Windows 8/Metro Firefox is now official dead

[Bateluer]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/14/mozilla-stops-work-on-firefox-for-windows-8/

We hope you weren't eagerly anticipating a finished release of Firefox for Windows 8 -- despite releasing a beta of the browser just last month, Mozilla has cancelled the project. There just aren't enough testers using the new interface to justify shipping a completed version, the developer says. It's concerned that the missing feedback could lead to a buggy release that requires too much repair work. Pre-release code will still be available, and Mozilla isn't ruling out a change of heart in the future. For now, though, Windows 8 users will have to switch to a rival like Chrome if they want a touch-friendly alternative to Internet Explorer.

Not surprising, the Metro UI is despised among common users and individuals wanting to use Firefox usually are of a slightly higher technical level and despise Metro even more.

 

[88keys]

I can't possibly think of anyone who wouldn't want a program launcher that hogs up the entire screen and clutters it with a hodgepodge of icons which make it much easier to find what you're looking for.

What also perplexes me is who would want to use Firefox anyway? I have apps that do everything that it does. I have an app for Mobile Banking, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, and Web surfing. Why would I want to do all of this from one single app? It makes no sense to me. If I used one app for all of these things; then what else am I going to fill my start screen with?

Microsoft doesn't need consumers telling them what they want.

 

[bbhaag]

So the app version of Firefox is officially dead but the program version is still alive and well on Win8. At least till Australis comes out anyway.:sneaky:

 

[Morbus]

Best news to come out of Mozilla for 5 years. Awesome, but what they should do is immediately stop the whole chromification of firefox. NOW!

 

[postmortemIA]

even IE11 is failure on metro. It cannot scale well some pages to fullscreen, so you see empty vertical bars on both sides, on wide screen monitors. Then what's it is use if can't do one thing right in full screen mode.

 

[bbhaag]

even IE11 is failure on metro. It cannot scale well some pages to fullscreen, so you see empty vertical bars on both sides, on wide screen monitors. Then what's it is use if can't do one thing right in full screen mode.

EDIT:NVM...I don't know enough about IE to make a claim about how it looks.
Sorry man....:|

 

[Imaginer]

even IE11 is failure on metro.

I never use it on a pure desktop machine anyways. My browser goes to Opera.

BUT it is not a failure at all on things like a Surface Pro. If it had extensions/addons/plug-ins that are accessed by settings in the charms bar, or if there is a icon in the pull up address bar for these settings, it would be very much a fully competent browser - as it already can be a competent full browsing experience in itself.

Also, for the white bars, that can be remedied by scaling anyways. Or the webmaster used a fixed aspect pixel width instead in their CSS which would not be of fault to IE. I have not ran into significant margins of empty spaces to the side on major websites. If anything, a bit of margin is good on a tablet where I would use either my left or right thumbs for paging up or down without obstruction of what I am reading.

 

[Cerb]

What also perplexes me is who would want to use Firefox anyway? I have apps that do everything that it does. I have an app for Mobile Banking, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, and Web surfing. Why would I want to do all of this from one single app?

Because the individual apps suck, in comparison? I don't use Facebook or anything like it, but eBay, Google, my bank, Amazon, IMDB, and even doing my hours for work, are all easier straight from the websites, in a regular web browser. The apps dumb the UI down too much, IME, rather than giving a better UI to all the same functionality.

Though, why anyone would want to bother with a Metro FF is puzzling, since rich functionality is kind of the point of FF.

 

[Morbus]

Individual apps are good on underpowered devices, like smartphones.

Elsewhere, you're really better off using a browser.

 

[Cerb]

Individual apps are good on underpowered devices, like really old smartphones.

FTFY. IMDB is the only app I use for a website on my phone, and that is solely due to lack of an equivalent to ABP/ABE on my phone, to block the large animated ads (on a PC, I can choose a list to subscribe to, and edit in any extra things I want to block). That thinking should have never been allowed to start with any newer Windows mobile/touch attempts, but also needs to die off ASAP for phones.

 

[code65536]

I'm not sure that was such a wise decision. I use Windows 8.1, and I use Firefox. I use the desktop version because I have a mouse and keyboard. But I also have a Windows 8.1 tablet, and there, I prefer the Metro touch version because none of the desktop browsers give you a good experience if you are using only touch. The problem with Firefox Metro isn't that Metro sucks. It's that their Nightly testing crowd isn't using Nightly on a touch-only tablet (and it seems unlikely, given the kinds of people using and testing Nightly, for there to ever be that many).

I still think that Firefox Metro makes a lot of sense.

 

[Cerb]

And for that case, it's a chicken and egg problem, that is unsolvable (with FOSS) until x86 touch becomes pervasive, rather than its current status of, "not terribly uncommon.".

 

[ictguy]

Simply, it's dead because it sucked. Laggy over complicated ugly mess.

The best and most secure "metro" browsing experience is Internet Explorer.

I can't remember the last time I used internet explorer (maybe 1999?) and the experience is so good I'm back using it as my daily browser. Firefox is gone and resource hogging Chrome, which runs like 6 processes every time you turn it on and just makes your laptop into a chromebook in metro, they're both gone forever.

I'm on windows 8.1.

Windows depends on the device you use. If you're using a big box with a mouse and keyboard, who cares,but modern hardware BEGS to be on "metro" and this is where the new Start windows experience really shines.

I have a budget U410T Lenovo as my daily computer and unless I'm doing Photoshop or typing up some document i spend 95% of my time on START. I rarely need to go to the desktop, and START makes the experience of the laptop that much fuller.

IE11has been a nice and simple buttery smooth experience and that's the perfect browser now on Windows. I think people are just having a hard time letting go of the past.

You need to start thinking differently about your Windows experience. The days of the internet being opening a browser with 100 extensions installed are over.

People mostly email, read news, watch videos, and you don't need a web browser for any of that. No browser will give you the experience of an App like Flipboard. What a beautifully designed app that Mac users would kill to have.

 

[ictguy]

Individual apps are good on underpowered devices, like smartphones.

Elsewhere, you're really better off using a browser.

Like I said, this is just true for you as you're using a dinosaur box with a mouse and a keyboard. The future of the internet is not to be accessed by a browser. That's just your old thinking unwilling to let go. One day we will look at computers like that huge box you describe in your signature and laugh our asses off.

Once you join the 21st century, you'll see the experience is totally different.

 

[Maximilian]

Like I said, this is just true for you as you're using a dinosaur box with a mouse and a keyboard.

Once you join the 21st century, you'll see the experience is totally different.

*insert troll food here*

 

[ictguy]

Because the individual apps suck, in comparison? I don't use Facebook or anything like it, but eBay, Google, my bank, Amazon, IMDB, and even doing my hours for work, are all easier straight from the websites, in a regular web browser. The apps dumb the UI down too much, IME, rather than giving a better UI to all the same functionality.

Though, why anyone would want to bother with a Metro FF is puzzling, since rich functionality is kind of the point of FF.

"rich functionality". You're now just throwing nonsense terms. What does that even mean?

Apps provide a nicer richer more integrated experience to your computer device as a whole.

As for your banking, I would feel a lot safer doing it in the Bank of America app than though a browser on the desktop.

 

[ictguy]

*insert troll food here*

Says the guy with the fan spinning boxes at home. Haha

You're honestly going to sit there and tell me you think the future of computing are those boxes in your signature?.

 

[Cerb]

"rich functionality". You're now just throwing nonsense terms. What does that even mean?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/

Whatever you want it to mean, that you or someone else considered worth the time to implement.
For me, at the very least, it's having ABE, NoScript, VideoDownloadHelper, and GreaseMonkey.

 

[Maximilian]

Says the guy with the fan spinning boxes at home. Haha.

*insert response to obvious baiting here*

 

[Cerb]

Once you join the 21st century, you'll see the experience is totally different.

Call me when the 21st century's non-browser UIs can match the browser's, on average. In 13 years, we've gotten web apps better than some client apps, but mobile apps better than the website, when there is one, are still quite rare.

 

[ictguy]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/

Whatever you want it to mean, that you or someone else considered worth the time to implement.
For me, at the very least, it's having ABE, NoScript, VideoDownloadHelper, and GreaseMonkey.

You tell me. You're the one throwing out terms.

You're honestly saying you can't block ads with IE? I have them ALL blocked.

Video download. Can do that too. I do every week from VodLocker without any extensions at all.

As far as greasemonkey, has a bigger security hole been developed yet? Please tell me so I can put it in my computer.

 

[ictguy]

Call me when the 21st century's non-browser UIs can match the browser's, on average. In 13 years, we've gotten web apps better than some client apps, but mobile apps better than the website, when there is one, are still quite rare.

What are these awesome powerful websites you're talking about? So far all you've done is talk.

So if I want to find out about home loans in Wells Fargo I go to their website and check. That still doesn't explain your need for the desktop or Firefox extensions.

 

[code65536]

Go write 5000 words without using a physical keyboard and tell me how that goes, mmkay?

 

[ictguy]

Go write 5000 words without using a physical keyboard and tell me how that goes, mmkay?

I DO have a physical keyboard. didn't you read my posts?

Of course not. Forum people don't read posts.

I have a budget U410T Lenovo as my daily computer and unless I'm doing Photoshop or typing up some document i spend 95% of my time on START. I rarely need to go to the desktop, and START makes the experience of the laptop that much fuller.

OK? Next?

 

[code65536]

Yet you seem to have quite the disdain for keyboards and mice... "dinosaur box with a mouse and a keyboard."