> I am loving Quantum, and I don't understand why Firefox continues to slide.
Apparently a lot of Firefox installs are on older systems (think Windows XP/Vista era) from before Chrome took over the world. There's a reason Firefox was the last major browser to drop XP support (they only did so when 52 ESR left support a few months ago!). As those systems get phased out they generally get replaced with systems that come with Chrome preinstalled and that's "good enough" for most people buying them (unlike Internet Explorer back in the day) so they don't seek out alternatives.
They broke extension support. Half of the extensions disappeared (didn't migrate to Quantum). The other half works only partially. One year after Quantum i still have a blank new tab because a custom html file in new tab would require an extension AND a web server.
Sure, it is harder now for non-technical users to shoot themselves in the foot. On the other hand, Mozilla took away control from users. After Quantum I lost all hope.
There might be a problem with your session history files getting locked and therefore Firefox doesn't update them. Could you take a look here and let me know what you find:
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
"3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
(menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button.
In your profile folder, scroll down and double-click into the sessionstore-backups folder. You may see numerous files here. Of particular importance:
recovery.js: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session -- if you check the modified date/time, is this fresh or is it from the time frame that keeps coming back?
recovery.bak: a backup copy of recovery.js
previous.js: the windows and tabs in your last Firefox session
upgrade.js-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of your last update
Do you see any numbered files, such as recovery-1.js? Firefox may create those when it is unable to store your current session history in recovery.js. Unfortunately, at the next startup, those files are not used automatically.
I agree this was rough but things need to be taken into context with this in my opinion.
Given their small "market share", it would seem right to remove a major burden to rapid development (the old extension format, XPI) in favor of open standards (web workers).
It's more maintainable, more in-line with current standards. I am only speaking as a fly-on-the-wall here. Although I am a senior "full stack" developer, I am pretty far removed from any of the day-to-day here.
By wiping the slate clean in terms of extensions, hopefully this will be a small paint-point, quickly forgotten, and things move forward from here.
Re-reading this prior to submit, it seems like I've inserted too many items straight out of the BS generator but I'm ok with it.
"it would seem right to remove a major burden to rapid development (the old extension format, XPI) in favor of open standards (web workers)."
Perhaps. But it sure would have been better if the new extension system were as capable as the old before axing the extensions. The loss in functionality, for me, is unacceptable. At the heart of it, this is what made me give up entirely on post-57 Firefox.
I am loving Quantum, and I don't understand why Firefox continues to slide.
With this Edge announcement (a new Microsoft Chromium browser), I'm nervous we're getting into not a duopoly, but potentially a monopoly.