I'm using Firefox Preview regularly for a few month now, and it really is a huge step up in performance. Javascript and CSS-heavy sites now behave as they should, and browsing feels smooth overall. However the UI changes are a big step back and the main reason why I've not completely switched over from the regular Firefox (now I won't have that choice it looks like) :
- The address/search bar is much much inferior. Much less relevant results now come up first. When typing the domain name of a site I visit daily said site will come up low on the list, needing to scroll, while some autocompleted address I've never visited once will be on top.
- Extensions are not supported. A single supported extension does not count.
- The thumbnails are removed from the tab list. Not a huge loss but I had gotten used to it
- Popups each time you close a tab use up unnecessary screen space. Also they often just stay there.
- The address bar is now at the bottom. Change for the sake of change.
I don't know if all of these issues will transfer to the new Firefox, but I wish they would have brought in the engine changes only. Current UI is fine.
I know you say a single supported extension does not count, but they did include the one extension that was an absolute deal breaker for me if it didn't exist.
They -don't- support extensions yet, but they did make it approachable for people like me who simply won't browse the web without an adblocker.
Agreed, to be honest uBlock Origin is the only extension I'm currently running on mobile, and "deal-breaker" is exactly how I'd describe browsing without it. I'll probably give this new build a try.
> They -don't- support extensions yet, but they did make it approachable for people like me who simply won't browse the web without an adblocker.
But from reading this they will ship the update to everyone before all extensions are ready? That really sucks for me, because I also use a password manager and a bunch of userscripts on my current mobile ff.
I'm not happy with this update. They say it is "extension-ready", while they really mean it's "ready for extensions we approve". This isn't the first time they've been wishy washy about true extension support on mobile.
The whole point of extensions is they allow anyone to add functionality, not just selected parties. It is not clear at this point whether or not Firefox will make true extension support a priority.
This new Firefox for Android is shaking up to be far more limited than Chrome's Web Store which is almost as notorious for removing content as Apple's App Store.
I agree. It's also very minor, but one feature I miss from the old Firefox is being able to scroll the address horizontally. Now you have to tap on it, which opens the keyboard.
- Extensions are not supported...
Edit: maybe I misread the article. Do they mean that they're going to replace the old Firefox with Preview in it's current state? It would definitely be horrible if they pushed a downgrade that removes extension support (even if they plan to add more support later).
AFAIK they're adding the extensions API used by all extensions, but they're going incrementally by trying to support APIs used by popular extensions first. They even said they plan to add more extensions soon. Ideally, once the extension API is solid they'll allow you to install from the addon store (like old Firefox). It would be awful if they only allowed you to install they're recommended extensions.
> The thumbnails are removed from the tab list...
That was a nice feature. The icon beside tab names is pretty big, maybe they could add an option to make it even bigger and show a tab thumbnail.
> Popups each time you close a tab use up unnecessary screen space...
Agreed, although I like being able to undo if I accidentally close one. I much prefer the way the old Firefox did it (basically the same thing, but a slimmer banner touching the bottom of the screen). Hopefully they improve this somehow.
> The address bar is now at the bottom...
As someone with a large phone I appreciate this, but if you don't like it you can change it back to the top in settings.
Weirdly, I have felt this is a huge improvement over the Chrome-style address bar that hides when you scroll down. I always found it very distracting for reading, and it doesn't seem to annoy me as much when it's on the bottom (even though I think they brought back the collapsing behavior in a recent version).
> Chrome-style address bar that hides when you scroll down
Is this a Chrome thing? I thought it was just a user-hating web design thing.
A lot of news sites seem to have a topbar that becomes invisible when you scroll down and reappears when you scroll up. I can't stand this. I want to scroll a particular line of text to the top of the text pane. I don't care where the top of the text pane is. I don't care whether the topbar is visible or invisible. But adjusting the topbar's visibility in response to scrolling makes it actually impossible to scroll the text to where I want it to be.
OP is referring to the address bar (part of the browser chrome), and not the "top bar" common on news sites, which is an html element (part of the page).
On the other hand, having a phone you can reach every corner of while using it one-handed is such a nice thing (and regularly discussed here on HN as such) that it wouldn't be too surprising if OP does prefer the bar on top for exactly that reason.
Also, my experience with buttons on the bottom with larger phones is that frequently you end up trying to extend your thumb and hitting a button with your palm, so YMMV anyway.
> I'm using Firefox Preview regularly for a few month now, and it really is a huge step up in performance. Javascript and CSS-heavy sites now behave as they should, and browsing feels smooth overall.
Everyone keeps saying this, but I haven't experienced it myself, and haven't seen any objective evidence for it. On objective benchmarks that I've tried, Preview is maybe 5-10% faster at best. Subjectively I haven't noticed a difference.
They also slowed down the GUI animations to the point where it's visibly slow to me (and maybe a little janky too?). I prefer the older Firefox for Android for that reason alone. (Then again that may just be a personal preference: I switch the Android animations to double speed in the developer options.)
Totally agree with you on the rest of your complaints. They all ring true for me, individually and together.
For me the killer feature continues to be reader mode. It's a breath of fresh air to be able to view the content separated from the inevitably poorly thought out, user unfriendly overlays that take up two thirds of the viewing area.
The most important feature for me ist the tab queue, which allows one to open tabs in the background. My whole mobile web-workflow depends on this feature and they did not implement this, which makes Fenix inferior for me despite the improved performance.
- The address/search bar is much much inferior. Much less relevant results now come up first. When typing the domain name of a site I visit daily said site will come up low on the list, needing to scroll, while some autocompleted address I've never visited once will be on top.
- Extensions are not supported. A single supported extension does not count.
- The thumbnails are removed from the tab list. Not a huge loss but I had gotten used to it
- Popups each time you close a tab use up unnecessary screen space. Also they often just stay there.
- The address bar is now at the bottom. Change for the sake of change.
I don't know if all of these issues will transfer to the new Firefox, but I wish they would have brought in the engine changes only. Current UI is fine.