Compatibility button

[clanig]

Abstract: Provide a compatibility button in Firefox to enable pre-defined compatibility profiles for the most widely used web applications. Additionally, allow to create per-site profiles along with that functionality.

Some webservices discriminate users by their user agent string:
"A fix would be for Firefox to spoof its own user-agent string, so it represents itself as whatever the latest version of Edge is.", c.f. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1623340#c5

Other services require hardware acceleration without any technical reason. In both cases, these services are online collaboration tools, but many more services are imaginable that behave this way.

Each day we can see people fighting against discrimination by culture, religion etc. But here we see how users are not presented the full functionality, just because they like to run specific software, even if that software is technically capable to provide the full experience. This is a form of discrimination as well.
I suggest to give these services their "Edge" string if this is what they want, and to give them their hardware acceleration, while still using Firefox and software decode, instead of being forced to other browsers. You can pre-deliver profiles for the most important web services. It is up to the users which browser they prefer, or if their software decode performance is satisfying for them.

This functionality makes even more sense in the context of having customizable profiles for a website. E.g. For 99% of websites you might not want to have third party cookies enabled, but for one website you might believe you need them. Or you might not like to have WebRTC enabled in general, but for some websites. Firefox is lacking the feature to enable this privacy relevant setting automatically by the URL to make this particular, trusted website work easily for a user. For this reason, we need a compatibility mode/button.

Keep fostering inclusion and make people collaborate together in a safe World Wide Web!

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like somebody doenst know about  `about:compat`

> about:compat, where website-specific workarounds are listed and may be toggled. These workarounds are meant as temporary fixes for various forms of website breakage for Firefox, while the website fixes them in due time. With about:compat, it is now easy to see all of the workarounds that are active in Firefox, and easy for website developers to disable a given workaround for testing purposes.

ref: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/68.0/releasenotes/

[CubeOfCheese]

I could totally see this being implemented as an addon. Seems useful!

[clanig]

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

@AnonymousWhat you mentioned are specific PTFs for bugs. This is not what I suggested. E.g. by default, with my settings, no WebRTC service would work because I have disabled it. With a compatibility button, I would like to override my own settings as well. The about:compat fixes don't override my settings. They are not a real compatibility mode that just make things work straight away on a particular, problematic website.

@CubeOfCheeseIf solved by creating an addon, I see issues. Firstly, there would be another entity you have to trust aside from Mozilla. Additionally, it would surely lead to issues in some centrally managed environments, e.g. Active Directory environments etc. And regarding the permissions of addons, I would be sceptical if there were limitations. With a compatibility button that is part of Firefox, I hope that the entire issue with broken websites could be solved for everybody and forever.

[CubeOfCheese]

@clanigMozilla makes some extensions themselves. For example Facebook Container and Firefox Translate.