topic Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC] in Discussions

[EVENT CLOSED] Thanks for joining our AMA with the Firefox Leadership Team!

Jon — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 20:20:23 GMT

Nov 14 UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who has submitted questions so far—keep them coming, the event starts in a few hours. In the meantime, meet the team of Mozilla employees that will be answering them.

Clockwise starting from the top left in the image, we are:

Mike Conca, Director of Product, Platform
Vicky Chin, VP, Engineering, Desktop, Mobile, and Pocket
Raja Jacob, Senior Director, Firefox User Experience
Devin Sandoz, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Firefox
Bobby Holley, CTO, Firefox
Carolyn O’Hara, Sr. Director, New Tab & Content Discovery
Andrew Overholt, VP, Engineering, Platform
Tapan Kamdar, Sr. Director, Product Management, Search & AI

See you in the comments!

_______________________________________________

Hi everyone,

The internet has changed a lot since 2004 when Firefox began as a community project. Today, Firefox remains at the forefront of championing privacy, open innovation and choice. And while the last 20 years have been transformative, the best is yet to come.

We’re thrilled to announce that the Firefox leadership team at Mozilla is joining us to host a very special AMA here on Mozilla Connect to celebrate Firefox’s 20th anniversary, and answer any questions you may have about what’s next for Firefox.

As part of our anniversary celebrations, we’ve created a website page reflecting on what we’ve created together so far with videos highlighting Firefox’s evolution since 2004 and your favorite features. You’ll also find fan art and a hat tip to our incredible contributor community, who support Firefox users every step of the way.

This AMA is the continuation of a conversation we started on Reddit in June. We appreciate how actively engaged this community has been in helping us improve Mozilla products. This time around, we want to hear what’s most important to you about Firefox’s future.

In the spirit of our birthday celebrations, we’ll also be gifting select participants in this thread with anniversary swag. Keep an eye on your Connect inbox (post-AMA) for a message from Mozilla staff.

We are opening this thread up to replies starting today, November 8, and we’ll be joining you live with the Firefox leadership team on Thursday, November 14 from 18:00 - 20:00 UTC (time converter) to answer as many of your questions as we can.

As always, we ask that you adhere to our Community Guidelines when posting. We also encourage you to show support for others by voting up your favorite comments using the thumbs up feature.

See you on November 14th!

Event Details

Where: Right here! Questions and answers in the comment section ⬇️

When: Thursday, Nov 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC

Topic(s): Firefox 20th anniversary - reflecting on the past and looking ahead to the future

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Kvin — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 07:19:42 GMT

Hello, congratulations on the 20th anniversary of our favorite browser! It's great to have Firefox, and to have you Mozilla! Without Firefox, there will be nothing, it is the last hope for a safe Internet!

In reality, we are already very grateful for the grouping of tabs, for vertical tabs, and for the improvement of profiles, and for pwa tabs, which is in the works, you know we really wanted this, waiting for years, and we appreciate it, very grateful!

There are a lot of questions, but these are the main ones we want to hear answers to:

Design
When will the next browser interface redesign and add-on store redesign take place, is it planned for around 2025?

we want a new design that brings back the compact mode, icons for various menus, blur in the interface,
new browser icon, and a redesign of the following pages: history page, extensions page, and new tab page.

Features and improvements
Is a feature being developed that will allow us to set our own custom wallpaper in a new tab?
Are there any plans for such features as workspaces, a built-in dark theme for websites, a portable version of the browser for windows, auto-disable extensions on certain selected sites?

Mobile
Are there any plans to develop a feature to enable a horizontal tab bar tab strip on phones?

Optimization
Are there any major improvements and optimizations planned for the browser to speed up page loading?
Actually, we have the fact that other browsers load pages faster, and this has been tested by different users on different computers, and the speed is really slower( we need to do something about it, we need to improve the weaknesses of the browser, to keep up.

Thank you for improving the browser and for hearing us!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

firefly1 — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 22:56:25 GMT

What's preventing Firefox from implementing a 'Force Dark Mode' similiar to what Chromium uses? I know there is an extension that we can use but it slows the browser down considerably and uses a lot of CPU.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

November — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 23:29:15 GMT

The overwhelming majority of your users do not want AI crammed into Firefox. Why are you ignoring them?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ThePillenwerfer — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:01:48 GMT

What's important for me in the future is Firefox remaining broadly as it is. I use it because I like it; change it and I may not. In an ideal world all updates would be restricted to security and support for new protocols and formats.

Most additions over the years have been useless bloat as far as I am concerned — Pocket, Firefox View, Reader Mode, junk on the Home screen &c. Providing it can be switched off or simply ignored it isn't a great problem though.

The main thing I like about Firefox is that its annoyances can usually be mitigated with custom CSS, a feature that sets it apart from the competition.

Of course you can't please everybody — for instance I do not want Dark Mode/Themes full stop as I saw quite enough white (or green or amber) text on a black background back in the 1980s thank you very much — so choice and configurability are key. Things like being able to increase the size and colours of the UI or elements on it isn't just about making it look to a user's taste but could be important for those with vision problems.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dginovker — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:05:43 GMT

I have no question, but only a hope you answer these questions the same way you would when talking to all your friends outside of a corporate environment.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

kinmfer — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:28:37 GMT

I am very happy to see Firefox's 20th birthday, and I am also very happy about Firefox's contribution to the fight against Chrome. I hope to see Firefox working hard in the direction of web compatibility and performance in the future, especially web compatibility. And of course the tab group

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Skywind — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 01:09:53 GMT

I'm generally satisfied with FF on PC, but not the same with the mobile version.

I don't understand why mobile version lacks all the UI customizability that we enjoy on PC, this makes mobile FF not as handy as its competitors like Edge. For example, no fully-customizable homepage website, complicated access of bookmarks (please DON'T HIDE the bookmark button in a second-level menu).

FF could be much better, but now it's not and making slow progress. Seeing that FF is losing more and more users makes me sad, as I really like this browser and has been using it for over 10 years. I really hope the 20th anniversary update can change it from head to toe and bring fresh vitality to this browser.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

HidratedHomie — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 03:33:02 GMT

Hi.
1.- Future features like profiles and tab grouping are going to come to Firefox Android?
2.- Is text to speech ever going to the available on Android?
3.- Why on Android I can't easily remove headers and footers from a page I want to print or safe as a PDF? I know is possible, but not without messing with advance settings. Not very user friend.
4.- In Android, Why everytime I put bookmarks on the background, it returns to the beginning of the tree of folders? And why I can't
rearrange bookmarks inside a folder? It's annoying.
5.- If tab grouping is ever available on Android, When I open an hyperlink, like in Wikipedia for example, that hyperlink is going to automatically create and open in a tab group (just like in chrome)? I would like it to be that way, simple but effective.
6.- In the near future, the Firefox AI feature will be capable of summarize entire web pages (articles) and answer questions? Like Copilot does? Is that AI going to ever be available on Android?
As you can see, my main pet peeves with firefox is that a lot of features on PC are not available on Android.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

LogicalTech — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 05:47:02 GMT

Congrats on 20 years!

My question can be summarized with:

What went wrong?

As in:

Why did we (Mozilla) lose the Internet? Why are we just an paid pet for Google they keep for convenience of being able to avoid monopoly claims? Why not focus on core mission of making a great browser? Why AI? Something during these past 20 years went clearly, very, horribly wrong at Mozilla. With the ability to reflect back over these years, I'd like to know what it was.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Gabb — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 06:13:18 GMT

Gosh.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Globule — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 08:30:56 GMT

Happy birthday Firefox!

My question: how do you explain this graph?

Thanks in advance for the responses!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Gav — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 12:51:56 GMT

Why is feedback regularly ignored about basic interface and feature choices? Something is clearly wrong, take a look at the market share, are you willing to admit you might be doing things wrong?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ThePillenwerfer — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 14:13:19 GMT

The rot set in with problems with Firefox 4 roughly coinciding with Google releasing Chrome. I went from Firefox 3.x to an early version of Chrome and only switched back about a year ago.

Google had the money to promote Chrome whereas the people behind other browsers, not just Firefox, don't. If one of them ran TV advertising, billboard campaigns &c Chrome may not be so far ahead.

The ignorance of the public has to be allowed for as well. A lot of people will stick to Edge or Chrome because they've heard of MicroSoft and Google and therefore think their products are Good and Safe whereas others they haven't heard of are likely to poor or some sort of con, whatever the truth may be.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Juraj — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 20:05:54 GMT

Why are you not using TypeScript already?
(on all new projects, with a plan to migrate existing projects, including Firefox!)

And let me just say - if you plan to ask a JavaScript developer, who's never used TypeScript on a big project, if using TypeScript would make his work better, you are unlikely to get a positive answer.

And to add - most (if not all) TypeScript developers were JavaScript developers before, because TypeScript is JavaScript, just better. I've never met a developer that would go back to JavaScript after using TypeScript.

And if you are still unsure, imagine these benefits: easy refactoring, much less bugs, no runtime exceptions, useful IDE suggestions and code smells...

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ffffff — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 02:17:42 GMT

Hey, congrats on the big 20 and kudos to everyone who worked to help bring Firefox this far.

Apologies in advance, I'm bad at coming up with good questions.

- Since tab groups are in development for desktop, do you folks have any idea on how soon we could expect to see something similar for mobile, assuming that's the plan? And if it isn't, why? Most popular mobile browsers seem to be adopting it. I've convinced some people to use Firefox on the desktop, but lacking tab groups on mobile, it's simply not possible for them to switch, considering their usage.

- If you've seen it, any opinions on the new Firefox-based Zen browser and the features it experiments with? It's alpha software, but I appreciate the bold way it attempts to reinvent the web browsing experience and wonder if there's anything in it that Firefox could borrow or take inspiration from.

- What are some of the things you're most excited for in the next 5 years of Firefox development? Web standards related, user-facing or not, it doesn't matter, I'd like to read you share some of your joy, even if it's something minor.

P.S. I've noticed cute foxes in UI, not sure if that's something new in the design guidelines, but please keep it up! Foxes are great.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

OutlawHusbando — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 02:44:01 GMT

Make Firefox Great Again!

We missed oppotunity back then, but we should regroup and focus everything on Firefox.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

lackey — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 07:15:08 GMT

That chart only goes up to 2019 - here's an extended version:

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Maupertuis — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 05:10:33 GMT

don't ignore your most loyal userbase: the GNU/Linux community.
have some advanced, but common settings in mobile version, such as:
1. ability to search through history
2. site-specific settings(blocking third-party cookies, jit, etc.)
3. dark mode
make gecko embeddable(a la electron)
don't abandon projects in the middle(or rather fire employees who are working on it, see deepspeech)
listen to, and also act on user feedback. don't shove "features" if you're currently getting a cut from it. you're losing your already minuscule userbase.
have some alternative form of revenue. i like the direction of vpns, email aliases. but not at the cost of your defining product.
don't do things that only infuriate your users(e.g.: blocking of mv3-compatible ublock origin)
PWA please?
have good marketing from people who are able to explain it in simpler terms. especially for controversial features(e.g.: PPA)

it hurts me when i see firefox market share going down each year. don't accelerate it. i would like to witness your 30th, 40th, and 50th birthday as well.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

bdutta — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 05:36:50 GMT

First of all, congratulations to team Firefox/Mozilla for the 20th Anniversary. I've been using Firefox on Linux and Windows, almost since it's inception and love it. I had briefly switched over to Brave for what it promises, but moved back to Firefox once I figured that with right set of plugins you can be just as comfortable.

Would love to see scope of the built-in translator increased to cover wider set of languages including the ones from India. It is a useful feature with a good user-experience, that is better than any of those that use google translate as plugins. I'd like an inbrowser, if possible even an inplace "Augmented Reality" like translation feature.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Ahmad09 — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 13:32:26 GMT

Happy 20th anniversary, Firefox! 🎉 It's incredible to see how far Firefox has come over the years, constantly evolving while staying true to its values of privacy, open-source innovation, and user choice. Excited to see what the future holds for Firefox, especially in a world where digital privacy is more important than ever. Looking forward to the AMA with the leadership team and hearing about any upcoming features and priorities! Thank you, Mozilla, for two decades of commitment to an open and accessible web.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:27:51 GMT

Hello, dear Firefox team!

I've been using Firefox since April, and what started as a choice between Chrome familiarity and Firefox has evolved into genuine enthusiasm for the Fox.

I love Firefox's speed, reliability, and recent improvements. The screenshot feature and sidebar have become indispensable tools in my daily workflow. I'm also excited about the Split Screen feedback from @asafko . These developments show great promises, and the team really does it well.

I do face some challenges, primarily with corporate platforms, and I have a few questions:

Are there plans to implement copy-paste functionality via the context menu in Google Docs?
When can we expect the ability to share individual tabs (including audio) rather than the entire screen?
Regarding the mobile Firefox experience:
- Could we bring back theme customization?
- Will we have home page wallpaper customization?
- What happened to Firefox Notes synchronization, and is there a chance of revival?

I've posted some of these ideas on Mozilla Connect and would appreciate any insights into their potential implementation timeline.

Some suggestions for future development:

Consider expanding interface customization options, similar to Floorp and Zen Browser. Have you thought about potential collaborations with these projects?
While enthusiasts currently maintain userChrome.css modifications, adding direct editing capability through advanced settings could benefit power users.

I'm also curious about your UX development process:

How do you conduct user research?
Do you work with focus groups?
What's the composition and selection process for these groups?

Firefox isn't just my browser of choice - it's my daily companion, and I'm pleased to participate in discussions about its future 🦊

Best regards,

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

myspace — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:16:28 GMT

Excited about this and hope it becomes a regular thing here. Most of my questions have already been asked by others, so I'll vote for those ones in hopes that they are answered. Thanks!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Mkn — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 22:46:09 GMT

Hello,
How about these cool revolutionary innovative features?

Live cloud tabs, the same tabs on the PC and on the phone are open at the same time, for example, you open a tab on the phone and it will open on the PC, and vice versa.
Ability to install extensions from different stores and from different browsers, for example, from the google store, opera.
Synchronization of flags options in about:config hidden settings and synchronization of extension settings.
Ability to edit Contextual Menus.
Improve your strong engine, or switch to Servo and Rust.
Own built-in semi-paid vpn in the browser.
Translation of voice in the video.
Password or Pin to start the browser.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Jokkefar — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 00:46:59 GMT

Hi! I love Firefox and use it as my primary browser on iOS, Mac and windows. I have two questions for y’all. The first one is, now that third party marketplaces are available on iOS would it be possible to get access to extensions? And secondly are there any plans to bring thunderbird to IOS?

Thank you so much!

Joakim

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

eio — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 03:59:43 GMT

Kudo's 20/20 Ubuntu/FireFox A.I. Bitcoin. May the best man win, team work makes the dream work.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

BGAK24 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 07:33:26 GMT

I am actually just regaining access back to my accounts that have apparently been just sitting due to lost logins etc I do apologize for how long it has taken me and I am trying to catch up with everything

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

BGAK24 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 07:35:48 GMT

Let's go navy blue with bright orange or green front that's easy in the eyes of you suffer from cross eyed vision from hours looking

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

BGAK24 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 07:37:06 GMT

Let's talk about how to make your experience worth it..sky is the limit

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ffffff — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 07:41:25 GMT

What

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

BGAK24 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 07:54:33 GMT

I currently train copilot directly to read process and correct coding in several languages irlt is being rolled out slowly but is coming soon..it's honestly pretty amazing if told what it is looking for or what it is expected at the start of the search prompt

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Jorjdavid639 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:03:57 GMT

What's stopping Firefox from implementing a 'Force Dark Mode' similar to what Chromium uses? I know there is an extension we can use but it slows down the browser considerably and uses a lot of CPU.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Simon3 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:47:07 GMT

Does the Android Version of Firefox has a 64-bit version?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

firefly1 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 15:55:11 GMT

Please Mozilla. Many of us have sensitive eyes and the Dark Reader app makes the browser 2x slower than other browsers on Speedometer 3.0 Benchmark Tests.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

myspace — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:03:54 GMT

What is the single feature or project you are most excited about that's coming to Firefox in the next year or so?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:22:09 GMT

Scary question: does this antitrust case against Google affect you and will there be a paid version of Firefox at some point? I think that's a pretty disturbing nuance in your model and I'm a little worried.

And also, this was mentioned by youtuber Brodie Robertson, why are your services so geographically limited? I would love to be a Relay customer, but I'm not in the EU and my country is not on the list of supported countries.

And I am still on the waiting list...

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

szc — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:02:23 GMT

What is Mozilla doing / planning on doing to differentiate Firefox from the competition rather than just keeping up? Browsers like Arc are doing all sorts of wild and innovative things, while Firefox is only now getting tab groups.

From my perspective, I love that Firefox is open and legitimately customizable and I think that is one of its greatest strengths. For example, there is an entire community dedicated to custom CSS hacks for the title bar and tabs (it would be amazing if this stuff was more officially supported and less hacky btw :))

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

rodri — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:28:08 GMT

First of all, congratulations for your 20 years, I've been using Firefox for a long time in my life (I'm 24 now) so we don't have much age difference with the little fox haha.

I’m curious about your plans to keep Firefox ahead of the competition in terms of privacy, customization, and performance. What are you doing to make sure Firefox stays on top on 2025?

love you guys, FIREFOX FOR EVER!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

plwt — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 13:30:14 GMT

This AMA is a great way to mark 20 years - looking forward to the future, hopefully building on the past.

I have been really impressed with the updates to the sidebar as well as vertical tabs. I am a little more on the fence with AI, but I do like how it is being implemented.

The new tab wallpapers are nice, but it feels that the ability to add your own is missing. I know there has been a hack for many years to be able to do this, but it feels like we are close to having this as a user facing feature. What is the timeline for this being included?

I also like Pocket and how I can get localised content on the new tab page in desktop. However, Pocket on new tab on mobile is for US only users. Feels like there is a relatively easy implementation here. How soon could we have localised Pocket content on the mobile new tab?

One last question - On Mobile (Android), Firefox Beta has its own icon - which is really cool - while on Desktop it does not. Meanwhile Beta and Dev Edition (which has an awesome theme) land at the same time. It feels that the Beta space needs some tidying up to better brand it and segment it - possibly as a "community edition" for people that like fair stability and an early look at new features. Is the Beta space on the radar to be looked at?

Thank you for taking the time out to look at all of our questions, really appreciate it and hope we have not made it too daunting.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

joezulu — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 02:22:59 GMT

cannot find how to stop renewal.

I have spent an hour looking for icon/link

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ThePillenwerfer — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 05:10:29 GMT

If by "Renewal" you mean up-dates you won't find it because there isn't one.

For all their talk of "Freedom" Mozilla don't want us to exercise the freedom to decline up-dates.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

cosmic_infinity — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 06:27:59 GMT

Can we pewse have the og firefox logo back for a while? OwO

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ws — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 12:55:02 GMT

I broadly agree with @ThePillenwerfer above that I like Firefox pretty much as it is. I also have appreciated the investment in Thunderbird over the last 18-24 months. I see these as the core products of Mozilla; I haven't found genuine value in the others. For example, why buy VPN service from Mozilla when I can buy it directly from Mullvad?

I think a bigger issue long-term is Mozilla's structure and funding. If I were leading Mozilla, I would make the case for a rechartering of the foundation so that it could receive tax-deductible donations into designated accounts for funding (and only funding) Firefox and Thunderbird development, respectively. They could also create other, similarly-designated accounts for other projects/products. Yes, restricting the use of the funds in those accounts to specific purposes reduces the control Mozilla Foundation leadership has over those funds, but that's exactly the point. Firefox and Thunderbird development are arguably the most important things Mozilla does ... so important, I would argue, that it should be considered a service to the public (i.e., charitable). Other FOSS software projects have similar fundraising arrangements. Yes, it might take some back and forth with the IRS, but I think it could (and should) be done. I know 501(c)3 orgs that operate completely around a "designated account" model, and others that fund FOSS development. Marrying the two seems like a no-brainer here.

Personally, I would also rename the corporations (Mozilla Corporation and MZLA Technologies Corporation) to Firefox Corporation and Thunderbird Corporation - and create similar corporations for other products. This keeps them legally and administratively distinct; if Firefox or Thunderbird want to integrate fee-generating services into their software offerings, they would keep whatever funds they generate. But the ability to supplement those fees with donation-funded revenue would open the door to grants and other charitable funding.

And, no, I'm sorry, but more advertising and AI just aren't going to cut it. I'll just use Brave, Vivaldi, or a Firefox clone if you guys really want to go down that road. Focus on your core products ... forget the fads and other distractions.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

lackey — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 12:56:14 GMT

Question 1: In 2022, Mozilla stopped accepting cryptocurrency after critics pointed out the environmental destruction it caused. Today, large corporations are causing similarly disastrous levels of environmental harm with AI and data center proliferation. Will Mozilla address the environmental harm of AI in Firefox, which currently supports chatbots by several of these unethical organizations out of the box?

Question 2: in the race to stand out, many niche browsers have adopted ad blocking technology. Firefox is one of the few remaining browsers that has not reduced its adblocking functionality with strict limitations or adoption of Manifest V3. Will Mozilla consider taking a bold pro-adblock stance to to cement its role as a browser for people, not profit?

Question 3: Recently, Mozilla purchased the company FakeSpot. Today, FakeSpot has a privacy policy that explicitly says you will sell browsing history, geolocation, and compiled profiles to third party ad companies. The Mozilla Corporation's website claims all Mozilla products align with the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto. Does the Mozilla FakeSpot privacy policy line up with Mozilla's manifesto?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Cerulean — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 13:42:27 GMT

As someone who loves the foundational aims of Mozilla and Firefox, this is exceptionally concerning to me as well. Particularly given that layoffs are continuing - this time in the Foundation's advocacy division.

As a Firefox account user, it feels hard to trust Firefox and Mozilla when extremely significant concerns about their business and funding practices that have allegedly been raised in good faith - remain unaddressed and unanswered.

Yet Mozilla continues to solicit donations. Something doesn't feel right about this, all the way back through the Mitchell Baker era (both pre-COVID and the post-COVID layoffs).

Some transparency on the above post and how executive pay relates to product/corporation performance would be welcome. As opposed to alleged censorship when people post their concerns about the imbalance between executive pay and product performance.

More context on the graph that Globule posted above

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Cerulean — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:04:42 GMT

1) I'd love to know if there are any plans to develop a more robust content filtering and adblocking extension as an official Firefox extension; one that is free of manifest v2 and v3 dependencies/controversy.

Perhaps a collaboration with Raymond Hill who develops uBlock Origin?

I feel like a deeply embedded set of content filtering/management tools would send a powerful message that Firefox is designed for user agency.

This feels like a wonderful way to further differentiate Firefox from it's so-called 'Brave' competitor and other Chromium-based browsers, who may end up becoming more vulnerable to the demise of manifest v2 and the compromises that v3 entails (I'm aware that Firefox isn't immune from these changes either, but the technical details are too much for this little entity to handle 🦊 - community, I'd be grateful for your input! 🧡)

2) Please share in practical English more about how you envision Anonym's role in Firefox's future.

The blog post by Mozilla Foundation President Mark Surman and the blog post by Mozilla Corporation CEO Laura Chambers both relate to Anonym and contain lots of lovely aspirational prose.

However, these blog posts offer precious little in the way of practical, actionable or snackable content for readers - be they Firefox users or not. I feel like the technology overview blog post would fly over the heads of many a reader - be they Firefox users or not. It's great that there's a Mozilla Connect thread about this topic. But - unlike Jon's desired goal for 'discussion' - there appears to be little in the way of discussion or meaningful input from Mozilla staff into the thread at all. Other than Jon's summary of posts made 18 days after the thread was created.

Certainly doesn't seem like there's any interest from Mozilla or Firefox employees to connect with the community and get involved in that thread.

I'm not sure how that is supposed to make prospective users and Firefox loyalists like myself feel.

I feel like a significant proportion of the Firefox userbase are concerned about current digital advertising standards, the rampant large-scale data breaches that have occured in recent years and the dystopian data monopoly that Googledontbeevil has on the world.

I also feel like a significant proportion of the userbase are concerned that Mozilla is moving to integrate Anonym's advertising technology into Firefox without having much - or any - idea of what that will mean for:

in-product advertising
how Mozilla plans to leverage Firefox users (both with accounts and without) or product activity to further its advertising strategy
how any of this adtech will actually benefit Firefox users (both with accounts and without) and improve the Firefox user experience.

I ask these questions because I'm concerned about the health and future of Firefox.

Mozilla has undoubtedly spent lots of money betting on all kinds of things, from productivity , to the metaverse and fediverse, to LLM and AI tech.

These earlier bets seem to have done much to materially advance Mozilla or Firefox in any way.

Why should Firefox users trust that this adtech acqusition will be any different?

You know how difficult it is to convince digitally entrenched users to switch to another product or service. A browser choice is no different.

Aspirational blog posts aren't enough to make users (and prospective users) trust Firefox and Mozilla. We need actionable, practical information.

If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time to do so. Shoutout to the team who set up Mozilla Connect using Khoros. The platform has a very pleasant UX and lovely typography that's easy to read. Thank you!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Cerulean — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:09:51 GMT

Hey Joe, would you be up for sharing more on what you're looking for? I'm trying to understand what you might mean by stop renewal.

Perhaps it might be helpful to read some info from Firefox support on changing Firefox update settings. If that link wasn't helpful, please feel free to send me a message privately so we can keep this thread on-topic and related to the AMA 🙂

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Jon — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:31:05 GMT

Jumping in here real quick to say thanks for all the great questions!

The AMA is TODAY [18:00-20:00 UTC], so feel free to keep those questions coming before we kick things off.

See ya soon 🙌

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Future — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 16:02:40 GMT

Can anyone share how long does it take for these mobile android features to release

Tab strips
Tab grouping
Profiles
Advance media notifications
Pdf edit

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ffffff — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:03:28 GMT

In fairness, part of the issue with cryptocurrencies is that a significant share of their usage and surrounding culture are entrenched in illegal activities, scamming people, and speculative trading. On the other hand, despite their myriad issues, one could argue AI/LLMs help users more than crypto did. I still don't like seeing Firefox endorse ChatGPT.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

ThePillenwerfer — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:07:58 GMT

I agree that Mozilla and its staff should learn to speak in plain English rather than corporate b/s — I want to vomit every time one of them is "Excited to share" something — and they should have a greater presence on this and the support forum. There may be good, though non-obvious, reasons for changes that we don't like and if these were explained we'd be more likely to accept them.

As for advertising it doesn't worry me as I've got μBlock Origin and a PiHole. I'm also capable of ignoring any that I do see. If I watch live television I'm going to see adverts, if I go out I'll see bill-boards and adverts on the side of 'buses &c but if I were later asked to name the products I couldn't as they'll have just passed me by. In the greater scheme of things how would you have internet services funded without adverting revenue?

I'm afraid I can't join in your praise for this site as it must be the worst forum I've ever used in terms of use. Pinned threads are useful but do we need the same thing pinned at the top of every page and then repeated lower down the list? The box I'm typing in is like a letter-box and could do with being twice the height, I can currently only see four lines of the preceding text. Put a picture in and it's even worse.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:14:58 GMT

I've already posted a little scary question below, but I can't help myself from posting another one.
I see the wording "we will continue to support MV2 for the foreseeable future" everywhere, but in my brain, it somehow implies that at some point, MV2 will die because it will become hard to support. Will only MV3 be left, or will Firefox have some extension set to pull MV2 functionality to MV3? (we can't discuss compatibility between browsers here because Chrome decided to address the AdBlock issue seriously).
You are the best people to answer this.
I am looking forward to hearing back from you ^^
tw

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Jon — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:03:40 GMT

Welcome to our AMA with the Firefox leadership team 👋

We are now LIVE. Keep an eye out for answers to your questions—we’re hoping to get to as many as possible over the next two hours, and will follow up if we miss some.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:06:24 GMT

yaaay

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

overholt — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:14:29 GMT

@Juraj wrote:

Why are you not using TypeScript already?

Many of the people working on Firefox agree that there are some benefits compared to vanilla JS, and we do have lots of open source TypeScript code at Mozilla (e.g., https://github.com/search?q=org%3Amozilla%20language%3ATypeScript%20&type=code). We investigated using TypeScript in mozilla-central (the Firefox repository) about 5 years ago (https://groups.google.com/g/firefox-dev/c/IZ0G4Y34kf8/m/yxIxbPP_AQAJ), but at the time we were using a custom JS module system developed before we specced ES Modules and the build / IDE tooling wouldn’t have integrated properly. We’ve recently migrated to ESM (https://spidermonkey.dev/areweesmifiedyet/), so it may be possible today, though it would likely be more complicated to adopt than in a typical web or node app.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dsandoz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:21:17 GMT

Thanks for the question @szc! It's great to see new browsers like Zen and Arc questioning the default way of doing things, building quickly, and being unafraid of getting it wrong sometimes. It's especially neat to see Zen built with the Firefox engine, it reinforces why we care about open source.

I've been working a lot with the team shipping tab groups, the Sidebar, and other new UI features built for multi-tasking and modern web services. I'm testing tab groups now and love the Firefox experience I've built for myself in Nightly. It's coming!

I know that at times it's felt like Firefox is playing catch-up rather than jumping ahead, but we're working to change that. Especially in mobile, where browser usage is different and we can try some new things. They won't all work, but that's why we get feedback and build in public.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tkamdar — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:22:06 GMT

@bdutta - Thank you for being a long-time Firefox user and for sharing your feedback on our translation feature! We’re thrilled to hear that you’re enjoying the in-browser experience.

At Firefox, our focus is to protect your information, which is why our translations happen directly on your device with local models. This way, your data stays private. Currently, we support 28 languages, with 6 more planned for early 2025, and we’re always exploring options to expand language support in the future. You can follow progress here: https://github.com/mozilla/translations

Thank you again for your input—it’s incredibly helpful as we continue to improve the Firefox experience for all users!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

overholt — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:23:04 GMT

We'll try! <insert joke here about not having friends outside a corporate environment>

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:26:41 GMT

The most important thing is to delve into solving this problem o.o

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

_1_ — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:31:19 GMT

leider finde mein Frage nicht Liste, möchte aber anmerken, dass ich firefox seit mehreren Jahren benutze und sowohl die Funktionalität und die Unabhängigkeit hoch einschätze

Unfortunately I can't find my question in the list, but I would like to point out that I have been using Firefox for several years and I highly value both its functionality and independence

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

bkidane — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:27:38 GMT

Speak for yourself

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Juli1248 — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:27:43 GMT

First: Congratulations on 20 years, and thank you for your work. I'm really happy to have a good open-Source Browser.

But to my question: the number of Firefox users is declining. Do you think that one day you will have to stop developing Firefox because Firefox has too few users? And do you plan to do anything about it?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:28:28 GMT

😨

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

cohara — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:28:43 GMT

Thanks so much for these questions and input, @Kvin, and it’s great to hear that you are enjoying some of the recent updates and looking forward to other features in the works. There are some great ideas baked into these questions. We do have design refreshes planned on both desktop and mobile next year for various spaces in the browser, including new tab and the mobile homepages, both of which will include more available wallpapers (and great to hear that customizable options would be of interest!). The input on icons and specific pages you’d love to see redesigned is really helpful insight and you can be sure these preferences will be passed to the relevant teams. Across the board, we want to ensure we’re delivering the most impactful improvements. That's why it's so valuable to talk to users in forums like this, to better understand what folks want, so seeing the interest here counts for a lot.

For Add-Ons, the team is focused right now on iterative improvements to listing and search results pages to help customers find and install the most relevant add-ons for them. We're also considering ways to modernize mobile tab management in the months ahead, so look forward to improvements there.

Page load speed is something the team cares deeply about and is always working to improve, because we know it’s critical for user satisfaction with the browser. There’s no silver bullet here but teams are continuously finding small things that add up for real impact. This will continue to be a key focus area. And if there are specific areas of performance improvements that you'd like to see, please let us know!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:31:49 GMT

Sie können hier immer eine Frage stellen, am besten auf Englisch, aber Deutsch ist auch eine coole Sprache.

You can always ask a question here, preferably in English, but German is also a cool language.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dsandoz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:30:39 GMT

Love this request @cosmic_infinity! We've been playing around with logo customization as an idea, and vintage Firefox is an awesome option we can absolutely consider. Any other throwbacks you're missing?

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

cohara — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:31:25 GMT

On that last point, to be even more specific - if you run into performance problems, we'd love more detail in a bug report including a profile. Here are instructions: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/performance/reporting_a_performance_problem.html - Thank you!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Jon — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:32:22 GMT

Thanks for joining! Yes, please feel free to submit a new question.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:32:24 GMT

Please make it possible to customize app logos. You released some cool Halloween logos, but we can't put them up without hacks...

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

SRMozilla — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:35:51 GMT

Thank you for raising this; we know that there is so much more we can and should be doing to make Firefox a first-class mobile experience. We made some solid progress this year - better address and password autofill and dozens of iterative UX changes on iOS, as well as a password generator, better local translation capabilities, and UX improvements on Android. Coming soon, both platforms will have redesigned toolbars and navigation menus.But we know we need to be doing a lot more, so improving Firefox on Android and iOS is going to be a big focus for us next year. We will continue investing in speed, reliability and essential features like tab management, privacy tools, and auto-fill, and we’ll be refreshing the mobile homepages to offer new customization and layout options. We will also be improving cross-device experiences to make syncing and accounts truly useful. Hope that helps - and really appreciate you for writing in!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

rjacob — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:37:09 GMT

Hi @ffffff, Thank you for these questions!

We don’t have a timeline just yet, but we’re excited about how useful tab groups will be on mobile. We’ll be rolling out tab groups on desktop soon, and we know syncing those groups across to mobile is a scenario we'd like to build.
It’s awesome to see open-source browsers built with Gecko like Zen! From both a design and feature standpoint, Zen has a lot of great ideas - Is there any particular experience in Zen you're excited about?
We’ve got so many things we’re excited about in Firefox - like continuing to make performance improvements and rolling out cool features like our new sidebar, profiles, tab management, new tab UX updates, AI, and more!

Thanks for spotting those adorable foxes! 🦊 We love them too, and yes! you’ll be seeing more of them popping up all over!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tkamdar — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:37:51 GMT

Hey @Mkn! Thanks for these awesome suggestions—you’ve really thought about some creative ways to make Firefox even better.

We’re always looking for new ways to improve, and ideas like live cloud tabs, syncing settings, and custom contextual menus, and video translation are great food for thought.

On VPN, Mozilla does offer a VPN that works across your devices (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn/), and we’re looking into even tighter integration with Firefox in the coming years. On the engine side, we have ongoing efforts to make it faster, including continuous work on Servo-derived components like Stylo and WebRender.

Hearing what matters to you helps us think about what’s next for Firefox. We will consider these as we work towards making Firefox even more useful and powerful. Thanks again for sharing!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

vchin — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:39:55 GMT

Hi @Ahmad09 ! Thank you, that means a lot. I've been a long time Firefox user myself and am excited about the work ahead. Thanks for being here!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:40:42 GMT

The Firefox mobile app would be 1000% better if it opened links to Microsoft Teams conferences (it does not redirect to the app); this bug seems a couple of years old, and keeping Brave for that feels frustrating.
Thanks a lot for what you're doing 🙂

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

SRMozilla — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:46:04 GMT

We love hearing how you are using Firefox on desktop! Thank you for using Firefox mobile and for the great feedback on the features that are most important to you. These are all great ideas and things we are exploring for next year. For future ideas or feedback please share with us. You can submit these requests in Mozilla Connect. We want to deliver a great mobile experience and we know we have work to do.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:46:57 GMT

omg available in my country

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tkamdar — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:47:03 GMT

Hey @November - I totally get where you're coming from. Not everyone wants AI in their browser, and we’ve heard this loud and clear from others on Moz Connect, too. Personally, I’ve been using an AI chatbot in Firefox, and it’s been great having it right at my fingertips. But we know that AI isn't for everyone, and we’re being careful about that.

AI features in Firefox are optional —if you’re not interested, you don’t have to use them at all. We’re also giving you a choice over which language model you use (if any) because that control matters to us, too.

AI is evolving quickly, and while it may not be for everyone, there are tech enthusiasts and early adopters who are interested in these capabilities. We also expect that some AI-powered features could eventually feel as essential as spellcheck or auto-complete is today. We’re not exactly sure which those will be yet, but if we wait until it’s all figured out, we might miss the chance to be ready when our users expect them.

So, our plan is to experiment, test new ideas, and most importantly, keep it simple for you to opt out entirely if that’s what you prefer.

Thanks for helping keep us in check, and keep the feedback coming!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dsandoz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:51:00 GMT

Thank your for your support @Juli1248! We care a whole lot about Firefox being around for a long, long time.

Firefox is up against a lot of preloaded browsers that use aggressive tactics to stay as the default for users. People who love Firefox introducing us to their friends and family is a big part of how new users find us and we stay vital to the internet. So please keep telling your friends.

That being said, things are moving in the right direction. We're seeing more and more people choose Firefox on mobile, and encouraging usage trends with Firefox for desktop.

Our plan to make sure Firefox stays relevant for the next 20 years: keep making the product better, especially on mobile where browser usage is shifting rapidly. And make it more obvious how Firefox is different from other browsers when you're using it.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:55:23 GMT

What do you think about the possibility of having builds like Nightly, but for UX? For example, for some really experimental ideas. That would probably be cool. Like VeryNightly (🦉).
I don't know, like round windows, tabs at the bottom... Anything extreme.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

mconca — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:55:49 GMT

Hi @firefly1. Dark mode is an exciting and potentially valuable feature, although we've seen it can cause compatibility issues when it manipulates web page content. It can take significant effort to get the engineering and UX right in order to deliver a high-quality, fast user experience. For the moment, this has gone down the prioritization list within our roadmap to ensure we’re delivering the most impactful improvements for our users. That said, we're always listening to feedback like yours, and we’ll keep this request in mind as we continue developing Firefox’s features. Seeing the interest here means a lot to us.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

overholt — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:00:31 GMT

@Maupertuis wrote:

don't ignore your most loyal userbase: the GNU/Linux community.

*Many* of the people working on Firefox use Linux so I can assure you they're not being ignored (anecdote: my own personal laptop running Fedora just had a catastrophic disk failure two days ago and I'm very lost without it). Relatively recently we added an official apt repo (see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox-deb-package-for-debian-based-distributions) and we're seeing growing uptake of it. The Linux users of Firefox are great at filing detailed, reproducible bug reports, and have always been at the core of the Mozilla community.

Linux users are not the majority, of course, so when platform-specific features are done, we have to consider the % of users on different OSes. Thankfully, Firefox's architecture on desktop is such that many frontend features work across platforms with little effort so Linux support "just works" (you know, like printing and wifi used to on Linux ;).

Please remain engaged!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

cohara — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:00:53 GMT

Thanks for nice words about some recent updates like sidebar and vertical tabs @plwt! It's great to hear you are enjoying them (and I'll say: same!).

It's also great to hear you are interested in custom wallpapers for new tab - we hear you on this. I agree it would be very cool to set your own background on both desktop and mobile and this is something we hear frequently from users. Please stay tuned 😉

And love that you find value in the content recommendations on new tab and mobile homepage - we are looking into ways that users can further customize them to their interests to make them even more relevant. You are right that recommendations on mobile are more limited than on desktop - they exist on mobile only for US and German users today - and as we are thinking more holistically about the best mobile homepage layouts, we're thinking about where article feeds have the most value for users. More to come here. Thank you again for writing in and for all of your support for Firefox!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dsandoz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:01:45 GMT

Really cool idea @tilwiti Midnightly 🙂

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

mconca — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:02:13 GMT

@firefly1 asked this question as well. The full response is here.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

mconca — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:05:57 GMT

Hello, @Simon3. Yes. Firefox for Android supports native 32-bit and 64-bit versions on both ARM and x86 architectures. We supply the Google Play Store with an app bundle that includes all versions, and the store delivers the specific version appropriate to your phone.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

vchin — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:09:24 GMT

Hi @myspace . Thanks for being here! I have a lot of tabs so I'm excited about tab groups coming to Firefox!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:09:54 GMT

But really, cause people don't see the behind-the-scenes, it gives a false impression of stasis. I think showing even some mess would be cool.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dsandoz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:12:15 GMT

Sidebar for me, the cross-device tab management, pinned vertical tabs, tab groups, and AI chatbot all make things easier/faster on a daily basis. There's a lot to play around with right now in Nightly.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

vchin — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:12:18 GMT

Thanks for sharing this feedback. Giving our users the ability to choose and customize their experience is important to us and it's great to hear that you utilize custom CSS. One thing we've learned is that our users want different features and that it's hard to build a default experience that everyone's happy with. This is why we're so committed to customizability and user control. We try to balance between ease of use, accessibility, and performance when we ship new features while continuing to give our users choice to customize their experience where needed.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

SRMozilla — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:12:33 GMT

I am excited 😎 for 2 things:
1. New content personalized to me on New Tab
2. We are expanding Relay email masks to more Firefox users in 2025 without needing an extension!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:15:37 GMT

btw, I'm not kidding about the tabs at the bottom, those were my default settings on Vivaldi. Not very compatible with your tab format, but psssssst, this experiment might help keeping FF fresh for all four seasons.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

bholley — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:20:54 GMT

I started as an intern about 16.5 years ago, and I certainly agree things were rosier back then. Firefox was leading a long-overdue renaissance of browsers for both users (tabbed browsing, extensions, UX) and developers (standards compliance and new capabilities). All the tech enthusiasts knew that the first thing to do with a new computer was to install Firefox, and it spread like wildfire. It was a fun time.

Shortly after I joined, Google released Chrome, which was much more challenging to compete with:
* It arrived with some significant architectural advantages (process separation, less Flash-driven instability, better JIT)
* It had an open-source engine and a pro-web-developer focus
* It was heavily staffed and funded
* Google leveraged its massive reach to promote and distribute it

On top of this, Mozilla made a big bet on building a mobile operating system, which diverted engineers away from the browser right when the competition was heating up.

We eventually caught back up with major efforts like Electrolysis, Quantum, and Fission. I'm extremely proud of that work and the fact that we still manage to build a world-class browser that can go head-to-head with Google and Apple. But building a great browser isn't enough to win anymore — it's just enough to stay in the game.

That said, I wouldn't say we've lost the Internet. Fewer users means we have less hard power than we used to, but as the last independent engine we still have outsized influence on standards and policy around the world. I'm still here after all these years because I believe in the mission and think the world needs Firefox. My focus, along with many others here, is on building a great browser and using it to advance the mission.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:21:21 GMT

I would like to inquire about the current status of keyboard shortcuts for Android tablets. This feature has been highly requested by users for several years, as evident from the Bugzilla report. However, there have been no recent updates on whether development has commenced. The absence of this crucial feature is causing Android and Samsung Dex users to consider alternative browsers.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

cohara — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:21:27 GMT

Love this question, @myspace - I'm very excited about tab groups and the customization features we're working on for New Tab. And refreshed mobile homepages!

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

plwt — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:22:44 GMT

Thank you. The Pocket issue is very strange - surely just a matter of broadening the country codes to be the same as desktop?

Keen to hear your thoughts on the broader beta point raised - feels like an opportunity missed to join things up a bit.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

Mkn — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:23:49 GMT

And it's great that auto-enabling picture-in-picture when switching to other tabs has been introduced!
And can we also introduce auto-enabling of picture-in-picture when minimizing and switching the browser window?
and also options to change the speed and quality of video in picture-in-picture?
Showing downloaded files in the download manager mini window when the browser is restarted or re-launched?
Circular download animation on tabs or a strip instead of dots?
Shortening the name of the Developer channel to the short name Dev.
And change the icons for stable, beta and esr, as these 3 channels use the same icons

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

overholt — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:24:59 GMT

What locations are you interested in seeing Relay Premium availability expand to? I heard we're working on that but I don't have a timeline or specifics ATM.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

dsandoz — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:26:13 GMT

Fully agree. I think we're taking a step in the right direction with Firefox Labs for beta feature opt-ins but can push it further.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

tilwiti — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:28:53 GMT

yes, just allow them to be wilder, ask userChrome folks, they might live in this lab, I believe.

Re: Join us for an AMA with the Firefox leadership team on November 14, [18:00-20:00 UTC]

vchin — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 19:29:11 GMT

One thing we've learned is that our users want different features and that it's hard to build a default experience that everyone's happy with. User interface preferences are personal and that is why we are committed to giving our users control over their experiences. That said, we don't always get it right the first time and we are committed to sharing more of our in progress work on Connect to get early feedback on our features.