Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

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Kernel Sanders
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Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Kernel Sanders »

I know this is quick off the mark, but has this been mentioned/discussed anywhere yet?

From those who rushed out to get the Macbook Pro 15" with Retina Display today, reports are the latest Firefox beta has "fuzzy text" at retina resolutions. Particularly fuzzy website text because Firefox uses its own font rendering system which does not scale at retina resolutions.

This makes Firefox unusable on the Macbook Pro 15" with Retina Display.

Just wondered whether this has been discussed somewhere, and whether it's just been noted for the future, or are there soundings that it will probably be fixed asap?

Thoughts appreciated :-k
Rodze
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Rodze »

I'd expect it no sooner than 2015.
TheVisitor
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by TheVisitor »

From NVD in another thread:

For Mac users with the new Retina Macbook Pro, support for HiDPI and Retina Display is coming.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=674373
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=763918
Watabou
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Watabou »

TheVisitor wrote:
For Mac users with the new Retina Macbook Pro, support for HiDPI and Retina Display is coming.


It'll be a New Year's eve gift to mac users from Mozilla. In December 31st, 2019.

Seriously though, why does it take such a long time to push out these updates for Mac? When the metro interface was announced, Firefox got on board immediately and planned to do a Metro version. Meanwhile, it took them a whole year to push out full screen support to the release channel. Even Opera had it.

No wonder they are constantly losing marketshare. And what a shame it is too; Firefox is tons better than Chrome now.
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Grantius
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Grantius »

Watabou wrote:
TheVisitor wrote:
For Mac users with the new Retina Macbook Pro, support for HiDPI and Retina Display is coming.


It'll be a New Year's eve gift to mac users from Mozilla. In December 31st, 2019.

Seriously though, why does it take such a long time to push out these updates for Mac? When the metro interface was announced, Firefox got on board immediately and planned to do a Metro version. Meanwhile, it took them a whole year to push out full screen support to the release channel. Even Opera had it.

No wonder they are constantly losing marketshare. And what a shame it is too; Firefox is tons better than Chrome now.


Maybe because Apple have weird policies regarding what applications can and can't do on the OS compared to Windows/Linux?
And they had issues implementing it?

And the Chrome drive is because Google is ramming it down everyones throat with it built in to installers etc
Last edited by LIMPET235 on June 13th, 2012, 4:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited the un-neccesary language.
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Omega X
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Omega X »

Metro is a more drastic change and needed the lead time.

Meanwhile, Retina compatibility is coming.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=674373
Watabou
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Watabou »

Grantius wrote:
Watabou wrote:
TheVisitor wrote:
For Mac users with the new Retina Macbook Pro, support for HiDPI and Retina Display is coming.


It'll be a New Year's eve gift to mac users from Mozilla. In December 31st, 2019.

Seriously though, why does it take such a long time to push out these updates for Mac? When the metro interface was announced, Firefox got on board immediately and planned to do a Metro version. Meanwhile, it took them a whole year to push out full screen support to the release channel. Even Opera had it.

No wonder they are constantly losing marketshare. And what a shame it is too; Firefox is tons better than Chrome now.


Maybe because Apple have weird policies regarding what applications can and can't do on the OS compared to Windows/Linux?
And they had issues implementing it?

And the Chrome drive is because Google is ramming it down everyones throat with it built in to installers etc


Chrome already has a dev version out with retina support built in today. There are new apps that support Lion's fullscreen mode from the get go or most of them updated within weeks or months before Lion was even out. What restrictions does Apple have that I'm not familiar with? I mean look at Opera. It had Lion fullscreen faster than Firefox and it has less marketshare than Firefox on the mac. And it's running it's own browser engine and it's own user interface. I think it's even less native than Firefox is. But that doesn't stop them. I absolutely love Firefox but you gotta admit, the support for built-in Mac features is really bad.

I guess I just want a Firefox that feels more native on OS X. Australis looks like a step in the right direction though but still, considering how they have done things, that will probably land in Firefox 25.
Last edited by Watabou on June 13th, 2012, 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
NIX365
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by NIX365 »

Grantius wrote:
Watabou wrote:
TheVisitor wrote:
For Mac users with the new Retina Macbook Pro, support for HiDPI and Retina Display is coming.


It'll be a New Year's eve gift to mac users from Mozilla. In December 31st, 2019.

Seriously though, why does it take such a long time to push out these updates for Mac? When the metro interface was announced, Firefox got on board immediately and planned to do a Metro version. Meanwhile, it took them a whole year to push out full screen support to the release channel. Even Opera had it.

No wonder they are constantly losing marketshare. And what a shame it is too; Firefox is tons better than Chrome now.


Maybe because Apple have weird policies regarding what applications can and can't do on the OS compared to Windows/Linux?
And they had issues implementing it?

And the Chrome drive is because Google is ramming it down everyones throat with it built in to installers etc



Also maybe because Microsoft isn't nearly as secretive about what it's doing. I think a lot of people assumed Apple would implement Retina on OS X, but no one knew exactly what the specs would be for it; that being said, no one could really properly make Firefox compatible for the unknown. On the other hand, Microsoft has had Metro out for some time now, and we've known they were going to implement it in Windows 8 with a full API made readily available several months in advance (albeit in a very incomplete preview version of the system); this made making a Metro-compatible browser a lot easier than dealing with an unknown. Metro is also a pain from my experience, it's no surprise that they jumped on it in order to work out a lot of issues I'm sure they've been experiencing while porting it to a completely new kind of interface (especially since developing a Metro application in C++ feels like you're developing in C# anyway).
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Grantius
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Grantius »

Perhaps try Chromium/Srware Iron?
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Tolien
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Tolien »

NIX365 wrote:Also maybe because Microsoft isn't nearly as secretive about what it's doing.


You do realise the HiDPI bug's been open for a year already? This isn't a direct response to the announcement at WWDC, that just made it a little more important.

Apple's been making noises about proper DPI scaling for years but never really had it working till Lion (again, nearly a year old) and you need to put the crackpipe down if you think Google and Opera got any advanced warning.
Any imagined "weird Apple policies" or secrecy is irrelevant here, it just comes down to Mozilla deciding to put more of the resources they have into Windows (which is fair enough, by proportion more users are there). If you reckon the delay's because Apple are secretive how long did it take to get a default Fx theme with Aero Glass on Vista?
Canyonero
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Canyonero »

its entirely about limited resources. stability and performance take top billing. Supporting a feature of a minority os only supported on a miniscule number of its machines is lower and honestly is more important for marketing reasons than because it actually matters.

i just wish osx had some volunteers from that community help with some of this. but i guess the feeling the number of mac users who care about the open web and cancan code is minuscule
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Pravda »

Canyonero wrote:its entirely about limited resources. stability and performance take top billing. Supporting a feature of a minority os only supported on a miniscule number of its machines is lower and honestly is more important for marketing reasons than because it actually matters.


In my experience a majority of web developers use OS X, at least that is the impression I get whenever I visit web development sites. It is a disproportionally important group which Mozilla certainly does not want to lose to the competition.
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NIX365
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by NIX365 »

Tolien wrote:
NIX365 wrote:Also maybe because Microsoft isn't nearly as secretive about what it's doing.


You do realise the HiDPI bug's been open for a year already? This isn't a direct response to the announcement at WWDC, that just made it a little more important.

Apple's been making noises about proper DPI scaling for years but never really had it working till Lion (again, nearly a year old) and you need to put the crackpipe down if you think Google and Opera got any advanced warning.
Any imagined "weird Apple policies" or secrecy is irrelevant here, it just comes down to Mozilla deciding to put more of the resources they have into Windows (which is fair enough, by proportion more users are there). If you reckon the delay's because Apple are secretive how long did it take to get a default Fx theme with Aero Glass on Vista?


Yes, I realize that issue has been around a while. I also never said anything in regard to Opera and Google having any kind of advanced warning. I'm just saying that one company is more transparent than the other, and it's easier to work with someone when they're open about what they're doing. I'm not trying to say that secrecy is the only reason why there isn't Retina support right now; changing DPI scales is an easier process than completely redesigning the browser for a brand new UI. I would expect Retina support to come in Firefox 15, most definitely by Firefox 16.
NIX365
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by NIX365 »

Pravda wrote:
Canyonero wrote:its entirely about limited resources. stability and performance take top billing. Supporting a feature of a minority os only supported on a miniscule number of its machines is lower and honestly is more important for marketing reasons than because it actually matters.


In my experience a majority of web developers use OS X, at least that is the impression I get whenever I visit web development sites. It is a disproportionally important group which Mozilla certainly does not want to lose to the competition.


They already are starting to lose regardless of what system developers develop on. Chrome is gaining market share while Firefox is losing it; until Mozilla really decides to try to make Firefox as quick as Chrome, they will continue to lose market share.
Canyonero
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Re: Mac OSX Retina Display Support?

Post by Canyonero »

Pravda wrote:
Canyonero wrote:its entirely about limited resources. stability and performance take top billing. Supporting a feature of a minority os only supported on a miniscule number of its machines is lower and honestly is more important for marketing reasons than because it actually matters.


In my experience a majority of web developers use OS X, at least that is the impression I get whenever I visit web development sites. It is a disproportionally important group which Mozilla certainly does not want to lose to the competition.

I wouldn't disagree with that either. There are alos a pretty large number of webdevs on Linux machines. And a huge number of web designers use macs. But again, limited resources. Limited things to work on. Would you rather 10 million people not crash, make 1 million people's machines run faster, or make 1 thousand people who write web sites have screens that look prettier? As easy as that decision sounds on its surface, its not.
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