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Firefox Updated With Native Support for M1 Macs, Mozilla Touts 'Dramatic Performance Improvements'
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IINA while still running under Rosetta has been a solid replacement for VLC
Fantastic that the Firefox ARM/M1 version is ready to launch!
Love Firefox for it's customization and performance has been fantastic since the "Quantum" updates started.
Do the available Firefox browser addons require an ARM/M1 version too in order to work or do they "work out of the box"?
Love Firefox for it's customization and performance has been fantastic since the "Quantum" updates started.
Do the available Firefox browser addons require an ARM/M1 version too in order to work or do they "work out of the box"?
We haven't discussed the most important thing yet: Firefox still hasn't updated its icon for Big Sur. Very disappointing.
(Apart from that it's extremely fast, reliable, doesn't use a lot of memory, but that's all second to the icon.)
(Apart from that it's extremely fast, reliable, doesn't use a lot of memory, but that's all second to the icon.)
For those of you new to Firefox, I recommend installing uBlock Origin. Free, and the best ad-blocker there is. It has the advantage of speeding up your browsing too.
While I'm here, if you want password syncing (Apple won't let Firefox use the keychain) try Bitwarden. Works very well on the iPhone too (and Safari).
While I'm here, if you want password syncing (Apple won't let Firefox use the keychain) try Bitwarden. Works very well on the iPhone too (and Safari).
Discord and maybe Spotify are basically web apps run by Chromium behind the scenes, btw.
The iOS versions are Web Apps as well? They could take this as an opportunity to make a proper app just like on iOS.
Discord for iOS is a React Native app, so mostly web with some native elements to it. I don't know about Spotify. It's not on this list: https://reactnative.dev/showcase
As an ex iOS dev who still writes apps in free time, I don't blame anyone for using React Native. I use it myself. It's a lot easier to write UIs with web stuff (Javascript, React, etc) than with Apple's frameworks, plus RN generates an Android app too. React + Electron desktop apps have similar advantages.
There will definitely be server-class processors on the horizon. After all, other manufacturers have ARM servers.
Now, the question of price remain to be seen.
Anyway, we're more and more doing everything online, it's just a question of time before even CPU/GPU heavy video editing~rendering tasks happen in the cloud, and our computers are little more than remote controls.
As for Intel, I do not wish to see them sink. How many people would end up jobless, and what would be the impact on the economy?
I really wish team Firefox to beat the Chromium browsers especially spyware Goolag Chrome but:-
1) Mozilla is about to bust financially. Their only source of income is Google that pays them to be the default search engine. They laid off 250 employees, they are changing office space because they can't afford it, they made bad decisions and financial choices. They are literally begging for money now. Funny enough
2) I was told that Firefox code is old, bloated, and heavy. It also has some security flaws and therefor Chromium and webkit Safari will always be better. I will someone more knowledgeable answer this.
Look at this graph, FireFox market share down 85% but executive pay is increased 4x! They need to fire this incompetent management and save Mozilla.
1) Mozilla is about to bust financially. Their only source of income is Google that pays them to be the default search engine. They laid off 250 employees, they are changing office space because they can't afford it, they made bad decisions and financial choices. They are literally begging for money now. Funny enough
2) I was told that Firefox code is old, bloated, and heavy. It also has some security flaws and therefor Chromium and webkit Safari will always be better. I will someone more knowledgeable answer this.
Look at this graph, FireFox market share down 85% but executive pay is increased 4x! They need to fire this incompetent management and save Mozilla.
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Intel will be fine in the short term. The bulk of Windows systems sold on the market are mid to low end systems, which a market Apple is not in.
The wild card is Qualcomm. They might see the lucrative potential. Once Microsoft completed its full x86 emulation for Windows ARM, we can see OEMs and Qualcomm looking at each other. When we have a feasible $300 - $400 Windows ARM laptops, then Intel will be worried.
And Microsoft will definitely do their best. Contrary to popular belief, they’re not really good friends with Intel.
Hope to see Firefox make a comeback in the browser world. I never did abandon it even when it became garbage about 10 years ago. It has since become MUCH better and I can't stand to see Google take over everything. I already have an Android phone and use their search engine, but that's as far as I care to go into their "ecosystem".
I recall reading the Microsoft dev team that worked on Win 8 that working on it was like a nightmare due to having to support tons of legacy stuff they couldn't just ditch or remake from 0. That's basically what makes Windows great and bad at the same time: it supports a lot of oldies and makes it the most used desktop/laptop OS, but that's basically why it keeps having a lot of redundant stuff, mixed things and not being the most optimized OS there, they just can't rework many things out and just have to add it over there. A bit like Adobe compared to modern coded alternatives like Affinity stuff.
You mean the Touch Bar or the Touch ID? For the former, it uses it, and in my opinion it's the browser which has the best implemented it. I use these shortcuts all the time: refresh, home page, new page.
As for the Touch ID, such as for online payments or for passwords? Yes I don't recall it seeing it on Firefox, unfortunately.
Firefox on M1 Macs absolutely flies. I ran some Speedometer tests (https://www.browserbench.org/speedometer2.0/), and Firefox on the M1 is scoring in the 200-205 range, and Safari scores in the 225-230 range. In day to day use, you cannot see this difference.
FWIW, Safari on my Intel i9 iMac (all SSD, gobs of RAM) scores ~160. This is not always how it was. Firefox 84 on that same iMac scores ~135, which is leaps and bounds better than it used to be, and it's now on par with Chrome and MS Edge.
Safari is the fastest Mac browser on all platforms, and has been for some time, but there's a really strong case to use Firefox as your main browser since it's #2 now in terms of performance. When it comes to privacy, aside from Apple, Firefox is now the next best thing. It's also available on all major platforms, so you can sync your settings and extensions and history/tabs and use them anywhere. It's super-customizable with tons of hidden options. Take a visit to the about:config page to access tons of hidden options. Just as one, simple example: the "toolkit.zoomManager.zoomValues" setting lets you customize your zoom levels as you press CTRL+ or CTRL-.
And, for whenever you're ready to ditch Chrome, visit https://chromeisbad.com for details on how and why you should remove this from your Mac.
Hope this helps.
FWIW, Safari on my Intel i9 iMac (all SSD, gobs of RAM) scores ~160. This is not always how it was. Firefox 84 on that same iMac scores ~135, which is leaps and bounds better than it used to be, and it's now on par with Chrome and MS Edge.
Safari is the fastest Mac browser on all platforms, and has been for some time, but there's a really strong case to use Firefox as your main browser since it's #2 now in terms of performance. When it comes to privacy, aside from Apple, Firefox is now the next best thing. It's also available on all major platforms, so you can sync your settings and extensions and history/tabs and use them anywhere. It's super-customizable with tons of hidden options. Take a visit to the about:config page to access tons of hidden options. Just as one, simple example: the "toolkit.zoomManager.zoomValues" setting lets you customize your zoom levels as you press CTRL+ or CTRL-.
And, for whenever you're ready to ditch Chrome, visit https://chromeisbad.com for details on how and why you should remove this from your Mac.
Hope this helps.
I read about that ie that the CEO is on $1m+ - which seems excessive for a non-profit (I know that Mozilla isn’t strictly a non-profit but it essentially is).
Surely in the era of COVID (and beyond), the company could become largely distributed saving office spaces (and presumably, salaries).
I find it hard to believe that only the talent in SF and the valley could ever run & develop FF.
I don’t know about old and bloated code, but it’s odd that they still seem to use the native UI that they came up with in the 00s.
It’s surely going to far easier to use native OS UI nowadays? (Yes, you can tell I’m not a dev...).