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Comment by ducktective | Hacker News Reader

Basic fear is that it becomes yet another chromium spawn some ~5 years down the line. Recent dramas surrounding FF on Android and unasked-for UI changes in desktop surely didn't win FF any new users...But...I'm still clinging to it.

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What's the drama on Android? It's been working great for me for years now.

They removed about:config, for one

You can use about:config in Firefox Nightly for Android: https://support.mozilla.org/lt/questions/1300502

They've completely redesigned it about a year ago, making it much faster, but losing add-on compatibility. So pretty much the same thing that happened to desktops on v57, except a bit worse: only 17 add-ons are currently available in nightly.

Still more than what's available on Chrome and Safari on mobile, so it always remained my browser of choice on a phone.

You can install any add-on from addons.mozilla.org in Firefox Nightly for Android: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

Right, but choosing between power user features and stability is clearly worse as a user than not having to choose between power user features and stability.

Also isn't there more telemetry on by default in nightly?

Installing unsupported add-ons also risks instability. Mozilla didn't restrict the initial list of supported add-ons because they don't want to allow add-ons. They continue to expand the list of add-ons supported in Firefox for Android as more add-ons and APIs are tested.

Mozilla uses Firefox telemetry to fix bugs, identify areas to optimize, and guide product decisions. How else can Mozilla know which devices or problems to prioritize?

IIRC fennec (from fdroid) is going to allow all add ons too.

Thanks for the info! What a relief, I'm currently still on v68 to not lose uMatrix, bypass paywalls, amp redirect to html, old reddit redirect and others.

I'm really waiting for this

Neat! I had no idea. Thanks for sharing!

Same but I've disabled its updates since like a year.

Me too. Waiting for the current branch to properly support extensions, or for an Android Chrome fork to support the extensions I use.

Kiwi Browser let install Chrome extensions :)

Yes! I've tried that, but one of my most-used save page extensions doesn't work.

Is that a good idea though, considering that your browser is arguably the largest attack surface there is on your computer?

It's not a good idea. That's also why it's very important to provide updates that do not disable functionality important for the user. That way you don't force users to choose between security or functionality.

Mozilla still does not allow non-store extensions on their new firefox. Until they're back I have to keep old Firefox around. ...which sucks.

They broke all addons and made the Tabs and Bookmarks UIs unusable imho.

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