Firefox 71 Available With New Kiosk Mode, New Certificate Viewer

[Creak]

You get partial hardware acceleration via switching on: layers.acceleration.force-enabled

Indeed, but not for video.

Maybe getting video hardware acceleration on linux is incredibly hard, but I can't find an article explaining why. And if it's just a matter of drivers working on some GPU but not others, well, put an option (like force-enabled) but for video acceleration! If it works, I'll activate it, otherwise, I'll wait for a better GPU or drivers.

[cybertraveler]

You can use nightly, developer edition or unbranded firefox releases and put xpinstall.signatures.required to false.

See : https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#FAQ (unbranded build links on the same page)

Yeah, unbranded is a nice option for me.

I'm not keen on the dev editions as AFAIK it tracks a non-stable firefox release. I'm not the bleeding edge type. I like my computers & software to Just Work. New features can find their way to me when they're ready.

[ThanosApostolou]

Video acceleration is indeed a big issue on linux and firefox. I have an almost 1 year old relatively cheap laptop with a A6-9220 cpu/gpu and I cannot play 1080p videos on firefox without serious lag all the time. I have to close everything else I do and save my whole cpu just for the video (and still lags sometimes). I have set both layers.acceleration.force-enabled and media.hardware-video-decoding.force-enabled to true without any improvement. Chromium does a bit better but still not great (I'm using default chromium, not some build with custom patches and stuff).

I've seen 8 years old cheap laptops do a lot better with windows 7 and chrome...

[ssokolow]

I'd be happy if there was an about:config option, command line switch or magic-file (you place in the install directory) that advanced users could use to disable it. Google and Microsoft browsers are what less technical users often use. Firefox is the popular choice for more advanced users who know what they want and thus want more freedom to achieve it.

They were actually trying to get out ahead of Chrome on that front, because they were already suffering from badware using positioned, shaped windows to trick users into thinking that Firefox itself was guiding them through enabling the extension the badware installed.

The badware was already using the magic file approach (ie. "Drop their XPI into the folder Firefox's enterprise provisioning scheme was built around at the time") and it'd be easy for them to create/append to user.js to circumvent the about:config approach.

Chrome's "command-line argument" approach isn't that much more difficult if they get particularly determined. Just scan the *.lnk files in the user's Start Menu and Desktop and rewrite them to add the command-line argument, then prompt the user to restart their browser like some installers already do.

(Plus, that sort of nonsense is also status quo. Just look at how every application and its dog used to install system tray icons that only existed to undo attempts by other applications to steal their file associations, or the many examples detailed on The Old New Thing of companies asking how to do thing X which has no official API because the outcome is inherently undefined if more than one application tries to do it... such as true "always on top".)

Changing to a completely different build of the browser is much more involved and much more likely to make the user call whoever they get tech support from.

Yeah, unbranded is a nice option for me.

I'm not keen on the dev editions as AFAIK it tracks a non-stable firefox release. I'm not the bleeding edge type. I like my computers & software to Just Work. New features can find their way to me when they're ready.

You'd be surprised how stable developer edition is. It was the only thing I used for ages before finally chasing Firefox down to ESR when legacy extensions got dropped, then winding up on Canonical's builds of stable-channel Firefox.

[numacross]

Also a new about:config page which I really hate. It's effing unusable.

And that's the point of the change.

[franglais125]

Indeed, but not for video.

Maybe getting video hardware acceleration on linux is incredibly hard [...].

It is being worked on. It will take some time still.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1572697

[Vistaus]

I'd be happy if there was an about:config option, command line switch or magic-file (you place in the install directory) that advanced users could use to disable it. Google and Microsoft browsers are what less technical users often use. Firefox is the popular choice for more advanced users who know what they want and thus want more freedom to achieve it.

Unless your IT manager forces Firefox down your throat. One of my acquaintances knows how to do some basic things, like opening apps, writing word documents and stuff, but she doesn't really know much else, yet her IT manager forces her to use Firefox.

[Zyklon]

Good IT Manager. Don't support Google in getting the sole relevant browser engine. With the current movement towards killing adblockers, you see where you would end up. But the type of people you are, don't care until it's too late. And don't act like Firefox is a bad Browser - it may not be perfect though, but you also haven't payed a single crap.

[bug77]

Also a new about:config page which I really hate. It's effing unusable.

What's unusable about it? I glanced at it quickly and it seems to be about the same as the old one. A little more cartoonish, but otherwise the same.

[birdie]

What's unusable about it? I glanced at it quickly and it seems to be about the same as the old one. A little more cartoonish, but otherwise the same.

1. How can I create a new variable?
2. How can I sort this list by default/not default, variable name or type?
3. What's all these idiotic icons at the right?
4. Why does mouse right click opens the standard HTML page dialog?