
Firefox 60 released - dikiaap
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/60.0/releasenotes/
======
apazzolini
Unfortunately, looks like the CPU spikes are still a problem on OS X for me.

I check this every time a new version is released as I'd love to make the
switch from Chrome, but Firefox with one blank tab and no extensions uses more
CPU than Chrome with 15 actual tabs. When I actually throw activity at Firefox
it hogs the CPU even more.

Here's hoping v61 addresses it.

~~~
diggan
I'm unsure if this is actually Firefox fault. I'm running Linux (arch and
Ubuntu), Windows and macOS, and Firefox is only slow on macOS, while my macOS
machine is the second most powerful machine I have. Running Firefox in a
Ubuntu VM on macOS is faster than running it natively on macOS.

~~~
Paul-ish
Regardless who is technically at fault, the Firefox team is best placed to
resolve the issue.

It kind of surprises me that this is an issue at all. I was under the
impression a large number of FF devs use Macbooks.

~~~
spiderfarmer
Yeah, well they know what the problem is but it fails to get a high enough
priority to get solved:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1407536](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1407536)

~~~
jamienicol
Hi, I'm one of the commenters on that bug.

The discussion is all specific to that page. The biggest issue is that the
animations are being driven from Javascript instead of CSS, so there's little
we can do to optimize it.

The rest of the discussion is possible heuristics we can implement to optimize
how we layerize the page. It would potentially help on this page, but might
make things slower elsewhere.

~~~
spiderfarmer
The problem is not with that page. A simple CSS animation without JS triggers
the same issues.

~~~
jamienicol
Sorry I don't check hackernews for replies frequently.

 _That_ bug refers to high cpu load on that page. On that page it is due to
the animation being driven from javascript.

If a simple CSS animation causes high cpu usage please file a separate bug
with an attached test case.

------
newscracker
The enterprise part is great to see (though it was something that seemed long
overdue). I recently noticed on a Firefox mailing list that Mike Kaply (of
Kaply Consulting, a company that helped with enterprise deployment and
configuration of Firefox) had officially joined the Firefox team. Mike's
presence is going to make Firefox in the enterprise much better.

On Firefox 60, I'm still not on board with the newest versions after the
support for legacy extensions was removed. SessionManager, an awesome (legacy,
XUL) extension, still doesn't have a perfect equivalent in the Web Extension
world. Tab Session Manager, which has similar functionality, seems to be
lagging behind and struggling with issues in Firefox that prevent it from
becoming a good session manager.

If there's one thing I could ask the Firefox team, it would be to focus on
enabling web extensions to do almost everything that legacy extensions were
able to. Without the power of feature rich and stable extensions, Firefox is
currently inadequate for me (though I still use it as my primary browser).

~~~
Vinnl
I'm not sure whether it fulfils what you're looking for, but Mozilla just ran
an extensions challenge, and one of the winners was Session Sync.

[0] [https://extensionschallenge.com/](https://extensionschallenge.com/) [1]
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-
sync/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-sync/)

~~~
newscracker
Thanks, I did see the Session Sync extension before (and again now after the
challenge winners were announced). Unfortunately, it seems to be quite thin on
features, with the man advantage being syncing the sessions easily since
they're stored as bookmarks. I also found the UI unintuitive (for example, I
have to click on the extension icon, then go to the history tab, and then
click on the current session to see the Save button).

Tab Session Manager is comparatively a lot richer in features, and also allows
importing from the (legacy) SessionManager sessions.

------
dsissitka
Still no option to see all of the permissions an extension requires without
digging through its source. :(

[https://imgur.com/a/k4rk0](https://imgur.com/a/k4rk0)

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1449698](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1449698)

~~~
nathancahill
Proposed fix:
[https://bug1387695.bmoattachments.org/attachment.cgi?id=8901...](https://bug1387695.bmoattachments.org/attachment.cgi?id=8901766)

------
Nadya
_> Bookmarks no longer support multiple keywords for the same URL unless the
request has different POST data_

Can someone explain this one to me? Does this mean I can't use "gi", "i",
"image", and "is" as my Google Image Search keywords and need to pick one?
Reading the issue [0] isn't helping me. I only recently updated to FF59 from
FF39, having to abandon most of my workflow. I really hope this update isn't
another nail on the stairs for me, seems every single update since FF40 has
broken a significant piece of my workflow. I'd appreciate knowing before
updating and then having to roll-back.

[0]
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1313188](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1313188)

~~~
Izkata
...based on this comment on the bug:

> But people expect that it's the specific bookmarks that have keywords, not
> the urls+postdata, because it always worked like this.

> The UI also shows this. There's a keyword field for a bookmark. And it's not
> labeled keyword for url/post data. This is a discrepancy, and results in
> unexpectedly overwritten keywords.

I'm _guessing_ the title is supposed to be read "(multiple bookmark)
keywords", not "multiple (bookmark keywords)", and the release note restated
it wrongly.

Like, if you have two separate bookmarks with different names, but they go to
the same URL, they share whatever's in the keywords field.

~~~
Nadya
I had someone on IRC confirm for me before I updated, multiple keywords for
the same URL (eg: youtube.com/?q=%s) still works. I'm still not 100% sure what
is meant by this line though, which is what caused confusion for me:

 _> It is no longer possible to have multiple bookmark keywords for the same
url, unless the request has different POST data._

I guess I'm confused what "POST data" is - as it apparently isn't %s and I
don't know what else you can change for a keyword bookmark so I'm not sure how
you'd even change what the POST data is.

"y" and "yt" both work to navigate to "youtube.com" and "y search" and "yt
search" both did a youtube search for "search".

------
Panino
> Applied Quantum CSS to render browser UI

I'm so excited about the future of Firefox. In addition to the above, OpenBSD
is currently working on pledge support in FF. In a couple years FF could be
simultaneously faster, more private and more secure than Chrome.

~~~
ams6110
I use FF on OpenBSD as my daily browser. I have at least three different
profiles running simultaneously with multiple tabs open in each (though I
don't go nuts with tabs like some do -- I never tend to have more than 10 or
so open).

It does occasionally seem to get stuck in a state where it just starts chewing
CPU cycles and RAM. I've seen this mostly with Google sites like gmail or
docs, so I assume it's JS-related. But it's fairly rare, and seems to be
improving with each release.

~~~
bugmen0t
Did you try container tabs instead of profiles? Could save you a few coh
cycles.

The gmail/gdocs slowdowns are being tracked and worked on. It's a problem when
websites actively optimize for competitive products though.

~~~
kbenson
The other problem with container tabs, which isn't really a Mozilla problem as
much as a Google problem, is that if you have enough segregated google
profiles going you seem to hit some google anti-abuse codepaths or aomething.
I have 3 separate Google accounts separated with container tabs (on purpose, I
know Google supports multiple accounts), and a separate regular browsing
container, and occassionally just following a link from Gmail or hangouts
where Google bounces you through their redirect hangs for 30 seconds or so.
When it's doing that it generally does it consistently though.

------
mrspeaker
I'm unreasonably happy that Native Module support is now enabled by default in
Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Edge!

My side-projects and experiments (like the WebGL2 "minecraft-y" demo -
[https://mrspeaker.github.io/webgl2-voxels/](https://mrspeaker.github.io/webgl2-voxels/))
now work out of the box: no build system, no transpilers, no dot-files. Happy
day!

~~~
samschooler
Have you found any good tutorials that are good introductions on how to use
native modules?

~~~
ivanfon
This Mozilla Hacks article[0] will tell you everything you need to know.

For something shorter, the import[1] and export[2] pages on MDN are great.
These pages also have some useful related articles linked at the bottom.

Unrelated side note: MDN and Mozilla Hacks are doing an incredible job
documenting web development and web standards.

[0] [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/08/es6-in-depth-
modules/](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/08/es6-in-depth-modules/)

[1] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/import)

[2] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/export)

------
wpdev_63
If anyone from lastpass is reading this thread, please fix your plugin.
Everytime I try to edit the password from the prompt on the page, it opens a
blank page for the password vault page.

~~~
sametmax
I love lastpass, I'm actually a paying user, but it's getting more and more
buggy. Sometime you generate passwords to change an existing one, and it
doesn't update, so you only have the old one. Sometime autocomplete doesn't
work: either the menu doesn't do anything, or the first click on the input
icon doesn't work.

It's not too bad, and honestly the mobile version is a god send (it fills
passwords in apps !), but it's irritating.

~~~
Someone1234
Agreed. But LogMeIn purchased them, so I'm unsurprised that price has
increased and quality has dipped.

One issue I've been seeing more of (both on Android and on desktop) is the
cache not re-populating automatically. You have to go Advanced -> Clear Local
Cache, and only then will it download a fresh copy.

Or worse, sometimes after adding new credentials it never sync's it to the
cloud. It remains on that device, but that's it.

------
equalunique
>Added a policy engine that allows customized Firefox deployments in
enterprise environments, using Windows Group Policy or a cross-platform JSON
file

Hopefully this means the two gigantic companies I work for will phase out
Firefox ESR for Quantum. I also hope they move from 32-bit Firefox to 64-bit,
but I've learned to keep my expectations low when it comes to these places
progressing with tech.

>Added support for Web Authentication API, which allows USB tokens for website
authentication.

That's awesome. Ok. Maybe I'll let myself get a little more hopeful. :')

~~~
spencercw
Firefox ESR 60 has been released at the same time, and is more or less
identical to the non-ESR version. ESR makes a lot of sense for corporate
networks, even if it can be a drag being a bit behind the curve.

~~~
equalunique
Sure, ESR does make a lot of sense. According to Mozilla's timeline[0],
enterprises will have to move to Firefox 60 ESR after August 2018, because the
52 ESR will be EOL after that time.

[0]
[https://www.mozilla.org/media/img/firefox/organizations/rele...](https://www.mozilla.org/media/img/firefox/organizations/release-
overview.fddbdb1b7d81.png)

------
malfeasance

      Pocket Sponsored Stories will appear for a percentage of users in the US. Read about our privacy-conscious approach to sponsored content
    

If you can't roll out a feature without violating EU privacy laws, you're not
employing a "privacy-conscious approach."

~~~
kibwen
Pocket doesn't collect any browsing history. From the linked docs:

 _> If the “Recommended by Pocket” feature is enabled, Pocket will send a list
of the best stories on the web to Firefox every day. With each story, Pocket
also sends a list of related websites that, when visited, signal likely
interest in the story. Your Firefox browser compares your browsing history
with the list of related websites to sort and filter through each day’s
stories and recommend the ones that are most likely to interest you.

> Important Note: Neither Mozilla nor Pocket receives a copy of your browser
> history. The entire process of sorting and filtering which stories you
> should see happens locally in your copy of Firefox._

The feature isn't "EU-excepted", it's "US-only", probably because they only
have recommendations for US audiences.

~~~
wyoh
The problem I have with “Recommended by Pocket”, is that it only recommend
left-wing discourse. Great for creating a filter bubble…

~~~
coolspot
Wanted to make counter-argument, opened new tab, found you are right. Google
Chrome mobile on the other hand gives me both sides.

------
superdaniel
I'm glad that they have released support for the Web Authentication API.
Hopefully I won't need to use Chrome for websites I choose to be more secure
with.

Although, with a quick look it seems like I still can't use U2F with Google on
Firefox.

~~~
Tomte
Me neither (FastMail and Gmail). _sigh_

But just yesterday people tried to "educate" me that it works with 60 and for
59 I had to toggle an about:config switch.

It's great that they support the proper web standard. It would be useful if
all those web sites supported it. This is a long-known issue, and nobody cares
about non-Chrome browsers.

~~~
chrismorgan
I’m probably the one that will implement the Web Authentication API for
FastMail and Topicbox, though it’s a some way down my list of things to do at
present. I looked into it a couple of months back (I would have liked us to
get it out before browsers enabled it by default), but documentation was very
scarce, and so it wasn’t particularly clear what we’d need to do to migrate
from u2f.js to webauthn (especially while still supporting both), and then
other things came up. Since then,
[https://www.imperialviolet.org/2018/03/27/webauthn.html](https://www.imperialviolet.org/2018/03/27/webauthn.html)
has been written, which will help, but it’d still be nice to have a concise
“here’s what to do, backend and frontend, to migrate from u2f.js to webauthn”
guide. If no one has by the time we support webauthn, I’ll probably write such
a guide.

For now, it’s not as high a priority as it could be, because the
_functionality_ it provides is already available in Chrome (for that matter, I
don’t believe Chrome’s webauthn implementation hits stable until the next
release), Firefox can get it by enabling security.webauth.u2f which is good
enough as a short-term measure when it’s always been required in the past
anyway, and Edge doesn’t have many users (and few of them currently do 2FA).
It’s pragmatism, sadly.

------
nailer
Switched from Chrome for privacy reasons a couple of months ago. As a webdev
(and hence heavy DevTools user), it feels excellent, the inspector's a little
bit faster, and having containers for Facebook and Google tracking services is
excellent. Spell check in text boxes doesn't work though - apparently it
should, I have no idea why it doesn't.

~~~
dblohm7
Bug reports welcome!
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org)

~~~
nailer
Yeah, I've made some big reports already (CSP errors from undefined source
when using Stripe with LastPass enabled) but I want to check it out more
before bothering anyone - maybe it's my Windows language config

------
vardump
Firefox overall performance starts to be pretty good and it's pretty pleasant
to use. It feels smoother than Chrome on 2015 Macbook Pro.

But I guess there's a long tail of issues that keep some people from (still)
switching to Firefox.

Mine is lack of smooth pinch-zoom on macOS. Once that is fixed, I think I'll
be using Firefox most of the time.

On 2018 Android flagship phone, scrolling speed seems to be maybe 58/59 fps.
Occasional jerky motion sticks out like a sore thumb. I think it might feel
smoother steady 30 fps, because at least then all frames take equally long to
render.

------
dumbmatter
I'm psyched to see the fix to
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1193394](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1193394)
released, which (amongst other things) mean that you can finally write code
using both IndexedDB and promises without inadvertently committing the active
transaction on promise resolution. Now I just need to wait until the market
share of other Firefox versions decreases before I can actually take advantage
in production :)

~~~
sp332
According to the CSV data available from [http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-
version-market-share](http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-version-market-share)
new Firefox versions tend to dominate just 1-2 months after release.
[https://imgur.com/a/xzvAU4t](https://imgur.com/a/xzvAU4t)

~~~
dumbmatter
Firefox 52 may be around for a while - it's the last LTS before extensions
were broken by Quantum, and it's also the last release that runs on XP and
Vista.

~~~
ptman
It seems that ff esr60 will be the only esr in august:
[https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/organizations/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/organizations/)

~~~
sp332
That's a minimum, but I haven't heard any noise from Mozilla about pushing it
any further. Either way I'm sure some third party will pick it up and it will
live forever. The only question is the % of people who switch.

------
Silhouette
In case anyone else is getting a "What's new" page after the restart that is
just a spammy and broken Firefox Accounts advert, you can get to the more
normal release notes via the About Firefox dialog's "What's new" link, or just
go here:

[https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/60.0/releasenotes/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/60.0/releasenotes/)

------
billysielu
Blocking Third-Party Cookies is a nice option, but it would be better if those
settings were for full-blown First Party Isolation instead.

~~~
Xylakant
First party isolation was added in FF55
[https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/another-
tor-b...](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/another-tor-browser-
feature-makes-it-into-firefox-first-party-isolation/)

~~~
billysielu
It's off by default. To enable it you have to go into about:config. I'm saying
it should be on by default, or at least exposed in the Settings for people to
find. The concern about doing that was that some sites would break, but their
definition of break included things which should break because they were
previously abusing the lack of FPI. I have been browsing with FPI on for a
while and nothing has broken. Protecting our privacy should be the default
state of affairs. Mozilla did say Firefox would be opinionated...

~~~
Xylakant
I have it enabled and I can attest that it breaks a fair amount of sites. I
think it’s fair to expose that as an expert level setting. It could benefit
from a bit of advertising though.

~~~
unethical_ban
I wonder if it can be implemented on a per-site basis, like a security policy.

Exception: gitea uses Github oauth

Exception: unbury.me uses Google login

etc

Default: Full FPI

~~~
bscphil
This is extremely easy to do in uMatrix. If you don't want to use the other
features, just set a default policy of allow all, then block third party
cookies. You can then selectively allow access to cookies on a site by site
basis.

~~~
unethical_ban
Good point. So the technology is there, and an "expert" UI.

It would be neat to see Mozilla create an intuitive UI for this to enable
first party isolation by default, like a permissions model for other things. A
modal popup "Unbury.me wants to grant access to google.com", for example.

------
faitswulff
I've been using Firefox Nightly as my daily browser for a while and I am
beginning to notice more and more websites breaking on it - mostly Google
services, although Facebook as well, recently, too. I know it's complicated by
the fact that I'm on the Nightly channel, but has anyone else noticed an
increase in sites that are incompatible with FF?

~~~
Silhouette
_has anyone else noticed an increase in sites that are incompatible with FF?_

Yes, but I'm not sure it's just Firefox. I suspect a significant number of
sites are now being developed and tested only with Chrome, using Google's
developer tools and recommended practices and browser feature set.
Unfortunately, those things may not be supported or work well on other
browsers, and if you don't choose carefully and test properly...

------
_bxg1
But did they fix the weird scrolling friction on Android?

Seriously, it's the main reason I don't use Firefox.

~~~
davnicwil
I'm using Firefox on Android - not sure what friction you're referring to
here, but the lack of 'reload on pull down when scrolled to top' feature is
seriously annoying for me.

Despite this, I stick with Firefox because I want to use it - I can imagine
that the vast, vast majority of users who have no opinion on which browser
they use simply don't/won't put up with this and just go back to the easier to
use Chrome. It's little things like this that make all the difference.

~~~
_bxg1
In every other Android app there's no bound on how much scroll momentum you
can build up; if you want to zoom to the bottom of a long page, you can keep
flicking to go as fast as you want. Firefox mobile adds an obnoxious amount of
extra friction that prevents you from going much faster than your finger
moves, making scrolling feel like wading through water.

As an aside, I think iOS might have the same behavior, which could be the
reason they're doing it, but it goes against the system standard and is
completely unbearable for me.

------
isodev
In the past couple of months, Firefox has turned into my favorite browser. I
am truly grateful to everyone involved with it.

------
IshKebab
Firefox in mobile is worth using simply for the reader view. It makes the
mobile web tolerable again.

~~~
severine
Do you use the Open in Reader View extension?

[https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/reader-
view/](https://addons.mozilla.org/es/firefox/addon/reader-view/)

~~~
IshKebab
No, it's built in.

------
pmoriarty
Does the new Firefox have something like RequestPolicy or NoScript?

~~~
icebraining
Yes, the original dev migrated NoScript, but it's not a complete clone:
[https://blog.jeaye.com/2017/11/30/noscript/](https://blog.jeaye.com/2017/11/30/noscript/)

~~~
pmoriarty
What about RequestPolicy?

RequestPolicy can selectively block third-party content that NoScript will let
through.

~~~
zootboy
Check out uMatrix. I used to use RP, but switched to uM because it gives even
better fine-grain controls.

------
kiliancs
> Stylo comes to Firefox for Android in 60

> Firefox's new parallel CSS engine — also known as Quantum CSS or Stylo —
> which was first enabled by default in Firefox 57 for desktop, has now been
> enabled in Firefox for Android.

That's exciting, but on my phone the Play Store still doesn't provide the new
version.

~~~
vanderZwan
Play Store rollout always takes a bit longer

------
ww520
Kudos for the new release. Firefox is getting better.

------
clumsysmurf
One killer feature from Safari missing still is 'Show tab overview' with
thumbnails of all your tabs ... anyone know of a well maintained plugin that
does something like this? I think it should be built into the browser.

~~~
kbrosnan
browser.ctrlTab.previews in about:conifg though the feature may be in various
states of broken as it is not exposed anywhere

~~~
Sylos
It is actually exposed, since a few versions ago.

It's in the Preferences under General -> Tabs -> "Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs
in recently used order". Right in the middle of the screen, when you open the
Preferences-page...

------
esturk
For such a privacy minded browser, it still preserves closed tabs in Private
Mode. If you do (in OSX) cmd+shift+T, you can reopen the closed tabs from
earlier. This does not happen in Chrome nor Safari.

~~~
orthecreedence
Please, FF devs, if you're reading this, _preserve this feature_ , or at least
give it an about:config setting.

I use ctrl+shift+t in private browsing _all the time_.

------
PhantomBKB
Holy shit! It's fast

------
sexy_seedbox
Aside from continuous memory issues which others have mentioned, my biggest
issue is that we still cannot have access to core FF pages and elements with
webextensions (ex: mouse gestures on blank/new tabpages, userscripts on RSS
feeds, scroll through tabs with mouse wheel, etc...)

------
philliphaydon
I wish they would fix the bug in developer tools network tab. Adding columns
breaks alignments. :(

------
jakeogh
Obvious stuff that's too pro-user:

Tab pause button.

Or better, opt in to not pause; I hacked up a -STOP for webkit (surf/glide)
when the tab/window was not in the foreground. The X plumbing was tricky and
never quite right. Still on my TODO to finish.

------
excalibur
Running 60, installed and configured the group policy templates. Still can't
get Firefox to pull trusted root certificates from the Windows certificate
store. #headdesk

~~~
felipc
Can you check in about:config if the pref security.enterprise_roots.enabled is
being set to true?

~~~
excalibur
Yes, it's set to true with a status of locked.

------
spondyl
My coworker likes to say "None of this [tech] shit is cool" and that's kind of
how I feel about browsers.

Firefox Quantum is quite nice but in the past, I've had a constant resizing
bug that makes it unusable on my home laptop plus the numerous issues listed
below.

Alternatively, Chrome is neat but I find it runs sluggish after a while on my
older Macbook. I wish it had container tabs a la Firefox and the upcoming
"disabled autoplay by default" change is really annoying.

I feel the same about OSs anyway but it's easy to complain rather than
contribute bug fixes. Mind you, I don't know eg; C++ so

------
lwansbrough
They still haven't fixed whatever problem causes my Late 2013 RMBP's CPU/fan
to jump to 80C and stay there while FF is open. Back to Chrome. :(

------
bhandziuk
Did anyone else lose the ability to scroll by clicking the middle mouse button
in the 57 (Quantum) upgrade? Still missing for me in this version.

~~~
RussianCow
Go to Preferences > scroll down to Browsing at the bottom > check "Use
autoscrolling".

~~~
chrismorgan
Ah, _that’s_ what autoscrolling is, is it? I wish it had some explanation of
what non-obvious preferences _are_ , at least a link to a document explaining
it.

------
esfandia
Has the Classic Theme Restorer add-on been ported to the new extension API?
Until then, I'm staying with my old version of Firefox.

~~~
Sylos
It will never be ported fully. It's one of those extensions that dived so deep
into Firefox's source code that Mozilla changing things in the source code
caused it to break a lot of the times.

Mozilla categorically doesn't want that anymore, as it will inevitably cause
some Mozilla devs to try to not break those extensions and therefore not do
things such as code refactoring. The sort of stuff that you can ignore in the
short-term in order to not break extensions, but which causes huge problems in
the long run.

The CTR dev has however created a userChrome.css file, which you can use to
get at least the visual changes: [http://techdows.com/2017/09/classic-theme-
restorer-userchrom...](http://techdows.com/2017/09/classic-theme-restorer-
userchrome-css-modify-firefox-57-photon-ui.html)

------
Larrikin
Did they fix the text lag in this version? I was on the beta version of 60 and
ended up having to downgrade back to 59.

------
lonk
Scrolling is still jerky and sluggish on android.

~~~
cpeterso
Firefox for Android will be copying Chrome's scrolling physics for faster
scrolling, since that's what Android users are used to. Chrome doesn't use
Android's standard scrolling physics, so custom scrolling code is needed to
emulate its behavior.

You can test this in Firefox 61 Beta by setting the
"apz.android.chrome_fling_physics.enabled" pref to true in about:config. The
new behavior will hopefully be enabled by default in Firefox 62.

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1448439](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1448439)

~~~
sp332
Ah, I was wondering why my scrolling was getting "fling"ed so much on Nightly.
It's kinda unusable because 2/3 of the time, when I lift my thumb off the
screen, it gets interpreted as a fling. Maybe I'll get used to being very
careful, but for now I'm glad to know there's a toggle.

~~~
cpeterso
There are still fling bugs to be fixed. :) Feel free to file a bug in Bugzilla
that blocks bug 1448439. Perhaps you are seeing one of these known bugs:

* Weirdness at end of Fennec fling. Don't send duplicate DOM 'scroll' event for sub-pixel scrolling: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1230176](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1230176)

* Scrolling in Android has a distinct hitch when releasing finger: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1425739](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1425739)

You can also tweak the fling physics parameters with these about:config prefs:

    
    
      apz.android.chrome_fling_physics.friction
      apz.android.chrome_fling_physics.inflexion
      apz.android.chrome_fling_physics.stop_threshold

~~~
sp332
Thanks, I had noticed the behavior in 1425739 but assumed it was because of my
bulky screen protector.

------
majani
From the comparison of the lists, looks like desktop is still their focus,
which points to a sad level of navel gazing for an internet company in 2018.
Makes me question whether they are focused on competing with Chrome or whether
they just want to make cool tech.

~~~
PostOnce
The desktop (and laptop) is still my focus, too. It's where I do all my work.
I'm glad someone still gives a damn. I'm glad not everyone is chasing the
crowdsourced social-mobile-AI-blockchain. Not all tech has to point in the
same direction.

That said I use Firefox on Android every day and it's fantastic, so what are
you talking about specifically?

~~~
majani
Firefox has major issues with scrolling and also with a lot of plugins that
claim to be available on mobile but simply don't work. They need to do a
marketing push because nobody wins when one browser has monopoly share on an
OS, especially if it's the default browser.

------
superkuh
I haven't tried Firefox since version 47 and haven't used it as my main since
37. I gave 61 (dev edition) a spin yesterday. All the extensions that make the
browser usable for me were like 1990s geocities pages: "Under Construction" if
they existed at all. They were just placeholders that lacked most features
with links to bugzilla pages to vote for features to be added back into
Firefox.

Garbage collection was pretty terrible too. I managed to use up 4 GB of ram
with ~10 tabs. In my normal (firefox fork) browser I run 300 active/loaded
tabs and 700 'suspended' tabs for ~1k total and never get that high.

There's seemingly still a lot of work to be done before it's usable as a main
browser.

~~~
hiram112
I know everyone has there own work flows, but how can you even keep track of
that many tabs?

After about 8 or 9, I find myself tabbing through half of a dozen tabs to get
where I'm going, and at that point I realize I've added like 5 new tasks to my
original stack of todos or research or whatever I was originally doing. At
that point it's time to shut some tabs and concentrate on the original item.

Also, once I've logged into, for example, GMail or Facebook, I do not want to
be browsing other sites while under their eye. I instead usually open multiple
Chromiums / Chrome, each app for a specific task.

~~~
wlesieutre
Tree style tabs addon makes huge numbers of tabs useable, you really rethink
the whole tab workflow.

For logging into sites like gmail and Facebook, consider using Containers
[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-facebook-
container-...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-facebook-container-
different-multi-account-con)

~~~
Izkata
Hoo yeah, before TreeStyleTabs, I limited myself to somewhere around 30-40
just because there wasn't room to see everything.

Nowadays I'm up somewhere around 300 and it's not a big deal, because they
self-organize into related groups that are expandable/collapsible.

