No kidding. I had to create a Google Doc document to remember all the little things that I have to clobber in Firefox to make it behave reasonably. Here is an excerpt of how I clobber the defaults:
- Enable pixel-perfect smooth scrolling (Linux): MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 (why do we still have to do this??)
- Enable: Ctrl-Tab cycles through recent used order
- Disable: "Show an image preview when you hover on a tab"
- Disable: "Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab group"
- Disable: "Enable Picture-in-Picture video controls"
- Disable: "Control media via keyboard, headset, or virtual interface"
- Disable: "Recommend extensions as you browse"
- Disable: "Recommend features as you browse"
- Disable: "Enable link previews"
- Homepage and new windows: Blank page
- New tabs: Blank page
- Disable: Web Search
- Disable: Weather
- Disable: Shortcuts
- Disable: Recommended stories
- Disable: Support Firefox
- Disable: "Save and autofill payment info"
- Disable: "Save and autofill addresses"
- Disable: "Ask to save passwords"
- Locations: Select "Block new requests asking to access your location"
- Notification: Select "Block new requests asking to allow notifications"
- Autoplay: Select "Block Audio and Video"
- Virtual Reality: Select "Block new requests asking to access your virtual reality devices"
- Default Search engine: DuckDuckGo
- Disable "Suggest search engines to use"
- Disable "Quick actions"
- Disable "Suggestions from Firefox"
- Disable: "Title Bar"
- Default Zoom: 110%, 120%, depending on the laptop
And I install the following extensions:
- uBlock Origin
- Privacy Badger
- Facebook Container
- Firefox Multi-account Container
Or you could just use user.js and not have to change every setting manually each time you start from scratch.
Yes, Betterfox all the way in + few custom settings.
I am still in position where I need to put some small pipeline to automatically download latest + merge my stuff and deploy, but even if it's manual every month or two it's not too bad.
Did not know about 'user.js', thanks! I guess creating a document that lists all my overrides was the first step. Now I have to figure out how to create a user.js that works on Linux, Macos, Windows, and maybe Android?
Same file works everywhere. Just leave out the ones that are different on platforms:
- browser.download.dir
- browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk
And instead of making a "google doc" a plaintext file would be better.
What does the Facebook container do that can't be done by the Multi-Account Container? I just have a Facebook/Google/AWS/etc. container set up there.
It's automatic. So if you open Facebook, or any Meta site, it automatically puts it in it's own container.
Together with Privacy Badger, Meta has no clue what you're doing on the rest of the web.
But MAC does that, too, if you create a "Facebook" container.
But I think you have to add every Meta domain into that container manually. The other one sounds like it's got them all already put into their own container. Convenient if you one day decide to set up an account on Instagram but never used it before, and forget to add it to the container.
For starters, it has a habit of ruining navigation closing the page you were on when you clicked the Facebook-ish link. :p
multi container is top top, one for email, one for banking, one for shopping, one for socials
Is this just a matter of preference or is it something else?
"Disable: "Show an image preview when you hover on a tab""
I guess personal preference?
Image preview is slightly slower and has noticeable latency, compared to the text popup that is almost instantaneous.
And it is more visually distracting. I hate UI features that interfere with my workflow. I hate most UI animations. I turned animations off on my Android phone, and now the thing just flies.
At this level you'll probably find more utility in starting your own fork of firefox
This is why I use nixos so I can easily deploy a configured firefox quickly
I just copy-paste the firefox profile folder. No need to reconfigure anything and the session is also preserved.
How does nixos solve Firefox configuration on MacOS and Windows? :-) I use all 3 OSes daily.