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Ask HN: What's in the Firefox future?

15 points by manuelmagic ↗ HN
I use Firefox since version 0.8. I'm a great fan. Still, in the last months, I started asked myself if Firefox will still be the best browser for me. First it was Chrome interface mimic, then DRM, then ads in the new tab page, then Pocket, then... what's it going to be the next bad news? In the past, I was hunger to get a new Firefox update, because of the new features, better performances etc. Now it's more like "ok, let's check what they twisted this time" or "let's hope everything I like it's still there".

I understand Mozilla can't live on thin air and it has to get money to survive, and I also understand that "normal" people are more excited about something they can actually see or use instead of something under the hood; for example: normal people don't care if Firefox on iOS is not the real Firefox but just a skin, as long they can access they bookmarks, tabs, history etc.

It's not clear at all to me what are Mozilla plans for Firefox. Do they have a real strategy? Or they are just going to keep putting patches at random in order to limit the users-bleeding to Chrome? They say they are committed to privacy, so why Pocket is still hard-coded in Firefox source and uneasy to remove like other addons?

Is there any hope Firefox will still be a slim and solid full-featured browser in the future or it is just doomed to be a bandwagon of bloatware?

I really hope the answers to this question will reassure me. I don't want to have switch to Chromium or have to use Opera or Vivaldi because Firefox is sinking.

6 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 25.7 ms ] thread
rnovak
I'll probably get a ton of hate for this, but I was disappointed with their latest announcement regarding add-ons. When one of the most prominent developers for add-ons for their platform came forward (DownThemAll!, with more than 1.3 Million Users), instead of publicly asking which APIs that developer would need to allow their add-on to continue working, it was basically "oh well, sucks for you I guess". That attitude really doesn't jive with me, so there's no doubt that I'll discontinue my use of their browser, purely over idealogical reasons. But hey, this is just my own opinion.
fabrice_d
It's true that we communicated badly. But we didn't answer "oh well, sucks for you I guess" either. The plan is at https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/FAQ and https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions#Additional_APIs
rnovak
No one may have written those words exactly, but the sentiment was surely there. In this[1] thread, every comment from a Mozilla employee was a justification of the decision, no one offered support to that developer or asked for feedback regarding which APIs were important. That absolutely has the effect of telling someone they're SOL.

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10099240

fabrice_d
Most of the roadmaps are linked from https://wiki.mozilla.org/Roadmap . For instance, take a look at the Platform Roadmap at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/Roadmap and you'll see that there a huge effort ongoing on non-visible parts.

Nice troll about pocket compromising your privacy... you know the code doesn't run at all (it's lazy loaded) until you click the icon that you can remove from your location bar right? and of course you don't get an account by default etc.

I'm not sure either what you mean by a "slim" browser. All modern browser codebase are huge because the api surface is huge. Firefox & Chrome are in the same ballpark, IE/Edge may be smaller since they are not multi-platform. Pocket is a very, very small part of the codebase. At the same time, we are working on making some core parts of Firefox (un)pluggable, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Go_Faster#Project_1:_Ship_f...

manuelmagic
I didn't want to troll about Pocket. I'm not discussing technical details. I'm referring to the fact it is a piece of software with a license VERY different from Firefox that has been integrated INSIDE Firefox. Why is that? Normal people doesn't read licenses, if they see a button they press it and they start using the feature. They do not pay attention that this is a different service offered by a different company. Saying "you can remove it" is not an answer. First because I CANNOT remove it, since it is integrated, secondly because it's like saying that you can uninstall bloatware that comes together a new PC. Pocket, integrated and offered in this way, is in my opinion bloatware and should be removed as soon as possible. There already is the pocket add-on, for anyone that decide to use it. There is absolutely no reason to integrate it inside the main browser. And from a company that puts privacy at the first place, offer a product TOGETHER with another that comes with awful license, is a mistake.
tacone
I share this sentiment, in regard of -pretty much- everything.

And like you, I don't like some of the Firefox novelties. Still I feel they are doing well, and attentive to complaints like yours.

Lets look back to the 2008, for example: http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/09/ubuntu-firefox-...

The outrage was high, and Baker, Mozilla CEO, ended up admitting they did not even know if that box was legally useful or not ("gray area").

In the end, they settled on a perfectly acceptable nagging bar on the bottom of the window, and everybody was fine with it and happy and drinked jack morgan's and rode ponies.

I'm not saying we will for sure settle everything, but I feel the chance is high.