Firefox - No More Tab Groups [2015 - 2019]

Bludd said:
It's not long now until Firefox 57 comes and makes a lot of fantastic extensions unusable. I have tried looking for alternatives but it seems the extensions I use are mostly un-portable to WebExtensions.

It's depressing really and Mozilla won't be swayed. It barrels on, bobbing in the river that goes to a big waterfall. I'm not sure I want to take that ride, but I don't really see any good alternatives.

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/07/07/firefox-add-ons-webextensions-state-july-2017/
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I stumbled on Firefox ESR edition. It was released a few days ago and afaik it's intended to be supported for at least a year. I grabbed it and installed it so I'd know I had something to tide me over. Though I suppose I could just deny Firefox from updating to the version that breaks my add-ons. Anyway, other than having to tell Firefox to stop checking to see if its my default browser, because it knows I now have two different versions, the installation of the ESR edition went fine. I let it install where it wanted to, into the current Firefox directory, and it didn't break that version, and it has all my bookmarks and cookies and log-ins. My regular Firefox icon is in my quick launch bar, the ESR one is on my desktop. That's just how the installation worked out. I grabbed the 64-bit ESR edition, while my regular one is 32-bit, fwiw.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq/

What is Mozilla Firefox ESR?
Mozilla will offer an Extended Support Release (ESR) based on an official release of Firefox for desktop for use by organizations including schools, universities, businesses and others who need extended support for mass deployments. You can read more about the plan here.

Where can I download Mozilla Firefox ESR?
You can download Mozilla Firefox ESR here.

What does the Mozilla Firefox ESR life cycle look like?
Releases will be maintained for approximately one year, with point releases containing security updates coinciding with regular Firefox releases. The ESR will also have a two cycle (12 week) overlap between the time of a new release and the end-of-life of the previous release to permit testing and certification prior to deploying a new version.
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P.S. Though the developer stopped supporting it a while ago, MozBackup remains a favorite of mine. Extremely useful when doing a clean install of Windows, or if Firefox needs to be returned to its earlier state. I use it to back up everything: bookmarks, add-ons, plug-ins, cookies, log-ins, cache, and all settings.

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

I'd make a few different kinds of backups before messing with something as important as the tool we use to browse Beyond3D! :)
 
Too bad they didn't plan an ESR release to go along with the old extension model deprecation. Some nice things are lost stepping back to FF52.

At any rate, this Test Pilot experiment, while limited and somewhat clunky, provides some of the workflow management features supplied by the old Panorama/Tab Groups.

https://testpilot.firefox.com/experiments/containers
 
Does anyone know what happens to our tabs when Tab Groups dies/is uninstalled?
I kinda assume the Groups get split out into Windows with the relevant Tabs but I'm scared to experiment.
 
Babel-17 said:
P.S. Though the developer stopped supporting it a while ago, MozBackup remains a favorite of mine. Extremely useful when doing a clean install of Windows, or if Firefox needs to be returned to its earlier state. I use it to back up everything: bookmarks, add-ons, plug-ins, cookies, log-ins, cache, and all settings.

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

I'd make a few different kinds of backups before messing with something as important as the tool we use to browse Beyond3D! :)
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I just copy the user data folder.
 
FF 56 is out.
And we discover that the geniuses at Mozilla think that stupid screenshot tech https://screenshots.firefox.com/ was worthy of becoming core browser tech instead of being a really really obvious candidate for Plugin.

Meanwhile in the hunt for TabGroups October a Mozilla dev has apparently started to get round to looking at building the API necessary, going to really not leave much time for addon devs to get their stuff ready for FF57.
No sign of action in the above linked new version :no:
 
I noticed that Addons screen now lists Legacy next to any addons/extensions that will be incompatible with 57.
7 of my 8...

Mozilla has a '57 compatible' extension finder https://mozilla.github.io/extension-finder/ where you can type in the name of the legacy extension & they show you the recommended alternative.
Currently rather sparse pickings, will hopefully fill out by the time 57 comes out.

It gives Tab Center Redux as recommended Tab Groups alternative https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-center-redux/
First line on the Addon page
This is NOT a replacement to Tab Groups/Tree Style Tabs since this extension has no notion of tabs tree.
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:love:
 
Yeah, its literally just moving the tabs from top to side, doesn't have any of the multi-group thing which is the point of Tab-Groups
 
I checked my Add-On, Classic Theme Restorer, because I was hoping for some good news regarding the upcoming lack of compatibility with the impending release of Firefox 57. Yadda, yadda, yadda, "CSS tweaks" looked a bit off-putting, so I looked into the other suggestion, the Mozilla based Waterfox.

"I like it!"

https://postimg.org/image/85x6ijtewr/

The above is a screenshot of my composing this post within it.

https://www.waterfoxproject.org/

I imported everything from Firefox, had to do a bit of tweaking with the View options, and within Classic Theme Restorer to get the back and forward buttons up top, on the left. But I might have had to do that with Firefox as well. Tweaked the font size, like I had to do with firefox to get it to suit me, and all my other custom settings were already in place from the import.

Features
  • Disabled Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)
  • Disabled Web Runtime (deprecated as of 2015)
  • Removed Pocket
  • Removed Telemetry
  • Removed data collection
  • Removed startup profiling
  • Allow running of all 64-Bit NPAPI plugins
  • Allow running of unsigned extensions
  • Removal of Sponsored Tiles on New Tab Page
  • Addition of Duplicate Tab option
  • Locale selector in about:preferences > General
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I guess waterfox and firefox (and soon to be released "generic-elemental fox") can't be run at the same time.
Without me shutting down firefox, would you know if it's able to automatically import all the addons?
 
Simon F said:
I guess waterfox and firefox (and soon to be released "generic-elemental fox") can't be run at the same time.
Without me shutting down firefox, would you know if it's able to automatically import all the addons?
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Maybe I'm not understanding you, but in regards "I guess waterfox and firefox ... can't be run at the same time", if you look again at the screenshot I posted you'll see I have Firefox running at the same time as Waterfox, it's just minimized to the taskbar. IIRC, upon its installation completing, Waterfox asked to import everything from Firefox. It must have gotten everything I needed, bookmarks, passwords, and cookies, because it was able to log itself into all the sites I visited.

Without me shutting down firefox, would you know if it's able to automatically import all the addons?
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Can't you just not run Firefox while installing Waterfox? I don't think I had Firefox running when Waterfox imported everything from it, so I can't answer your question.

Edit: Interesting, I guess Waterfox shares Firefox folders, or Adobe's flash installer is very smart. Waterfox showed the Flash plug-in as outdated so I downloaded the installer. Both Firefox and Waterfox now show that they have the new version.

P.S. I forgot to mention that some plug-in I don't remember installing, Google's Wildvine Content Decryption Module, wasn't imported by Waterfox. It looks like it's from October 28, and might be part of the updated Firefox that I had just recently installed. So maybe Waterfox isn't cool with using it, needs special permission, or is waiting on seeing what it is.

Yet another edit: I also forgot to mention that Waterfox has a default search engine called Ecosia. I like it a lot so far, better than DuckDuckGo which I'd recently switched to. I added it to my Firefox installation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosia

Ecosia is a web search engine based in Berlin, Germany, which donates 80% of its surplus income to nonprofit conservationist organizations, with a focus on tree planting.[3][4][5] As a "social business", Ecosia is CO2-neutral[6] and supports full financial transparency,[7][8] and is certified by B-Lab as a B-corporation.
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https://www.ecosia.org/
 
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Babel-17 said:
Maybe I'm not understanding you, but in regards "I guess waterfox and firefox ... can't be run at the same time", if you look again at the screenshot I posted you'll see I have Firefox running at the same time as Waterfox, it's just minimized to the taskbar.
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Hmm. As soon as I tried to launch it after installation it said that "Waterfox is already running". How odd. I'll try again later.
IIRC, upon its installation completing, Waterfox asked to import everything from Firefox. It must have gotten everything I needed, bookmarks, passwords, and cookies, because it was able to log itself into all the sites I visited.
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Thanks
 
So TabPocalypse is about to be upon us :runaway:
FF 57 is due to be launched on 14th Nov.

Preliminary to that I've disabled app.update.enabled in about:config a while back.
As of a few mins ago 56.02 is the current version & FF hadn't automatically updated to this so seems to have worked.

The API to allow future TabGroups addon was making progress but seems to have got bogged down, definitely isn't going to be in 57.
No sign of a real alternate :no:
 
FWIW the new Firefox is a major upgrade, PC & mobile
CPU & memory usage is far lower, like perhaps 5-10x (not percent, but times)
 
zed said:
CPU & memory usage is far lower, like perhaps 5-10x (not percent, but times)
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Its a huge shame because that stuff would be really nice in combination with the gazillion tabs us TabGroups users tend to have.

Does anyone know is it possible to have separate installs so I could maybe put some regular browsing stuff into new version & keep my old stuff on old FF?
 
hoom said:
Its a huge shame because that stuff would be really nice in combination with the gazillion tabs us TabGroups users tend to have.

Does anyone know is it possible to have separate installs so I could maybe put some regular browsing stuff into new version & keep my old stuff on old FF?
Click to expand...
It's possible to have a 32 bit and a 64 bit version installed at the same time, but the 32 bit has to be the older non-updated version because Mozilla automatically updates 32 bit FF on 64 bit os to 64 bit at FF57 and up.
 
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