#Firefox doesn’t need any new features to be more attractive for users, it just needs to make CSS theming more accessible
Also ditch AI.
Zen browser is Firefox with easy css theming
Not a fix but having Mozilla coded PWAs could help a bit. Rather than 3rd party.
I like theming , I am already a Firefox user. I think the sad reality is that for more adoptions , in the order of numbers that chrome puts up , Firefox needs to be a default application ; the common users doesn’t want to customize anything ( my hot take ).
I don’t think it is important that Firefox gets to those numbers as long as they can generate enough revenue to keep going.
Not a hot take. Most regular end users are lazy, not tech savvy, or do not care. Not meant as an insult, it is just reality. I used to be a SysAdmin and this was always the case. This is why IE got big, and why Chrome and Google Search got big and to a larger extend why Apple’s offering got big in their ecosystem.
Google trying to kill adblockers Barbara Streisand Effect them into the spotlight, magnitudes more than their own existence had merited to most average users in the last 15+ years, at least in the USA.
And even now, I still know tons of end users who do not use adblockers.
Also don’t add advertising crap that is opt-out and only configurable via
about:config.majority of people dont give a fuck about that
Majority of people also don’t give a fuck about Firefox at all.
So why piss off the few that DO care?
I am not saying they shouldn’t have done that. I am saying its not a blocker in mass adoption.
Uh, no, they definitely need tab grouping before they get into making CSS theming easier.
I would very much welcome them adding support for HDR content too
Looks to be in the works which makes me very happy. If you use nightly, make sure browser.tabs.groups.enabled in about:config is enabled
Tab grouping is nice, but I’ve found Sidebery to meet my needs (specifically nested tab groups, and separating projects — plus it worked out of the box with Firefox Color) much better. I have it configured to automatically unload collapsed branches, which is nice as a tab hoarder, and it can fully send entire panels to your bookmarks for later usage (this is a massive performance improvement when you’re regularly opening 100–200 tabs/day per panel). A native solution, however, would be much appreciated — as long as there’s a way to nest tab groups and unload their contents.
I went with floorp, because it allowed native title bar disabling, with task bar editing so I could inject a grab handle; vertical tabs in sidebery, and a clean, nearly-ui-free vertical.
I’m on Librewolf, but Floorp sounds nice!
You can actually fairly easily unload tabs with about:unloads right now, but you have to do it in the order
FacebookFirefox thinks they should be done for some reason.Honestly, I don’t know why, but sidebar tabs have just never worked for me. It makes no sense, but for some reason my brain just doesn’t process them correctly.
But I agree, in general more fine-grained control of tabs would be the thing I would need in order to feel like Firefox was feature-complete.
Edit: Facebook? Wtf?
yes i agree, tab grouping is very good
And stop doing shady shit
Anyone who thinks they know what needs to happen for Firefox to regain market share, needs to consider what would happen if someone forks Firefox and makes that happen.
There’s no way that CSS theming is it. And in general, “not doing something” isn’t going to be it, either.
they need to offer a better alternative to Electron. once that happens, you’ll have Firefox everywhere. People will code their SPAs to run in Firefox first, recommend it to their users, and accelerate the development of better APIs.
Ah, so it should just be better! I wonder why nobody thought of that yet :P
(Sorry, I’m in a sarcastic mood, but you get my point.)
oh don’t get me wrong if I had a plan for it I’d be doing it. I’ve always found it really weird given the impact that Electron had in app development, why Firefox never tried to ride that train. I know of one short lived effort to take the engine out of the browser.
Usually the answer is limited resources with unclear payoff, i.e. even with Electron’s success, it’s not clear that there’s room for an alternative in the market, and it’d be a lot of effort to do.
There is Tauri which is so much better both from UX and DX.
And yet all the big apps are still using Electron.
Tauri v2 just got released, it’s very recent and corps move slowly; besides, rewriting a project in a different framework is a major undertaking, it would be a bad idea to rewrite a major project in Tauri, which is still not as widespread. I’m unfortunate enough to have to work with Electron and Tauri greatly improves on everything that is wrong with Electron. I have no doubt that companies will begin adopt it in the following years (or a similar tool, the underlying architecture is solid).
Check out Tauri, a better alternative to Electron. It avoids bundling a browser engine in the binary and relies on the OS browser engine.
Honestly, I don’t see why CSS theming is important. The customization is nice and all, but that’s not going to make people switch to Firefox. There are many other things that could be improved, like adding tab grouping. I use this extension called Tree Style Tab which I cannot live without. Firefox having something like that by default instead of an extension would be nice.
However, having said that, OperaGX did find quite a lot of success by simply making it easy to theme the browser, so I can see where they are coming from.
Vertical Tabs are in the Nightly build, already. It is a very rudimentary implementation, still. Personally, I use Sideberry though.
Tree Style Tab which I cannot live without. Firefox having something like that by default instead of an extension would be nice.
Been using TST for a while now, and I whole heartedly agree. Given that it’s essentially just some CSS, I can’t imagine that it would be difficult at all to support natively.
On my list of things important for the browser I use, CSS theming doesn’t even appear.
CSS theming is absolutely dispensable
Only reason I use Chromium is PWAs (Web Apps). Which is why I made an extension that opens links from Chromium in Firefox.
Got Slack running in your work profile on Chromium? Opens links in Firefox work profile.
I should probably release this.
Same here. I have to trust/use an extension and third party desktop application (Progressive Web Apps for Firefox) to get this feature to work and not have to rely on Chrome/Edge/etc.
I can easily see less patient or understanding users dropping Firefox if they find out it doesn’t work with Progressive Web Apps.
My problem with that extension is the separate profile requirement (so new links can’t open in a specific profile), and some things (like Slack) don’t fully work outside Chromium.
My solution works like this:
- Slack open as PWA in Chromium in profile Work
- Click link to http://that
- Extension captures the request, cancels the new tab/window, sends the URL and profile name to a small service running on
localhost - Service opens Firefox with same profile to URL
The extension is set to skip this process if the base URL is the same as the current site (Slack.com/google.com/etc).
Note: Why would someone down vote you for a helpful response? Sheash.
@RmDebArc_5 @firefox I believe they really need better tab organization (without the need for extensions). just basic tab grouping like chrome is a very important feature.
Funny enough
It should also ship with a better default CSS theme.
And stop forcing websites into darkmode. Part of the reason I use resist fingerprinting is for theming.
You could use LibreWolf.
That’s what I use
That should be preventing dark mode out of the box. Is it not?
It is because it has resist fingerprinting on by default
Agreed. This is the only reason (besides the built-in fake VPN) OperaGX is popular. All browsers have pretty much the same feature set. OperaGX’s biggest strength is CSS customization, Firefox’s biggest strength is extensions, Edge’s is being the Windows default and Chrome’s is it’s image of “fast and secure browsing”.
All Firefox needs to be is a jack of all trades. But still prioritize it’s main distinction.
Bad for privacy (potentially)
well extensions can be too, you just gotta trust or use open source stuff
Well I’m very unlikely to stray from Foss. The problem with theming is that it allows websites to pick you out in a crowd. That won’t matter much if you don’t clear cookies on close but for people who want to resist fingerprinting that is a deal breaker.
I would love to theme the browser but that also themes websites are far as I can tell.
