Firefox 79 Stable Will Let Users Test Unreleased Features Using 'Experiments'

Both Edge and Chrome already allow users to try unreleased, experimental features (by typing about:flags in the address bar). Soon there'll be a similar "Firefox Experiments" option starting in Firefox 79.

Slashdot reader techtsp shares this report from the Windows Club: Mozilla has a dedicated Experimental Features page on MDN just for that. But limiting experimental features to Firefox's Nightly channel has a limitation: A fairly limited number of "curious" users. Now, extending some of these experimental features to stable releases will increase the scope of "Firefox Experiments" as a whole... This option will allow users to enable/disable experimental features under Preferences...

[In Firefox 79] Navigate to Preferences by entering about:preferences in the browser's address bar or click the gear icon and got to "Preferences." Discover and set browser.preferences.experimental to True. Now, you should be able to see the "Firefox Experiments" menu under Firefox 79 Preferences.

I’ve got an experiment for you

[xack]

A “treat users like adults” experiment, where you let the user decide for themselves and don’t collect telemetry, don’t add “helpful” recommendations and let them take responsbility with what they want to so with their own browser. Related, a Safari experiment gone wrong is redirecting users to the wrong site [ycombinator.com]. No doubt it will “correct” Duckduckgo to Google in the future.

Re:

[slack_justyb]

A “treat users like adults” experiment, where you let the user decide for themselves

Yeah, people have done that. And then they get scammed. Do you think they blame themselves when they get scammed? I don't know why Slashdot forgets the other 80% of the planet that uses the web and the whole "treating them like adults" thing, is roughly equal to giving a five year old a 50 cal and being surprised when they blow a hole in their leg.

Test Pilot?

[tecker]

I thought that was the whole POINT of Test Pilot. New features as things you could turn on and those that people like stuck. Why the heck do we need another "experiment" side of things?

Re:

[Casandro]

Mozilla has the problem any sufficiently large organization has, it needs to sustain itself and grow. You don't do that by focusing on some external "mission" and using a minimal well directed effort to reach well defined goals. If Mozilla would do that, they'd have worked on trimming down web features until there's a sensible minimal set of orthogonal features allowing for powerful experiences without complexity. In this world, Mozilla, and all the other browser manufacturers would eventually have created

I want to UNDO some experiments

[Stormwatch]

Firefox has gone through some absolutely idiotic changes that should be undone:

* Bring back the status bar.
* Don't trim URLs.
* Address and search bars must be completely distinct things. So, disable search from the main bar altogether.
* Enable the title and menu bars by default. In fact, just kill the goddamn hamburger menu altogether.

Re:

[caseih]

Absolutely. I'm sick and tired of having to hack userChrome.css every time Firefox decides to screw another thing up in the UI. The latest thing was to enlarge the address bar when you click on it. So bizarre. Who thought that would be a good idea. The only thing that keeps me on Firefox is that I can still tweak the UI with css tweaks to make it usable. The one thing I haven't been able to do is get a status bar back and put the addons icons on it where they belong. You can get some sort of status

Re:

[jenningsthecat]

Absolutely. I'm sick and tired of having to hack userChrome.css every time Firefox decides to screw another thing up in the UI...

Have you tried Pale Moon? From their website, ( https://www.palemoon.org/ [palemoon.org] ):

"With the current generation of mainstream browsers, there are also more obvious and not just "under the hood" differences: Pale Moon will continue to provide grouped navigation buttons of a decent size, a bookmarks toolbar that is enabled by default, tabs next to page content by default (easily switchable) and not in the least a functional status bar and more freedom in customization, to name a few things."

The creator / primary mai

Re:

[caseih]

I used Pale Moon for years. Google kept complaining about it being too old, along with quite a few other web sites. So I gave in to pressure and went back to Firefox, which I like as long as I can still make it look the way I want it to be. Plus Firefox was way faster than Pale Moon, and updated with my distro's package manager.

Firefox on Android is pretty good, though, and is my daily driver there. With the Text Reflow extension, it makes browsing on the phone pretty slick. Having all the same extensions

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

The latest thing was to enlarge the address bar when you click on it. So bizarre. Who thought that would be a good idea.

I imagine it's helpful on a phone/tablet when using your finger. Otherwise, it's pointless.

[ I'm also imagining that the Firefox devs have forgotten that a desktop and phone aren't the same thing. ]

Re:

[caseih]

Firefox for Android already switches to a completely different screen when you press on the url input area. Which makes sense for the Phone environment. But not the desktop.

Would be really interesting to be a fly on the wall in the near future when all these UX people start to age and begin to find it really hard to use something that they used to adapt quickly to. Wonder if they'll mutter about change for the sake of change and how the young ones are ruining everything!

Re:

[antdude]

Why not used other Gecko based web browsers (e.g., SeaMonkey)? Or fork it make your own? :P

Re:

[thegarbz]

Man it's so hard to resist saying "Ok Boomer" when you're literally asking Firefox to have some unique and different interface that isn't relevant to modern computing just because you grew up with something different back before you started shaking your walking stick at kids on the grass.

Getting angry at the concept of a missing menu bar despite knowing full well which button and where it was moved is nonsensical, as are most of your complaints.

Re:

[Stormwatch]

you're literally asking Firefox to have some unique and different interface

On the contrary, I'm asking it to NOT be unique and different. Chrome and Edge do so, and I hate them for that.

Sounds better than dealing with 2 versions

[majorme]

I don't want to deal with two profiles, even if it's technically possible to have two instances working with the same profile. Not sure that would be any better. Sounds like a reasonable change to me. Easier for them and for us. How often does that happen?

[... raises hand ...]

[fahrbot-bot]

Now, extending some of these experimental features to stable releases will increase the scope of "Firefox Experiments" as a whole... This option will allow users to enable/disable experimental features under Preferences.

So the experimental features will be baked into the stable releases, but disabled? Is this actually to make it easier for "curious" users -- or a curious Mozilla -- to enable these in the stable releases? Asking for a guinea-pig friend I know.

Unreleased Features

[oldgraybeard]

Great, bloat and add on crap.

Just my 2 cents ;)

Oooh, you "let" me. How gracions, mylord!

[BAReFO0t]

$ ll /etc/portage/patches/www-browser/firefox/
(Lists about ten patches. Some self-made.)

Re: Oooh, you "let" me. How gracions, mylord!

[BAReFO0t]

Grwxiois
Graxious
Graciosu
. . .
*throws "snartphoen xoutfnthe wisnwo*

The only feature I want

[DarkVader]

The only feature I want is the fucking status bar back.

Life sentences

[Anne Thwacks]

Please can we introduce mandatory life imprisonment for the management of companies who fuck with the UI of existing products without permission from the users.

This can be justified on the grounds that the only effective alternative is "nuking from high orbit".