The Firefox/Mozilla Thread

[Andavari]

On 7/2/2018 at 20:21, login123 said:

Fwiw.  Just ran the paf.exe file Hazelnut pointed to, it is indeed the portable version 52.9.0 ESR

While that one she linked to is portable it is however the Legacy edition, although it works the same as the official PortableApps.com version which is always posted here: https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-esr
I won't be mixing those two because the Legacy wants to unpack into a different path.

[nukecad]

8 hours ago, hazelnut said:

 

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session#w_privacy-issues

Aah, those last two words of the link - "privacy issues".

Lots of software companies are having (unneeded) problems with those at the moment.

It will calm down once they fully understand the new European regulations.

[Noesis]

To be fair this has little to do with European regulations, or even the software invading ones privacy. It's actually highlighting a potential privacy issue, which could occur if the end user fails to sign out of signed in accounts, before letting someone else use the device, even though they've shut down the browser. Which is only logical since the browser was set to load the last opened pages.

What I find ironic here is this already happens even if you don't have pages open automatically, it's simply that the pages you're signed into aren't "advertised" by being opened automatically.  Currently with many pages if you fail to sign out, and just close them you'll still be logged in the next time you open that page, irrespective of which browser you use or if you've shut down the browser or computer in the mean time (it does require the same browser to be used and for it to not be clearing cache cookies etc on exit, as this is where that login info is usually stored, it also often requires you to Uncheck the "remember me" setting on a given site i.e. Opt-out  if you don't want that login to be restored, since many sites have it checked by default). Very little to do with firefox IMO, more the nature of the web, and users often never actually logging out of sites, instead simply closing them assuming that will ALWAYS log them out.

[noelist]

quite agree, and is partly why I always use Ccleaner at the end, and if a long session, at timely intervals, of a session on my PC.

Certainly with the BBC now you need to log in.

I think I should run it after every page I visit, as you know, refusing to allow cookies usually means problematic browsing, but , well, running cleaner after every page is a bit OCD...AND A LOT OF MUCKING ABOUT...But still a good idea!......

Well I reckon.

Cheers.

On 8/11/2018 at 08:18, Noesis said:

To be fair this has little to do with European regulations, or even the software invading ones privacy. It's actually highlighting a potential privacy issue, which could occur if the end user fails to sign out of signed in accounts, before letting someone else use the device, even though they've shut down the browser. Which is only logical since the browser was set to load the last opened pages.

What I find ironic here is this already happens even if you don't have pages open automatically, it's simply that the pages you're signed into aren't "advertised" by being opened automatically.  Currently with many pages if you fail to sign out, and just close them you'll still be logged in the next time you open that page, irrespective of which browser you use or if you've shut down the browser or computer in the mean time (it does require the same browser to be used and for it to not be clearing cache cookies etc on exit, as this is where that login info is usually stored, it also often requires you to Uncheck the "remember me" setting on a given site i.e. Opt-out  if you don't want that login to be restored, since many sites have it checked by default). Very little to do with firefox IMO, more the nature of the web, and users often never actually logging out of sites, instead simply closing them assuming that will ALWAYS log them out.

 

[nukecad]

15 minutes ago, noelist said:

I think I should run it after every page I visit,

Can't mention any kind of competition by name on a company site, but take a look in Firefox add ons.

[trium]

ff 60.2.0 esr

 

05. sept. 2018

 

Fixed

• Various stability and regression fixes

• Various security fixes

 

 

• Reference link to 60.0esr release notes

[trium]

ff 62.0

 

05. sept. 2018

 

New

• Firefox Home (the default New Tab) now allows users to display up to 4 rows of top sites, Pocket stories, and highlights

• “Reopen in Container” tab menu option appears for users with Containers that lets them choose to reopen a tab in a different container

• In advance of removing all trust for Symantec-issued certificates in Firefox 63, a preference was added that allows users to distrust certificates issued by Symantec. To use this preference, go to about:config in the address bar and set the preference "security.pki.distrust_ca_policy" to 2.

• Added FreeBSD support for WebAuthn

• Improved graphics rendering for Windows users without accelerated hardware using Parallel-Off-Main-Thread Painting

• Support for CSS Shapes, allowing for richer web page layouts. This goes hand in hand with a brand new Shape Path Editor in the CSS inspector.

• CSS Variable Fonts (OpenType Font Variations) support, which makes it possible to create beautiful typography with a single font file

• Updates for enterprise environments:

  • AutoConfig is sandboxed to the documented API by default. You
    can disable the sandbox by setting the preference
    general.config.sandbox_enabled to false. Our long term plan is to
    remove the ability to turn off the sandboxing. If you need to
    continue to use more complex AutoConfig scripts, you will need to use
    Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR).

• Added Canadian English (en-CA) locale

Changed

• Removed the description field for bookmarks. Users who have stored descriptions using the field may wish to export these descriptions as html or json files, as they will be removed in a future release.

• Dark theme is automatically enabled in macOS 10.14 dark mode

• Changed the default setting to Enforce (3) for the security.pki.name_matching_mode preference

• Adobe Flash applets now run in a more secure mode using process sandboxing on macOS. Learn how this may affect features here.

• Users disconnecting from Sync are now offered the option to wipe their Firefox profile data (including bookmarks, passwords, history, cookies, and site data) from their desktop computer

• Changed how WebRTC handles screen sharing: When screen-sharing a window, the window will be brought to front

Developer

• Three-pane Inspector in Developer Tools separates the rules into its own panel

• Changes affecting developers

[JDPower]

Any reluctant updaters made the jump from the v52 ESR yet and any thoughts? Are the web extensions caught up anywhere near what the old addons used to be? (I keep putting it off, but gotta do it asap. Or possibly switch to Opera which I tried again for the first time in ages recently and was really impressed by)

[Andavari]

I've been on the v60 ESR on this Win10 laptop, I have no complaints about it but then again the only add-on I use is uBlock Origin.

But all non-legacy versions of it after v1.13.8 Legacy are rather annoying because when it updates filters the number at the very top never changes, and every time the browser is closed then opened it looks like there's another update to the filters when in reality there isn't. The newest Chromium/Chrome builds do not have that annoying issue!

Edit:
This is what the tab and non-favicon URL links look like in 60.1.0 and I don't like the looks of it compared to how it looked in previous v50 ESR builds (but at least it's better than Quantum in my opinion which just looks alien):

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Andavari

[trium]

ff 60.2.1 esr

 

21. september 2018

 

Fixed

• Disabled multiprocess support for users running old versions of the JAWS screen reader software (bug 1489605)

• Fixed a startup crash affecting users migrating from older ESR releases (bug 1489744)

• Clean up old NSS DB files after upgrading (bug 1475775)

• Various security fixes

[trium]

ff 62.0.2

 

21. september 2018

 

Fixed

• Unvisited bookmarks can once again be autofilled in the address bar (bug 1488879)

• WebGL rendering issues (bug 1489099)

• Updates from unpacked language packs no longer break the browser (bug 1488934)

• Fix fallback on startup when a language pack is missing (bug 1492459)

• Profile refresh from the Windows stub installer restarts the browser (bug 1491999)

• Properly restore window size and position when restarting on Windows (bugs 1489214 and 1489852)

• Avoid crash when sharing a profile with newer (as yet unreleased) versions of Firefox (bug 1490585)

• Do not undo removal of search engines when using a language pack (bug 1489820)

• Fixed rendering of some web sites (bug 1421885)

• Restored compatibility with some sites using deprecated TLS settings (bug 1487517)

• Fix screen share on MacOS when using multiple monitors (bug 1487419)

• Various security fixes

[trium]

ff v60.2.2 esr

 

02. oktober 2018

 

Fixed

• Fixed hangs on macOS Mojave (10.14) when various dialog windows (upload, download, print, etc) are activated (bug 1489785)

• Various security fixes

[trium]

ff 62.0.3

 

02. oktober 2018

 

Fixed

• Fixed hangs on macOS Mojave (10.14) when various dialog windows (upload, download, print, etc) are activated (bug 1489785)

• Fixed playback of some encrypted video streams on macOS (bug 1491940)

• Various security fixes

[trium]

ff 60.3.0 esr

 

23. October 2018

 

Fixed

• Various stability and regression fixes

• Various security fixes

Developer

Developer Information

 

[trium]

ff 63.0

 

23. October 2018

 

New

• Performance and visual improvements for Windows users

  • Moved the build infrastructure of Firefox on Windows to the Clang toolchain, bringing important performance gains
  • Firefox theme now matches the Windows 10 OS Dark and Light modes

• Performance improvements for macOS users

  • Improved reactivity
  • Faster tab switching
  • WebGL power preferences allow non-performance-critical applications and applets to request the low-power GPU instead of the high-power GPU in multi-GPU systems

• Added content blocking, a collection of Firefox settings that offer users greater control over technology that can track them around the web. In 63, users can opt to block third-party tracking cookies or block all trackers and create exceptions for trusted sites that don’t work correctly with content blocking enabled.

• WebExtensions now run in their own process on Linux

• Firefox now warns about having multiple windows and tabs open when quitting from the main menu

• Firefox now recognizes the operating system accessibility setting for reducing animation

• Added search shortcuts for Top Sites: Amazon and Google appear as Top Sites tiles on the Firefox Home (New Tab) page. When selected these tiles will change focus to the address bar to initiate a search. Currently in US only.

Fixed

• Resolved an issue that prevented the address bar from autofilling bookmarked URLs in certain cases

Changed

• In the Library, the Open in Sidebar feature for individual bookmarks was removed

• The option to Never check for updates was removed from about:preferences. You can use the DisableAppUpdate enterprise policy as a substitute.

• The Ctrl+Tab shortcut now displays thumbnail previews of your tabs and cycles through tabs in recently used order. This new default behavior is activated only in new profiles and can be changed in preferences.

Developer

• Refreshed visual style of Developer Tools menus to improve navigation and consistency

• The Dev Tools accessibility inspector is now enabled by default. This tool surfaces information exposed to assistive technologies on the current page, allowing you to check what’s missing or otherwise needs attention.

• Added support for Web Components custom elements and shadow DOM

• The inspector now ships with a Font Editor that allows you to control non-variable as well as variable fonts

Developer Information

unresolved

• Quick Heal internet security software might crash 32-bit Firefox on Windows. A workaround is documented from this support article until a fixed version of Quick Heal is available.

[trium]

ff v60.4.0 esr

11. december 2018

New

• Updated list of currency codes to include Unidad Previsional (UYW) (Bug 1499028)

Fixed

• Various security fixes

Developer

Developer Information

[trium]

ff v64.0

 

11. december 2018

 

New

• Better recommendations: You may see suggestions in regular browsing mode for new and relevant Firefox features, services, and extensions based on how you use the web (for US users only)

• Enhanced tab management: You can now select multiple tabs from the tab bar and close, move, bookmark, or pin them quickly and easily

• Easier performance management: The new Task Manager page found at about:performance lets you see how much energy each open tab consumes and provides access to close tabs to conserve power

• Improved performance for Mac and Linux users, by enabling link time optimization (Clang LTO). (Clang LTO was enabled for Windows users in Firefox 63.)

• More seamless sharing on Windows: Windows users can now share web pages using the native sharing experience. You can access Share in the Page Actions menu

• Added option to remove add-ons using the context menu on their toolbar buttons

• New for enterprise users: Updated the policy engine on macOS to allow using configuration profiles to customize Firefox for enterprise deployments

Fixed

• Various security fixes

Changed

• RSS feed preview and live bookmarks are available only via add-ons

• TLS certificates issued by Symantec are no longer trusted by Firefox. Website operators are strongly encouraged to replace any remaining Symantec TLS certificates as soon as possible.

• about:crashes has been redesigned to make it clear when a crash is being submitted to Mozilla, as well as being clear that removing crashes locally does not remove them from crash-stats.mozilla.com

• The macOS keyboard shortcut to add "www" and ".com" to a URL is now ctrl-enter instead of [apple]-enter

Developer

• You may now overlay multiple CSS grids at the same time (up to 3) in the CSS Grid Inspector

• The Web Console's command line now highlights JavaScript syntax

• When hovering over elements in the Accessibility panel, the contrast ratio of text against background is now indicated

• Added support for the new CSS scrollbar specification

• WebVR is now available on macOS

Developer Information

[nukecad]

Quote

You may see suggestions in regular browsing mode for new and relevant Firefox features, services, and extensions based on how you use the web

AKA advertising pop-ups.

At least they can currently be turned off in 'Options', but is this the first foot on the slippery slope?

[nukecad]

Has anyone else been getting the slight annoyance of Firefox unpinning itself from the taskbar when you update it from the UI and 'restart Firefox'?

It's happened to me with the last 3, (possibly 4), Firefox updates.

It's not a major issue, just the strange annoyance of having to pin it again each update.

[nikki605]

6 hours ago, nukecad said:

Has anyone else been getting the slight annoyance of Firefox unpinning itself from the taskbar when you update it from the UI and 'restart Firefox'?

It's happened to me with the last 3, (possibly 4), Firefox updates.

It's not a major issue, just the strange annoyance of having to pin it again each update.

I've updated Firefox on my 2 Win7 machines and it has stayed pinned to the taskbar on both.

[Winapp2.ini]

8 hours ago, nukecad said:

AKA advertising pop-ups.

At least they can currently be turned off in 'Options', but is this the first foot on the slippery slope?

I understood this to mean to the new doorhangers calling attention to features like content blocking, I use nightly and haven't seen any advertisements (yet..?)

[trium]

Quote

Has anyone else been getting the slight annoyance of Firefox unpinning itself from the taskbar when you update it from the UI and 'restart Firefox'?

It's happened to me with the last 3, (possibly 4), Firefox updates.

... i dont use update from the ui - i download it.

 

 

 

[trium]

in the past i tryed install ff from the ui, after this it shows me ff 2x in windows 8 uninstaller (in german "programme und features" -> perhaps in english "programs and features"?). since this i download the ff-install-file.

[nukecad]

17 hours ago, Winapp2.ini said:

I understood this to mean to the new doorhangers calling attention to features like content blocking, I use nightly and haven't seen any advertisements (yet..?)

I understand it to mean 'recommended' extensions and the like.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extension-recommendations?as=u&utm_source=inproduct

Of course at the moment developers can't pay to have their extension "recommended", but who is to say what's going to happen when someone decides that they could make some money?
(Which is what I meant about the first step on the slope, we've all seen it before - 'we recommend this' turns into 'BUY THIS NOW').

It also appears that although set to accept by default in Firefox these will initialy only be pushed in the US.

[hazelnut]

Firefox 64.0 is now showing a Booking.com ad in the New Tab page

https://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-640-is-now-showing-a-bookingcom-ad-in-the-new-tab-page