back to article Mozilla whips out Rusty new Firefox Quantum (and that's a good thing)

Mozilla has pushed its much-hyped "Firefox Quantum" browser build into public beta. The build, also known as Firefox 57, is being hailed by Mozilla as the most significant overhaul of Firefox in years, boasting a rewritten browser engine and the integration of multiple new components. Nearly a year in development, Firefox …

  1. mscha

    And the collateral damage is customizability. No more add-ons like Tab Mix Plus or Status-4-Evar.

    Might as well switch to Chrome, then.

    (Actually, I already switched to Vivaldi. Not quite as customizable as Firefox used to be, but stil much better than Chrome or new Firefox.)

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge

      The add-on authors have the option to port their add-ons to the new API, so it's not a complete loss, but it's true that a lot of add-ins have stopped working for the moment.

      1. Matthew 26

        Many of the good ones cannot be ported at this time

        In particular, Classic Theme Restorer (Australis sucks)

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: Many of the good ones cannot be ported at this time

          Australis SUCKS like a Kirby. I _HATE_ the 2D FLATSO!

          well, we can always fork it like Mate and Devuan

      2. richardcox13

        > The add-on authors have the option to completely rewrite their extensions

        FTFY

        And there is little incentive for them to do so.

      3. Dan 55 Silver badge

        The new API is far less powerful than XUL. Many just can't be rewritten.

    2. Updraft102

      Moved to Waterfox here. It remains to be seen if the addons that can't be ported because webextensions is too weak will continue to be developed as Waterfox or Pale Moon addons.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Got scared about losing extensions

    ...thankfully all my favourites will still be available. Principally NoScript (see https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/08/01/noscripts-migration-to-webextensions-apis/) and Privacy Badger.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. gormful

      Re: Got scared about losing extensions

      Looks like the three add-ons I find critical won't be ported to FF57: Master Password Timeout, Open in Browser, and Classic Theme Restorer.

      (sigh) If I wanted to use a fast browser that's ugly and doesn't have the features I need, I would have simply switched to the deplorable Chrome. Thanks, Mozilla!

      1. Criminny Rickets

        Re: Got scared about losing extensions

        Another that won't be ported, that I use quite frequently, is the ......

        Update, I was going to say that DownThemAll Download Manager would not be ported, but upon checking the authors website, found that he will be doing so after all. but due to limitations in WebExtensions, it will be a scaled back version.

        This is part of what he had to say...

        Progress?

        September 27, 2017

        I decided to make a “lite” DTA web extension after all.

        Of course, it will have serious limitations and far fewer features, but that’s a limitation of WebExtensions and what can you do?

        On a maybe positive, it should be easy enough to support Chrome too (and Opera, etc?)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Got scared about losing extensions

        "...(sigh) If I wanted to use a fast browser that's ugly and doesn't have the features I need, I would have simply switched to the deplorable Chrome..."

        Funny I'd thought that the first prize for Ugly would go to Edge?

  3. Peter X

    Raspbian builds?

    Are there builds for Raspbian available? The "uses less memory" thing might be useful on the Raspberry Pi as that's where Chromium can be a bit painful.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Raspbian builds?

      Maybe, but you'd have to try the Ubuntu PPAs

  4. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    First look

    Just downloaded and installed the beta. It seems to be faster to launch and still supports uBlock Origin. Old school Firefox users will be pleased as punch to note the return of square tabs but will continue to dislike other elements of the UI. I kind of like it so far.

    1. Notas Badoff
      Pint

      Re: First look

      I'm going to try it for a few days, looking for bugs. With the encrusted paleocode they were lumbered with from the old days, it was near impossible to address some bugs. Apparently some things - new and old - just couldn't be handled by architectures dreamt of 10 and 15 years ago. Some bugs had multiple attempts at fixes, but which broke too many things and had to be abandoned. Today I came across yet another bug report that was 6 years in the fixing.

      I've got crossed toes hoping they've got a platform for the modern age.

    2. gv

      Re: First look

      "Old school Firefox users will be pleased as punch to note the return of square tabs"

      On Firefox 55 there are the Compact Light and Compact Dark themes.

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge

    Will it slurp your data like Chrome?

    If not, I'm in.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will it slurp your data like Chrome?

      This is the huge feature all those whining about obscure extensions no longer being supported are missing!

      Or they can keep using Firefox version 56 forever, I guess.

  6. Updraft102

    No Classic Theme Restorer, Tab Mix Plus, Status-4-Evar? Unless the functionality I want from each of those addons is somehow added to FF's base, FF57 simply does not exist and will never exist. No amount of speed will ever make up for their loss.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardly seems secure... Building Screen/Audio snooping tech right into Firefox.

    Hardly seems secure "good practice" to incorporate screen and audio recording features directly into Firefox and then enable this "beta code" on stable versions RTM versions of Firefox, without any notfication/opt in. So you're enabling buggy beta code that can record screen/audio with "one click" uploading to the cloud for a month.

    Who paid Mozilla to add that feature? I think we know who.

    Fcuking numpties regards Privacy, might not be selling your Privacy directly, but they are doing everything on the fringes to that effect, this feature conduits data to the powers that be, easily.

  8. /\/\j17

    Terrible For Web-Devs

    I'm a web dev. and been using Firefox for years as there are a number of add-on tools for Firefox that just made life easier than using Chrome, like the Web Developer toolbar. With this now killed by Mozilla removing one add-on framework and replacing it with one that has about 25% of the features I'm seriously considering either dropping back to 56 - or switching to Chrome, something I never thought I'd find myself considering.

    Oh, anyone wanting to get their tabs back in the correct place in 57:

    1. Find profile folder (%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ on Windows).

    2. Open/create a "chrome" sub-folder.

    3. Add a "userChrome.css" file containing

    #TabsToolbar { -moz-box-ordinal-group: 2; } #nav-bar{ border-top-width: 0px !important; }

    4. Save and restart Firefox.

    1. nematoad

      Re: Terrible For Web-Devs

      "Oh, anyone wanting to get their tabs back in the correct place in 57..:"

      Or instead of all that shuffling around just switch to Palemoon.

  9. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Yes I was a little worried when the screen grabber icon suddenly appeared on the menu with no notification when my FF upgraded to version 55. Bumping off my Majestic SEO tool.

    I don't have any need for this since I can just press Print Screen on the rare occasions where I want a screen grab of a webpage

  10. JohnSpackman

    Faster than Chrome? At what? Refresh your app with the debugger running and speed plummets to complete unusability, just like the old firefox - its maxed out my CPU for 4 and 1/2 minutes until I killed the process. And when the debugger is not open, it takes 20-30% longer to open than Chrome.

    This is a fairly large app but in comparison, Chrome is instant.

  11. User McUser
    Flame

    It's so fast I don't even care

    IDK about anyone else, but the actual rendering of the webpage I'm viewing isn't the slow part - that takes like 2 seconds and not being a gnat my attention span is sufficient for that delay. No, the problem I have is the thirteen billion external JS files that every page needs to fetch from ten billion other servers that are too busy to respond in a timely manner. "Waiting for analytics.somefuckingadnetwork.com..." is what holds up my browsing experience, not the 30 extra milliseconds layout rendering takes to sort out the CSS or whatever.

  12. Florida1920
    Headmaster

    The big problem isn't with browser speed

    As the post above this one notes, waiting for endless scripts to load is what ruins browsing experience. Your browser may be faster, but most of the time the advantage is lost. This morning I tried to read breitbart.com to see how Goebbels Bannon was gloating about the Alabama election, and got a blank page. Yes, I'm using ScriptBlock (on Chrome, so sue me). Why is it necessary to endure boatloads of Javascript simply to view a site's home page?! Oh, the Breitbart page loaded fast all right, because there was nothing there. (On reflection, I figured there would still be nothing there worth reading if I disabled ScriptBlock, so I didn't bother.)

    I appreciate browser makers trying to improve their product, but they're shoveling against the tide until sites wise up and stop dumping tons of garbage into their pages when all people want is CONTENT.

  13. oneeye

    57 don't hit stable till mid November!

    I've been using 57 on Android for weeks now, and am encouraged by the results so far. I'm not having issues with updated extensions I like, or found great alternatives. My point is, ITS STILL BETA! As of today, and has 6 weeks yet to smooth out the wrinkles. I've used 55 concurrently, and I have definitely noticed the increase of speed. So, as a fan, I'm inclined to give them the benefit of doubt.

    With that said, I use multiple browsers, just because, none are perfect.But Firefox is definitely my primary used.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    chrome review

    I despise chrome.People are like sheep.

  15. NanoMeter

    I loved using Firefox as my main browser for a long time, but had to ditch it for Vivaldi. Even Vivaldi is now starting to get bloated and I might go back to Firefox if it can be more careful with the memory usage. They also need to do something about the annoying Plugin Container crashes before I move back to Firefox.

    1. kcblo

      I have been using Firefox Nightly built ( now ver. 58) for the last several years. It is faster than Chrome from time to time and as stable as a rock in my recent daily experience.

      p.s. I also use chrome

  16. nubwaxer

    i tried 57 quantum beta. it sucks. when it freezes and i turn to task manager to close it my CPU usage is at 100%. my Xfinity TV listings will not load although the page did load after a long wait if i use my VPN and locate myself in Switzerland.

    the browsers behave so differently that i use Opera for FB, which means videos won't stream and GIFs won't move. i had to open Chrome to get my TV listings but i've read Chrome is a memory hog. FF for everyday use. i think too many tabs causes it to freeze. how many are too many? the last one you just opened every time.

  17. nubwaxer

    i always counted on the Image Zoom extension and now that it no longer works there is nothing like it anymore. i tried several, all crap. you'd think it would be easy to zoom in or out on an image but apparently not.

    i don't find quantum at all faster.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like