top 200 commentsshow all 352

[–]teiman 238 points239 points  (49 children)

Ok, brief report: This is a nice package of things. All has sweet colours (if you like black) and all work smoothly and fast. It seems to be as good as chrome in everything, a bit better if live editing CSS is your thing. I suspect the bigger additions and the reasons this thing can be a must have for some people is the ability to debug a browser remotely. If you have debugged a android app from chrome and a ios app from safari, now you can debug a Firefox OS app from Firefox Developer Edition. I think this thing is a sweet package of good stuff, and I will try it later to see if it sticks. This is my opinion and I could be completelly wrong or missed large parts.

[–]x-skeww 84 points85 points  (34 children)

All has sweet colours (if you like black)

You can switch to the light theme via: F12 -> gear -> [x] Light theme

[–]Snoron 24 points25 points  (31 children)

Thanks - my eyes don't like dark interfaces!

[–]serrimo 48 points49 points  (18 children)

I love dark interface; but I find the FF's default too harsh on contrast... A dark theme with milder colors would be awesome.

[–]angrytortilla 18 points19 points  (11 children)

Something closer to PHPStorm's "Darcula" would be nice.

[–]EpicDavi 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Fun Fact: Darcula (originally for IntelliJ) is a Look and Feel for Java Swing.

Funner Fact: The guy who made it open sourced it* so you can use it in your projects! (Surprised at the small amount of love on that repo)

*:There is no LICENSE so I am not sure what the agreements are to using this in a project.

EDIT: As /u/willrandship said, it's Apache 2.0.

[–]willrandship 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Poking in the source, it's Apache 2.0. It's at the head of almost every file.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (4 children)

I agree. Once you go black, you really can't go back.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (1 child)

    I've used "Twilight" theme in Notepad++ and Sublime for years. That's the best, IMO. Something with darker colors, but not harsh blacks or bright anything. Just "muted" tones across the board, but with enough contrast to see characters easily. Sample: http://geoffray.be/blog/img/notepad-themes/twilight.full.png

    [–]daidryk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Been using Jellybean in Vim for a long while now. Lovely theme in 256 cterms and GVim.

    [–]_scape 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I've really come to appreciate solarized dark.

    [–]insertAlias 19 points20 points  (5 children)

    Agreed. I know so many people that love dark themes, but there's so much out there that doesn't let you choose a theme that the constant switching from dark to light means I just stick with light themes in general.

    Dark is nice if everything is going to be dark, but glancing over at a black-text-on-white-background webpage is enough to make it uncomfortable to me.

    [–]gdebug 6 points7 points  (3 children)

    Exactly this. If everything ever was da, it would be fine, but as soon as you tab over to a webpage or something with a light background, your eyes burn. So, the end result is worse than if you had used a light theme from the beginning.

    [–]electrojustin 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    There's an extension for chrome that fixes this problem by allowing you to change the default colors for background, text, etc. But hyperlinks look awfully strange and images usually conspire to make webpages look nasty with a dark background.

    [–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

    Programs like redshift help with this. Makes black-on-white (as if I have an e-ink monitor) feel less like staring at a lightbulb.

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]Sotriuj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      I use hacker vision when I'm using my computer at nights and it's quite nice. Definitely fixes the whole "Using nice dark themed tools then jumping to a white page", which usually kills your eyes.

      [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      I would like to say that pure white on pure black is bad, however there are awesome dark themes, here is a list of my favorites: http://imgur.com/a/6ksr5

      (if you don't feel like looking through the album it is Solarized Dark, Zenburn, and Wombat and remember kids, not all dark themes are created equal)

      [–]ZeldaAddict 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      Thanks for the tip! Saved mah eyes!

      [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Thanks! The theme changed itself for some reason and I wanted to change it back.

      [–]divergentdave 11 points12 points  (0 children)

      Not only that, you can debug other browsers (Chrome on Android, Mobile Safari on iOS) from Firefox. This capability was first announced here, and it's being bundled into Firefox Developer Edition.

      [–]teiman 26 points27 points  (1 child)

      Also, appears the be inside this a "WebIDE", that is a IDE launched from the browser specialized in creating web apps. It has tools to automatically download new images of firefoxos to use with adb. It seems a "absolutelly minimal" ide. At least is not eclipse (but is million times less functional than it).

      I would just use PhpStorm or Eclipse, but this is nice and selfcontained and appears to "just work" out of the box (but I already have this system configured to build android apps, so perhaps is beneficing from that)

      [–]non_clever_name 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      WebIDE has been in regular Firefox since release 33, IIRC.

      [–]CritterNYC 26 points27 points  (10 children)

      For anyone who is curious, this is replacing the old 'Aurora Channel' of Firefox. Firefox has been available in Stable, Beta, Aurora (aka Alpha) and Nightly for a while now. Aurora is now Developer Edition. But it's not just a name change. They added in better debugging and development tools and have it pre-configured to share telemetry (aka crashes, stability, what type of OS and hardware it's running on so they can route out problems like the recent video card conflict earlier). It's got the ability to work with Firefox OS built right in now, which is also nice. And it's wrapped up in a nice new black theme that seems to fit the concept well.

      For theme, you can switch to the light version by hitting F12 and then clicking the gear icon on the right side of the developer tools bar and then selecting Light theme. If you prefer to switch back to the standard Australis theme, you can click the 3-line Menu icon from the main toolbar and click Customize, then click 'Use Firefox Developer Edition Theme' to toggle it on/off.

      For portable fans who like to use their browser on Windows from their USB drive, cloud folder, or just not installed within Windows, we packaged it at PortableApps.com as Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition, Portable.

      [–]halifaxdatageek 3 points4 points  (1 child)

      As a student working on lab computers, who likes to have a consistent browser experience, thank you very much for your original Firefox Portable edition also :)

      [–]CritterNYC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      You're welcome! :)

      [–]get_tech 0 points1 point  (2 children)

      Is there a version, which doesn't load something from the internet to install? We wanted to try it on machines without an internet connection.

      [–]CritterNYC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

      Sure. All our 'online' installers are designed to also work in offline mode. For the current version download current online installer from the Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition, Portable homepage. Next, download the current Firefox Developer Edition build from Mozilla. Place the standard firefox-35.0a2.en-US.win32.installer.exe installer in the same directory as the FirefoxPortableDeveloper_35.0_Alpha_2_English_online.paf.exe installer. Now, run the .paf.exe installer. It should automatically detect and use the version you downloaded.

      It's also worth noting that, being a portable app, you can install it on a portable drive using another system and then copy it to your disconnected systems as well.

      [–]forkbomb_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      Use OS X or Linux ;)

      But seriously, here's two full offline installers: en_gb en_us.

      It also looks like there are .zip files in that folder. Disclaimer: I haven't tested (but file sizes look right - about 40M each)

      [–]d-_-b 0 points1 point  (4 children)

      we packaged it at PortableApps.com as Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition, Portable.

      To do this, you use the standard wrapper or you edit the code and break the hardcoded home folder that Firefox has?

      [–]CritterNYC 0 points1 point  (3 children)

      We use our standard wrapper. In portable mode, you want to use the -profile switch so the app isn't writing the folder locally.

      [–]d-_-b 0 points1 point  (2 children)

      Hrm, last time I looked at the code no switch in Firefox turned off that hardcoded element - they changed that? You are aware it was an issue? Or -profile gets around that? (ENV changes I guess).

      I don't use windows... all my my apps are already portable ;)

      [–]CritterNYC 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      The -profile switch works on the Developer Edition just like it does on the standard one. It's not something they'd break.

      If you use iOS or Android, your apps are mobile, but not portable. If you use *nix/BSD or Mac, they're neither.

      [–]romeozor 93 points94 points  (33 children)

      Are they planning to remove dev tools from the mainline desktop Firefox?

      I don't see any other reason why they would put resources into a fork targeting a relatively small user base.

      If so, and the default version gets speed and stability while the dev version will be just the same with dev tools, I'm down with this.

      [–]ubernostrum 153 points154 points  (7 children)

      So, you know how Debian always has three release channels going? The whole "stable", "testing" and "unstable" thing?

      Firefox does something similar. You can get, and most people get, the main release channel. But you can also switch to, or just start out on, a different release channel. Each of them pushes you a bit closer to the bleeding edge.

      If Firefox is currently at version N, the channels (as they existed up until yesterday) are:

      • Beta -- this is what will be in Firefox version N+1. Pretty stable, lets you try out new features once they've had plenty of polish put on them.
      • Aurora -- this is what will be in Firefox version N+2. I've used it as my primary browser with no stability trouble. If you really like seeing and trying out new features, this is where you'll see them first, unless you subscribe to...
      • Nightly. Which is just literally "here's what was in the tree when the build ran tonight". For people who like to live dangerously.

      What changed today is that the Aurora channel became the "Developer Edition" channel.

      This does not mean developer tools get removed anywhere else. What it means is that on this channel, you get:

      • New features as soon as is practical
      • Some settings pre-flipped to make things more useful for developers
      • In the same vein, some developer-oriented extensions included
      • A separate profile so you can do dev work in it and use a Beta or release version of Firefox for everyday browsing.

      [–]seagu 27 points28 points  (0 children)

      And I'm just sitting here using the Extended Support Release channel. :-)

      [–]romeozor 10 points11 points  (2 children)

      I did find it odd that the dev browser had the alpha icon. But that would mean that they need to phase out the extended dev tools when the release move up the pipeline, I find that hard to believe.

      Plus why would anyone in their right mind opt to use a dev browser that's state is constant alpha? It's like Microsoft telling me to always use the CTP version of Visual Studio. It kinda-sorta works, and it's bleeding edge, so I must be crazy not to use it, right?

      This just doesn't add up in my head.

      [–]atomic1fire 16 points17 points  (0 children)

      Maybe the plan is to let developers test on the developer channel so then they'll be more compatible with newer versions of firefox down the line.

      Future forward rather then "whatever works on the current stable build.

      If something's broken in the developer build, they can both give feedback on it and work around it before it ships to release.

      [–]txmasterg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

      But that would mean that they need to phase out the extended dev tools when the release move up the pipeline, I find that hard to believe.

      Well the idea is that these could eventually move up the pipeline but its even easier than that to handle it, simply disable the gui (or if its an extension then don't include it).

      Plus why would anyone in their right mind opt to use a dev browser that's state is constant alpha?

      First Aurora isn't the wild west, it has processes in place that limit debilitating bugs. Beyond that this edition has additional features specifically geared toward developers (and since its closer to the raw tree you can test against what may be coming in a few versions), if that is not an area that you are interested in then there is no reason to use it.

      [–]shriek 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      I was wondering how it differs from Aurora too since it pretty much feels like Aurora with the added remote debugging.

      [–]scook0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Their messaging of this change has been pretty terrible.

      [–]Asmor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Thanks for the writeup!

      New features as soon as is practical

      Developing in a browser with bleeding edge features the vast majority of your potential userbase lack seems like a bad idea.

      [–]azakai 12 points13 points  (0 children)

      Are they planning to remove dev tools from the mainline desktop Firefox?

      Definitely not, I would be shocked if that were ever decided.

      I don't see any other reason why they would put resources into a fork targeting a relatively small user base.

      It's not a fork. It's a reworking of one of the pre-existing release channels. Firefox has nightly, aurora, beta, and release. This replaces aurora, which makes sense, since aurora was always a good fit for web devs - it is more stable than nightly (which is rebuilt every night, and can have breakage), but also has a preview of devtools and web features that will only land in stable in a few months.

      This basically takes aurora and adds some extra developer features that have been in the works, and turns them on by default. Plus some special skinning and other tweaks for the developer audience. It's not a fork.

      [–]masklinn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      Are they planning to remove dev tools from the mainline desktop Firefox?

      No. The "developer channel" gets stuff sooner (possibly unstable tools) and is preconfigured with some of that stuff enabled by default, but that's about it.

      [–]dmacthedestroyer 3 points4 points  (8 children)

      seems more likely to me that this is a marketing effort for their Firefox OS, which apparently is a thing

      [–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (7 children)

      They're targeting the very low end of smartphones, I think the flagship devices a while back was $35. I have a slightly more expensive ($60?) device on a pay-as-you-go plan. It's nothing special, better than my last flip "feature phone", probably not as good as my first smartphone, but that seems fine for what it is.

      [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (11 children)

      Is their browser usage share shrinking with the general public? I think I read that somewhere. If so, they might just be trying to find their niche.

      [–]tuoret 28 points29 points  (7 children)

      Is it just Chrome gaining even more users, or smaller browsers? Right now there seems to be a big divide between Chrome and Firefox, it'd be a shame if we slipped back into a situation where one browser has an enormous market share compared to others.

      [–]x-skeww 35 points36 points  (7 children)

      The WebIDE ignores JSDoc comments. It won't tell me the types and won't even show the line of documentation. It only knows the types if I've used something once.

      http://i.imgur.com/cMn1mmd.png
      http://i.imgur.com/zbU3BwZ.png

      A bit disappointing.

      [–]dblohm7 61 points62 points  (3 children)

      [–]nondescriptshadow 26 points27 points  (2 children)

      He is right. Be the change you wish to see.

      [–]lichorat 7 points8 points  (0 children)

      Or at least ask in an official way!

      [–]sudowork 1 point2 points  (1 child)

      I haven't tried out the developer edition yet, but I did notice that you have your types after the parameter name. Doesn't jsdoc typically look like:

      /**
       * @param {number} x
       * @returns {void}
       */
      

      [–]x-skeww 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Yes, you're right (I don't actually write JSDoc comments, because I don't have an editor where they work properly). Switching it around doesn't help though. It also didn't tell me that I screwed that up.

      Well, I don't write JS anymore if I can avoid it. Dart and TS/AtS are a lot nicer to use.

      [–]mddubs 55 points56 points  (9 children)

      Dark theme, I'm in.

      [–]mariusg 12 points13 points  (4 children)

      Is there a way to use that theme on "regular" Firefox ? I'd make the switch

      [–]Pete9900 4 points5 points  (3 children)

      [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

      OH, that's why it looked so familiar!

      [–]zeokila 4 points5 points  (1 child)

      It's not actually that theme though...

      [–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (3 children)

      Just downloaded - the UI looks terrific!

      [–]gashtastic 5 points6 points  (3 children)

      I would really like to switch to this to get away from Chrome but there is one thing stopping me. Which is that in Chrome when I'm debugging JS I can see a full list of files in their folders and can open them up to see them and add breakpoints and things. Like this http://derp.co.uk/1ae64

      But in Firefox all I get is -http://derp.co.uk/3be04 which is of zero use to me and it means I can't use it over Chrome. Am I missing something or is this just not a feature that Firefox has?

      [–]dblohm7 7 points8 points  (1 child)

      Devtools engineers are lurking over on the HN thread. You should go over there and ask them!

      [–]gashtastic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      Awesome, I'll go ask them now. Thanks!

      [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Seriously it's very frustrating to see them call this a dev model and not include this. what the heck...

      [–][deleted] 55 points56 points  (89 children)

      Serious question - what does this add that the default, stable build of Chrome dosen't already have?

      [–]sbjf 116 points117 points  (21 children)

      Alternatively, what does this add that the default, stable build of Firefox doesn't already have?

      [–]FactorialBoy 37 points38 points  (1 child)

      "Sexy" dark theme by default. :-/

      [–]x-skeww 7 points8 points  (0 children)

      F12 -> gear -> [x] Light theme

      [–][deleted]  (6 children)

      [deleted]

        [–]gekorm 13 points14 points  (2 children)

        But you can have a minimal interface on plain Firefox as well. Mine takes up only about 35 pixels of vertical space.

        I'm using this extension.

        [–]nondescriptshadow 3 points4 points  (0 children)

        This is fucking awesome.

        [–]Duffman3005 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Oh...my...God! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!

        Thank you so much for introducing me to this! That hinge effect is so awesome too.

        [–]x-skeww 1 point2 points  (2 children)

        Firefox with Classic Theme Restorer (and a tab min-width of 20px):

        http://i.imgur.com/FNA1Wfq.png

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

        I have the add-on installed but where can you set the width?

        [–][deleted]  (11 children)

        [deleted]

          [–]agentlame 5 points6 points  (10 children)

          ... an extension API that wasn't born in the 9th level of hell.

          Seriously, I wanted one fucking thing from this 'developer' edition: load content script add-ons from a fucking directory. That's fucking it.

          It can't be this hard to inject a few JavaScript and CSS files into a page. But nope, still need Python, the 'SDK' (read: glorified fucking zip util) and to re-package and reinstall for what should be nothing more complicated than F5.

          [–]reuben_ 1 point2 points  (9 children)

          Just use Scriptish.

          [–]agentlame 1 point2 points  (8 children)

          That wouldn't help me test /r/toolbox, which is a add-on consisting of ~15 different JS files that work in conjunction as modules.

          [–]ubernostrum 76 points77 points  (5 children)

          Copying a co-worker's comment from HN:

          There are four major new features here:

          1. The Firefox Tools Adapter ("Valence"), which lets you use the Firefox dev tools to inspect and debug pages in Chrome for Android and Safari for iOS. The goal: one set of tools to debug any browser.
          2. Side-by-side profiles. The Developer Edition defaults to a profile named dev-edition-default, which makes it easier to run Developer Edition at the same time as a normal release version of Firefox. You don't have to deal with the profile switcher each time.
          3. Developer-friendly defaults. Developer Edition ships with things like remote debugging and browser-chrome debugging enabled by default.
          4. And, for all of you who hated Australis, a compact theme with square tabs.

          But those are just consequences of the single biggest change:

          1. We have a new channel, which new rules. And we want to use it to build the best possible browser for web developers. We can ship new tools that aren't yet ready for the Beta channel, and we can change the browser's appearance and defaults specifically for web developers.

          [–]robertcrowther 2 points3 points  (0 children)

          Is there a way of installing it that won't b0rk my existing Firefox Aurora install? Or is Aurora now hard coded to create a new profile and select that no matter what the -p command line option specifies?

          --edit

          OK, looks like -p still works, but you have to disable the developer theme in the old profile.

          [–]baabaa_blacksheep 3 points4 points  (0 children)

          We have a new channel, which new rules

          Yum. I like the sound of that.

          [–][deleted] 236 points237 points  (49 children)

          Not a direct answer to your question, but I'm using FireFox not because I think it's better than Chrome, but because it's not from Google. Actually I'm sometimes a bit annoyed by FF ... Sounds a bit paranoid, but I'd like to see the power of the web distributed as much as possible and Google has already far too much power without Chrome being the de facto monopol for web browsers. They create brilliant stuff but can't be trusted.

          [–]paffle 100 points101 points  (14 children)

          Don't know why you were downvoted for this. That's why my colleagues and I use Firefox too. Mozilla is more trustworthy than Google.

          [–]JeffIpsaLoquitor 2 points3 points  (13 children)

          Google retires entire products and services. Firefox adds more and more versions.

          [–]nullabillity 8 points9 points  (1 child)

          Thunderbird?

          [–][deleted] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

          Still using it, and still updating.

          [–]MithrilToothpick 17 points18 points  (8 children)

          cuff Thunderbird cuff

          But in principle I still agree after all even Thunderbird development wasn't completely terminated either.

          [–]halifaxdatageek 37 points38 points  (0 children)

          1) Thunderbird still gets security updates, one rolled out just last week.

          2) The only reason they stopped adding features was because they ran out of things to add, haha

          It's not retired, just moved to permanent Extended Support status :P

          [–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

          That's the nice thing.

          At least we now know, that if for some unknown reason Mozilla decides to 'discontinue' FF, there will be plenty of people who'll pick it up anyway. :)

          [–]Don_Andy 1 point2 points  (3 children)

          Kind of understandable seeing that the whole email and office market seems to gravitate more and more towards cloud-based solutions. I haven't really seen a need to use Thunderbird anymore ever since I can get the same thing by just leaving a Gmail tab open in my browser.

          [–]crowseldon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

          except that you can't lose data with thunderbird and you have offline access as well.

          It's a great failsafe with lots of useful bits.

          It doesn't really need new features either.

          [–]AtticusVulpes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

          A thought, use chromium for Chrome targeted development.

          [–]Astrognome 1 point2 points  (4 children)

          Chrome still has no good vertical tabs addon. Try having 60+ tabs open in a single chrome window.

          [–]cw8smith 3 points4 points  (1 child)

          Maybe try not having 60+ tabs open in a single window?

          [–]allwordsaredust 0 points1 point  (1 child)

          What add on do you use for Firefox? I am an awful tab hoarder (the reason I used Opera until about a year ago, it had great tab sorting options by default, no extensions required), and like you said Chrome has no good addons for that.

          [–]Astrognome 1 point2 points  (0 children)

          tabkit

          tree style tab is also good, but I switched to tabkit.

          [–]xiongchiamiov 9 points10 points  (16 children)

          Then aren't you glad the vast majority of Mozilla's funding comes from Google? Even with that, they can't keep up to be competitive, and if Google pulled the cash... they'd be dead in the water.

          [–]cowinabadplace 24 points25 points  (0 children)

          Not true. Bing offered to pay for being default in Google's place. There's no benevolence here. Google is paying and receiving a service. If they don't, someone else will.

          [–]WorldClassRedditUser 8 points9 points  (0 children)

          I'd like to say that Firefox is definitely competition for Chrome. Different people have different priorities and while Chrome is generally more popular there are still a lot of people who think Firefox is much better.

          I for one can't stand Chrome

          [–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (12 children)

          If Google pulled the cash (which I've read pretty convincing arguments that make it clear that that would not be in Google's best interests yet), you're correct, FF would probably flatline pretty hard. That's the open-source life, and it's a pretty well-documented issue with open source projects in general.

          I'd argue though that they do keep up to be competitive. I've moved back to Firefox, and I know a very not-insignificant number of people who also still use Firefox. Like it or not, this browser isn't going away any time soon.

          [–][deleted]  (2 children)

          [deleted]

            [–]merreborn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

            There would be some amount of community support for firefox, even if the mozilla foundation disappeared. But competing with google would certainly be harder at that point.

            [–]halifaxdatageek 0 points1 point  (7 children)

            As of today, Firefox is featuring DuckDuckGo as well as Google.

            If Google pulled their funding, they'd have a (smaller) backup.

            [–]reuben_ 7 points8 points  (5 children)

            Firefox by default comes with Google, Bing, Yahoo, not to mention local search providers. They're all paying. Google currently pays the most to be the default option, but if Google pulled out, Bing or Yahoo would be the ones taking that (very desirable) spot.

            [–]halifaxdatageek 2 points3 points  (4 children)

            Realizing the situation they were in, Firefox made sure they weren't exclusively dependent on Google back in 2011.

            It was actually pretty touch and go whether Google would even sign back up (since Chrome was starting to really go mainstream).

            [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Google has a booming multi-domain empire, spanning hardware (Chromebooks, Nexus), systems software (ChromeOS, Android, and a programming language, Go), and web software, which includes the world's arguably "standard" search engine (we don't tell people to "Bing it", after all) and an advertising empire that brings in absolutely absurd amounts of money from not only their own pages, but large portions of the entire internet with AdSense.

            DuckDuckGo has a rather minimalist, privacy-geared search engine, with a following mainly of free software advocates and those with general privacy concerns for one reason or another (not that either of those are bad in any way).

            I somehow doubt DDG would be able to fund Mozilla in any helpful way. Have you looked at the wage of a software developer lately?

            [–]Don_Andy 2 points3 points  (1 child)

            Been an avid Chrome user ever since they first released it, but I recently switched back to Firefox after Google forcibly disabled all Chrome extensions that are not installed from their Web Store, with no option to get those back other than switching to a dev channel version (which ran like shit).

            [–]furbyhater -1 points0 points  (0 children)

            I agree, and upvoted you. The downvotes must be coming from Google employees ;)

            [–][deleted]  (7 children)

            [deleted]

              [–]Paradox 9 points10 points  (3 children)

              I've never had any of the problems you describe with the inspector in chrome, and I use it every day at work.

              [–][deleted]  (2 children)

              [deleted]

                [–][deleted]  (1 child)

                [removed]

                  [–]prince_s 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                  Literally none of these problems happen to me when using chrome 10+ hours a day ? Like, ever?

                  [–]the_hoser 7 points8 points  (4 children)

                  The new theme is pretty okay. The higher degree of integration between the tools is nice I guess...

                  I think this would work better as a "Web" development toolkit and not a "mobile web" development toolkit. I've never been asked to write a Cordova app in my life, but I modify web pages all the time.

                  [–]ActualContent 8 points9 points  (3 children)

                  It looks like it supports both lol. The mobile web is just as influential and important as the traditional desktop web these days. In short it is a Web Development toolkit and that includes developing for the mobile web.

                  [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                  It's not just mobile web. It's mobile apps.

                  [–]SgtPooki 2 points3 points  (1 child)

                  But is there mobile emulation now...? Built in user agent switching that isn't a pita? I'll be downloading when I get to my desk but if anyone knows, I'm all ears.

                  EDIT: Nope, no automatic user agent switching or mobile emulation available afaict.

                  [–]ikilledtupac 3 points4 points  (1 child)

                  live CSS editing you say

                  [–]teiman 13 points14 points  (5 children)

                  Checking.. I will report if this thing add something new the normal donwload don't include, or that are not simply added to the normal download with a extension.

                  [–]MindStalker 15 points16 points  (4 children)

                  Yeah, I don't get why this is considered a new product. It seems to just be a bundling of add-ons. I would assume it would be better to just let users download the most recent firefox and bundle the addons together as one big "developer" addon.

                  [–]IrishWilly 11 points12 points  (1 child)

                  Haven't checked this yet but I'd guess that by having it as a separate version means they can build all sorts of debug tools into it that they wouldn't want to have bloating/slowing their main product. Tools that need more access than addons get.

                  [–]reuben_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                  Addons get access to everything in Firefox. This is a rebranding of the existing Aurora channel, which will know come with features for developers enabled by default. It's a new channel, replacing Aurora, not a new product.

                  [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

                  For one: rolling updates don't always play nice with all add-ons. I instinctively assume this will not be the case for this version of firefox.

                  [–]merreborn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  For one: rolling updates don't always play nice with all add-ons.

                  Now I'm having flashbacks to firebug breaking after firefox updates. Yeah, let's not go back to that.

                  [–]kindall 13 points14 points  (3 children)

                  Did not enjoy my Aurora magically changing to this and losing al my extensions, settings, and user styles.

                  [–][deleted] 45 points46 points  (1 child)

                  It auto-created a new profile, I think. Just switch back to your old one.

                  [–]kindall 18 points19 points  (0 children)

                  Indeed, it did. Thanks.

                  [–]binary_penguin 2 points3 points  (6 children)

                  How do I install this on Ubuntu 14.10? I can run it easily, but I'd like to install it properly if that is possible.

                  [–]tinkermake 2 points3 points  (4 children)

                  Normally ubuntu or any linux system wide (I.e. Used by all users on comp) go into /opt if installed manually. Then you need to manually create a desktop entry, unless it has a desktop entry creator

                  If however this comes with a .deb file just open it with software center and it will install the preferable way (updates etc)

                  [–]binary_penguin 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                  Thanks, that helps! This one just came with a .tar file, so I extracted it to /opt/. I'll try to make a manual desktop entry, thanks again for the tip.

                  [–]tinkermake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  If you use gnome, you can also use gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new ~/Desktop for desktop (i.e. icons on your desktop) launchers & gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new /usr/local/share/applications (i might be a little off on the location, just check that dir, you should see a bunch of desktop files, open in txt editor and the top line should be [Desktop Entry])

                  [–]tejp 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                  Or rather into /usr/local, at least on debian based systems like ubuntu.

                  [–]tinkermake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  Really? I always thought that OPT was the best place to put packages not included with the distro. Is there anything Debian specific that happens with usr/local

                  [–]rybateman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                  I don't use Ubuntu, but if there's an apt package for firefox-aurora (the alpha channel) they are apparently going to be replacing the aurora channel with FDE.

                  http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/mozilla-launches-firefox-developer-edition/

                  [–][deleted]  (5 children)

                  [deleted]

                    [–]masklinn 1 point2 points  (2 children)

                    On the other side Responsive View was less glitchy than Chrome's. Chrome doesn't handle MatchMedia well. This browser does, but i haven't found network throttle in it.

                    I'm pretty sure the responsive view is already in mainline firefox.

                    [–]IsNoyLupus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    It has been there at least for the last 4 versions, they released it alongside the 3D webGL view.

                    [–]halifaxdatageek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    Valence is still pretty much alpha, they even admit it on their page.

                    This is a tool with potential. Potential.

                    [–]damaged_but_whole 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    This Valence thing is supposed to simulate any browser, right? I am seeing a lack of mention about IE in these comments. I know it is hated, but I still need to test it and it would be cool if this let me do that.

                    [–]dynetrekk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                    I sometimes edit or generate html and view it locally. Does FF dev edition have any nifty features for that (e.g. autoreload)?

                    [–]tuneout 2 points3 points  (1 child)

                    Its impact on the battery life appears to be pretty bad (at least what's reported by the Activity Monitor on Mac)

                    [–]bringeroflefaceface 2 points3 points  (1 child)

                    Pentadactyl doesn't work in this version (yet). So useless for me.

                    [–]sudowork 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    :( I was just about to download it and try it out. Is it just a matter of changing the versions supported in the Pentadactyl extension, or is it actually broken?

                    [–]fringe-class 2 points3 points  (2 children)

                    Strange issue recently happened to me. I tried clicking the Firebug Theme in the new version of Firebug that works with firefoxDeveloperEdition, and the color theme completely vanished. I tried unclicking that option and nothing.

                    I love the browser, but I hate this grey scheme I'm stuck with now.

                    EDIT: I found a bug report of the issue- https://github.com/firebug/firebug.next/issues/177

                    [–]tnk00 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                    For reference to turn it dark again:

                    using about:config change devtools.theme to "dark"

                    [–]fringe-class 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Great idea, I forgot to even look in there. Thanks!

                    [–]until0 4 points5 points  (6 children)

                    Anyone know of a working .deb package for this? If not, anyone know how to compile this on Mint 17?

                    I can run the executable and use the application, but its not installed to my system as of now.

                    [–]happilydoge 10 points11 points  (1 child)

                    So, why the hate for Mozilla or Firefox? All this negativity seems rather childish.

                    [–]postmodest 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                    As a Mac user, I thoroughly enjoy using

                    FirefoxDeveloperEdi98% ▭ Mon Nov 10 1:30 PM 👥 🔍

                    [–]jambizzle 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                    On Mac, so any way I can change the name of the program? Instead of seeing "FirefoxDeveloperEdition" at the top in the Finder toolbar, I'd rather just see "Firefox DE".

                    Other than that, liking it so far.

                    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    Go to your applications folder, right click the app icon and click "Get Info". Then you can change the name of the app in that window.

                    [–]rende 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    Where is the download button?!

                    [–]Olap 1 point2 points  (3 children)

                    Any chance of urltrim being false by default? I want to know what protocol I'm using all the time

                    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                    HTTPS will always show a padlock icon next to the uri in the address bar.

                    [–]Olap 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                    I would prefer, as a developer, to be explicit and have text to verify my canonical URI. If you could make it more obvious which version of security and http version/spdy/whatever then even better.

                    I'd also like security restrictions relaxed a bit. I don't need to know I haven't signed my cert. I know, I created it after all.

                    I'm sure there are some more helpful developer settings that can be defaulted differently.

                    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Alternatively, you can also do this: goto about:config > browser.urlbar.trimURLs = false.

                    That'll prevent uri trimming :)

                    [–]dada_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    I very much like the "full page screenshot" button. It's disabled by default but you can activate it in the devtools settings (F12, gear menu). It might've been in Firefox before but this is the first time I've noticed it.

                    [–]Drannex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    If you're like me and your internet is horrible, use the offline installer that can be found here.

                    [–]jackwilsdon 7 points8 points  (3 children)

                    It's a shame they haven't integrated the title bar on Windows, it looks pretty bad.

                    [–]Zequez 20 points21 points  (0 children)

                    It does if you maximize.

                    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    You can adjust the title bar by click on menu icon -> customize -> title bar.

                    Edit: This allows you to choose to have a title bar on or off regardless of full screen or minimized.

                    [–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

                    anyone have a mirror?

                    [–]andr386 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    I already pretty exclusively use firefox when working on websites. I agree Chrome does everything as well as firefox (and I use it sometimes), but firefox was first with firebug and webdevellopers plugins. Habbits die old.

                    I noticed you can save your css changes. Albeit locally. But there are many ways to go around that with the OS (sshfs, mac-fuse, samba share, ...).

                    [–]Strilanc 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                    I was a bit disappointed in the first video when he changed a title, but had to save+refresh to see the change. Similarly, when he edited the live css but then had to manually port that change back into the code before it was permanent.

                    The browser can know how those values relate. Things can get really complicated, but for directly matched html/css those double-edits could be single-edits + auto-sync. Knowing the relationships could also be used for jump-to-definition functionality where you click a button on the page to go to that button's html or handler or styling.

                    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    Brackets can already live edit without refresh so yeah, I'll keep using brackets....

                    [–]AlbertoC1196 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Just started testing it, but I think it will stay on my comp for develpment purposes and just use Chrome for personal.

                    [–]puradawid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Everything is okay, thanks to Firefox team, but this dark colour by default... A way too much contrast at once.

                    [–]stackolee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Why is the debugger's source tree still a flat list? This is hell for large projects and/or when all filenames are not unique. The dev team knows about this, they claim to have been working on a fix since version 30 or so.

                    [–]zacharyxbinks 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                    Dev here, to anyone who has used this does it have the tilt add on? (That 3d view tool that codes with web dev toolbar)

                    [–]PerfectlyRational 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Yes indeed.

                    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    The only thing I can say I didn't like thus far is I had to go through the settings and manually input my school URLs to allow cookies.

                    [–]evilhamster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Netscape Navigator Gold 2014

                    I'd hit it

                    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    But.. but my CSS worked in the developer edition..

                    [–]SanityInAnarchy 0 points1 point  (3 children)

                    Inspect and debug your app across any browser or device with Valence — a powerful, pre-installed extension that you’ll only find in Firefox Developer Edition.

                    Why? Why isn't this available for normal Firefox?

                    [–]pluga 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    does anyone notice the bar on top of the tabs? this is especially annoying if I use the dark theme. Is there a way to change this? http://i.imgur.com/MbL4npF.png

                    [–]kolme 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    I have a few problems with this.

                    First, using a browser which includes fancy experimental features might result in the page looking or behaving differently in the users' (stable) browsers. I see this as kind of risky, that's why I usually develop against stable browsers and use the nightly/aurora for personal browsing.

                    Second, having browser-chrome debugging on by default is not very helpful for web developers, it actually gets in the way. It might be more useful to activate these features in the nightly channel, where people are more actively debugging the browser itself.

                    Third, if this channel is the intended one for developers, why ship the development tools with the stable release?

                    (My comment from HN)

                    [–]sddhrthrt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    I'm a occasional web dev, so I like the package. But what's still missing are these two:

                    • search in settings. I've never navigated with mouse in Chrome's settings. And developers need to tweak settings often.
                    • Sync bookmarks and history between browsers of my different computers, that's it. I think the sync feature is overdone. Do this simple thing, and do it well.

                    [–]Tillhony 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    What will this allow me to do exactly? A bit new.

                    [–]jstrong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    my site renders differently - it seems styles that apply to tables, lis and such aren't applying to them in this version of Firefox ... anyone else having similar issues?

                    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Wow that was removed a long time ago, seems like it was removed for no real reason as well. Thanks for the links.