
Firefox 68.0 - Spydar007
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/68.0/releasenotes/
======
kevin_b_er
This marks the last Android release with extensions/add-on support. There will
not be a 69 release of this edition of Firefox for Android ("Fennec").

The new remake of the mobile browser ("Fenix") does not have extensions
support and it is on an indefinite and easily ignorable backlog. It is
explicitly not being worked on this quarter. At the end of this quarter is the
scheduled release of Firefox 69. Unless there's no release at all of Firefox
69 upon the Android platform, that's the time when Mozilla I think will
deceptively try to drop support for extensions/addons on android.

Bug to have Add-ons pages declare Fenix extensions as unsupported. "version <=
68.0.98 is legacy Fennec version >= 68.0.99 is Fenix (or some other GeckoView-
powered browser)"
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548428](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548428)

"Or do nothing because Fennec 68 and Fenix 68 will overlap for only 6–8 weeks
with a preview audience." [https://github.com/mozilla/addons-
frontend/issues/7963](https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/issues/7963)

Firefox 69 releases 2019-09-03 at the end of Quarter 3.
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Calendar](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Calendar)

Extensions support are in the "Reserved Backlog" category. Also locked to
prevent any more comments about it. [https://github.com/mozilla-
mobile/fenix/issues/574](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/574)

Extensions support is not in Q3 backlog [https://github.com/mozilla-
mobile/fenix/projects/19](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/projects/19)

~~~
callahad
Hi. I work for Mozilla. Firefox for Android _is not dead._ You are free to
continue using it. It will continue to support add-ons, and it will receive
regular security updates and bugfixes for _at least_ the next year.

We _are_ focusing all new feature development in Firefox Preview, but we're
continuing to support Firefox for Android as an Extended Support Release while
we build Preview.

And, for what it's worth, we do understand how important extensions are to
folks, and we _are_ taking that into account in our planning.

~~~
JaimeThompson
To be honest that is one of the most Fortune 500 style responses I have ever
read coming out of someone involved in Mozilla. I mean what does 'we are
taking that into account in our planning." actually mean?

~~~
bscphil
I was about to say that this was one of the most Mozilla-style responses I've
read in a while. But I agree with you too. What a sad state of affairs for an
organization I once trusted.

------
giancarlostoro
> WebRender will roll out to Windows 10 users with AMD graphics cards.

This sounds awesome:

[https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/graphics-team-
sh...](https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/graphics-team-ships-
webrender-mvp/)

> WebRender is a major rewrite of the Firefox rendering architecture using the
> same kind of GPU-based acceleration techniques used by games.

I really hope it gets pushed to other Operating Systems as well in the future.

Edit: Here's the link to their hacks mozilla blog post about WebRender
Interestingly this piece of tech is from Servo:

[https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-
maximum-f...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-maximum-fps-
how-webrender-gets-rid-of-jank/)

~~~
gjm11
> Windows 10 users with AMD graphics cards

It may be worth noting that WebRender was already deployed to Win10/Nvidia
users in Firefox 67.

~~~
Santosh83
Will it also eventually roll out for those with Intel Integrated Graphics?

~~~
helb
Eventually…
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1479781](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1479781)

You can enable/disable webrender in about:config if you want to try it out
(gfx.webrender.all). I've switched to it on my laptop (HD Graphics 620, Gentoo
Linux). So far so good.

~~~
sametmax
Confirmed, Ubuntu 16.04 on dell xps works fine, and the added boost in perf is
noticeable (or the placebo effect is not).

------
mooreds
I love Firefox. First thing I install on any new computer. Super happy they
keep pushing the web forward. Not a fan of the chromium quasi monopoly (not
that the folks behind it are bad, just that any monoculture is problematic).

Thanks for pushing the web forward!

~~~
option_greek
The whole chromium project gives out the 'death star' vibe for me. I'm sure
the engineers who are working on it are good people but the end result seem
lead to destruction of open web as we know it by the Gempire.

~~~
palisade
You can actually grab non-google Chromium. This site keeps track of the latest
stable and nightly builds and how to download them directly:
[https://chromium.woolyss.com/](https://chromium.woolyss.com/) You won't
receive automatic updates, or be able to login to your google chrome account,
etc. The theme is slightly different in color but it works exactly like normal
Chrome. Chromium is the open source project that Chrome is based on,
originally it was a web browser built by the KDE team for Linux.

I disagree that Chromium is evil. Personally, I use Firefox because I like it
better. Though, on Android I use Brave which is based on Chromium and has ad
blocking, privacy, and anti-fingerprinting built-in. Just a really quick easy
way to get all of that in a simple no fuss package.

~~~
takeda
What Chromium implements is still controlled by Google.

For example the recent controversy about restricting API for ad blockers will
affect Chromium as well.

------
dessant
The Recommended Extensions program will go live on July 11. Extension updates
are reviewed by Mozilla employees before they are published.

Two of my extensions are also participating, reviewers took special care in
how user data is handled and how accurate the privacy policy is. Overall the
program seems to be a positive development that will give us a curated list of
safe browser extensions to use.

~~~
prawnsalad
I hope their extension review process has improved over the past 2 years.

I used to have an extension live after it being reviewed, sent them an update
a few weeks later, and they took down the old version without warning because
the original reviewer didn't do something correctly (from what I can
remember). I then had to wait a week before they could review the update and
put it back live again by which point, a large portion of the userbase had
disappeared and all our marketing efforts gone to waste for an entire week.

Never again would I deal with Mozillas reviewing processes.

------
whatshisface
> _Local files can no longer access other files in the same directory._

What impact will this have on web development without a web server? It sounds
like you won't be able to load CSS or JS.

~~~
Wehrdo
For what it's worth, I'm still able to open and use Doxygen HTML docs without
running a web server. Looks like it loads both CSS and JS. So I'm not sure
what the changenote actually means.

~~~
bzbarsky
The changenote is talking about access from script.

Script running in a page loaded from file:// will not be able to access the
DOM or text of any other file:// URLs, other than the one it's running in.

~~~
kijin
That makes sense, because so much security nowadays depends on keeping origins
separate. It's hard to tell whether any given file:// URL belongs in the same
origin as another file:// URL. Better treat each file:// URL as its own
origin.

------
octosphere
> Improved extension security and discovery:

> New reporting feature in about:addons allows you to report security and
> performance issues with extensions and themes.

> Redesigned extensions dashboard in about:addons provides easy access to
> information about your extensions, including data and settings access
> required by each extension. Find high quality, secure extensions via the
> Recommended Extensions program in about:addons, which now displays user
> count and ratings for each extension.

> "Recommended” badges for these extensions also appear on AMO. More
> extensions will be added over time.

I welcome the new changes to the extension ecosystem. For too long extensions
were unsupervised and malicious code was allowed to run (remember the Stylish
fiasco[0] where your browsing history was siphoned off?).

App stores and extension ecosystems need to be policed with a lot more rigour
and code needs to be inspected so that the extension does what it says in the
description and nothing more. No ulterior motives. No 'monetizing' of user
data, and no surreptitious phoning home to a command and control server with
your browsing history.

[0] [https://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/04/major-stylish-add-on-
chang...](https://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/04/major-stylish-add-on-changes-in-
regards-to-privacy/)

~~~
LinuxBender
Does the new system really stop those shenanigans though? I see notifications
for what major areas an addon requires. I don't get notifications if an addon
tries to reach out to the internet. Has anyone seen such a notification?

------
callahad
We also have some developer-focused release notes at
[https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/07/firefox-68-bigints-
contras...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/07/firefox-68-bigints-contrast-
checks-and-the-quantumbar/)

But more than anything... BigInt! Finally! JavaScript has real integers on
Chrome and Firefox now! (The TC39 proposal is at Stage 3:
[https://github.com/tc39/proposal-bigint](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-
bigint))

------
ceezuns
"Dark mode in reader view expands so that windows are also dark on the
controls, sidebars and toolbars." Thank god.

~~~
basch
the blank white page is killer. inbetween page loads a bright flash of white.

~~~
capitol_
This can be fixed with some user css.

/* Put the content below into your <firefox profile>/chrome/userChrome.css */
.browserContainer { background-color: #000000 !important; }

~~~
dorgo
Nice one! I had to create the folder "chrome" and the file userChrome.css and
restart firefox. How to find the profile-folder:
[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-
firefox-...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-
stores-user-data)

------
mswift42
There are two things keeping me using Chrome.

1) Videostreams are way smoother using Chrome, at least on Linux.

2) I've enabled Emacs Input in Gnome. When I enter something in the address
bar, both Firefox and Chrome show suggestions for websites below. In Chrome I
can type Ctrl+n / Ctrl+p to navigate between the suggestions, because it
respects my keyboard schema.

In Firefox this opens new browser windows :( and I've found absolutely no way
to change this behaviour.

~~~
patrickmcnamara
>Videostreams are way smoother using Chrome, at least on Linux.

This is also the reason I use Chromium. I'd switch to Firefox as soon as it
supports VA-API on GNU/Linux.

~~~
whycombagator
Interesting, multiple streaming platforms did not work on Chromium for me. So
I'd have to switch to FF to view them. I now use FF full time

~~~
patrickmcnamara
Chromium doesn't include the proprietary Widevine DRM. You can patch it in
though, which is what I do.

------
zubspace
1) Regarding WebRender: Maybe I'm a bit out of the loop, but aren't they
working on Servo? It seems, WebRender is a Gecko thing. I'm confused.

2) I'm also confused about the state of Gecko Embedding. As far as I know many
are jumping to Chromium instead of Gecko. What's the plan there? Is Chromium
better/easier to embed? Will I be able to embed Servo at some point?

~~~
pygy_
For 1) WebRender was developed for Servo and is being ported to Firefox as
part of the Quantum effort (Firefox Rustification).

~~~
klibertp
Is it being rewritten in non-Rust during the porting? Or is it left in Rust,
with build system taking care to compile and link it properly?

~~~
tangent128
It's being left in Rust, yes. Firefox already contains Rust components, such
as Stylo.

------
jdlyga
I've been running Firefox full time on all my computers for a few months now.
It's been really good. I've tried to switch away from Chrome in the past, but
I've always had to come back due to performance issues or incompatibility with
something. But it's basically 95% on par with Chrome now (missing a few things
like syncing search engines, etc)

~~~
rustyminnow
What is "syncing search engines"?

~~~
iggldiggl
Meaning the search engines that appear at the bottom of the URL bar
(respectively the separate search bar in case) and of course also the default
search engine that is used when you load something that isn't an URL in the
URL bar.

------
dictum
I can't use `--ProfileManager` or launch a new instance with a named profile
(`-P 'ProfileName'`).

Instead of opening a new window with the requested profile, it opens a new
window of the same profile that's already running.

Launching from about:profiles works.

Is anyone else running into this?

~~~
callahad
Try adding `--new-instance` or `--no-remote` to your invocation.

------
agumonkey
Not sure if placebo but firefox nightly 70 is a looot more snappier than 69.

Now I regret chrome almost not at all.

Thanks for the hard work to all involved.

~~~
dblohm7
That's placebo -- Nightly is built from our trunk. The only thing that changes
between Nightly 69 and Nightly 70 is a version bump.

~~~
agumonkey
no it's not something is definitely different somewhere, maybe a different
config/default or reset, everything is snappier and my cpu is reaching 95+
degC while it never reached 80 before 70.

Or maybe it's a different rendering library / os / gpu driver interaction.

~~~
DiabloD3
Maybe you crossed into having webrender enabled for your system?

------
geokon
"Cryptomining and fingerprinting protections are added to strict content
blocking settings in Privacy & Security preferences."

my first reaction is it's really sad to see this. looks like something Google
blackmailed them into adding. maybe Im missing some aspect to this.. but why
is mining crypto bad but showing ads is not?

I rather mine coins/ether/whatever for the website owners than see more ads

moving away from the web being funded by advertisement to a web funded by
distributed computing is what a lot of people have been looking forward to,
no?

~~~
derefr
Crypto-mining scripts are mostly silent; if your computer doesn’t have a loud
fan to spin up, you’re hardly able to even tell one is running other than on
its eventual impact on battery life.

As such, they’re a favoured tool of script-kiddies who deface websites. They
take over a site, and then drop a crypto-miner onto the site to make
themselves money, otherwise leaving everything intact. Sometimes even the site
owner doesn’t notice anything has changed for quite a while. Meanwhile, an
unaffiliated third party is now making money off of their website on the backs
of their users.

~~~
geokon
If they wanted to show me which websites are impacting my battery life that'd
be fantastic! That's a great idea

There seems to be a conflict of interest when a browser singles out one of the
biggest threats to the online ad industry while being funded by that same
industry

(~90% of Mozilla's money is from Google according to Wikipedia)

While we're on the topic, does anyone have a good guide for adding a crypto
miner to a simple static website? (like Githubpages)

~~~
bzbarsky
> If they wanted to show me which websites are impacting my battery life
> that'd be fantastic!

about:performance aims to do that.

------
Fnoord
If I add a certificate on Android (for example for WPA2-Enterprise), do I need
to disable security.certerrors.mitm.auto_enable_enterprise_roots if I don't
want those with access to the private key to be able to MITM me?

~~~
lucb1e
You might want to ask that on superuser or the security stackexchange site.

~~~
Fnoord
Thanks. I don't have accounts there, nor do I plan to have.

~~~
lucb1e
You don't need to, actually. It's one of the few unwalled gardens left on the
Internet :). You can ask questions, post answers, and even propose edits to
other people's posts without having an account.

Edit: to clarify, I would have answered your question if I knew. I don't, but
I think those sites give good answers.

------
jancsika
Here's something from the SVG 2.0 wish list I'd be interested in[1]:

> Presentation attributes on any SVG namespaced element

Is Firefox going to support this?

It's already supported in Chromium and makes it nice to use the web animations
api (e.g., myRect.animate) on svg elements.

[1] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/SVG/SVG_2_suppo...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/SVG/SVG_2_support_in_Mozilla)

------
JumpCrisscross
I switched from Chrome after Google moved to disable ad blockers. Do we see
any evidence of a broader trend towards Firefox? Or should we be happy in our
little corner.

------
pard68
Wish there was a log in Firefox to determine how/why uBlock Origin keeps
getting uninstalled across all my machines which are synced with my Firefox
account.

~~~
dblohm7
Sync does have a log. Maybe that would help?
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/CloudServices/Sync/File_a_desktop_b...](https://wiki.mozilla.org/CloudServices/Sync/File_a_desktop_bug)

------
garysahota93
From a privacy perspective: which do you guys think is better? Firefox or
Brave? I'm thinking it's finally time to give up Chrome.

------
anildigital
I don’t see Firefox for iOS support to increase or decrease font size support
yet. Safari for iOS 13 has it.

------
w1nst0nsm1th
Look like there is a concerted effort between Mozilla and google to remove
efficient adblocker (mainly ublock) from their browser.

How to resist that sweet money coming from ads networks ?

------
starik36
I have a generic Intel card on a laptop and forced WebRender to be on via
config and wow - it really feel very snappy. Congrats, Firefox team! Fantastic
results.

------
mark_l_watson
I am having problems installing on macOS Catalina bets. Same as installing
Chrome.

~~~
dblohm7
There are known issues with Catalina at the moment. After all, as you yourself
said, that OS is still in Beta.

------
reeves23423
Not exaggerating. IE is a one time downloade'r for firefox

------
vsevo1od
Ро

------
silversconfused
I was absolutely mozilla's target audience when firefox was introduced. Now
they remove control and capabilities from us, and I keep getting told here on
HN I'm not their target audience, and should accept that they are making this
for "most users" who need extension signing, auto updates, sandboxing, and in
general NERFING THE POWER from me. Who the hell are they building for if not
techies? Who do they think is going to evangelize for them if not techies?

Mozilla: fix it.

------
Endy
I'll be downvoted to Hell for this, but I don't care. With each subsequent
release of Firefox, I'm consistently happy that I've moved to Pale Moon. The
nonsense they're adding and the problems that Mozilla has to "fix" seem more
often than not to be brought on themselves with the rapid-release and the move
away from being Firefox to being "almost Chrome". The move to multi-process
(which has introduced memory leaks), the move to WebExtensions (which nuked
add-ons that worked reliably since FF2.0), and the general roadmap make me
almost want to stop using a web browser.

~~~
dredmorbius
This reads far better without the first sentence.

~~~
Endy
Perhaps so, but I was absolutely correct on the response.

~~~
dredmorbius
See comment guidelines:

"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good,
and it makes boring reading."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

