cult.

capableweb 4y ago
I'd love to be able to use Chromium/Chrome/anything Blink-based but the lack of Tree Style Tab makes it unbearable every time I try it. This one extension is the only reason I'm still using Firefox... And the profiler sometimes works better than Chromium's as well, but seldom I use it.
- mminer237 4y ago
  Vivaldi does have something approaching tree style tabs: https://vivaldi.com/features/tab-management/ https://vivaldi.com/features/tab-management/
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Seems to not be tabs in the style of a tree, which is exactly what I'm using Tree Style Tab for ;) Vivaldi just does grouping which is not enough for me. Also should be on the side rather than keeping the tabs below/above the content. See the following image for an example of a tree of tabs: https://imgur.com/a/fEWp9h0 https://imgur.com/a/fEWp9h0
    - soundnote 4y ago
      Vivaldi does have vertical tabs. Not a tree, though.

chobytes 4y ago

At this point I feel like using a stripped down fork of firefox is basically a requirement. There's nothing left of the Mozilla that cared it seems.

WallyFunk 4y ago
https://librewolf.net/ https://librewolf.net/

LaleoDJ 4y ago

yewenjie 4y ago

> Last year we launched Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web. I wonder whether people who write this kind of press-releases even use Firefox as their primary browser. If you care so much about actually letting users customizing the look and feel of Firefox please just support userstyles as a first-class feature.

dekatron 4y ago

Is a desktop shortcut and dark theme really an "upgrade" to private browsing?

traveler01 4y ago

I want to like and use Firefox. Seriously, I really do. But when will they fix the performance of the browser? They're spending devs time on useless crap instead of being improving the engine, which clearly needs improvements. For example, I wanted to send some thousands of pictures to Proton Drive (doesn't have a sync App yet) and tried doing it in Firefox. It literally started to take all the computer RAM (my computer has 32 GB) while with Brave it uploaded the entire thing without me even noticing in the computer performance.

Ayesh 4y ago
I don't know the technical details behind this, but Firefox always felt slower in file upload front. It was very late to the directory upload feature that Chrome had (in mostly non-standard ways I don't doubt). It doesn't bother me to a point that I can't use Firefox, but for those who regularly upload files, I can totally see Firefox being a subpar experience.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  I've noticed something similar with download speed; I accidentally discovered a while back that using wget to download the same file would run far faster than firefox.
WallyFunk 4y ago
> It literally started to take all the computer RAM That's probably not Firefox, but the way Proton encrypts data client-side. The browser has to do a lot of heavy crypto operations. At least that's the case with Filen.io[0]. I was told by support to have a beefy machine since the desktop web app encrypts data on-the-fly before uploading to their servers. [0] https://filen.io/ https://filen.io/
- traveler01 4y ago
  If Chromium works fine it's clearly Firefox fault.
grangerg 4y ago

denton-scratch 4y ago

There are things about Firefox that need attention; more UI bling isn't one of them. Also, the Private Browsing upgrade appears to be just a theme change and a button. Most of the article is nothing to do with Private Browsing, so the title of the post is incorrect.

jrootabega 4y ago
Whoever edited the title of the HN submission somehow made it even more misleading than Mozilla did. The original HN title was the same as the Mozilla article: "Privacy online just got easier with today’s Firefox release" https://web.archive.org/web/20221018134430/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33246593 https://web.archive.org/web/20221018134430/https://news.ycom...

zamubafoo 4y ago

To give some perspective, Microsoft is doing better with VS Code than Mozilla is doing with Firefox. * There are no sponsored ads every time I use common functionality (like opening a new tab) * At least VS Code has a easily available settings page to turn off telemetry To do something half way similar, Firefox requires you to venture into `about:config` where you get a "Here be dragons" message to scare users away from touching settings. Not only that, none of the settings are documented anywhere. Do I trust either of them? No, but at least Microsoft doesn't market "privacy".

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
> At least VS Code has a easily available settings page to turn off telemetry You sure about that? They look pretty similar to me. - https://www.roboleary.net/tools/2022/04/20/vscode-telemetry.html - "It looks like you cannot shut telemetry off 100%. These settings will opt you of most data sharing scenarios; but not all data sharing scenarios." - Apparently even VSCodium can't kill it all - https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/blob/master/DOCS.md#disable-telemetry
acdha 4y ago
This is rather misleading since Microsoft has enormous guaranteed revenue streams and could afford to subsidize VS Code perpetually as a loss-leader for their other services. Saying they're doing better requires a very narrow perspective which assumes you're not competing with them for operating systems, office software, etc. I don't love Firefox having ads but it's also literally a single checkbox which you can choose to uncheck on that page and there's a difference between showing ads and violating privacy. If you want to see a web where privacy is respected more, I'd want it to look at lot like what Mozilla does as an intermediary preventing those advertisers from collecting PII.

TonyTrapp 4y ago

For anyone else being annoyed that private windows now switch their chrome into dark mode by default, completely rendering black favicons (or the toggle icon of the TreeStyleTabs extension) invisible: You can set browser.theme.dark-private-windows to false. I don't want dark mode, period. Who decided that privacy must equal to dark mode, and that there is no easy switch in settings to turn it off?

WallyFunk 4y ago
> Who decided that privacy must equal to dark mode It's a visual cue to remember what context you are in. I always done that anyway. I have a Pink theme when surfing NSFW sites :)
- TonyTrapp 4y ago
  Does the clue have to cover the entire browser chrome, though? Maybe the previous indicator was too small, but messing with font contrast of all UI elements? It seems too much to me.
- oortcloud42 4y ago
  Out of curiosity, how did you configure it?
  - WallyFunk 4y ago
    I have a dedicated Firefox profile for NSFW stuff. You can add a Pink theme for that profile only. Here's one I use: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pink/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pink/?utm_sou... You can configure themes here: about:addons

aasasd 4y ago

My small wish is that FF on Android supports an intent that opens a URL in a new private tab. That way I'd be able to selectively open pages from HN, Reddit or other apps in private tabs—by the way of Tasker or Automate. I looked a bit through FF code, and there's an intent to open an empty private tab, but not an address. Alas, with my lack of knowledge about data flow in an Android app, I'm not of much help so far.

mdaniel 4y ago
I'm super cognizant of the /dev/null that is bugzilla, but have you opened an issue about that? My stance is that I don't have influence over whether they ignore me, but I have more righteous indignation if I did, in fact, open a ticket and then they ignored me
- aasasd 4y ago
  The Android Firefox, formerly known as Fenix, has a separate tracker on Github. However I wouldn't say that it's radically divergent in habits—more of a different take on the same problem that Mozilla has very limited resources and its own vision, whereas the hordes of users have thousands of their own wishes. E.g. the Fenix' tracker finally clears out stale bugs, at least occasionally, instead of letting them ferment for many years. Anyway, personally I came to terms with the fact that open-source devs aren't my bitches, and just accept with gratitude what they offer to the world, while abstaining from polluting the trackers even further. However, I'm not above a hopeful whisper into the noosphere.
  - sfink 4y ago
    You could also try https://connect.mozilla.org https://connect.mozilla.org which is the official location for ideas like this (and it sounds like a great idea to me!) There's definitely no guarantee that it won't still be ignored, but at least there's a mechanism for popular ideas to get some attention.
folmar 4y ago
I know it's not FF, but Bromite has this feature.

perlgeek 4y ago

I've long wondered why there wasn't a command-line option to open an URL in a new, private window. Hope this comes with this new desktop button.

coldpie 4y ago
The following worked for me on macOS. Found it at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions firefox -private-window https://google.com/
- bhearsum2 4y ago
  This should work, and has been there a very long time!
- perlgeek 4y ago
  You are right, it does. Somehow I tested it some years ago and for some reason it didn't work back then, or I was stupid in the past. Thanks!

ddplusdsr 4y ago

You can right-click -> remove the Firefox View icon, and the new private browsing branding can be styled with: #private-browsing-indicator-with-label Leaving you pretty much in the same spot than version 105 (with a new icon if you are on MacOS)

mawise 4y ago

I saw the screenshot for Firefox View and at first I thought they were bringing back RSS! How slick would it be for Firefox View not to just show you the list of recent sites you've visited, but give you a preview of the _current content_ on those sites using RSS!

Ptchd 4y ago

reidrac 4y ago

When I read this in the what's new page: > Also, private windows have been redesigned to increase the feeling of privacy. What does it mean? It doesn't make me feel very confident that Mozilla know what are they doing any more.

drooopy 4y ago

In case anyone's interested in removing View: about:config and then search for browser.tabs.firefox-view and set to false.

hayst4ck 4y ago

I am extremely surprised by all the negative Firefox sentiment here. I switched from Chrome as soon as manifest v3 was announced and I have been almost completely happy with it. In all the ways I'm unhappy with it, chrome is even worse.

ericpauley 4y ago
Whenever all the negative comments come up I mostly just assume there is a silent majority that continues to be happy with Firefox and doesn't say anything. I've been using it for years with basically 0 issues. And I'm not using it to "stick it to Google" either. Containers and tree-style tabs are a huge productivity win.
- asdff 4y ago
  I love treestyle tabs and being able to autohide it until I mouse over, but I can't get containers to ever work as expected. I would expect when I click a link to e.g. ebay it would open in my ebay container in a new tab, and when I google something it puts me in a google container, and when I click a reddit link it puts me into the reddit container. Instead I am often still in the ebay container. Temporary containers are even worse with this, I would think opening up a new link to a different domain would put me into a new temporary container, but I am still in tmp7 or whatever the numbers have marched up to. I have regressed to just facebook container because its simpler to deal with just one container and associated issues.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 4y ago
    The "Containerise" extension is sadly practically required to ged containers working as you'd expect.
    - asdff 4y ago
      Thanks for this, I had been trying every setting there was in the standard container extensions to no avail. Too bad that the way containers fundamentally works hijacks your back button, this was another annoyance I was remembering.

butz 4y ago

They don't have enough resources (developers) to implement "adding websites to desktop and running them in separate windows, as applications" support, yet they are wasting time to re-add "limited edition" themes. Not to mention video conferencing support still lagging behind, although that's not so important anymore, as it was during lockdown. And still, I'll keep on using Firefox, as other browsers are even in a worse state.

morsch 4y ago

The titular upgrade to private browsing is that you can now launch the application directly in that mode and private browsing mode is displayed in dark theme by default. Oh and private browsing mode has a new logo. Exciting stuff.

_23sd 4y ago

I'm really liking Firefox View. Having to open the hamburger menu and click twice to get recently closed tabs (and a similar story with synced tabs) was never very convenient, having a nice full page in one click is a huge improvement.

hda2 4y ago

I chose to use Firefox because I wanted to regain control over my browsing experience. I did not choose it because I wanted this crap. - Arbitrary Add-ons on Firefox for Android when? - Dev tools on Android when? Note that I switched to using a Chromium-based browser on Android because it actually cared enough to supports both these things. Mozilla, listen to your existing users (what few remain of them). You will never get the userbase you're gunning for by mimicking your competitors.