Firefox 73 Arrives With Default Zoom Level and Readability Backplate

Mozilla today released Firefox 73 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Firefox 73 includes a default zoom level setting, a readability backplate option, and a handful of developer features.

Excellent!

[Retired ICS]

No new misfeatures to turn off! And no fucking about with the UI!

I think this is the first time *every* in the whole history of Firefox where this is true!

Re:

[scdeimos]

You should RTFA more often. It's starting to ship with an "MVP" version (i.e.: we were too rushed so it's full of bugs and missing heaps of features) of WebRender.

Re:

[Retired ICS]

MVP version? What the fuck is that, the Most Valuable Player?

Or is it like a Microsoft MVP, the Mostly Valueless Prick?

MVP = minimum viable product

[DrYak]

I think in this context the parent poster meant "minimum viable product".

i.e.: a very little constraint subset of the technology, just barely enough to have a functionning product.

The general context of Firefox is project Quantum : Mozilla Servo is the forever perpetual alpha "test ground" for new upcoming tech that will never ever get to stable version. Instead, the bits of Servo that get good enough will get incorporated back into mainline Firefox as part of Quantum (proverbially swaping the engine, while

Re: Excellent!

[unrealmp3]

You know that Pocket belongs to Mozilla themselves, right? And telemetry still has value to improve a software if done in a responsible way, and you can still turn it off if you don't agree with it.

Re: Excellent!

[aRTeeNLCH]

I'd be interested to know what browser you use, and what other software and online services. I mean, surely the Firefox optional logging and feedback, similar to most software to improve the software, is more benign than 99% of what's typically being employed. Just turn it off. Pocket? Don't use it.

Re:

[Retired ICS]

Browser = FireFox. Online Services = None.

Re:

[twocows]

Firefox's telemetry and tracking options being slightly better than awful does not make it good. It is entirely valid to raise complaints about the flaws in a system even if that system is relatively better than the alternatives. The bar should not be "better than Chrome," it should be "good software that respects your privacy," especially considering Mozilla's marketing is often about its privacy features.

If they really cared about privacy, then telemetry, studies, and all their money-making efforts lik

Good enough

[DrYak]

Firefox's telemetry and tracking options being slightly better than awful does not make it good.

But being able to turn them off, and provably check that there are no other hidden surprises because 100% of the code is opensource(*), is good enough.

Yes, as you point out, opt-in instead of opt-out is better, but you still have the option.

Meanwhile, in Google land, Chrome is only available as a binary and is basically Chromium + lots of secret ingedients that Google has added into the soup. You can't reliably check that there aren't hidden functions that will keep pinging the mothership even if you try to

Re: Excellent!

[aRTeeNLCH]

I totally agree with your opt-in versus opt-out point. That just shows that Mozilla is a company, where there analysts know that opt-in gets you a small percentage of the data that you get with opt-out. And don't forget that the lack of usability is a stick that most open source projects get to face. I personally love the GIMP, but I took the time to wrap my head around it and since then it's fine for me. Others have different experiences. In that sense, the users who care will opt-out and the world move

Re:

[Retired ICS]

You can turn all that off, including the "remote diddling with my settings" setting, so that Mozilla cannot remotely diddle with the settings you have set. Most people cannot be bothered however. They leave all the spying and telemetry and other useless crap intact, including the ability to let Mozilla do whatever they want to the installed software at any time.

Sounds like you want to have "security as default" rather than the general trend to "most insecure as default" in order to abate the crying of the

73!

[frup]

Back when I was using Firefox 1.0 I did not think I would live to see Firefox 73. How marvellous it is to be alive still so very far in the future.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The summary is wrong, it's not out for Android. The latest version is 68.5 on Android.

Rendering and zoom is still broken.

Re:

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Back when I was using Firefox 1.0 I did not think I would live to see Firefox 73. How marvellous it is to be alive still so very far in the future.

It just makes me....old.

Yes, I also used Firefox waaaaaay back when. The idea of "Firefox version 73" would have sounded like a humorous joke from the future.

Re: 73!

[nullchar]

I used it in 0.7 - when it was better than Netscape.

All the memory problems are gone, relative to what they used to be, and how giant today's web pages are.

Firefox is..

[buswolley]

the best browser around