Firefox 85 gets option to control Home and New Tab page extensions
When you install extensions in Firefox currently that change the layout of the New Tab page or Home, you will notice that the layout of the last installed extension is picked automatically by Firefox.
Most users won't install two extensions dedicated to changing the New Tab page or Home, but it may happen that users want to install one that is dedicated to the task, and another that is providing different functionality but also an option to replace the New Tab page and Home design.
Another use case comes into play when users install an extension that changes the layout and provides other functionality. If the user is only interested in the "other", it is currently not possible to change the homepage or new tab page layout to Firefox's default options.
Firefox 84 and earlier display an option to disable the extension that captured the New Tab page or homepage layout. There is no option to switch to the default without disabling the extension; this changes with Firefox 85 as options are introduced to switch to any available layout.
The web browser displays all available layouts for the homepage, windows, and new tabs in the Settings so that users may switch to any layout provided by an installed extension.
To do that, users may load about:preferences#home directly in the Firefox address bar or select Menu > Settings > Home to get started.
The option is located under New Windows and Tabs. Just activate the menu next to "homepage and new windows" or "new tabs" and make your selection. The new layout is activate immediately, a restart is not required. Not that you need to reload new tab pages that are open before you make the change.
Firefox 85 will introduce several new and interesting features; among them network partitioning to improve privacy, non-contiguous printing support, and an option to disable its tab-to-search functionality.
Now You: do you use a new tab page extension? (via Sören Hentzschel)
I use the expressions, “Nettrolling” and “Nettrollia (the cyber home of the ‘Nettrollians’!”… to distinguish between Internet trolls, and those who may troll others in different contexts, and settings (and e.g., trolling joggers in a park from under a bridge!)!
Lastly… for me, the only true way to use Firefox, is in conjunction with the Tor Projects’ Tor Browser! And under Tor’s about:preferences > Home, one has the option to type in/ Paste in a “CUSTOMIZED URL (and e.g., check.TorProject.org… that/ which automat[icly] effects a ‘Tor Network Security Check’ when the Browser is started up, to ensure one’s Network Security before proceeding to an online search… and then searching, preferably, with something like Privacy Tools, or DuckDuckGo.onion– never just DDGO, or search engines that/ which are DESIGNED to compromise a safe search!)”!
So, it looks like Carl Gustav and Polichinelo’s secret are totally not trolls seeking attention. Good to know.
yeah looks like a ff zealot tried to instigate some flamewar up there but got rebuffed. What would be in all users best interests is not defending ad and tracker infested software which lies about its privacy, not before then will corporations be motivated to clean up their act.
> looks like a ff zealot tried to instigate some flamewar up there but got rebuffed…
Yes, that one TJ looks like a shady character to me.
> ad and tracker infested software which lies about its privacy
And you totally understand what you are talking about. I see.
Desktop and mobile browsers are different beasts with different markets. Using total market share as a metric of “goodness” isn’t a good measure by any means. Apple’s OSX presence is small vs. Windows but they’re not going anywhere. Nor are the multitude of Linux distros buried in the noise (well, maybe some but the community’s healthy.)
For the last three months of 2020, on desktop, Chrome is decreasing its market share (4%) at about 6x FF’s increase (.7%.) Compare Chrome’s decrease to Safari’s increase (2%) and it’s about 2x. Add Chredge and Chrome’s market share drop is mostly from the increases in those three browsers.
FF is up to 8%, Safari, up to 10%. Not sure about Chredge, the data’s muddled, but all three are doing well.
Chrome’s not. Given the anti-competition legal pressures they’re under now, that may be deliberate, IDK.
On mobile, Safari owns iOS, Chrome owns Android, FF hasn’t moved in mobile since forever. Other small players may have done more than FF but nothing meaningful; none have threatened Samsung Internet at their small 6%.
Chrome’s and Safari’s mobile curves are mirror images, when one increases, the other decreases almost the same amount. What you’d expect with two big players linked closely to market size. Samsung Internet is No.3, steady at 6%, no effect on the big two. The rest are tiny and buried in noise; pragmatically, they don’t matter.
Until someone makes a substantial move on Safari or Chrome, mobile is irrelevant to browers overall; it’s stuck and doesn’t seem to drive desktop at all.
A chart, there are many others similar and slightly different:
https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/worldwide
Even if someone was interested in these endless listing of numbers, the question remains: How exactly is this “three months 2020 4% 6x 7% 2% 2x three 8% 10%”-stutter related to the Home and New Tab extensions ?
in android beta 85 i dont found new tab redirect !
Seriously recommend against android version of firefox fwiw, it comes with baked in google trackers and web activity + download hashing by google which you cant disable. This puts it at the bottom of the pile regarding privacy, they are the most nefarious features users seek to avoid when flocking to something like firefox yet are betrayed.
Mozilla Corporation just wants to make it as easy as possible to switch back to their own filthy home page full of ads and tracking code.
And they don’t even give an option to enter manually a new tab page URL chosen by us, for the same reason.
Profit before users, screw user freedom, long live ads and tracking, the true Mozilla summarized.
You seem to know a lot about Mozilla. Now you only need to find someone who appreciates your sharing that knowledge. But PLEASE stop looking here !
Same as any browser OOB. The things about which you whine can easily be fixed. I mean they’re dirt simple to change. Look at the second image. Didn’t even read the article? Oops.
Thank you for the tip, my Startme extension became the new tab page but now is possible back to default Firefox one.
I’ve installed userChromeJS available at [https://github.com/xiaoxiaoflood/firefox-scripts]
Among the UserchromeJS scripts made available, one is dedicated to Firefox’s New Tab, and makes the change with one line of code :
[ lockPref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://localhost/firefox/homeboard.html”); ]
I then set FF’s Homepage to be the same as its New tab :
pref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://localhost/firefox/homeboard.html”);
No fuss. One page for Home and New tabs. Urlbar empty. Choose your page, mine is homemade.
I never understood, like I’ve pointed it out often here and elsewhere, why Firefox allows the user to choose the browser’s homepage but makes it cumbersome to decide of its Newtab page. Maybe because the Newtab page is a central point of Firefox’s deployment including thousands of lines of code all dedicated to a company’s binoculars on the user’s activity. Change both, block Activitystream, fine tune all of that and much more with Pants’ arkenfox user.js, and you’ll have a browser deserving its developer’s name.
@Tom Hawack
> fine tune all of that and much more with Pants’ arkenfox user.js, and you’ll have a browser deserving its developer’s name.
Serious question: Shouldn’t it aspire to deserve its developer’s name BY DEFAULT?
@Iron Heart,
“Shape my hair so that they deserve your hairdessing salon’s reputation”. Back at home she changed a few things as always and as always kept on returning to the same salon. I haven’t tried all browsers but I cannot imagine one which would satisfy everyone, out of the box. Having the scissors, brush and combs available is the point. Nothing is perfect and should perfection exist it wouldn’t yet be admitted by all as such. We’ve already debated about this over hundreds of lines (95% being yours). Why not try another salon, browser? Because Firefox and to its ability to be edited, because editing a browser as well as any editable application requires that the user knows how to and that means time proportionally to the user’s technological knowledge. I’ve even debated with hi-skilled programmers who ignored some of Firefox’s specifics. Theory and practice. I emphasize on the latter. No adoration, no demagogy, I take things as I take people : as they are. When I like/agree I say it, as well as when I don’t. Yes, Firefox has handicaps IMO and, these removed, would make it closer to deserving the developer’s company label.
Happy New Year.
Sorry, editing my comment above, wrote too quickly, had the wrong copy when pasting.
I should have wrote:
”
Among the UserchromeJS scripts made available, one is dedicated to Firefox’s New Tab, and makes the change with one line of code :
[ AboutNewTab.newTabURL = “http://localhost/firefox/homeboard.html”; ]
”
One line of code. Without the [ ] of course.
Yeah, New Tab Homepage, opens home page in a new tab (duh?)
New Tab Override, the one shown above, is what I use on Chromium.
how about * [Editor: removed, please stay civil] Mozilla FINALLY re-implement a feature they have removed and that users clearly want to have control on since they’ve made an extension for it instead?
Martin, I’m looking forward to the comments about FF, especially from posters who don’t use it.
65 comments on your last article, most of them claiming that FF:
is a Chrome clone.
only has 4% of the browser.
is undeveloped.
will disappear in a couple of years.
cannot be configured for privacy.
etc., etc., etc.
I shall wait eagerly for the usual suspects to dive in so that I can have a chuckle.
Happy New Year.
Wow, like moths to a flame. One moth wants to hide the flame.
Poof!!!
@ULBoom and all the other usual suspects
Oh look, a whole part of the comment section being occupied by the useless whining from what I consider Firefox trolls, who would be better off at r/firefox where they IMHO belong. gHacks is neutral grounds (at least nominally), you should learn to respect other people’s opinions, learn not to whine about them, and you should understand that you can’t directly influence or dictate what other people write here.
I mean, look at this mess here, @T J, among all of his usual whining, insinuated that some of the things said in a prior article were untrue, I then provided proof that this is factually not the case. Originally, I wanted to leave it at that, but I wasn’t born under a lucky star. A whole bunch of Firefox trolls contributed literally nothing afterwards, aside from the usual whining and bickering I mean.
@Name and @finoderi posted the only comments that contributed anything and made a modicum of sense.
I too want to contribute in useful ways here, providing support, answering questions, correct factually wrong statements when I see them (I also accept that the other way around, whenever it actually happens). Nothing wrong with that, right? Except I do it all while not promoting Firefox at the same time, which is a problem for the r/firefox populace, hence all this useless drivel appearing here. I am a nuisance to your precious consensus, my apologies…
Leave me alone, if you can, for you all waste my time. You contribute nothing here, except to complain about and to flame another commenter for literally no reason other than petty dislike.
@T J
> the usual suspects
Oops, I fear some of the things you are whining about (because they are true) were uttered by me:
> only has 4% of the browser.
Yeah, it pretty much has only 3.77% worldwide market share:
https://gs.statcounter.com/
> will disappear in a couple of years.
Yeah, 3.77% now down from approx. 30% market share which it had back in 2010. A prospering product indeed. /s Since they are still losing users, the above conclusion is a foregone one.
> cannot be configured for privacy.
I said “bad default privacy” and not “cannot be configured for privacy”, there is not just a semantic difference between those two.
> if you think you can play little dictator
I didn’t write anything about what and to whom should be allowed and don’t think so. As usual, you just make it up and argue with your own imagination. Quite a vulgar demagogic trick, commonly known as “a straw man argumentâ€. So your fears for the throne of a little dictator of this topic are unfounded. Therefore, you can stop worrying, otherwise there is a bit too much invective about “bickering†and “whining†for a person who have “no reason to careâ€. Bickering and whining still remain solely your prerogative.
> Any further questions?
First of all, many thanks for the qualified answer and a generous offer to continue our star interview.
Of course there are questions!
I think many people would be interested to know, what size is your document of all Mozilla’s sins and Firefox’s abominations? (Mine is only a modest 114 pages so far). What format is it—markdown, spreadsheet, may be a full-fledged database with all the tweets of employees who posted selfies with a finger, management salaries accounting, contracts with Google?
It would be really useful for society to make such a database public, so that such a wonderful poetic work would not be lost in vain among local ungrateful anonymous. (Maybe something like “IronFox.json†or “FireTruth�)
Did someone call? I’ve known Iron Heart for years. We hang out with all the others at the Fallacy Club – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
first one listed .. and we have an example in this very thread
– #1: appeal to probability: firefox market “share” means being bankrupt in three years: iron heart’s wet dream
reality: pretty stable ~200+ million users, half a billion in the bank, a three year deal for search engines locked in, funding fully covered for the next 3+ years, an integrated-already-setup team and systems, controlled budgeting, to name but a few points. “Share” is not the same as “numbers”
@Carl Gustav
Oh look, more useless drivel. First you insinuate that people are “obsessive patients” and then you refuse to accept the reaction, which is to state that playing little dictator can hint at a mental condition as well.
Don’t like it – don’t read it, doesn’t seem to apply to you even though it is a principle that is not too hard to follow. Instead you flame, and craft snark, and you troll me (ironically the very thing you accuse me of doing, while actually doing it yourself), how is that normal? I provided a reasonable answer to @T J’s not knowing what he is talking about, the other comments, with the exception of my reply to @Name, were all basically myself dealing with insults, trolling, and general idiocy. Tired of it.
My dearest @Iron Heart!
Let me humbly remind that you yourself ran to the call sign “obsessive attention-seeking troll†while no one called or insulted you personally. However, it is gratifying to see such concern for other offended. It’s not surprising given what a positive contribution you always try to make to the community.
But in one thing you’re absolutely right, I don’t like what you write—I just love it! Every time I open ghacks, I know that I will see your extremely valuable advices and patient explanations to the ignorant.
Therefore, I suggest that we forget the flame and the imagined insults and return to the discussion of the main issue—the Big Book of The Sins of Firefox, our Malleus Navigatrum.
For the initial part, I propose to discuss the times when Firefox was a blooming innocent child. When did you start noticing that something is wrong, something needs to be fixed? What caused the first thoughts about it—Eich’s departure from the family, forced deprivation of good old add-ons, inability to get used to some interface changes? How long have you been noticing this feeling? Do you still feel rejected, betrayed, abandoned?
@everyone
See, this is the very definition of a troll posting (the last posting of @Carl Gustav). I rest my case.
@Carl Gustav
Nice trolling attempt. Came here to accuse me of trolling, ended up performing massive trolling yourself. See you later (hopefully not).
@Iron Heart
This is not trolling! Trolling, as everyone knows, is “provoking others with misinformation.†Admiration and veneration cannot be trolling.
I’m here to help. Don’t be afraid of attention and rushed feelings, maybe not quite familiar to the callous heart of a brave soldier.
Suddenly wake up in the new year as the largest recognized expert on the Firefox history and practices—such a success will shake anyone! But it is quite deserved when you devote all the time to your favorite subject.
My questions remain actual, although we have already made good progress. Great job! Just relax a little. We will melt this ice.
@Iron Heart I’d check myself out if all I did in life was comment about how terrible Mozilla and Firefox are in every post made about either here on ghacks. Maybe you should check your priorities and focus on other things that are beyond you.
I’ve been using Brave for a bit (the browser that you recommend so much), in tandem with Firefox Nightly (which I’ve been using for almost a decade) and, as much as I wanted to switch to Brave fully, it lacks the customization options and control that you’d expect from such a “privacy centric” browser. Not to mention the fact that Firefox is way easier to navigate (about pages, keyboard shortcuts, buttons) and just much better looking in general.
Anyways, all this talk about Chromium being superior and I’m yet to see anything factual and conclusive about it other than the marketshare being higher.
@Name
What @finoderi said is pretty much spot on. Brave already has sane privacy settings by default, there is no need to toggle as much. There is a documentation of what they change:
https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-Chromium-(features-we-disable-or-remove)
For the rest that is not covered, Brave’s settings and chrome://flags suffices, as far as I’m concerned. You can achieve even more extreme setups with Firefox, but only by sacrificing web compatibility at the same time. I think Brave team pretty much covered all non-breaking changes one can introduce well.
Also please understand, I think Brave is the best browser for my own use case(!), that doesn’t mean it has to be good (enough) for anyone else. I am happy with Chromium’s interface + privacy protections, so I am using Brave. End of story.
> Firefox is way easier to navigate (about pages, keyboard shortcuts, buttons) and just much better looking in general.
Those are not things that concern me, but if they are a concern to you, then please use something else, e.g. Vivaldi (V. has custom shortcuts and other customization options). My use case is not identical with other use cases and I never claimed such. Use what suits you best, this is literally the best recommendation anyone can give. Each browser has strengths and weaknesses.
> Anyways, all this talk about Chromium being superior and I’m yet to see anything factual and conclusive about it other than the marketshare being higher.
If Firefox were so great, more people would use it. After all, it is available for free, so anyone with an Internet-capable device who wants to use it, actually could. Its low market share indicates that people like other browsers more and are happy with them, so obviously, Chromium is not “bad” for the majority of people. It doesn’t meet your expectations? Not good, but that’s a niche use case, then. Doesn’t mean your use case is invalid, it just means that not many people actually have such a use case, hence the distribution of market share.
So what do you want me to say here? Chromium (aside from Vivaldi) is not for people searching for customization, it was not built for that use case – however most people also don’t have such a use case.
PS: Please don’t concern yourself regarding the topics I am interested in, or which companies I personally trust or distrust, how I phrase my stuff, how often I write something… It’s none of your business. You can have an opinion on that all you like, but what I do, or don’t do, is still in my very own sovereignty.
The “By default & out of the box” myth
>>> “Brave already has sane privacy settings by default, there is no need to toggle as much.”
If that was the case, there was no urge to copy&paste your long list of settings about what has to be disabled:
aka “MY BRAVE SETTINGS” including your recommendations for particularly privacy- and security-oriented extensions over and over again at ghacks forum. Quell contradiction!
Your recommended settings for this Rumpelstiltskin of a “CryptoDotComAPIBrowser” – with this heavily patched “Open Source under the control of Google” Chromium as the humble extension for any webstuff – reads as if they had been copied and pasted from the “Ultimate Social Media Guide for Caring Moms”
@Polichinelo’s secret
> If that was the case, there was no urge to copy&paste your long list of settings about what has to be disabled: aka “MY BRAVE SETTINGS†including your recommendations for particularly privacy- and security-oriented extensions over and over again at ghacks forum. Quell contradiction!
Genius, my settings do not differentiate between what is already set as default and what needs to be changed in Brave. Many things that I typically recommend are already the default and need no tinkering. There are also other sane defaults which they set, defaults that are not immediately visible can’t be altered with the regular settings menu (e.g. referrers, prefetching, cookie lifetime policies, session identifiers, sroll to text fragment and others) – of course you knew that, “expert”.
Of the extensions I recommend, one can do without uBlock Origin since it is a duplicate of Brave’s internal adblocker. I keep it around only for custom lists until the Brave team implements that, I’ll drop it soon. As far as LocalCDN, Cookie AutoDelete, ClearURLs are concerned – again, no other browser does that, either. For what Brave covers(!) the sane values are being set, and they serve as a good basis. You can’t realistically bash it for things that are outside the scope of any web browser (e.g. local CDN replacements).
> reads as if they had been copied and pasted from the “Ultimate Social Media Guide for Caring Momsâ€
If they are not useful to you, ignore them. Easy as that. If you choose to write about them, try to contribute something useful instead of just flaming.
>>>”Many things that I typically recommend are already the default and need no tinkering”
The very first of your recommended setting already contradicts what you claim here
1) brave://settings/appearance– Brave suggestions in the address bar –> Disabled
What your replies are is an elaborate fiction, a kind of fantasy interpretation superimposed on reality, but not governed by the same rules as reality.
Example:
>>> “one can do without uBlock Origin since it is a duplicate of Brave’s internal adblocker”.
In reality, it’s the other way around. Brave’s “internal” adblocker is heavily “inspired” from uBlockOrigin, guess who the duplicate is?
Even the use of facts in your twisted thinking, just serves as a kind of legitimating ornamentation. A swarm of detail signals simply that one is “in the know”; but the cited facts do not build toward a logical conclusion, except incidentally.
@Polichinelo’s Secret
> Brave suggestions in the address bar –> Disabled
My dude, this setting being set to “Disabled” is the current default in Brave. Try again.
> What your replies are is an elaborate fiction, a kind of fantasy interpretation superimposed on reality, but not governed by the same rules as reality.
Cool. Perhaps you should learn what Brave’s defaults are before you accuse me of not living in reality. Epic fail.
> In reality, it’s the other way around. Brave’s “internal†adblocker is heavily “inspired†from uBlockOrigin, guess who the duplicate is?
I meant that Brave’s adblocker comes with it by default, while uBlock Origin is a browser extension. You install the browser first, and after that any extension, meaning the extension is automatically the duplicate in my setup.
Anyway, going by your definition (who came out before whom, I meant something else entirely) of “duplicate”, uBlock Origin would be a duplicate of AdBlock Plus, because the latter came out way before uBO. Give it a rest, I have wasted enough time with you here.
Quote:
> Brave suggestions in the address bar –> Disabled
>>> “this setting being set to “Disabled†is the current default in Brave”
“Currently” …
… IOW since they got caught hijacking typed URLs in an amateurish attempt of telemetry:
Quote Brendan Eich
“the idea was to count ways people got to Binance in Brave not by clicking on links in pages.”
or In Iron Heart Words → Spying at users!®
@Polichinelo’s secret
Wow, you anti-Brave trolls are not particularly creative in your trolling, I have debunked this already:
https://www.ghacks.net/2020/12/25/how-to-hide-the-tips-icons-that-brave-places-on-some-sites-automatically-as-part-of-its-rewards-system/#comment-4481424
1) It’s not telemetry, it is a Brave identifier for specific websites. Telemetry is collecting performance or crash data.
2) It was a non-unique identifier, meaning that “spying on” users based on the referral was impossible.
Mozilla has done far worse with Firefox (Cliqz, Mr Robot incidents) but you anti-Brave spammers never seem to remember it.
“It’s none of your business”
When you post in public forums, it’s everyone’s business – you chose to share. Don’t be a chicken and hide behind yet more mistruths
@bwooooooark-puk-puk
> When you post in public forums, it’s everyone’s business – you chose to share.
I said that anyone is free to have an opinion on what I write, but it is still ME writing, not YOU. You can’t make me do anything here and shouldn’t try.
> Don’t be a chicken and hide behind yet more mistruths
Point me to the “mistruths”, then, so that they can be laid bare for all to see. Unless it’s yet another case of the tried and tested “Throwing dirt at someone, hoping that something sticks.”
>…it lacks the customization options and control that you’d expect from such a “privacy centric†browser”.
What options exactly? I’ve switched from FF to Brave about half a year ago and don’t miss anything apart from DoH. But I use my own unbound DNS server with DoT enabled now, so it doesn’t matter to me anymore. Brave already has sane default options, so you don’t need to switch a couple of dozens flags to achieve the same level of privacy protection. I guess it can be perceived as lack of customisation if you don’t look carefully enough or don’t understand what’s going on ‘under the hood’.
> Not to mention the fact that Firefox is way easier to navigate (about pages, keyboard shortcuts, buttons) and just much better looking in general.
That’s what is called acquired taste or a matter of habit. It’s very subjective and has nothing to do with privacy or usability.
> I’m looking forward to the comments … from posters who don’t use it
> I shall wait eagerly
This is what gives these obsessive attention seeking trolls a raison d’être. You can imagine what pleasure they get from the fact that they are expected somewhere, that someone will communicate with them, quote them, talk about them, thus filling their existence with meaning.
@Carl Gustav
It’s not trolling if what you say is factually true. Trolling is provoking others with misinformation, truth can’t be misinformation. That you dislike factually true statements does not mean that people stating them are trolls. It means that you fail to cope with reality.
> It’s not trolling if what you say is factually true. Trolling is provoking others with misinformation
Very nicely layered troll’s antimony.
@Carl Gustav
Are you done with the bickering now?
Call me whatever you like, I have no reason to care.
> Call me whatever you like
I’ve only appreciated the beauty of the paradox built on your ridiculous made-up definition of trolling. But no one called you. We were talking about patients with obsessive behavior. Truth is not the problem here.
By the way, which version and setup of Firefox do you recommend, apparently you are so well versed in the matter? Maybe a list of some custom settings?
@Carl Gustav
> We were talking about patients with obsessive behavior.
Perhaps you are a patient yourself if you think you can play little dictator regarding the things other people are allowed to write here.
> Truth is not the problem here.
No, but your whining is.
Truth is incompatible with trolling.
> By the way, which version and setup of Firefox do you recommend, apparently you are so well versed in the matter? Maybe a list of some custom settings?
Tor Browser Bundle, disconnected from the Tor network if you don’t feel comfortable with it. Any further questions?
FF marketshare is less than 3,8% now, it’s underdeveloped and will suck even more in the nearest future. Here ya go.
I like very much these new options, imho very useful to have major control over some certain scenarios. By the way, talking about Firefox, I have noticed that UblockOrigin latest version is causing some troubles for me in Firefox 84.0.1: it makes Firefox to crash, and even Firefox keeps working after closed. After disabling UblockOrigin everything worked good again. I installed Adblock Adguard to see what happens but the crashes stopped and also Firefox closes fine now (it’s not keep working at background). :[
I just got an update for uBlock Origin, maybe if you have, update yours and see if your issue gets fixed.
Yes, it seems it has worked fine! Thank you @mo! :]
“By the way, talking about” thank you, I have noticed that my grandma didn’t thank her neighbor for the nice flowers she got …