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Firefox Mozilla The Internet

Firefox 66 Arrives With Autoplaying Blocked by Default, Smoother Scrolling, and Better Search (venturebeat.com) 154

Posted by msmash from the browser-updates dept.
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.
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Firefox 66 Arrives With Autoplaying Blocked by Default, Smoother Scrolling, and Better Search More

Firefox 66 Arrives With Autoplaying Blocked by Default, Smoother Scrolling, and Better Search

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  • 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.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Chrome = Google = collect as much of your personal data and habits as possible and sell to the highest bidder ... no thanks

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Firefox works perfectly fine. People will always find reasons to complain, but I find reasons to not let Google into every aspect of my life.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Curtman ( 556920 ) *
        I've tried to go back to Firefox from chrome several times. For me it seems to consume a lot of cpu resources comparatively. On my PC (Ubuntu) the cpu fan runs at full whine. On my MacBook (OSX), the battery life is terrible with Firefox open, even when it is doing nothing. I saw no compelling features that make me want to put up with that.

        • Try Pale Moon [palemoon.org]. 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.

          • 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 [disconnect.me] add-on, which has both a free and paid version, and has a much-less-useful user interface.
          • I use Waterfox, which is basically Firefox without all the Mozilla crapification of the last few years. Tried Pale Moon but it was always a long way behind Firefox in terms of bugfixes, I rediscovered years-old bugs in it, while Waterfox seems to be Firefox as it should be.

      • Last year I wanted to get away from Chrome, so I decided to embark on a tour of other browsers until I found an alternative that worked for me. I decided in advance that I'd give each one a month or two before deciding whether to move on, since I knew that there would be an adjustment period for any new-to-me browser as I tweaked settings, found solutions to problems I encountered, and discovered alternatives to the extensions I was used to. Firefox was the first I tried because I knew it had recently made

    • Vivaldi? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivaldi_(web_browser)

    • Re:I'm so torn (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @11:16AM (#58298262)

      Honestly curious: in what ways do you find Chrome's user experience to be better than Opera's? I just recently switched to Opera after finally getting annoyed at all of the privacy invasiveness of Chrome, and I found that it's indistinguishable from Chrome in the vast majority of cases once I installed Install Chrome Extensions [opera.com] and added all of my important Chrome extensions back that I had been missing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nwaack ( 3482871 )
        I'd like to know this too. I find Firefox, Chrome and Opera to all have similar user experiences. UI-wise, I can't think of anything on Chrome that makes it head-and-shoulders better than the other two.

        • a reason I don't use Chrome (Score:4, Interesting)

          by gosand ( 234100 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @01:05PM (#58298892)

          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.

          • Re:a reason I don't use Chrome (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Curupira ( 1899458 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @02:36PM (#58299506)

            Dude, Firefox has a good password manager. If you have an Firefox account, you can access your password in your desktop and your mobile device, without having to install extensions. With a good random password generator (Lastpass has one at their website, you're good to go.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gosand ( 234100 )

              Dude, Firefox has a good password manager. If you have an Firefox account, you can access your password in your desktop and your mobile device, without having to install extensions. With a good random password generator (Lastpass has one at their website, you're good to go.

              If you have a Firefox account... no thanks.

              • Note that it is possible to set up sync infrastructure yourself to keep all your information (passwords, bookmarks, history, open tabs, etc) on your machines. See here for a walk-through [readthedocs.io]. I strongly doubt Google would allow you to do something like this with their browser since it contravenes their business model- almost entirely built around tracking you.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

                I stopped reading at "password manager" - no thanks.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I'm not the OP but I like how minimal the basic Chrome install is. Opera has a crypto wallet, currency converter, RSS reader and an ad blocker that I would probably not use (prefer uBlock Origin).

        Privacy wise, Chrome is pretty robust and Opera is Chinese-owned now, so I don't think that argument really works.

        • Chrome and privacy do not belong in the same sentence.
          Its a Google product. Their whole business model requires a lack of it.

        • [...] and an ad blocker that I would probably not use (prefer uBlock Origin).

          Just a quick note on this: Opera's ad blocker can be disabled in its settings, and I too prefer to use either uMatrix or uBlock Origin. I'm actually using both in Opera right now (the Chrome versions, since they're generally more up to date than the ones published in Opera's extension library). I use uMatrix to block everything by default, then use custom rules in uBlock Origin to hide a handful of individual page elements that I don't care to see.

      • Re:I'm so torn (Score:5, Informative)

        by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @11:52AM (#58298462)
        For one thing its not owned by a private Chinese equity firm with unknown motives.

        • While that's true and is a great reason to not use Opera, it doesn't speak to the user experience differences that the OP says turned them off from Opera, which is what I was curious about.

        • Responding a second time, but your comment actually reminded me that I had meant to check out Vivaldi but had settled on Opera the last time I switched browsers, before ever giving Vivaldi a try. I'm trying Vivaldi out now, and my first impression is "Wow!". I've had a few hiccups, but it has several features baked into it that I typically have to install extensions to do, plus it runs Chrome extensions natively (including one that didn't work in Opera for me).

          I've only been using it a few hours so far, but

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "chrome just has such a better user experience", Totally disagree. Firefox is simply faster and more reliable. At least under Windows 10. I've not tested on every platform but I use both on Android and various Windows versions XP to 10 (yes, I still have XP machines which simply can't handle 7).

      https://www.pcworld.com/article/3213031/best-web-browsers.html

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      How long has it been since you actually tried Firefox?

      This was very true several years ago, but it is total BS in 2019. I have them both installed and they are almost identical, I can use both efficiently. I'm not sure what user experience you're talking about that is so much better.

    • I held onto that older late-aughts version of Opera for years because I do a lot of multi-thread research and parallel browsing, and the Opera mouse gestures made browsing practically RSI-proof. Was sad when Opera suddenly turned into yet another Chromium clone. Immediately lost interest in it.

      Chrome is a smooth user experience because it makes the interface simple.
      Opera had a smooth user experience because it made users powerful.
      I miss being powerful. (And not having to chase the damn mouse pointer all ove

  • If Only Popup Layers Could be Destroyed (Score:5, Informative)

    by mssymrvn ( 15684 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @11:40AM (#58298366)

    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.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      For me I take the interstitial pop-ups my cue to leave the site. Though I'm not sure that this is more annoying than every site on the internet wanting to show you notifications now or your geo-location.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      This functionality should not be in the browser, it should be in an ad-blocker add-on. Corporations are bound by things like anti-trust and competition laws so they can never build a powerful, strict enough ad-blocker to win that war. It has to be an open source effort.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mssymrvn ( 15684 )

      I will add... I do use Adblock Plus and have for years. And Privacy Badger. Neither does the trick. Will look into uBlock Origin and uMatrix though.

    • They have one advantage: A site can spawn as many of those as it wants, and they still stay on the one page. Close the tab and bye-bye interstitals. Can't really do that with "regular" popups.

    • Hide Fixed Elements (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.

  • Yay for Firefox (Score:3)

    by tsa ( 15680 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @12:24PM (#58298632) Homepage

    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.

  • But (Score:3)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @12:32PM (#58298680)
    No Classic Theme Restorer. Or Download Statusbar. Or a status bar that will let me run things from it.

    • No Classic Theme Restorer. Or Download Statusbar. Or a status bar that will let me run things from it.

      Download Manager S3 works fine and is mostly function-equivalent. CTR is more of an issue but I've been able to arrange enough of the UI to be content.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No Classic Theme Restorer.

      Rearrange the UI elements. You'll get used to it.

      Or Download Statusbar.

      CTRL-SHIFT-Y to pop the downloads window.

      Also there's a UI element to show total download progress baked-in to the firefox interface. It's kinda small but if you really need to see details, that's what the downloads window is for.

      And if you really need it:
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... [mozilla.org]

      Or a status bar that will let me run things from it.

      Unsure what that is. If you miss the ability to run javascript: from the location bar, just press CTRL-SHIFT-K for the javascript console.

      • 1. Rather have the menu bars.
        2. That doesn't work. I have tried using that. I like double clicking on the bar to open things. Pictures. Audio. EXEs.

  • Still autoplays silent video (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepples.gmail@com> on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @12:50PM (#58298794) Homepage Journal

    I saw "autoplaying content (audio and video) blocked by default" in the summary and jumped into the usual test suite [pineight.com]. All still played. To learn why, I read the featured article and found this:

    Mozilla's main goal is to remove the annoyance of sound blaring from your speakers. On sites that automatically mute the sound, the Block Autoplay feature will not stop the video from playing.

    This means autoplaying video in floating ads will continue to drain your computer's battery and your monthly Internet cap.

    • Came here to say this. Autoplay video still plays.

    • Design (Score:5, Informative)

      by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @01:08PM (#58298908) Homepage

      The problem stems from stupid designers that require animated backgrounds
      (Why? Whyyy?!!!!?!?!?)

      Using silent videos is still the most efficient way to do these.
      If you disable silent videos, the websites will usually try to fall-back to some *other* less-efficient animated format (e.g.: .GIF animated image) instead of stopping the animation.

      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)

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I found settings here that allowed me to make the autoplay blocking work for muted videos as well.

      https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media/Autoplay_guide#Browser_configuration_options

    • I went to the TV guide listings to test this. It has an annoying video telling people what they should watch. And the stupid video came on with sound at max volume. So no it doesn't just play muted videos it also plays sound.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Go to about:config and set the following, then it should work. These settings actually weren't pushed out immediately with 66 and are instead rolling out slowly to users over time. You can get them now by setting manually:

        media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed=true
        media.autoplay.ask-permission=true
        media.autoplay.default=2
        media.autoplay.allow-muted=false

    • This means autoplaying video in floating ads will continue to drain your computer's battery and your monthly Internet cap.

      It's still an improvement, so I'll take it.

      • I take that back. Just went to cnn.com, one of the worst offenders, and their videos auto-played with volume on. That's a disappointment.

    • >"This means autoplaying video in floating ads will continue to drain your computer's battery and your monthly Internet cap."

      You can change the settings to block ALL autoplaying media that can be blocked- muted or not (which is NOT the new default). The settings are in about:config. This means animated PNG, GIF, WEBP, and HTML5 video will not autoplay. There are some things that can not be blocked by any browser (yet, or perhaps ever) because they are based on crude javascript "flip" animations. Site

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        That last one will stop all animated GIF/PNG/WEBP from ever playing

        Do these settings also prevent CSS-animated JPEG and PNG filmstrips like this one [pineight.com] and this one [teamtreehouse.com] from playing?

        • >"Do these settings also prevent CSS-animated JPEG and PNG filmstrips from playing?"

          Unfortunately, no. Which is why in the post I said:

          "There are some things that can not be blocked by any browser (yet, or perhaps ever) because they are based on crude javascript "flip" animations"

    • 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 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.

  • Video here still autoplays:
    https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.... [cbslocal.com]

    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.

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