Should Firefox stay the default browser in Fedora Workstation?

Tue Jun 10 20:09:42 UTC 2014

On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 2:33 PM, Martin Stransky <stransky at redhat.com>
wrote:

> On 06/06/2014 05:52 PM, Elad Alfassa wrote:
>
>> Should Firefox stay the default browser in Fedora Workstation?
>>
>> I know it's powerful, it has a lot of extensions, and it's popular. But
>> it's integration with our desktop is lacking and getting worse all the
>> time.
>>
>
>  Here's a list of things Firefox lacks in Fedora:
>> * GPU acceleration
>>
>
> It's supported by Firefox. But it depends what do you actually means -
> there are many layers of acceleration. Can you be more specific here? Do
> you have any #BZ?

I don't have BZ numbers for this because I don't know which bugs are really
relevant. I also don't pretend to know a lot of the internal architecture
of Firefox.
Here is what I do know:
1. about:support says no windows are accelerated
2. WebGL is very slow
3. Various people at MozCamp last year told me that yes, Firefox still
doesn't use GPU acceleration on Linux. Some of them claimed the GTK3 port
will make it possible, but they had no technical details to give me.
4. At some point, mesa drivers were specifically blacklisted in Firefox,
but afaik that was for mesa older than 7, and we are on 10.2 on Rawhide
today and Firefox still reports no acceleration
5. This seems relevant https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=594876
6. Setting layers.acceleration.force-enabled to true does not do anything

>
>
>  * Integration with the desktop's geolocation services
>>    * On that note, geolocation doesn't work at all in Fedora's firefox at
>> the moment
>>
>
> It's because we need an API key to Google Geolocation service. If Evince
> has the API key, we can use it in Firefox too (see rhbz#1063739).
>
>  Evince doesn't use geolocation afaik - it's a PDF reader.
Also, afaik there's no app in Fedora with Google API key. I strongly
recommend we use the Mozilla Location Services at least until GeoClue2
support is implemented in Firefox.
Geoclue2 will mean GPS devices (and theoretically cellular tower IDs, I
don't know if that's implemented) will be supported for more accurate
location. GeoClue2 uses the Mozilla Location Services by default as well.

>
>  * Integration with the desktop's notification system
>>
>
> That's true. It's on our TODO list. Patches are always welcome :)

Nice to hear.

>
>
>  * Support of url scheme handlers (this used to work)
>>
>
> Can you point me to #BZ? I'm not aware of it.

Seems that you found it already. For later reference:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1105640

>
>  * UI that matches the rest of the desktop (without installing 3rd party
>> theme and extensions)
>> * GTK3 support
>>
>
> Will be addressed by Gtk3 port. Our optimistic target is Firefox 32.
>

The GTK3 port addresses the GTK3 support, but it doesn't alter the
browser's UI: it looks and behaves on Linux just like it does on Windows.
Try installing the Firefox GNOME theme:
https://github.com/gnome-integration-team/firefox-gnome and see how Firefox
will suddenly look at lot more like other apps do, and follow the GNOME HIG
more closely.
 Unfortunately, there's no real solution to this as we can't ship the
extension by default (I listed the reasons in other places in this thread)
and upstream still belives Firefox should look the same on all platforms
instead of looking native to the platform and more similar to other apps in
the platform. This might work well for Windows where every app looks
differently, but GNOME, much like iOS, has a well defined set of Human
Interface Guidelines. All GTK3 apps look roughly the same, with symbolic
icons, similar tabs, similar buttons. Firefox looks extremely different.

>  * High-DPI support
>>
>
> Already on TODO list - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=975919
>
>  * Touch input support
>>
>
> On progress - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=978679

Great to hear!

>
>
>  Some of those issues are being actively worked on, other have incomplete
>> patches in upstream's bugzilla with nobody working to finish them, and
>> some
>> of them seem to be issues that will never be solved (such as making the UI
>> feel more "native" to GNOME).
>>
>
> Can you be more specific here what is leaved behind? All upstream Gtk3
> bugs should be registered to:
>
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=627699
>
> And as you can see, various people are submitting patches and the project
> is moving rapidly. And I'm picking the "unowned" bugs.

Not a gtk3 issue, but it seems that GeoClue2 support has an out-of-date
patch and nobody who knows how / has the time to implement it
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=485472

>
>  Meanwhile, Epiphany (GNOME Web) keeps getting better and better, perhaps
>> we
>> should consider it as the default?
>>
>
> Mozilla invests money and people to the Firefox Gtk3 port (for instance
> Collabora writes the gtk2 plugin support code - mozbz#624422) and so we
> should do. It would be a wrong signal from us to leave the Gtk3 Firefox
> behind.
>
> ma.
>
> --
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> desktop at lists.fedoraproject.org
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>

I appreciate you took the time to reply here even tho it has already been
decided that Firefox will remain the default.

-- 
-Elad Alfassa.
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