Firefox takes a Quantum leap forward with new developer edition

A new look, better dev tools, and up to twice the performance in key benchmarks.

Read the whole story

 

[EspressoMachine]

I haven't used Firefox in a long while because of performance issues. Most problematic was visiting ad heavy websites and maybe it's not all their fault but Firefox would crumble and freeze up while chrome would slug along but slug nonetheless.

Hopefully this would bring them back to more competitive situation.

 

[invertedpanda]

Like EspressoMachine, I ditched Firefox for performance problems, but also because.. Chrome's inspector tool just feels more comfortable to me when I'm troubleshooting CSS/JS. With the latest enhancements, I'll give it a try, but I'm not expecting it to really pull me away from Chrome (and all my favorite extensions - NoCoffee, EyeDropper, etc).

Especially if they haven't improved load time on the browser at launch itself. I swear, that has been my biggest peeve lately; I hate testing in FF just because it takes at least 2x as long to open the browser as opposed to Chrome.

 

[staskaya]

Two most vital addons I use are currently "legacy" (lastpass and firegestures). I wonder whether they will be upgraded by developers or it is technically impossible to have them with the new versions.

It has been more than a decade, I don't want to quit using Firefox...

edit: Also, hopefully there is no more "unresponsive script".

 

[LauRoman]

I dread the breakage of extensions coming, and am contemplating moving to ESR but that will just delay things...

 

[ApplePaladin]

Two most vital addons I use are currently "legacy" (lastpass and firegestures). I wonder whether they will be upgraded by developers or it is technically impossible to have them with the new versions.

It has been more than a decade, I don't want to quit using Firefox...

I would be genuinely surprised if most Firefox extension/addon developers didn't replace their "legacy" versions with new versions eventually. Most are probably just waiting until the last minute when they're forced to change to keep up or have their extension/addon dropped completely, because they're humans and not doing something unless we absolutely have to is our jam.

 

[q5ajzvtd]

A quantum leap? So they jumped forward a specific amount? What specific amount?


Just kidding, I understand turns of phrase and don't insist on words being used with their precise technical definition outside of the appropriate context.

At first I didn't want to forgive Peter, but at least in this case it's based on the name Mozilla gave the project.

 

[Rainbird]

Unfortunately, it breaks every single extension I use (39 in all). Not a single extension now functions in the new, "improved" Firefox.

It's exactly like Chrome now, and completely worthless to anyone who wants control of their browser.

That seems suspiciously odd since the only time I've ever had extensions go away is because they were orphaned or the features were integrated into the browser itself.

Of course, if you're not using the production release that there may be some issues, but that is to be expected.

Mozilla is deprecating the old extension APIs and Firefox 57 is the first release to not include the old APIs at all, so that's what's happening.

 

[ranthog]

I haven't used Firefox in a long while because of performance issues. Most problematic was visiting ad heavy websites and maybe it's not all their fault but Firefox would crumble and freeze up while chrome would slug along but slug nonetheless.

Hopefully this would bring them back to more competitive situation.

I don't think I've ever hit a single site that by itself drove itself into the ground with java script in Firefox. Of course, I use ad block as a security mechanism, since advertising networks have been co-opted into attack vectors.

I have had performance issues with Firefox, but at my maximum I tend to literally have 500+ tabs open due to several sets of research and reading. (I purge them a few times a year.) I am disinclined to blame Firefox in that case, because my use case is very much not in the realm of normal.

 

[alanmies]

I haven't used Firefox in a long while because of performance issues. Most problematic was visiting ad heavy websites and maybe it's not all their fault but Firefox would crumble and freeze up while chrome would slug along but slug nonetheless.

Who in their right mind would run Firefox without uBlock Origin?

 

[itfa]

I'm looking forward to it. I've been trying to minimize my reliance on Google but have never successfully been able to give up Chrome.

 

[timw4mail]

But why have they made the main bar so hideous? What's the point of that wasted space on each side of the address bar!

 

[photochemsyn]

I haven't used Firefox in a long while because of performance issues. Most problematic was visiting ad heavy websites and maybe it's not all their fault but Firefox would crumble and freeze up while chrome would slug along but slug nonetheless.

Hopefully this would bring them back to more competitive situation.

Which is a good reason to enable NoScript on Firefox for those ad-heavy websites. I turn it off for arstechnica and other reasonable sites.

 

[fractalsphere]

"A quantum leap"

So - a REALLY TINY leap?

 

[opencl]

Two most vital addons I use are currently "legacy" (lastpass and firegestures). I wonder whether they will be upgraded by developers or it is technically impossible to have them with the new versions.

It has been more than a decade, I don't want to quit using Firefox...

edit: Also, hopefully there is no more "unresponsive script".

Anything that has a Chrome version is basically trivial to port to the new Firefox extension API. It's extremely similar to the Chrome API but with some additions to add back (some of) the functionality that Chrome is missing compared to the old FF extension API.

Most of the extensions I use still work, and of the ones that don't most of those have updates planned. There are definitely a few I'll miss but the *enormous* performance improvements are IMO very worth it. The fact that they've made such huge performance gains so quickly after dropping the old API seems like very strong evidence that it was holding back the rest of the codebase in a major way.

 

[Digger]

But why have they made the main bar so hideous? What's the point of that wasted space on each side of the address bar!

To keep in tune with all the wasted space in Win10?
It's the new design paradigm don'tcha know?
/s...I think

 

[Uno666]

Good for them, hope they stick around.

 

[Sajuuk]

i wonder how many more extensions i'm going to need this time to undo this new garbage and make it work and look like it used to.

if i wanted to use chrome i'd just use chrome, what about that doesn't mozilla get?

They're probably thinking a tiny user-base of purists isn't enough to develop for.

 

[bthylafh]

I dread the breakage of extensions coming, and am contemplating moving to ESR but that will just delay things...

Waterfox intends to keep compatibility with old XUL extensions in addition to the new-style ones, so that might be a good option for you.

 

[IncorrigibleTroll]

I haven't used Firefox in a long while because of performance issues. Most problematic was visiting ad heavy websites and maybe it's not all their fault but Firefox would crumble and freeze up while chrome would slug along but slug nonetheless.

Hopefully this would bring them back to more competitive situation.

Which is a good reason to enable NoScript on Firefox for those ad-heavy websites. I turn it off for arstechnica and other reasonable sites.

Is NoScript going to survive the transition? It was my understanding that it's one of those extensions that cannot be made to work under the new API.

 

[ranthog]

Unfortunately, it breaks every single extension I use (39 in all). Not a single extension now functions in the new, "improved" Firefox.

It's exactly like Chrome now, and completely worthless to anyone who wants control of their browser.

That seems suspiciously odd since the only time I've ever had extensions go away is because they were orphaned or the features were integrated into the browser itself.

Of course, if you're not using the production release that there may be some issues, but that is to be expected.

Mozilla is deprecating the old extension APIs and Firefox 57 is the first release to not include the old APIs at all, so that's what's happening.

Yes, and Firefox 57 isn't due to be released until November. Complaining that the new version breaks things now is a little silly. Especially given that a number of extensions are likely still in development on the web extensions version of their plugins. The fact that a number of developers waited until they had to move to the new platform isn't surprising.

Even then a lot of plugins are already using the new API's.

It isn't like this wasn't a necessary change. The old plugins are not compatible with a number of the things they are looking to more forward with like multi-threading and the like.

Edit: Fixed date of Fireforx 57 release. Not that it has a huge impact on the date, given a number of extensions are waiting until the last minute to update.

 

[Ephesos]

"A quantum leap"

So - a REALLY TINY leap?

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dict ... antum-leap

a great improvement or important advance in something:
It was a revolutionary generation of computers that was a quantum leap beyond anything on the market.

 

[maniajack]

Is NoScript going to survive the transition? It was my understanding that it's one of those extensions that cannot be made to work under the new API.

According to the mozilla blog NoScript is migrating to FF57 compatible WebExtensions: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/08 ... ions-apis/

 

[malor]

I would be genuinely surprised if most Firefox extension/addon developers didn't replace their "legacy" versions with new versions eventually.

What i've been seeing is that the new extension system is woefully incomplete, and deliberately incomplete in many areas. It's not ready to replace the old one, but it's being shoved out the door, nonetheless.

From what the extension authors are saying, many old, very useful things will now be flat impossible to do in Firefox. I'd be losing about 3/4 of the ones I normally use, and all the ones I've checked explicitly say that they will permanently break in November, and will not be updated.

It really seems to me that they're screwing things up enormously: they are burning the relatively few users they have left, to try to chase imaginary users they don't have yet. My argument would be that, when you're teetering on the brink of outright irrelevance, as Firefox is certainly doing, you really desperately want to make your existing users very happy, and then expand the pool of users that will like your software too.

The users they have left are the most loyal of all, and screwing them over to chase people who've already switched seems just about the worst possible idea they could have.

I do not think this is going to work out for them, and I believe they may be down to single-digit maketshare once so very many addons blow up, and people realize that there's not much reason to stay with Firefox anymore.

 

[cadence]

But why have they made the main bar so hideous? What's the point of that wasted space on each side of the address bar!

These are suppose to help with dragging the window, but can be removed if you dont like them. Just go to Customization mode and drag these “flexible space” pieces away. Takes 5 seconds.

 

[ChronoReverse]

But why have they made the main bar so hideous? What's the point of that wasted space on each side of the address bar!

Fortunately the "flexible space" on both sides of the address bar is removable in the UI Customization. Presumably someone at Mozilla assumed that the tiny gain in one usability metric is worth a huge increase in silliness. Either that or they're copying Safari (this is the real answer).

 

[PGMario]

The current curvy tabs were met with outrage on their introduction in 2014, so the reversion to square tabs will, frankly, probably be met with outrage[...]

Thanks, that made my day.

 

[grendel151]

There's plugins that keep me on FF the developers of those plugins have said they won't update. The main one being tab groups, which I use heavily.

It went from being an integrated feature, to a plugin, and now completely deleted.

In its place I get... Pocket. Oh yeah, and since the last update FF turns on my Vive constantly until I had to manually disable that in the config.

I'm not happy with the situation.

 

[Rainbird]

Unfortunately, it breaks every single extension I use (39 in all). Not a single extension now functions in the new, "improved" Firefox.

It's exactly like Chrome now, and completely worthless to anyone who wants control of their browser.

That seems suspiciously odd since the only time I've ever had extensions go away is because they were orphaned or the features were integrated into the browser itself.

Of course, if you're not using the production release that there may be some issues, but that is to be expected.

Mozilla is deprecating the old extension APIs and Firefox 57 is the first release to not include the old APIs at all, so that's what's happening.

Yes, and Firefox 57 isn't due to be released until April. Complaining that the new version breaks things now is a little silly. Especially given that a number of extensions are likely still in development on the web extensions version of their plugins. The fact that a number of developers waited until they had to move to the new platform isn't surprising.

Even then a lot of plugins are already using the new API's.

It isn't like this wasn't a necessary change. The old plugins are not compatible with a number of the things they are looking to more forward with like multi-threading and the like.

November actually, not april. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar

 

[maniajack]

Yes, and Firefox 57 isn't due to be released until April. Complaining that the new version breaks things now is a little silly. Especially given that a number of extensions are likely still in development on the web extensions version of their plugins. The fact that a number of developers waited until they had to move to the new platform isn't surprising.

Even then a lot of plugins are already using the new API's.

It isn't like this wasn't a necessary change. The old plugins are not compatible with a number of the things they are looking to more forward with like multi-threading and the like.

FF57 in April? This says November 14:
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/02 ... ilestones/

90% of my extensions are labeled Legacy and the few I've looked into for new versions are no where near ready. Also the FF Addon website you cannot filter by "Compatible with FireFox 57+" which is baffling to me.

 

[smashingtool]

Unfortunately, it breaks every single extension I use (39 in all). Not a single extension now functions in the new, "improved" Firefox.

It's exactly like Chrome now, and completely worthless to anyone who wants control of their browser.

That seems suspiciously odd since the only time I've ever had extensions go away is because they were orphaned or the features were integrated into the browser itself.

Of course, if you're not using the production release that there may be some issues, but that is to be expected.

Mozilla is deprecating the old extension APIs and Firefox 57 is the first release to not include the old APIs at all, so that's what's happening.

Yes, and Firefox 57 isn't due to be released until April. Complaining that the new version breaks things now is a little silly. Especially given that a number of extensions are likely still in development on the web extensions version of their plugins. The fact that a number of developers waited until they had to move to the new platform isn't surprising.

Even then a lot of plugins are already using the new API's.

It isn't like this wasn't a necessary change. The old plugins are not compatible with a number of the things they are looking to more forward with like multi-threading and the like.

April? The release date for 57 is November 14th, less than a month and a half from now.

 

[moltonel]

If you wonder wether a particular addon is compatible or when it eventually will be, check http://arewewebextensionsyet.com/ which has current status and bugtracker links for most popular addons.

 

[IncorrigibleTroll]

Is NoScript going to survive the transition? It was my understanding that it's one of those extensions that cannot be made to work under the new API.

According to the mozilla blog NoScript is migrating to FF57 compatible WebExtensions: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/08 ... ions-apis/

That's great news! I was not looking forward to giving that up. Thanks for the link.