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Mozilla Releases Firefox 50 (softpedia.com)
Mozilla has begun seeding the binary and source packages of the final release of Firefox 50 web browser on all supported platforms, including GNU/Linux and macOS. From a report on Softpedia: We have to admit that we expected to see some major features and improvements, but that hasn't happened. The biggest new feature of the Firefox 50.0 release appears to be emoji for everyone. That's right, the web browser now ships with built-in emoji for GNU/Linux distributions, as well as other operating systems that don't include native emoji fonts by default, such as Windows 8.0 and previous versions. Also new, Firefox 50.0 now shows lock icon strikethrough for web pages that offer insecure password fields. Another interesting change that landed in the Mozilla Firefox 50.0 web browser is the ability to cycle through tabs in recently used order using the Ctrl+Tab keyboard shortcut. Moreover, it's now possible to search for whole words only using the "Find in page" feature. Last but not the least, printing was improved as well by using the Reader Mode, which now uses the accel-(opt/alt)-r keyboard shortcut, the Guarana (gn) locale is now supported, the rendering of dotted and dashed borders with rounded corners (border-radius) has been fixed as well.
... if the best we can say about Firefox, the "lean, lightweight browser without the bloat" that brought it into existence, is that version 50 has "emojis for everyone", then I think we've completely lost the plot.
So sorry, FF developers; you have a great platform [it's my browser of choice] but we're losing our way here...
I hate those things. They communicate absolutely zero to me. I ignore all posts that include them.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
LUDDITE google hasn't given me emojis in Chrome yet, so I can't make a witty reply.
Yes, because it uses less memory than other browsers, it syncs my bookmarks and other data between desktop and mobile, and I can use ad-blockers and other extensions on the mobile version.
As far as I know, that's not true of any other browser.
Something positive: it sounds like they haven't broken every single extension (yet), and I feel good about switching to PaleMoon if they do.
As a developer, I have to agree. Though I really don't want Google to dominate[*], and for there to be a good alternative to Chrome (and I keep using Firefox myself on principle), it's very hard to avoid recommending against using Firefox when they just don't try to keep pace with simple features. Two examples:
* Firefox still doesn't support "input type=date". There's a long thread, arguing about which UI widget would make the best native experience, but for a developer, all I care about is that there should be *some* widget, however imperfect it might be.
* Firefox on Android doesn't support "mobile-web-app-capable". That's essential for us, because it allows mobile sites to be launched full-screen from a desktop icon, without showing the URL-bar and back/forward controls. For our warehousing application (running on an android hand-held terminal with barcode-scanner), this is critical to prevent user-confusion.
On the other hand, at least Firefox isn't the terribly obsolete mobile-safari (still no WebRTC!), which will only get fixed if the a developers' lawsuit succeeds in forcing Apple to open up.
[*] Google have far too much power, and abuse of Chrome could be much more dangerous to the open internet than IE could have been back at the time.
;-)
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Okay, armchair expert, what would you have Mozilla do?
Given that I've written a web browser, even if simple (the 90s were simpler times), while sitting in an armchair, I guess I qualify to answer?
Bring back the features that were ripped out because they were part of the dumbing down for the masses, or the devs didn't understand them. Instead, rip out things that are security/privacy nightmares and that can be served by add-ons for those that absolutely want them, like pocket, reader, social api, geolocation, or whatever else they've added now.
Then put the effort into two major issues: Compatibility and Stability. Stability also means making the browser lean and frugal enough that it doesn't gobble up gigabytes of memory. It's a horrible piece of bloatware that gets more bloated with each revision, despite all the functionality that has been dropped, like mail, news, irc, gopher, bookmark/settings sync to your own server, a fully functional bookmarks manager and cookie manager, and much more.
Also, keep at least one version LTS where security and critical stability fixes get backported. I don't want to spend most of a week after each upgrade fixing compatibility issues for users. Business users need the latest features and layout changes like a fish needs a bicycle, but they do need timely security fixes. The most tempting solution is to ban Firefox from my users as unsupportable.
Sandboxing? Memory control? DHCP-provided WPAD (automated proxy) support? Extended service releases that include stability fixes? Secure password storage, i.e. not just obfuscated?
No, let's get emojis! And when Vivaldi gets color changing toolbars and tabs, let's copy that too! And what's Chrome and Windows 10 looking like this week? Drool!