Future of Firefox Australis and LinuxMint

[kmb42vt]

I am concerned about the "social" APIs they have added.
I have a hard time imagining anything that has anything to do with social sharing being anything other than a huge gaping security hole.

True but looking at "about:config" these aren't enabled by default which goes along of what Mozilla stated about this release. Apparently you can activate the supported social web services (Facebook, delicious and a few ore I've never heard of via this web page:

https://activations.cdn.mozilla.net/en-US/

I only found this by going into "about:config" and typing "social" in the search field and it came up with the above link. But there's nothing in Firefox 29 itself to activate these social services locally. Not even a reference to the link above.

[InkKnife]

That is reassuring.

[Previous1]

Here's another Australis screenshot:



Chrome where? (GNOME 3 theme only, no other addons)

[DaComboMan]

Looks nice!

I'm not really that "angry" with Mozilla as i may seem - i'm just not as pleased with it as i used to be.

Asstralis is much leaner and faster than ever and it syncs with Nexus 7!

So, will i recommend it still?
Yes, 'cause their ain't no other browser that compares to it yet.

[xenopeek]

Can you stop being mildly insulting then? "Asstralis", really

[Adelante]

It's not always on purpose, Xenopeek. I know I picked it up once without thinking and I like the thing.

[xenopeek]

DaComboMan has been consistent in naming it that, but okay -- it's called Australis DaComboMan

[DaComboMan]

Sorry guys if i didn't post sooner (plenty of lawn mowing to do).

Yes, you read correctly, Firefox Asstralis and i'm not going to change that until they give me back the option to revert to Firefox 28 GUI or better.
What can i say, you win some, you lose some.

Firefox 29

Pros: speed.

Cons:
1. loss of many addons (until fixed if ever - Whitehart theme for example, has never been fixed since a long long time ago and neither was Openbook for bookmarking).

2. One of the hicks i find in Chrome and Firefox sync, is if you have conflict with Foxmarks, Chrome or Firefox bookmarks sync overrides always!

3. A lot of my bookmarks disappeared with syncing to Firefox online - how does one go about restoring "previous" bookmarks when it is basically a one-way sync from Mozilla servers to your desktop Firefox?

4. My passwords for some reason don't come back with Firefox sync so i have (fortunately had) to restore them thanks to FEBE!
How reliable is Mozilla sync if they can't save your passwords?! Sheesh!

So, yes - Firefox 29 is Asstralis - a bum deal (if you exclude speed improvements).

[killer de bug]

I have been using Firefox 29 for the last 2 days on a Windows system. It's nice. I was afraid at first but in fact, it's really good. It's faster than ever
I will upgrade my LMDE version as soon as I have access to an unlimited Internet access...

[DaComboMan]

Ya, i'm liking it too.

I'm sure most major hicks will be over with in the next year... month?

Just hope it doesn't take decades before the conflicts with extensions are over with.

[woodsman]

I began using 24 ESR soon after 25.0 was released. Not so much because of the slight beginnings of design changes toward Australis but because the search feature was redesigned. When I starting using ESR I realized I was only delaying the inevitable. Worse, the next ESR will be based entirely on Australis.

Having become accustomed to 24 ESR, I admit the interface changes of 29.0 were readily apparent. Fortunately, one add-on helped me restore the previous interface.

Now that I can massage 29.0 into the same look and feel as 24.0, I am going to return to using the latest release. To my knowledge the original search feature change is fixable too.

I am not against change, but few free/libre software developers understand or appreciate the havoc they create with ordinary, everyday, non-geek users when they adopt radical changes or rapid release cycles. In that respect free/libre software is and always will be software designed by geeks for geeks and not designed for everybody else. Free/libre developers seldom use non-geeks users for usability testing. They prefer to use only fellow geeks because then the feedback is almost always positive.

The result is the infamous Linux Year of the Desktop never arrives and never will.

[xenopeek]

I am not against change, but few free/libre software developers understand or appreciate the havoc they create with ordinary, everyday, non-geek users when they adopt radical changes or rapid release cycles. In that respect free/libre software is and always will be software designed by geeks for geeks and not designed for everybody else. Free/libre developers seldom use non-geeks users for usability testing. They prefer to use only fellow geeks because then the feedback is almost always positive.

Overgeneralize much?

[killer de bug]

Overgeneralize much?

I confirm... this is a bit exaggerated

[xenopeek]

this is a bit exaggerated

That is a bit understated

[killer de bug]

FIrefox is THE perfect example of free software, made for the users and not exclusively for 'geek' people.

[wanderer7]

Hmm...Now I've noticed a problem with FF 29 - I can't login to Wordpress with it anymore.
Hopefully they fix it soon. I can't be the only one with this problem.

[kmb42vt]

Sorry guys if i didn't post sooner (plenty of lawn mowing to do).

Yes, you read correctly, Firefox Asstralis and i'm not going to change that until they give me back the option to revert to Firefox 28 GUI or better.
What can i say, you win some, you lose some.

Firefox 29

Pros: speed.

Cons:
1. loss of many addons (until fixed if ever - Whitehart theme for example, has never been fixed since a long long time ago and neither was Openbook for bookmarking).

2. One of the hicks i find in Chrome and Firefox sync, is if you have conflict with Foxmarks, Chrome or Firefox bookmarks sync overrides always!

3. A lot of my bookmarks disappeared with syncing to Firefox online - how does one go about restoring "previous" bookmarks when it is basically a one-way sync from Mozilla servers to your desktop Firefox?

4. My passwords for some reason don't come back with Firefox sync so i have (fortunately had) to restore them thanks to FEBE!
How reliable is Mozilla sync if they can't save your passwords?! Sheesh!

So, yes - Firefox 29 is Asstralis - a bum deal (if you exclude speed improvements).

In response:

1. "Openbook" hasn't been updated since 2008 so this has nothing to do with any recent version of Firefox inclding version 29 and has everything to do with the developer abandoning the extension. Same for the "Whitehart" theme. Hasn't been updated since 2010 and the developer even posted the announcement on the Whitehart "Add-on" page:

"NOTE: this is the last release of this theme. After that it will be discontinued. If someone wants to continue working on it send me a message at mozillazine forum.

This release is for Firefox 3.0.x up to 3.6.x only."

This is not the fault of Firefox 29 or any other version past 3.6.

2 - 4: Again, nothing to do with Firefox 29 or any previous version that included Firefox sync. The problems you describe are almost strictly to do with the Firefox sync servers, not the browser itself or user error. For example, if you're running Firefox in more than one device (desktop, laptop, etc) only one can be used as the "Master" for syncing purposes and even if you already know this, the sync can still fail. In my personal experience with Firefox sync, the problems you describe are common and have been present in every version of Firefox that included Firefox sync. For myself, I quit using it.

Oh, and using two syncing services at the same time usually doesn't work as they'll often conflict with each other just like you said.

Okay, so you lose two extensions that were abandoned a long time ago, maybe others? It always pays to check whether your Add-ons are still under development or not. Firefox and Mozilla have no control over this although presonally I feel they should police their Add-on site better and remove all these abandoned/deprecated extensions and themes.

So now you can install the "Classic Theme Restorer" extension and bring back the older "look", no problem (I use the beta versions available at the bottom of the page under Development Channel:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... erestorer/

[kmb42vt]

I am not against change, but few free/libre software developers understand or appreciate the havoc they create with ordinary, everyday, non-geek users when they adopt radical changes or rapid release cycles. In that respect free/libre software is and always will be software designed by geeks for geeks and not designed for everybody else. Free/libre developers seldom use non-geeks users for usability testing. They prefer to use only fellow geeks because then the feedback is almost always positive.

Overgeneralize much?

Um...Windows 8?

[kmb42vt]

Hmm...Now I've noticed a problem with FF 29 - I can't login to Wordpress with it anymore.
Hopefully they fix it soon. I can't be the only one with this problem.

I have two DYI WordPress powered sites as well as a "wordpress.com" account and I have no problems logging into any of the three with Firefox 29. I respectfully suggest the problem you're seeing is not due to Firefox 29 but something else.

[wanderer7]

I have two DYI WordPress powered sites as well as a "wordpress.com" account and I have no problems logging into any of the three with Firefox 29. I respectfully suggest the problem you're seeing is not due to Firefox 29 but something else.

Oh, thank you kmb42vt, you were right. Your post pointed me into the right direction - instead of blaming FF, this time I took a look at my settings and the problem were cookies. I was blocking them. Now the problem is gone and FF is still the best browser. So, thanks again.