Now, if only iOS would allow true Safari alternatives. 🥲
Very sad that Firefox does not provide an .ipa file of firefox without webkit. Jailbroken, trollstore and altstore users could benefit of extensions before apple allows sideloading.
They’ll soon be forced to allow sideloading, in the EU at least. Should open the doors for proper alternative browsers.
I wonder what the alternatives to App Store will be called. F-Store? iDroid?
They’d still be restricted to the Webkit rendering engine though, right?
If you can sideload anything you want, why would that be the case? I don’t think there’s a technical limitation, they just don’t allow it on the app store if it doesn’t use safari.
Oh that’s true, I always thought iOS just didn’t have that capability at all but that makes sense that it would just be blocked at the App Store level.
If you can sideload an app there’s nothing Apple can do to stop you from shipping a new rendering engine.
They can still prevent the JIT from working because the resulting native code would not be signed. That would result in worse JavaScript performance in such browsers, but considering today’s hardware and software optimizations, it may not matter that much in practice.
Yes, but the point of the law is that apps that you install that are not from the official store actually have to work. It even has clauses so that installing stuff from different sources than Apple can’t intentionally be a worse experience than the official app IIRC. That might be just for messaging though.
I don’t think they allow JIT in their App Store apps either.
I loathe the very fact they made people call it “sideloading”. It’s just installing on your own terms, like it used to be the norm.
Well, it’s a carry over from its early days in how it used to work. You needed to install things via USB debugger. Generally that’s all sideloading ever meant, transferring information from one device to another using a generally “local” method (SD card, USB, etc). Now sideloading, on Android at least (as it retains its original meaning elsewhere), just means not from the official repository.
I just activated Windows 10 on a laptop I bought from ebay, and I was reminded that Microsoft too wants people to view its official store as the default way to obtain software.
One of my goals for this weekend is to set up a dual boot for Linux Mint, which I’ve never done before. I’m fully aware of its limitations, but I’m getting so tired of all this crap.
I hope you have fun! You can ask anytime for help, it’s a great learning opportunity
I have an old laptop that I’m planning to use to test different versions of Linux so I can get a feel for it. I will let you know if I have questions. I appreciate the kind offer!
Yeah, I’m not sure what Microsoft is attempting with S mode. Its just such a half baked concept to me. I’d rather a simplified group policy interface or something if they wanted simplified restrictions.
But yeah, dual booting is a great way to transition. You can also do Windows in a VM, but not sure how licensing works or if you can use an OEM license in there.
It just seems much better for me to set up a dual boot. I know it’s more work, but it’s not like it’s irreversible, and I think it would give me a better experience overall.
There are a few Linux distros I can recommend as someone who started doing this as a little tinker project when I was younger.
Pop_OS! Is a really great basic setup to help usher you into Linux. I installed the KDE desktop environment onto my install because I really like and enjoy the KDE experience. You have plenty of other Ubuntu “flavors” to choose from. I’d recommend giving them all a whirl or look and decide which one you think is the best fit for you.
ElementaryOS is great if you want a semi-MacOS experience but I feel it is perfect for someone who doesn’t want to tinker around too much or for family members to use on their 10 year old laptops/desktops.
I also recommend not fully setting your Linux side up (email, saving documents, etc.) until you get done with your testing different distros out. You’ll be thankful you didn’t go through the full setup process if you decide to try a new distro out. Have fun, and remember it’s all a learning experience. Don’t be afraid to ask for question or look anything up. If you finally find a distro you want to make permanent and remember me, I’d love to hear what you settled on. Have a wonderful rest of your day. And enjoy your newfound freedom! 😌
This is great.
great, now waiting for them to finally fix the supremely janky tab behavior.
why it was restricted in the first place?
Maybe they couldn’t guarantee that the mobile version could run well with all of them? That’s what I’ve always assumed.
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Which I think is kinda weird decision since they could’ve just hidden a setting that unlocks all addons in the options. But maybe they were so incompatible at the time that it wasn’t worth the headache.
There is a hidden way to activate more extensions and most - if not the vast majority - extensions work fine.
There is a hidden setting for essentially that. It might be exclusive to Nightly though, idk since all I need is UBO
If you use Beta or Nightly, you can turn on dev tools and use a custom addon list from a collection in your user account. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/
Because there were enough incompatibilities to make it a hassle. But when they were sorting out the Web Manifest v3, they designed it with desktop and mobile in mind, so new extensions won’t have problems.
It makes less sense since extensions actually ran on Android, e.g. via Nightly and creating your own list of exceptions. Also if you downgrade and install in an old Fennec version, extension will continue to function if you then update to the latest.
I think the move was an attempt to create a walled garden. But for whatever reason, they have now decided against it. Thank goodness.
It would be nice to have stuff here to break this down
It’s about damn time
For every one who want to test it out you can use iceraven browser a Firefox fork that supports way more extensions than stock Firefox mobile https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser
You can also use the Nightly app and load addon collections. It’s an absolute pain in the arse, and a lot of extensions don’t work, but it’s one way to get them.
I didn’t know that this feature is already dort of waring in the nightly build but it makes sence that they will test it out in nightly
Honestly, it’s as if they don’t really want you using it. It’s a legitimate feature but hidden away and quite difficult to use. Here’s a guide on getting it set up. I’ve been using it since it came out and haven’t had too many issues, but a lot of addons just don’t work as intended.
Permission to shout hurrah in an annoyingly loud voice sir!
Permission granted Private
Installed firefox yesterday. Nothing really changed or improved. Uninstalled firefox.
It’s 3 clicks to install AdBlock on Firefox mobile and that alone instantly makes it superior to Chrome.
Ublock origin is better I believe.
Ublock origin is actually #1 on top of the list and the one I have installed, I was using “adblock” as a generic term.
As far as I can tell, chrome mobile does not support ublock origin like firefox mobile does.
What is the main reason you (presumably) use Chrome over Firefox? People here might be able to help you solve the problem.
Not a Firefox hater (I use Fennec), but Chrome is faster than Firefox.
The difference is these days are negligible. And Firefox is even beaten Chrome in a few tests
but people don’t care about tests, they care only about what’s fast and comfortable for their device. maybe firefox might be a better option for users in the latter once the browser plug-ins come to play.
On my 3 year old budget model android phone, things run fast 99% of the time. I have considered myself a power user for years. Having said all of that, I’ve recently switched from chrome to Firefox on android and it definitely feels not noticeably slower. I don’t doubt you, it’s just that phone hardware has gotten so good that decent software rarely (feels like at least) pushes it to the limit for more than fractions of a second at a time.
it’s just that phone hardware has gotten so good that decent software rarely (feels like at least) pushes it to the limit for more than fractions of a second at a time.
I second this, processing time and network speeds have been getting better over the years. The difference in speed in Chrome and Firefox is a “little” noticeable but that’s why I don’t care and use Fennec as my go to browser everyday. I mean, it’s better than the days where it will take more than 20 seconds to load a page.
Technology has gotten better, all kinds of people have access to the internet these days and use it to learn something, or watch something they like. But it’s kinda sad that big tech companies have started to be greedy and try to either milk them for money or become a monopoly themselves.
I switched from Chrome to Firefox in 2019, and I never had a detectable difference in speed
Yeah website loading difference is negligable but chrome still feels much smoother on android
Feels exactly the same to me (if not slightly faster due to adblocking). You might just be mistaking familiarity with Chrome for it being tangibly better.
Ive been exclusively using firefox mobile for more than a year but just installed bromite because I had some issues with firefox. Its mostly that scrolling feels smoother, which might just be animation trickery
Hm yeah weird. I tried chrome just to test and the scrolling is definitely slightly different but I don’t think it’s smoother. Just kinda tweaked differently I guess. Haven’t tried bromite tho.
In general what chromium browsers have out of the box in firefox you have to install addons to have that functionality and still it’s worse experience. For example pwa support. Worst thing is that websites and now software only supports chromium.
Firefox mobile has pwa support, which works well for me and I never had a website that doesnt work on firefox (except for google earth maybe).
It works, but for whatever reason it’ll die and go blank on me whenever I switch to another app, then I have to kill it and reopen it.
pwa support is extremely limited on android firefox, but I don’t really care. web apps are slow and I’d much rather use native apps…
Literally was just telling my partner how much better browsing is since switching to Firefox on android. The ability to install extensions period is a huge upgrade, but also there are several available that are fantastic and not features available on chrome. Not sure what you mean about needing extensions to match chrome features. In fact, none of the extensions I’ve installed are features present in chrome. Plus I can block ads and trackers, activate dark mode everywhere, and use YouTube for audio with my screen off. I am kicking myself for being lazy. On top of giving Google personal data for no reason, I’ve had a worse browsing experience for years.
For YouTube, check out ReVanced on GitHub
Or LibreTube!
Better yet, check out NewPipe on F-Droid. :^)
Hell yeah! It even performs better for me than either ReVanced or the official YouTube app
I prefer LibreTube =)
It’s funny how some people are willing to use weird android mods that can’t run half of the apps to protect their privacy while others can’t even wait 0.01s longer for a page to load.
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Good point. Privacy usually means sacrificing some level of convenience.
Meanwhile, I find most of these convenience tools such as the “Modes and Routines” app and Google Maps timeline to be creepy and dystopian as fuck.
Personnaly I do realize that 99.99% of people run stock android/iOS but sometimes forget and am surprised that the same people don’t have any ad blocker.
I still use it but I have to say the fact that the page auto-refreshes when you leave the app and come back drives me bonkers.
Maybe your phone runs out of ram?
Or is it the 4 hour idle setting?:
If it’s not that feature, it’s likely either memory tuning or battery optimization stuff. Some phone manufacturers set those values to levels that are more aggressive than they really need to be, leading to processes being terminated in the background when they ideally shouldn’t.
About damn time, they should never have disabled it in the first place.
Let’s just appreciate the fact that basically no other browser has this.
With chrome/ium you can’t even block ads.
That’s a lie sir. Brave blocks ads out of the box. Vivaldi also has ad block filters. You can add custom filters to both browsers. Also edge has shitty ad blocker. Kiwi browser supports almost all chrome extensions. Basically almost all except chrome and still you can block most of the ads using correct dns server.
We’re talking about actual web browsers here, not spyware that uses your device to run a botnet
Firefox is as much botnet as others. Full of telemetry, diagnostics, pocket and other shit. That’s why there are secure forks. Firefox in stock form is as much botnet as others. Also firefox is selling out to the same google so don’t pretent it’s better because it’s not.
Accepting a ton of money from Google to make it the default search engine isn’t selling out to them. Any concerned user will know how to change the default.
Take your meds
Sorry but even with all that said, you’ll never lure me to the evil side. I’m sticking with Firefox until it dies an atrocious death
Firefox already supported ublock origin on mobile and a handful of other extensions. This is just them opening it up to more extensions.
I use kiwi browser for the extension support.
It’s enabled in the beta version, although limited to a small number of extensions.
I haven’t been using Firefox for Android because I heard they don’t have a WebView Implementation so the firefox browser has to be used beside the Chromium WebView meaning there’s an attack surface of two browser engines. I also heard that the Firefox sandboxing and site isolation isn’t very good between websites.
I’ve been using Vanadium WebView and browser because of that.
I don’t know what this means
Android System Webview allows apps to display browser windows in the app rather than taking you to your web browser app. On Android, chromium is used for webview. If you use Firefox as a default browser, the remote attack surface increases because they’re two different browsers with different security issues.
Site isolation enforces security boundaries around each site using the sandbox by placing each site into an isolated sandbox. Firefox doesn’t have that feature so they’re vulnerable to attacks like Spectre.
My goodness that’s awesome. I never understood why they locked it down in the first place about a year ago. What changed?
They wanted to have compatibility with Chrome extensions. But that was all just a n EEE move by Google. More perfidious since they created the open standard in the first place
Nice. What I need now is the ability to group tabs together
Have you tried sidebery? When I found tree layout for tabs to be a thing I haven’t looked back.
Thank you! I am going to install it right now on my desktop PC. I was referring to the android version btw 😂
Ahh, of course, that should’ve been obvious 😅
Can we have tabs when using a tablet please?
No no, that would make way too much sense.
Written on a Fold 4 that’s currently not using Firefox ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)
And why not phones too if the user prefers it that way. Can we have our user preferences back please?
You don’t have tabs using a tablet?
I think he means tabs along the top like on a PC browser.
Correct.
Let’s tab tablets
Yesssss
no need for beta anymore or are there still some restrictions in place?
