Firefox 125

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Address & form autofill changes

  • Firefox now prompts US/Canada users to save addresses; some are surprised this appears “new.”
  • Multiple commenters say address autofill has existed for years and suspect only the prompt is new.
  • Complaints that credit card autofill is still unavailable in some regions despite appearing in settings or existing in other browsers.
  • Desire for finer-grained control over form data vs search history (clear/disable separately).

Download blocking and Safe Browsing

  • Concern that “more proactively blocks downloads” might mean sending URLs to third parties.
  • Others explain Firefox’s Safe Browsing uses hashes / blocklists and has existed for years; “more proactive” likely refers to expanding blocking of HTTP downloads (per linked Bugzilla), not new remote checks.
  • Some users hit over-aggressive blocking on legitimate downloads and find the hoops disrespectful; want clearer explanation of why a file is blocked.

Performance improvements and regressions

  • Update messaging claims ~25% faster page loads vs last year, attributed to many incremental changes.
  • Links to Mozilla posts about Speedometer 3 and SpiderMonkey improvements for more detail.
  • At least one user reports severe performance regressions on Linux (video/WEbRTC heavy CPU, likely hardware decoding issue), others suggest profiling and bug reports.

Tabs, bookmarks, and Firefox View

  • Many comments on “tab hoarding” (hundreds to thousands of tabs).
  • Some see using tabs as long‑term storage as natural and want native support: progressive bookmarks, unified model of tabs/bookmarks/history, “tab cold storage,” better cross-device tab recovery.
  • Others strongly dislike many tabs, prefer explicit bookmarks or text notes, and see overflowing tabs as poor organization.
  • Extensions like Tab Stash, Winger, and manual workflows (Ctrl+Shift+D to save window as folder) are used to convert tab piles into bookmarks.
  • Firefox View gets mixed reception: some appreciate slow progress; others see it as duplicating existing features, with poor layout and inconsistent padding.

Containers, tab groups, and vertical tabs

  • Multi-account containers are a major draw but users want:
    • Ability to remap Ctrl+T to open in current container.
    • Native tab grouping/workspaces and integrated vertical tabs.
    • Better profile switching and a “tab overview” akin to Safari’s or the old Panorama.
  • Several extensions are discussed (Sidebery, Tree Style Tab, Simple Tab Groups, Duplicate Tabs Closer, Auto Tab Discard), giving container-aware vertical tabs, tab “panels,” grouping, and tab discarding.
  • Opinions split: some find these extensions cohesive and “good enough” to rival native implementations; others feel the extension-based approach is inherently fragmented and fragile (userChrome.css tweaks, risk of breakage, corporate environments banning extensions).

Mobile (Android/iOS) experience

  • On iOS, lack of swipe-to-change-tabs and janky gestures make Firefox a non-starter for some who want one primary browser across devices.
  • Some argue iOS limitations and Apple’s rules make deep investment in Firefox for iOS less worthwhile.
  • On Android, long-standing pain around bulk recovery of synced tabs after device loss is highlighted; current solutions are hacky.

Security fixes and sandboxing

  • The release includes many security fixes; one commenter infers this suggests many more bugs likely remain and plans stronger sandboxing around the browser.

Other configuration and UI wishes

  • Requests for:
    • Clear visual borders between tabs.
    • More compact UI / less vertical chrome; interest in vertical tabs or smaller tab height.
    • Ability to disable AV1 (achievable via about:config flag).
    • Better tab search, now improved for container-specific tabs.