
Firefox 58 - ortuman
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/58.0/releasenotes/
======
potch
I wrote up a more detailed look at some of what's in Firefox 58:
[https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/firefox-58-the-quantum-
era...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/firefox-58-the-quantum-era-
continues/)

~~~
zintinio5
How does one end up in a position to do this work at Mozilla? I'm currently
looking for a new SWE role, would absolutely love to work on Firefox.

~~~
callahad
Current openings are posted at
[https://careers.mozilla.org/](https://careers.mozilla.org/). There should be
a steady trickle of opportunities as 2018 budgeting wraps up and requests for
headcount get approved over the coming weeks and months.

We do most of our work in the open, so there's a wealth of information you can
gather before applying for a role or interviewing. Lurking on mailing lists,
reading Bugzilla, following GitHub repos, etc. are all great ways to become
familiar with how Mozilla works, the challenges we face, and where you'd best
be able to have an impact.

~~~
fabrice_d
Working at Moz is usually nice, until it's not anymore for reasons that have
nothing to do with how well you perform.

Examples: working from the wrong office (go tell the 70 people fired in Taipei
that there will be a steady trickle of opportunities) or under the wrong VP.
MoCo is in many aspects a company like any other, with its fair share of
Dilbert worthy moments.

------
k__
Switched back to Firefox a few months ago and I'm blown away by the speed.

Last time I had this feeling after switching to Chrome from Firefox years ago,
haha.

Besides videos everything works like a charm. Somehow some videos won't start
and sometimes I get a message that the video format could not be read, never
had this issue in Chrome.

~~~
tdumitrescu
Yeah, the browser has gotten snappier. But then I pop open the dev tools and
they're unbearably slow - like I simply can't do real dev work in FF anymore,
have to use Chrome. It may be that I tend to do a lot of development with Web
Components, which FF still doesn't have natively (though Custom Elements are
live in 59/nightly, right?!), but either way it seems like a failing of the
tooling that it beachballs for 5-10s at a time when inspecting normal valid
html.

~~~
_pdp_
This is strange. FF dev tools are a lot quicker for our apps then the Chrome
dev tools. In fact, the Chrome dev tools are snail speed compared to the FF
ones. Again, this might be related to the type of app you are developing.

~~~
nyordanov
Try this: From the "Inspector" tab, click on any CSS file in order to open the
Style Editor. Loading the file and then scrolling to the relevant part is much
slower than Chrome if you do this on a page with several stylesheets.

------
dgritsko
Simply linking to the download page isn't particularly useful, IMO. Release
notes are here: [https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/58.0/releasenotes/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/58.0/releasenotes/)

~~~
djhworld
> Rendering graphics for Windows users by using Off-Main-Thread Painting
> (OMTP)

Does this mean OSX and Linux users are not using this method?

~~~
dao-
Not yet.

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1432531](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1432531)

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1430793](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1430793)

~~~
VyseofArcadia
Is Linux in this case short for generic *nix + X?

------
bonsai80
I've gotten into a habit of checking into all the performance boosts on
Firefox release, but I almost missed the best feature of the release: Tracking
Protection!

It's buried under Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Tracking Protection

I've been using Privacy Badger for a while and today installed DDG's new
Privacy Essentials. Does anyone know how the new Firefox feature compares to
these other 2 options regarding 3rd party tracking across sites?

~~~
tomsmeding
How is "tracking protection", as nice as it may be, a "performance boost"?

~~~
asadotzler
By not loading trackers, the browser is freed to spend all its resources
loading actual content of the page. This speeds up page load by as much as
40%.

------
peterbe
Don't know else to shout this from the roof tops, but it's a biiiig deal in
terms of browsing happiness: [https://www.peterbe.com/plog/another-win-for-
tracking-protec...](https://www.peterbe.com/plog/another-win-for-tracking-
protection-in-firefox)

^ That blog post was written when my Firefox Nightly was what is v58 today.

~~~
peterwwillis
That speed comes at the cost of delaying or breaking existing sites, fwiw

~~~
falcolas
IMHO, if the broken sites are broken because of their "need" to download
trackers, intrusive ads, and any number of other dark-pattern based tools...
we're better of with those sites broken.

~~~
StudentStuff
Do these trackers actually add direct value for users? 99% don't, things like
the Facebook like button and so forth shouldn't require I hit Facebook's
server when loading the page initially.

------
andrepd
Still on Firefox 56. My crucial addons still don't work. Still wishing Mozilla
made FF56 into an ESR.

~~~
Paul_S
Just wanted to say you're not alone, I'm on 56 for the same reasons.

~~~
lucb1e
55 here because 56 breaks Mozilla's own Tab Center add-on. I see no mention of
new APIs for add-ons in the release notes...

~~~
callahad
Tab Center was reimplemented using WebExtension APIs and released as Tab
Center Redux: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-center-
re...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-center-redux/)

~~~
jhasse
That extension is missing several features the old extension had.

~~~
andrepd
Story of my life.

------
blinkingled
Since release 57 I have almost exclusively started using Firefox on Android. I
know most quantum enhancements aren't yet in the Android version but something
improved leaps and bounds at 57.

The ability to use sync and various privacy enhancing extensions mean FF has a
great appeal on Android. Now only if they can fix the remaining URL load
delays and improve video playback compatibility it'll be a great experience.

~~~
readams
Run ublock on FF android and it'll more than make up for the slower browser by
avoiding downloading all the ads. When the quantum enhancements land Chrome
will be way behind.

~~~
blinkingled
Yep, already run uBlock Origin and Cookie AutoDelete. The problem has always
been there with or without the extensions. But on faster devices it's not that
much of an annoyance anymore.

------
jameslk
Long time Firefox user and since Firefox 57, everything has gotten worse for
me. A lot of my extensions no longer work. This includes session management
extensions which just don't work properly anymore. And of course I just
upgraded Firefox and lost all my tabs. The browser completely freezes every 10
seconds for a few seconds (I'm typing this and my cursor gets stuck, then 5
characters show up all at once). I'm glad others suddenly think the browser is
great. I guess they don't know what they've been missing with previous
versions.

~~~
sp332
That's a known problem with the sessionstore.js file(s),
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sessionstore.js](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sessionstore.js)
Try deleting them? Also if your places.sqlite file is damaged it will cause
similar behavior, but removing that will delete your history so maybe make
sure it's synced first.
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs#Other_causes_of_hang...](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs#Other_causes_of_hanging)

------
Someone1234
I've been happily using Firefox since 57 shipped. Loving the overall
experience.

I feel a bit petty for bringing this up, but what is up with Firefox's
spellchecker? I came from Chrome so the spellcheck had a web-service which
kept the word list current (slang and technical terms), but even ignoring that
the Firefox spellcheck doesn't do a good job with the "basics."

For example "That" misspelt as "Taht" (a & h transposed) and the solutions
Firefox suggests are Tait, Baht, Taft, Ta ht, Ta-ht.

~~~
tzs
Its out of the box spell checking is just terrible, at least on OS X compared
to Chrome and Safari.

Your example doesn't bother me too much, because at least it is right that the
word is not spelled correctly. It is just not being great at suggesting
replacements (although on my Mac it omits "Tait" and _does_ suggest "That" at
the end of the list, and if the misspelled word was "taht" rather than "Taht"
then "that" is the first suggestion).

What bothers me is that it frequently flags word as misspelled that are in
fact correctly spelled.

I'm using whatever dictionary is configured out of the box. There is an "add
dictionary" option in the Languages sub-menu on the right-click pop-up in text
areas, but I haven't yet gotten around to exploring that.

The good news is that this is really the only beef I have with Firefox for
ordinary use.

Chrome still wins for a lot of development work, though, because of its
multiple people feature. I can set up one person for each project, and easily
switch between them, with each person having their own set of bookmarks,
history, cache, cookies, and so on.

Firefox can do that with multiple profiles, but if you want to use two
profiles at once you have to launch two copies of the browser. That can then
lead to confusion when other programs try to open a URL, either failing to
open or opening in the wrong instance of Firefox.

~~~
Someone1234
Grab Mozilla's "Multi-Account Containers"[0] add-on. Each container has its
own self-contained session, session data, and cookies. Plus only a single
window, different containers are just regular tabs, whereas in Chrome it is
one window per profile.

[0] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-
account...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-
containers/)

~~~
tzs
Those are good, but it doesn't look like you can have per-container bookmarks.
With Chrome persons or Firefox profiles each identity has its own bookmarks.

I wonder if one could write a bookmark manager extension for Firefox that
would allow having named collections of bookmarks that could be saved and
restored? And if so, would it be possible to make it so that a named set could
be associated with a container account and automatically switch in that set
whenever you are in a container for that account?

------
technojunkie
Did canvas fingerprinting blocking make it to this release? There were many
articles saying it might or will happen and I can't find anything backing this
up in the release notes.
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=firefox+58+canvas+fingerprinting&t...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=firefox+58+canvas+fingerprinting&t=ffab&ia=web)

~~~
dao-
According to
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=967895](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=967895)
it's in 58 but wasn't added to release notes because it's disabled by default
via the privacy.resistFingerprinting about:config setting.

~~~
nyordanov
It also breaks the built-in screenshots:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1412961](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1412961)

------
Chirael
I love Firefox and switched back from Chrome with FF 57, but I really wish
they had a Task Manager like Chrome does, so I can spot and kill misbehaving
tabs rather than have all my tabs seem to steadily slow down. It's the only
feature I miss from Chrome, and hope it appears in FF soon.

~~~
finalfantasia
Until they provide a decent UI/UX to do that, you can use about:performance
for now.

~~~
Chirael
I agree, this might be "good enough" for now; thanks for the tip

------
lucb1e
I see no updates on APIs for missing add-ons. Looks like I'm going to have to
stay with Firefox 55 a little longer to even be able to use Mozilla's own Tab
Center add-on.

------
adpirz
FF 57 was much snappier on my Mac than on Chrome, but it occasionally turned
into a CPU hog and got the fans spinning full blast. Did anyone else
experience that?

~~~
tzs
I've occasionally seen something named "FirefoxCP Web Content" taking 90+% of
a core, mostly on Reddit.

Most of the time when it happens on Reddit it stops if I turn on uBlock Origin
and refresh the page. Sometimes, though, it still happens even after that.

~~~
executesorder66
> it stops if I turn on uBlock Origin and refresh the page

Why do you turn it off in the first place?

~~~
tzs
Reddit ads are at fixed positions on the page and don't have sound or motion.
They generally provide no distraction, unless the content actually catches my
attention because it is something I'm actually interested in. Their ad
targeting is good enough that I actually am interested in a fair number of
them.

Unless it turns out that the high CPU usage is the fault of the ads (which
I've not been able to prove), Reddit's ad system is the kind of ad system we
should be encouraging, so I don't block them.

------
sccxy
Add to Home screen button on mobile is great!

Easy way to spot progressive web apps.

Move URL bar to bottom and we have almost perfect browser.

------
vezycash
About Updates

Anyone appreciates how Firefox gives us choice? Unlike Chrome where I have to
resort to hacks to stop the damned thing from downloading a fresh version
whenever it feels like?

BTW: Does chrome keep to the promise of patch or diff updates instead of
100MB+ downloads for every release?

~~~
dbbk
Automatic updates are essential to the timely rollout of new web standards.

------
JepZ
> On Firefox for Android, we’ve added support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
> so you can add websites to your home screen and use them like native apps.

Very cool, that was the largest issue for me lately. So maybe my phone doesn't
even need Chrome anymore :-)

------
Yizahi
Any updates on U2F support with major sites? Google, FB etc.?

~~~
raphaeljlps
I haven't tested on FB, but it works with Github.

IIRC you have to enable it, as it was experimental also, didn't work with
Google Accounts.

------
mmwelt
The Android version also has several important improvements, a major one being
better bookmark management (finally!).

[https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/android/58.0/releaseno...](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/android/58.0/releasenotes/)

------
artek
I hope they address the issue with battery drainage on macOS.

------
smnrchrds
Dang! Looks like Tab Hiding API didn't make it for 58.

~~~
yitosda
Looks like it's slated for 59 though:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1423725](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1423725)

Didn't read much, but hopefully it allows hiding without unloading.

Patiently waiting..

------
darkstar999
I switched over to Firefox at work because large diff pages in VSTS
(Microsoft's "github") scrolled unbearably slow and choppy in Chrome, but
scroll perfectly in Firefox. It's been great.

------
thirdsun
While I really enjoy Firefox' comeback and regained snappiness, the
performance of css transforms and animation is still subpar.

With larger and more complex elements that are affected by CSS transform
events it becomes very noticeable that the animation is far from smooth,
unlike in other browser like Chrome or Safari. I saw this behavior in every
recent Firefox version on macOS - from stable to nightly. However there's so
little discussion that I feel I might be the only one experiencing this.

------
shmerl
So what is the ETA for release of Webrender in Firefox now?

~~~
pcwalton
There's no ETA as far as I'm aware—it's mostly in the blocker bug burn-down
phase and I don't want to try to predict when that will conclude. Progress is
coming along quite nicely, and it's easier than ever to try it out in Nightly
(just toggle gfx.webrender.all in about config). Lots of people on the team,
including me, use it quite regularly.

There's a newsletter you can check out too:
[https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/](https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/)

~~~
shmerl
Thanks, I'll give nightly a try to see how it works on Mesa / amdgpu+radeonsi.

------
fauigerzigerk
Firefox has improved dramatically since 57 and I'm using it more now, but the
one reason why it's still not my main browser is that new windows open too
slowly.

The extra lag can't be much more than 100 ms or so (if that), but opening new
windows is the worst possible moment to be a little bit slower than other
browsers (on macOS).

------
vermaden
Still a lot of 'must have' extensions do not work with Firefox Quantum (57+)
like UnMHT for example ...

------
anderspitman
Anyone running Quantum on Linux with a 4k monitor? I switched from Chrome for
a couple months but the lag/jank/choppiness (especially when scrolling)
finally drove me back to Chrome. Still loving the new FF on my HD screens
though.

~~~
ac29
If you aren't setting layers.acceleration.force-enabled to true in
about:config, Linux GFX performance is pretty bad. Its a night and day
difference for me, and I haven't personally had any issues with it (I use
relatively up to date kernels and Mesa on a variety of Intel GPUs, YMMV).

~~~
zlynx
I was going to say that my Firefox on Fedora 27 works really well, but now I
realize I did set that force-enabled setting. I have no idea how it works
without acceleration.

------
jtl999
Font rendering any better in 58?

I was trying Firefox 57 after release on OS X 10.11.6 and it seems like it was
giving me eye strain which I strongly presume is the fort rendering. Firefox
52 and Chrome 63 seem to be unaffected.

------
hidden_sheepman
The dev tools are still way to slow. Especially when debugging javascript.
Sometimes there is a 40+ second wait when your trying to go from an error in
the console to the line of js in debugger.

------
petre
I hope the developer tools request tabs in console got fixed. They showed
nothing in 57. I'm using FF dev edition now, until it's fixed in the stable
FF.

------
joethebob
I'm getting some unbearably slow startup times on a new window. Even a fresh
uncustomized profile is moderately slow to start.

------
pmoriarty
Does FF 58 have anything like the Request Policy extension (which broke as of
FF 57, last I heard)?

~~~
shabbyrobe
I've been using uMatrix for this job for a while now. I find it much better
than I ever found RequestPolicy, but of course YMMV.

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/umatrix/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/umatrix/)

------
diimdeep
Please make pinch to zoom like webkit/blink browsers

------
butz
Hoping for PWA support on desktop in upcoming versions.

~~~
detaro
What do you mean by PWA support? Service Workers etc already are there, and
have been for quite some time.

~~~
JepZ
I think he means 'Add to Menu/Desktop' and the visual part without the address
bar, etc. I am missing that too for the desktop version, but actually I think
the mobile version was the bigger issue and I have to say it works great with
FF 58 :-)

------
jray
Still no status bar :(

------
HumanDrivenDev
One of my 'must have' plugins for firefox stopped working. Luckily they have a
desktop version... which runs in chromium (Electron).

------
coconutoctopus
Don't know why people are saying Firefox is fast, Speedometer 2.0 shows a
score of 47 where Chrome is 67 on my MBP. And on my PC, Chrome gets 76 whereas
Firefox gets 64.

~~~
vezycash
User experience is what we are all excited about. A speedy benchmark means
absolutely nothing if it FEELS slow when I'm using it.

Besides, there are some things benchmarks don't check. Examples:

Chrome startup takes at least 3 on my machine. It's does heavy disk activity
during this period. Firefox on the other hand takes at most 30 seconds.

Ram usage is also way higher on chrome than Firefox.

