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Firefox 66 Arrives With Autoplaying Blocked by Default, Smoother Scrolling, and Better Search (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 66 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The release includes autoplaying content (audio and video) blocked by default, smoother scrolling, better search, revamped security warnings, WebAuthn support for Windows Hello, and improved extensions. The company says its main goal with this release is to reduce irritating experiences such as auto-playing videos, pop-ups, and page jumps. Firefox 66 for desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. The Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play.
I know firefox is a mature browser (same for opera) and I should use it for privacy reasons, but chrome just has such a better user experience. I kinda hate myself for it. Opera use to have it going on (mouse gestures and much more) but sigh, kinda the same as firefox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser)
Basically this. Fuck the SJW tards.
The only true browser feature I want is to terminate all of the friggin' popup layers that harass for your email. In what way are these better/less intrusive than popup windows? No! I don't want to be on your mailing list.
Chrome and Firefox devs: Please damn this blight to hell. It's on almost every site I visit and it's such a pain in the ass. Especially if you can't use to close them.
Yeah, what the fuck. If only there was a way to turn off smooth scrolling, for the whiny little bitches such as yourself...
i have smooth scrolling disabled.
on 'lesser' systems, it's a performance hog..
plus.. my mouse wheel 'clicks' (i hate ones that don't, and clicky wheels are also better for most games), i want my documents to 'jump' predictably with each 'click'.
and google doesn't? give me a break. they are the largest lobbyist in the world.
Seriously?! Firefox has always had a focus on politics. It is the reason it exists. You can't seriously separate FOSS from politics, in my honest opinion. Hell, Firefox came about because of a need to stick it to Microsoft in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Don't be a tool.
So, you prefer all info to be channeled into a single silo (or a few of them) through its specific mobile app with its specific closed protocol, instead of having lots of different silos from different providers accessed through a common standard?
"main goal with this release is to reduce irritating experiences"
Oh, what a grand joke! It is to laugh...
I've been using Firefox ever since it was Netscape 3 or so, and I still am convinced it's the best browser on the planet. I'm a bit worried about all the extra bits they keep developing that are not necessary in a browser or that exist from other companies already, like notes and a password manager. I'd rather see them spend time on Thunderbird.
-- Cheers!
The point is this is additional code to maintain, debug, additional "flag" to enable/disable it, ... KISS please.
Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
No Classic Theme Restorer. Or Download Statusbar. Or a status bar that will let me run things from it.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
No. It was when they decided to straight up copy Chrome. There is really not much in the way of difference between the two at this point beyond the back end I think.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
Generally they can be blocked with uBlock Origin. It's been effective for me.
Right-click when the pop-up shows and "Block Element". May have to do more than once, and may have to be careful what element is selected.
It's fine for not liking freedom or privacy. But you too do need them to be a productive citizen in the modern economy. I tend to not focus on any political messages but instead focus on the product and the Nightly browser has served me well since I switched to it at the version eleven. I'll use it until it removes the rest of the functionality I need for everyday use.
Smooth scrolling is literally the first thing I turn off on a Firefox install.
It sounds as if your complaint is about lag, not smooth scrolling, and I'd agree on that point. All response to input (keyboard, mouse, click, touch, pen, etc.) should be displayed instantaneously, or as nearly as possible. If the CPU can't keep up, it should skip frames rather than dragging out the rendering of lagging frames. I also hate animations that introduce delay for no purpose.
That said, scrolling with a wheel or touch are naturally continuous with high resolution input devices. Even if the wheel has ruts, the rotation itself is continuous and can be directly transformed, resulting in smooth yet precise scrolling. (assuming the ruts aren't just a glorified page up/down key, in which case the hardware is garbage, and the application should not interpolate the discreet input with "smooth" scrolling.)
Or is it still transmitting a metric fuckton of metrics to the mothership?
I saw "autoplaying content (audio and video) blocked by default" in the summary and jumped into the usual test suite. All still played. To learn why, I read the featured article and found this:
This means autoplaying video in floating ads will continue to drain your computer's battery and your monthly Internet cap.
I believe this is literally "smoother scrolling" and not the laggy smooth scrolling feature, which can easily be turned off. Probably makes more of a difference on mobile, where scrolling has always been a little janky.
Try Pale Moon . I've been using it for a year as my primary browser, on linux and on Windows. Or look into Firefox-esr. I run Devuan at home and use ff-esr as my backup browser.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
In firefox (and now with my preferred browser, pale moon), there is a "feature" I use all the time that is not in Chrome.
When you create a bookmark in FF there are properties associated with it, e.g. Description. You don't have that in Chrome.
I use the description to house my userid and password hints for the many sites I have that I need to log into. I never put the full info in it, so it is reasonably secure. I gave up on password managers years ago, and this system has served me very well. Bookmarks can be easily backed up and restored with descriptions fully in tact. Password gets updated, I just update the hint in the description.
It doesn't sound like much, but I once tried to switch to Chrome and it was immediately something that I missed - and there was no equivalent feature.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
The problem stems from stupid designers that require animated backgrounds
(Why? Whyyy?!!!!?!?!?)
Using silent videos is still the most efficient way to do these. .GIF animated image) instead of stopping the animation.
If you disable silent videos, the websites will usually try to fall-back to some *other* less-efficient animated format (e.g.:
If designer didn't insist on such backgrounds, Firefox could still block all videos.
Instead, we have to rely on this conditional block to avoid even *more* damage to your monthly internet cap.
But at least, uBlock can take care of the advertisements (be it autoplaying videos or not) and at least on Firefox, that works even in the mobile version (unlike Chrome where only the desktop version gets uBlock)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
No, it doesn't block auto video playing, nor a floating video window.
On accuweather web, click into a Trending Now item on the right, the video will be auto-playing and floating if scrolled down.
Hell, Firefox came about because of a need to stick it to Microsoft in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Don't be a tool.
I think you'll actually find it was Mozilla that pre-dated Internet Explorer.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
Not being negative but it won't always work with every web site. I've tested like Edge's auto play option and its hit or miss if it works all the time. But its better then Chrome which doesn't really care about this stuff and I am still amazed how many defend Chrome. I don't see Chrome as that great of a browser. Its a total RAM hog, scrolling on a touchpad the worst in Chrome then any other browsers and it looks horrid and out of place unless your running Chrome OS.
I really don't care about new features. I want to switch back to Firefox, but I just can't do it until they fix the spinning wheel of death issue.
Popisms.com - Connecting pop culture
That is the ONE thing I absolutely need. BLOCK ALL EFFING AUTO PLAY, PERIOD! Why the hell would I ever want some stupid video to auto-play just because it's muted? If I want to watch a damn video I'll click on it thank you very much! /me resumes using flaky extensions that attempt to do that, sometimes with limited success and sometimes also break things I actually want to work...
"... some websites ... make Firefox run at 100% cpu."
I see that problem, also. It seems that, after many years, that would have been fixed.
Also, why does Firefox consume CPU power and add to memory usage when you are viewing something else?
How much assembly in Firefox is currently generated from Rust sources and how much from C++?
The only thing you blow is trucker dong. I hear the line is getting awfully long down at the Pilot Travel Center, better get over there before you lose customers.
I see apk made you look as stupid as you prove you are again hahahaha https://games.slashdot.org/com...
In Windows, you can view the CPU and memory usage using the free Process Explorer.
Mark Russinovich may be the best programmer Microsoft ever hired. My experience is that most Microsoft programmers leave obvious defects in what they write. Do Microsoft programmers do that so that there will always be more work for them to do?
A typical wheel mouse is just a glorified page up/page down key. What mouse has a continuous input on the scroll wheel?
He showed us that you don't know what Mozilla is, that's for sure.
Pale Moon tries to convince you not to use the NoScript add-on, and sometimes deletes NoScript.
Pale Moon also doesn't allow the use of the Ghostery add-on. It is necessary to use the Disconnect add-on, which has both a free and paid version, and has a much-less-useful user interface.
Seems stable, they didn't screw with the UI, Ublock and Noscript eliminate most autoplay for me so I cannot immediately tell a difference. Good job.
omfg so much THIS. first thing I do when setting up a new install of any browser is to go and disable smooth scrolling.
Now if only firefox would give us an option to disable ctrl+q (without an addon), that would actually be useful! (who the hell makes ctrl+q close the entire program with no confirmation, then puts useful hot keys like ctrl+a, ctrl+w right by the deadly one!?!)
Video here still autoplays:
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal....
This is a technological game of whack-a-mole. Every browser improvement is countered by some new trick. I'll stick with the auto-mute FF extension.
The feature appears to have disappeared in more recent versions of Firefox. Current version I'm running is 65. There's still a keyword field but this changes the case of anything you type (Quick Brown Fox turns to quick brown fox) since presumably keywords are case insensitive.
When Safari will do the same?
This feature was pulled from Firefox 66 about a month ago and won't be available until 67.
Read the release notes.
Thanks! I'm using an old version of Firefox because I need the add-ons.
Soon I will try to find add-ons I need that work with the newest version. Hours of work.
I have been using a firefox plugin called "Hide Fixed Elements". It works for some, but not all. Puts a simple toggle button on your toolbar.
MacOS model's not done: Stop IMPERSONATING me lying & proof portfilter err's can't happen https://news.slashdot.org/comm... in my work!
u ADMIT u have a /. acct & STALK me by UNIDENTIFIABLE ac https://hardware.slashdot.org/... - YOU got ISSUES.
That's "best ya got"?
u WISH u were ME (as ur POOR imitation = the sincerest form of flattery).
WASTING ur life STALKING me by UNIDENTIFIABLE anon OR IMPERSONATING me?
Make a Wheel https://isc.sans.edu/forums/di... as I did giving users more speed/security/reliability & anonymity NATIVELY doing more for less vs. ANY single 'solution' via the best hosts file multiplatform:
APK Hosts File Engine 2.0++ 64-bit for Linux h t t p : / / a p k . i t - m a t e . c o . u k / A P K H o s t s F i l e E n g i n e F o r L i n u x . z i p
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APK
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Firefox, Chrome, etc can't we just get a browser which does not have any code accessing or supporting the camera and microphone inputs?
I don't want to do face time via browser.
I want to browse without the exploit risk of someone bypassing the software off switch for microphone and camera.
Especially on mobile phones.
Camera / mic support is a vulnerability and not a feature same reason not to get a smart TV with them or a Nest with a 'hidden' disabled microphone.
Autoplay should be an easy on/off setting with OFF disabling autoplay of videos, audio and animated GIFS.
I tested just now with Firefox 66, no add-ons, and even after setting media.autoplay.allow-muted=false but click pretty much any story at cnn.com and some obnoxious, usually only slightly related, video starts autoplaying at the top of the article, without fail. In comparison, the "Disable HTML5 Autoplay" extension actually does prevent those from playing, so I know it's possible. Firefox needs to try harder.
Set the following in about:config and it will enable the new behavior right away (otherwise, you might need to wait for it to roll out to all users over time):
media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed=true
media.autoplay.ask-permission=true
media.autoplay.default=2
media.autoplay.allow-muted=false
I've tested this and it works on accuweather. It doesn't stop the ads on the right (I tested with no extensions), but it does prevent the large auto-playing video in the main pane when you click a trending item. It also blocks CNN which is another really stubborn one.
"Firefox works perfectly fine...", said the person with little standards. It's not perfectly fine, but it's best feature is that it is not made by Google. There is a lot of improvement needed before I would call it "perfectly fine". Same goes for Chrome, as well.
https://notabug.org/themusicgo...
Search text "Palemoon"
I had mine set to upgrade automatically. It did so to ver 66, and now no video will play on any website, at all, even if I want them to. If I click on them, they show a loading icon, then disappear.
The only plugin I have is noscript, but even with that disabled, no videos work at all (and I had lots of sites cleared in NoScript before, to where the videos would play)...
Ummm... how do I revert back to version 65?
Everything working again. I was gettin kinda jittery without my cat videos and rule #34 children's cartoons.
It was a nice idea, but NoScript does the job pretty well already quite frankly.
I'm afraid that you are confused. Netscape predated IE. Not Mozilla. Mozilla wasn't created until 1998, when Netscape opensourced their browser code.
I like to use middle click scrolling, when sitting at a desk with a real, wired mouse. It consists in clicking and holding the middle mouse button then moving the mouse to scroll.
Been using that for like 15 years and Firefox is consistent in supporting this.
On laptop, two-finger scrolling seems to replace this.
Does not work on ESPN (http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/26313639/dillashaw-gives-belt-suspended-nysac)
Is there a browser that allows any actual good management of bookmarks?
Here's what I want
- bookmarks accessible in a tab page, not (only) in a side bar, drop down menu (missing a scrollbar) or free-floating window
- use all available screen space to show bookmarks. Use the 2D area. No giant fonts and spacing : a lot must fit, on many columns, with small separators for bunches of bookmarks
Why not then allow the user to block GIFs past the initial frame? One could just download one frame and stop.
Because GIFs are just step 1 on the scale of horrendously ineficient way to get a stupid animated background.
If web designer notice GIF don't work, they'll find alternatives:
Much further down, you find horrors like a bunch of discrete frames that get loaded and animated without javascript, relying entirely on CSS.
And if you start blocking CSS, half of the web (all these "modern design with panes" type of pages that attempt to do flashy things while you scrool) will become broken and unusable.
Allowing mute video is the simple solution.
For the rest, let WebExtension authors try to cook up a solution that works enough and is verstile enough to not break the web.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
You can't disable it on Linux. The addons haven't worked on Linux since they crippled addons.