Upcoming Firefox 57 ("Quantum") is twice as fast as Firefox 52

Blackjack Davy · 24 Nov 2017 at 01:02

mrk said:
I have not had Flash installed for over a year. Only sites that are not worth visiting use Flash still anyway.

You mean like BBC Weather and its video that no longer works?

Kelt said:
Well that's just great. Firefox updated to Quantum without my permission, and has wiped out my group tabs (no longer supported).

There doesn't seem to be a replacement (unless anyone can point me to one).

Is there another browser that supports group tabs that's any good?

So annoying,

My other PC has auto updated and almost none of my plugins/extensions works anymore. Damned annoying. Even the developers say there are API changes or bugs that make it no longer possible and to switch to some alternative browser. My main PC keeps asking to update Firefox. Fat chance.

jpaul said:
Unfortunately some APIs have been deferred by the Firefox team to 58.
NoScript will be released as a WebExtension for Firefox 57 with all the major functionalities but some limitations (mostly related to features used by the Tor Browser, which require the still missing APIs), while feature parity with "legacy" NoScript will be guaranteed only when the Tor Browser gets its next major upgrade, i.e. in March 2018 when it will be based on Firefox 59.

Yep that sounds about right. Can't understand why they'd destroy the one thing that gave FF any advantage, may just as well switch to Chrome now.

jpaul · 24 Nov 2017 at 08:36

Blackjack Davy said:
My other PC has auto updated and almost none of my plugins/extensions works anymore. Damned annoying. Even the developers say there are API changes or bugs that make it no longer possible and to switch to some alternative browser. My main PC keeps asking to update Firefox. Fat chance.

I have disabled extension updates too, pre-quantum;
I do not know, if, with quantum, the same technique to block browser update and extensions will still work (is it going to become like win10)

Blackjack Davy said:
why they'd destroy the one thing that gave FF any advantage,

I infer you use Tor Browser add-ons for additional anonymity - (genuine question ) what does that address, principally, for you ?

On a minor point - blocking animated gif's (OC seems to allow people to post these) so I now set 'image.animation_mode' to none in about:config,
it did not seem worth installing an extension to give click on animate.

V F · 24 Nov 2017 at 10:45

jpaul said:
I have disabled extension updates too, pre-quantum;
I do not know, if, with quantum, the same technique to block browser update and extensions will still work (is it going to become like win10)

I don’t get where we’re going. Only it appears they don’t want you to have control of your own stuff or options. They want everything forced. Even if it has to break stuff.

One big player does it, they all do it and life seems to be about trending.

mrk · 24 Nov 2017 at 14:56

Who genuinely relies on BBC Weather videos anyway? That dept needs to buckle up and liaise with the iPlayer devs to get onboard the HTML5 video wagon.

I get all my weather info from Google Now anyway, or just "OK Google" it.

Pawnless Endgame · 24 Nov 2017 at 23:12

Okay guys, I've now found a replacement add-on for saving files to MHT, so I have taken the plunge for FF 57.

The add-on is called Save Page WE. It saves web pages as HTML5 with all of the picture embeds so that it remains a single file like the MHT format. As for my old MHTs, I'll just find a converter.

I'm liking the speed increase.

My add-ons that still work:

- Imagus
- uBlock
- New Tab Homepage

Add-ons that I had to replace (but still work ok):

- Greasemonkey > Violentmonkey
- unMHT > Save Page WE
- Blank Your Monitor > Dark Mode

Add-ons that are updated for FF 57 but are broken:

- Middle Click To Go Back.. intermittent problem where pressing middle click closes the current tab instead of going back 1 page

Add-ons that haven't been updated (and can't find replacement):

- Image Context Menu (had shortcuts to TinEye, useful for saving images from Instagram and could open images in new tab etc)
- Web Clipper (will need to look for another screenshot add-on)

Hmm... seems like FF now includes a screenshot facility, but when I click it in the context menu, nothing happens. Nothing in download folder.

mrk · 24 Nov 2017 at 23:31

Hold up, middle click to go back??! That's what the back button on the mouse is for!

It's not right if it's not middle click to open a link in a new tab

Pawnless Endgame · 24 Nov 2017 at 23:55

Mrk, middle clicking on a link does open it in a new tab, so that functionality is still there.

What the add-on did (middle click to go back):

Middle click anywhere that isn't a link would go back by 1 page.
If I'm on the 1st (or only) page in the command history, then middle click closes that tab.
Using the wheel still scrolls the page as normal.

The problem I got since FF 57 is that middle click sometimes closes the tab even if I'm not on the 1st page in the command history.

mrk · 25 Nov 2017 at 00:13

Ah I see now, that makes more sense.

opethdisciple · 26 Nov 2017 at 23:54

Lots of tab crashing today.

jpaul · 27 Nov 2017 at 08:49

... so when a tab crashes all off the tabs using that same process get taken out too ... but the others survive ?
I asume you cannot assign tabs to processes, so that reliable web-sites are on the same processor ?
(I run multiple browser sessions each with their own profile pre-quantum)

Quantum, explained Ryan Pollock, the Firefox product marketing manager, in a blog post. In Firefox Quantum, instead of assigning each tab its own process, only the first four tabs have a dedicated process. Other tabs share the processes used by the four most-used tabs. In this way, Firefox Quantum tries to balance memory usage and performance, Pollock explained

.

Kelt · 27 Nov 2017 at 14:35

Blackjack Davy said:
My other PC has auto updated and almost none of my plugins/extensions works anymore. Damned annoying. Even the developers say there are API changes or bugs that make it no longer possible and to switch to some alternative browser. My main PC keeps asking to update Firefox. Fat chance.

I ended up downloading the version before Quantum and disabling any updates.

Back to normal with all my add-ons working, happy days.

Can't say for the couple of days I used it that Quantum was any faster than what I'm using now.

Blackjack Davy · 29 Nov 2017 at 15:16

Kelt said:
I ended up downloading the version before Quantum and disabling any updates.

Back to normal with all my add-ons working, happy days.

Can't say for the couple of days I used it that Quantum was any faster than what I'm using now.

Same here I never had any issues with speed and I've got a ridiculous number of tabs open (500+). I did the same but woke up this morning and none of the Nexus mods site will load just states "server unavailable" or somesuch. I've removed FF and switched to Waterfox the site actually works now and the creator plans to add security updates, for now at least. After that... who knows. I hear good things about Vivaldi or maybe I'll take a look at Opera again but until FF gets its act together again I'm done with it.

opethdisciple · 29 Nov 2017 at 21:43

So.... observations.

Firefox doesn't seem as stable as Chrome. I'm experiencing a lot more tab crashing and freezing than I ever remember using chrome.

And this is with a default out of the box FF. No addons. (Flash player and dictionary)

Rroff · 29 Nov 2017 at 21:48

Not had any issues like that myself aside from on an older Atom tablet where it seems FF gets busy with background scripts periodically and can lock up tabs.

jpaul · 29 Nov 2017 at 22:27

Blackjack Davy said:
I did the same but woke up this morning and none of the Nexus mods site will load just states "server unavailable" or somesuch.

if you use noscript and and got its web-app/quantum compatible update this does not play with the older pre-57 FF's, I could not access many sites until I reverted noscript.

Are there any stats on how many users have been forcibly migrated to the Qunatum ?

Ars Technica has an interesting thread on Qunatum https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2...rolling-out-to-everyone/?comments=1&start=120 -
- Fortunately do not use facebook but apparantly desktop version is a bloated pile of junk
- liked this comment

That ship has sailed... The hipster code monkeys in Mumbai or San Francisco won't listen or care. They assume everyone has an i7 and 32 GB ram, like they do.
The only realistic way to fight back: NoScript, uMatrix, UBlock Origin.

opethdisciple · 29 Nov 2017 at 22:57

I've also had the URL in the address bar disappear as well. Just an empty box. You can copy the invisible URL and paste it tho.

Orcvader · 30 Nov 2017 at 11:02

opethdisciple said:
So.... observations.

Firefox doesn't seem as stable as Chrome. I'm experiencing a lot more tab crashing and freezing than I ever remember using chrome.

And this is with a default out of the box FF. No addons. (Flash player and dictionary)

Is this with a fresh FF profile? Tried fiddling with the performance settings?

LoadsaMoney · 30 Nov 2017 at 12:05

Just had v57.0.1 through

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firef...um=firefox-browser&utm_source=firefox-browser

opethdisciple · 30 Nov 2017 at 12:58

Orcvader said:
Is this with a fresh FF profile? Tried fiddling with the performance settings?

Yep. New install as I was using Chrome before. Performance settings are the default.

Pawnless Endgame · 2 Dec 2017 at 20:49

What happens when a tab crashes? I haven't seen it on the new 57 version. 9 tabs open atm - OcUK, deviantART, WhatsApp web, 3 x Flickr and 3 x YouTube. I guess those who are crashing have more than 9tabs?

Older Firefox versions would occasionally freeze on me though, eventually saying "stop script from continuing? yes / no" which occurred on heavier sites.