Firefox 57: an overview of what's new (with resources)

I'm also on FF57 Nightly and it's running pretty smooth. I'll post a list of useful, working webextensions here. I use these alongside the Ghacks User.js file (with some overrides). In general, I'd say the "important" addons have already been converted to webextensions. Still waiting on NoScript.

Privacy/Security:
uBlock Origin
uMatrix
Privacy Badger
HTTPS Everywhere
Decentraleyes
Shape Shifter
Link Cleaner
Skip Redirect
Cookie AutoDelete
History AutoDelete

Other:
Violentmonkey
Tab Suspender
h264ify

 

When I tested Firefox 57, it sure did look a lot better (out of the box) than the pictures in the links posted by J R and paulderdash.

Bo

 

That (horrendous) space is called Flexible space. When you click Customize, you see two blocks of Flexible space that can be removed by dragging them out.


Bo

 

This is what Firefox 57 is looking today. All I changed is I added the Menu bar, removed 2 chunks of Flexible space, removed the icons I have no use for and moved the bookmarks sidebar button to the left side. And rearranged the icons on left side of the browser. I think it looks fine.



Bo

 

I really like the Compact dark theme.

 

I hope outdated add-ons will be updated soon?

 

Greetings, Bo!
Removing the second flexible space gave me a little trouble until I dragged it onto the first flexible space I had removed. I haven't done much else for now.



As regards outdated add-ons, I think the simplest way to see it is that if it modifies webpages, it'll be in ver.57 if the developer wishes. But if it involves something more complicated, updates may not be possible unless Mozilla makes available something called APIs.

 

I suppose this means an add-on like FaviconizeTab (one of my favourites), which shrinks tabs, can't be ported.

 

Yes, that's the obvious solution for @BoerenkoolMetWorst 's request. I typed too fast

 

Perhaps that add-on in combination with Open in new tab is what you're looking for. But clicking links with the scroll wheel (if your mouse supports it) works probably just as well.

 

Well, it depends if an appropriate API is available. Perhaps there is but an add-on using it is not yet available ... Have you searched through the Tabs category of FF57* compatible add-ons?

EDIT: There is a bug on Bugzilla which might apply here.
In a comment therein I found that duplicating tabs is natively supported with
Ctrl+tab-drag
Hence, add-ons like Duplicate Tab are actually superfluous.

 

Still waiting for

Privacy Settings
Random Agent Spoofer
Popup Blocker Strict
Speed Tweaks
BetterPrivacy
Imagus
No Resource URL Leak

 

A more easy approach for duplicating tabs would be CTRL+Reload Button on address bar.
CTRL+tab is also used for cycling between tabs and hence would not be a preferred solution on my system.

 

Hi Vasa, nice seeing you. I just played with the flexible spaces moving them back and forth, they moved easily. This screen displays Firefox a little bit more to my liking, resembles somewhat the way Firefox 55.0.2 looks in my computers.


Bo

 

There is a bug which might result in an API which makes that possible. However, you can still use the gHacks user.js which is more comprehensive. And you can create your own user.js with a subset of those settings. Just copy that file to your profile folder, and the corresponding settings in prefs.js will be overwritten. The advantage is that you can re-use this file whenever you reinstall FF or create a new profile.

There are some similar webextensions in the Privacy & Security category although I don't know if they completely replace RAS.

Hm, all popups are reliably blocked for me with uB0.

It contains just a few settings shown in its settings page so it's easy to do that in about:config.

I believe that this is not longer necessary since flash cookies are deleted with other cookies if you configure FF accordingly. Besides, flash is dying anyhow.

Perhaps there is something similar in this category.

This won't be necessary any more with the implementation of this bug (as a part of the Tor browser patches).

 

Nice! Yes, that works very well, too.

Well, it's not CTRL+tab but actually CTRL+tab-drag.

 

Ofc it is.
But dear, to press CTRL+Tab-drag you have to go through the process of CTRL+Tab, that was my point.
When I'm going for the drag part when I have already pressed Ctrl+Tab, my tabs keep on switching, this is the problem I was highlighting.

 

Privacy Settings: IMO, this includes a fairly limited set of options. Instead, I recommend placing the Ghacks user.js file in your profile folder and then create your overrides in preferences/override.js (you'll need to create this folder/file yourself). Ghacks user.js is quite comprehensive and out of the box, it will break some websites. This is my override.js file (personal preferences) to "unbreak" the web and provide more convenience - note I have disabled Firefox' blocklists, safe browsing and tracking protection, so uBlock is a must: https://hastebin.com/wahefazuke.scala

Random Agent Spoofer: If you use uMatrix, there's a setting to spoof user agent on interval. If you need even more comprehensive spoofing, I recommend the Shape Shifter extension: https://github.com/Snapper26/shapeshifter#features

The rest of the extensions are well covered in summerheat's post

 

@NiteRanger

What @siric mentioned is explained in detail here.

 

Great, thanks!

 

I'm not really sure about userChrome.css in Fx57+. Is there any authoritative statement on its future?

But I sincerely hope it will be retained! I use dark backgrounds for web pages and without some userChrome.css code, I'll be seeing white flashes before (some) pages load.

 

Quote:

However - as the subsequent comment says - there are other opinions about this. On the other hand they are adding a webextension API for theming, "so add-ons can make dynamic changes at runtime. This will enable add-ons to do things like adjusting colors based on the time of day ..., or matching your theme with the weather outside." So it seems that the opera ain't over until the fat lady sings.

 

I went ahead and made a collection of currently available FF57 web extensions that you can use to improve your privacy & security:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/siric/webextensions-privacy-security/

If there's any important one's I missed, or you'd like to see one added, let me know.

@summerheat, feel free to add this resource.

 

In a recent update, they provided an option to 'Prevent accessibility services from accessing your browser' in the 'privacy &security' section,which should solve problems like that of @paulderdash

They have also provided a learn more link next to it : https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/57.0a1/WINNT/en-US/accessibility
but currently it's not working.