Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

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Middleleaze
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Joined: January 6th, 2014, 12:27 am

Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by Middleleaze »

An hour or so ago I opened up Firefox 56 and was shown a message from Chris Beard (CEO) who explained that the new Firefox (V 57) was "Fast for good". I was so excited and instantly upraded to the new look Firefox 57. I wanted to see how much faster it was so I went to load up my saved 22 tab "News Session" only to find that it did not exist. I was informed that it was a legacy add-on and I was offered alternatives. I thought that was great; so I loaded up the alternative and tried to import my existing sessions but that is not available. So, I set up my 22 tabs again and it was a pain. Not only that, it worked bady and could hardly be described as fast. I played around for a while and was so disappointed that I reinstalled Firefox 56. I will stay with V56 until this issue is resolved. If it is not resolved, or I am forced to use V57, then I am afraid that I have no alternative but to find another browser. I use numerous "sessions" every day and they are the very cornerstone of my internet existence. It follows that the speed of these "sessions" is my critical benchmarking and currently Firefox V 57 is a very serious step backwards for me personally.

I am a very unhappy browser :cry:
Last edited by Middleleaze on November 14th, 2017, 3:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Brummelchen
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Joined: March 19th, 2005, 10:51 am

Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Brummelchen »

I was informed that it was a legacy add-on
there is nothing to fix for firefox. ask the author if there is an upgrade but if not, you should save all tabs as bookmarks, then upgrade.

IMO you speak of session manager - there wont be an upgrade
to read the last 3 pages: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14775450
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Reflective
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Reflective »

If you're thinking along the lines of moving to another browser see this Ghacks article: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/11/14/how-t ... r-browser/

Also Waterfox might offer a good alternative: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/08/16/water ... cy-addons/
Middleleaze
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Joined: January 6th, 2014, 12:27 am

Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Middleleaze »

Brummelchen wrote:
I was informed that it was a legacy add-on
there is nothing to fix for firefox. ask the author if there is an upgrade but if not, you should save all tabs as bookmarks, then upgrade.

IMO you speak of session manager - there wont be an upgrade
to read the last 3 pages: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 4775450</a><!-- l -->
I am most grateful for your response and have raised the issue with the author. It seems that since he cannot obtain the API's that are required, and the work involved is extensive, then he will not be producing a version that works with Firefox 57. I have also tried saving the tabs as bookmarks but that produces a very inefficient browsing process. For me, speed is essential and so my browsing process is much faster on Firefox 56. I shall now confine my hope to Firefox not forcing me off Firefox 56. If keeping Firefox 56 becomes untenable then, regretably, I will need to find another browser that meets my browsing needs - that would be a very sad day.

Many thanks for your feedback.
Kevin McFarlane
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Joined: November 10th, 2009, 3:47 am

Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Kevin McFarlane »

If you can't live with 57 then you could go to Firefox 52 ESR for a year before it then gets moved to 57. Alternatively try Pale Moon or Waterfox alternatives. I gather they won't be adopting the new model.
Middleleaze
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Joined: January 6th, 2014, 12:27 am

Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Middleleaze »

Reflective wrote:If you're thinking along the lines of moving to another browser see this Ghacks article: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/11/14/how-t ... r-browser/

Also Waterfox might offer a good alternative: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/08/16/water ... cy-addons/
I have now followed up on your kind suggestion and it does indeed seem that Waterfox will allow me to run my "Session Manager" essential requirements. Moreover, I was very pleasantly surpised to find that Waterfox also imports ALL of my Bookmarks and Sessions - now that is terrific service. Another benefit that I did not expect is that my Sessions on Waterfox are faster than on Firefox 56 and, of course, considerably faster than the inferior session implementations available on Firefox 57.

I am very grateful for your helpful suggestions which now seem to completely resolve my problem. In fact, Waterfox is so much faster for me that I might just transfer over now and abandon Firefox completely. :D
Brummelchen
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Brummelchen »

i have described a working way between upgrade: save session alternative with this
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... tab-saver/ (manually)
or
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... n-manager/ (manually+automatic)

this way round is only possible with firefox 56.

from my view it is very easy to say that mozilla should develop the API - but the reality points out that it is sure possible right now.
same for tabmix plus.

the session management from firefox 57 is nice - i did not lose the last session until now (i dont save various sessions for later, only for purpose).
Middleleaze
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Joined: January 6th, 2014, 12:27 am

Re: Firefox 57 upgrade offer

Post by Middleleaze »

Kevin McFarlane wrote:If you can't live with 57 then you could go to Firefox 52 ESR for a year before it then gets moved to 57. Alternatively try Pale Moon or Waterfox alternatives. I gather they won't be adopting the new model.
I am grateful for your response and have now moved over to Waterfox based on Firefox/55.2.2 - see the footer.
Last edited by Middleleaze on November 14th, 2017, 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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c627627
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by c627627 »

May I ask why move to anything else, when actual Firefox is available that will meet all your requirements and not break your settings or extensions?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/

Firefox 52 ESR is exatcly the same as Firefox, only with security patches until mid 2018.
Open the pod bay doors, Cortana.
Brummelchen
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by Brummelchen »

he cannot use his sessions further - major live issue.
Middleleaze
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by Middleleaze »

c627627 wrote:May I ask why move to anything else, when actual Firefox is available that will meet all your requirements and not break your settings or extensions?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/

Firefox 52 ESR is exatcly the same as Firefox, only with security patches until mid 2018.
I am grateful for your response.

I considered Firefox 52 ESR and the mid 2018 cutoff was a future problem which would have necessitated another change. Instead I chose Waterfox because it is based on Firefox 55.2.2 (see the footer), it is faster than Firefox 52 ESR (for me) and there is no 2018 cutoff.
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ZekeBlue
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by ZekeBlue »

Middleleaze wrote:
c627627 wrote:May I ask why move to anything else, when actual Firefox is available that will meet all your requirements and not break your settings or extensions?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/

Firefox 52 ESR is exatcly the same as Firefox, only with security patches until mid 2018.
I am grateful for your response.

I considered Firefox 52 ESR and the mid 2018 cutoff was a future problem which would have necessitated another change. Instead I chose Waterfox because it is based on Firefox 55.2.2 (see the footer), it is faster than Firefox 52 ESR (for me) and there is no 2018 cutoff.
Question for me would be which extension developers will keep developing in a waterfox compatible mode (ie, the "old" Fx way) now that the extensions can't be used in Fx itself? Their market would shrink dramatically. Of course, you will have existing extensions still working for as long as... well, as long as they still work!
. . . . . . . . . . Zeke
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c627627
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by c627627 »

As I will be in a similar boat in mid 2018, I am interested in your conclusions.
What makes Fx55-based browser "better" feature wise than Fx52 ESR (for you)?
What can I do on my system to test, all things being equal, that one is "faster" than the other? What is your CPU type / amount of RAM, most importantly: are you using an SSD or a mechanical hard drive?

I believe I may have read on the forums (and someone else please correct me) that other browsers like Waterfox will also not be compatible with old extensions after mid-2018, just like Fx ESR - so that's why I figured, why even consider jumping ship for another eight months? I mean Firefox ESR is right there, it guarantees better security until July 2018 than others (that was also my take-away from reading the forums - that actual Firefox has better security updates than Firefox-based browsers).
Either way, this is about what's best for us, not about loyalty to one browser over the other, but other browsers will definitely be an option in 8 months so these questions are very relevant.
Open the pod bay doors, Cortana.
Middleleaze
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Joined: January 6th, 2014, 12:27 am

Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by Middleleaze »

ZekeBlue wrote:
Middleleaze wrote:
c627627 wrote:May I ask why move to anything else, when actual Firefox is available that will meet all your requirements and not break your settings or extensions?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/o ... tions/all/

Firefox 52 ESR is exatcly the same as Firefox, only with security patches until mid 2018.
I am grateful for your response.

I considered Firefox 52 ESR and the mid 2018 cutoff was a future problem which would have necessitated another change. Instead I chose Waterfox because it is based on Firefox 55.2.2 (see the footer), it is faster than Firefox 52 ESR (for me) and there is no 2018 cutoff.
Question for me would be which extension developers will keep developing in a waterfox compatible mode (ie, the "old" Fx way) now that the extensions can't be used in Fx itself? Their market would shrink dramatically. Of course, you will have existing extensions still working for as long as... well, as long as they still work!
I understand your point. However, I prefer to deal with first in the "Now" because the future is always unpredictable. Indeed the developers may decide to abandon Waterfox if their market shrinks, but they may extend their market if business increases and if more people leave Firefox. This is the problem with "what IF" scenarios so I prefer to make todays decisions on todays facts suitably adjusted, if possible, for potential developments. Obviously, I have now made my decision and will live with it until a better solution comes along when I will change again.
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James
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Re: Firefox 57 upgrade disappointment

Post by James »

Middleleaze wrote:Instead I chose Waterfox because it is based on Firefox 55.2.2
It is not based on Firefox 55.2.2 since there was no such Firefox version from Mozilla as you can see on https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/releases/

Waterfox 55.2.0 is a old Release now and the author said there was going to be a Waterfox 56.0 Release mid October (which has yet to happen) and then try to do ESR updates on 56.0

https://www.waterfoxproject.org/blog/wa ... e-download
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