Why you SHOULD be using Firefox

Ice Tea said:
www.theregister.com

Just the Browser claims to tame the bloat without forking

: Strips the slop and snoopery from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
www.theregister.com www.theregister.com



Not sure how i feel about scripts, i'll have to see how the project matures.
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I read about this yesterday. You can just extract the policies.json file yourself and place it in $FirefoxPath\distribution\policies.json - which, by default, is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distribution\policies.json.

I'm not sure how I feel about using the just-the-browser method - I'd rather dig deep into about:config and change what I can for myself, rather than hope assume Firefox obeys the policies.json file.
 
I keep trying to switch to Firefox but I keep having to stop using it because of a very stupid problem that's more of a me issue than anything else - the keyboard shortcut for the URL bar on the Mac version.

For years I used web browsers on PC where the shortcut key was Alt+D and when I first started using a Mac it was Cmd+L. Annoying, and I could never get used to it, but MacOS has a nice feature where you can remap shortcuts for anything in the menu bars to a keyboard combo of your choice. This works perfectly for Safari, Edge and Chrome, where there is a menu bar entry for "Open Location" that I have successfully mapped to Cmd+D.

The problem is that Firefox, for whatever stupid reason, doesn't have an "Open Location" entry in the menu bar, so there is no way to remap it using the MacOS built-in keyboard options. It seems so ridiculous, but after 20+ years of Alt+D/Cmd+D I cannot get used to Cmd+L and I find it really annoying. I've tried to look up extensions that will let me remap it but I've not had any luck finding anything that actually works. There are MacOS applications which apparently can do it, but I've found them clunky and with their own issues, so I just gave up.

I've found several things online where people have requested that Mozilla add this but they just don't seem to be interested which is silly because it would be such a trivial change. So one last ditch attempt, has anyone got any suggestions that may help me overcome this silly issue?

TLDR - Default keyboard shortcut for URL bar on Mac Firefox is Cmd+L. I want to make it Cmd+D. Every other browser allows use of built in MacOS keyboard remap option but Firefox does not.
 
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Find a way to send F6 (the function key) when you press CMD+D. Global key remap tools like this surely exist on Mac. I'm assuming F6 works on Mac as it does on Windows.
 
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Ah yes, F6 does the job too. Thanks for that. One other problem is that by default Cmd+D is the shortcut to add the current page as a bookmark. That does have a menu item to remap to a different key combination which works but the issue is that Cmd+D still adds a new bookmark, even though the menu bar displays the newly remapped combo.

Good shout though, didn't know about F6. I may be able to make something work with that.

Edit: Amazingly, Firefox does actually have inbuilt remapping now. I went to about:keyboard and the option to remap Open Location and Bookmark Current Tab are right there. Finally I have Cmd+D doing what I want it to do.

Looks like this is a new feature for 147 so it's only been a thing for less than a couple of weeks. Can't believe it's taken this long to get it, but better late than never. It's quite a big deal for me as this is an issue that has been annoying me for quite literally years. As far back as my first Mac which I bought in 2011 so it has actually been 15 years. Crazy.

More info here for anyone that cares: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-keyboard-shortcuts-firefox
 
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@Phemo
v147.0.2 has just landed and I thought of you when I spotted this in the release notes:
Firefox now allows you to customize your keyboard shortcuts to replace hard-to-type or hard-to-remember hotkeys, eliminate conflicts with other software, and create your preferred set. Access this experimental new feature by typing about:keyboard in the address bar and please share your feedback with us on Mozilla Connect!
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www.firefox.com

Firefox 147.0.2, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes

www.firefox.com www.firefox.com
 

Firefox 148 Ready With New Settings For AI Controls - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com www.phoronix.com

With the concerns raised over comments by Mozilla's new CEO with wanting to evolve Firefox into a "modern AI browser", the Firefox 148 release due out later this month aims to address some of those concerns by having a new AI controls area within the web browser's settings.
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https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-controls/

By the Mozilla blog it shows a toggle to disable all AI features for now and in the future.
 
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Anyone ever have FF sporadically open with your last opened tabs? It's been happening to me for a little while now and it's starting to annoy me.

For note, I don't want it to show my previous tabs at all, except in the case of a crash, except it's not crashing AFAIK, because it happens even when i've closed the browser and then come back to it - like today for example.

Startup - Open Previous windows and tabs - it's disabled

TIA.
 
Anyone have this issue that was last an issue 25 years ago with the internet and that is buffering videos? Only happens to me on Firefox all other browsers don't have this issue for me. I have done a clean re-install (uninstalled using Revo Uninstaller including all reg entries) including no addons but more often than not Youtube or any streaming videos played on Firefox will show the buffering circle for like 5 seconds then play the video for 10 seconds and then buffer again (i have a 2 Gbps internet line so its not that)
 
Drizmod said:
Anyone have this issue that was last an issue 25 years ago with the internet and that is buffering videos? Only happens to me on Firefox all other browsers don't have this issue for me. I have done a clean re-install (uninstalled using Revo Uninstaller including all reg entries) including no addons but more often than not Youtube or any streaming videos played on Firefox will show the buffering circle for like 5 seconds then play the video for 10 seconds and then buffer again (i have a 2 Gbps internet line so its not that)
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Don't think I've even seen that mentioned. I thought it was going to be the 'normal' youtube buffering at start issue that a lot seem to get.
 
https://www.google.com|https://www.bing.com|https://www.bbc.co.uk/news
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All these years I've been using Firefox and I didn't realise you could have more than one URL for your homepage, as long as you separate the URLs with the pipe command (|).

In the above example, Bing and BBC open in a separate tab.

Alternative Method
If you have all three sites already open in separate tabs, you can simply go to Settings > Home and click the Use Current Pages button. Firefox will automatically format them with the necessary pipes for you.
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My homepage is about:blank LOL. (EDIT: Actually a lie, homepage is Google, new/default tab is about:blank but I used to have homepage as about:blank as well - must have forgotten to config it on this system I use home so rarely).
 
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Page is the niblets for new tab page (below) and Google for homepage.

Screenshot%202026-02-16%20203620.png


Anything else is diabolical :p
 
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Ironically I new tab and start typing and autocomplete for pages I don't regularly have open on desktop, though use a similar setup for touchscreens/phone. Which is the exact opposite of how I use Windows (Start Menu) where search is usually slower than having things pinned and/or clicking through to it with the mouse.
 
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Rroff said:
My homepage is about:blank LOL. (EDIT: Actually a lie, homepage is Google, new/default tab is about:blank but I used to have homepage as about:blank as well - must have forgotten to config it on this system I use home so rarely).
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Mine is currently the free online bookmark manager Raindrop.io , saves piddling about with sync and can be accessed from any modern browser.
 
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