Firefox "Quantum" 57

KM

The new Firefox version 57 troubles me. My left eye starts to hurt after just 1-2 minutes looking at it, and it gets red over time. When I minimize the window - instant relief. The next day, the same problem. So in the evening I downgraded to Firefox 56, no problems anymore.

I currently use Arch Linux, Xfce desktop, and the "nouveau" kernel driver (plus Xorg driver xf86-video-nouveau), for my known-to-be-good NVIDIA Quadro NVS 295, and I force-enabled Firefox's hardware acceleration like I did on Firefox 56 (under Linux you have to force-enable it; "layers.acceleration.force-enabled").
Firefox pre-57 was usable for some months, at least since version 52. But now they changed something...

What did they change? Looks exactly like any other window, no visible flickering, no flicker when using a digital camera. And it's just in the Firefox window. Whatever is drawn that hurts is just inside the Firefox window. I'm currently writing this on the downgraded Firefox 56: no eye strain.

Any of you noticed similar problems yet? This is not good.

JTL

/me thinks it could be font rendering.

I remember when Chrome and Steam did the DirectWrite shenanigans, it was similar.

degen

Yea I noticed it as well.

Harrison

same here. is there a way to disable this fancy new rendering?

Sunspark

The new browser is using the GPU to do multi-layer compositing of the window contents instead of drawing using the CPU or an overlay.

Font rendering issues aside, it's an interesting problem to study because on a known good config, you have a localized window that is causing an issue.

I haven't tested it, I'm still on an older version, partly because I noticed newer versions had changed the font rendering slightly and I liked the way it looked better on the older one.

JTL

I've given Firefox Developer Edition (Firefox beta) a try last night on my 2015 15" Macbook Pro (using internal LCD) running OSX 10.11.6 and it did seem a bit "off" to me. Maybe I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Using Chrome at this minute.

I do have Firefox installed on my LG V20 and I did update the app to the latest version that contains some of the Quantum improvements. The good news is I was able to use it for several hours yesterday without strain, so I'd say the same as older Firefox Android versions.

Harrison

@Sunspark

yeah. I even get the firefox eyestrain on my trusted very old notebook + monitor set up. Moreover I've never had problems with any other software on that system.
It is definitely true that the new firefox has a much better rendering, you can see the difference between the latest two versions pretty good.
Maybe this fact and studying the two firefox versions brings us closer to an eyestrain solution.

JTL

Harrison Firefox is open source after all. But the amount of code changed is quite large. 😐

KM

There are two interesting alternatives to Firefox: Waterfox and Pale Moon. Both are open source forks.

Waterfox currently is based on Firefox 56.0.2 (the last good version before Quantum) and will stay there until Q1 2019. Until then, it gets security updates from the 57 branch. But as I understand no graphics updates.
https://www.waterfoxproject.org

Pale Moon uses its own layout engine, Goanna, which is a 2016 fork of Firefox's Gecko engine. Judging by that, it should be OK to use, too.
https://www.palemoon.org

JTL

KM Have you (or someone else) compare the font rendering via screenshots of Firefox Quantum, vs another browser?

That would be me first guess. I recall getting similar strain when Chrome had the blurry font problem under Windows.

No idea about other platforms, although Chrome has a separate "LCD text antialiasing" setting in chrome://flags

ensete

It is the font rendering. Somewhere along the way Firefox changed it;s font rendering system (and at the same time disabled the ability to turn off DirectWrite). That version of Firefox hurt me, and every version since does the same.

I stick with Firefox 52 (recently went to IceDragon 52 which is just a fork of Firefox) and have no plans of every changing.

KM

The current Firefox 61 feels pretty good under Windows LTSB 2015. Better than any Linux browser actually (including Linux Firefox). Did they fix the problem?

JTL

KM Presumably. I've been using Firefox since (59?) on OS X and Linux and quite like it.

AGI

hpst Has anyone had strain ONLY in their browser?

That is a question I have been asking myself too. Any other feedback besides KM's? Has someone experienced a single app generating eyestrain, maybe after an update? Does the window of the bad app need to be closed for the strain to go away, or does minimizing it suffice?

KM The current Firefox 61 feels pretty good under Windows LTSB 2015.

Is this a first case of an update of an update that solves an eyestrain issue, and hence there is HOPE?

Harrison

do you really have no more eyestrain with firefox 61? It feels better, but it's still there.

JTL

Harrison I feel fine with it, but you might not.

KM

Harrison Not sure to be honest. Currently I try so many different OS's and settings every day, having eye strain all day, that I cannot say for sure.

Ananiujitha

For me, the new tab throbber is the biggest painproblem. There's user css to block the painthing, but it only sometimes works, and user css isn't fully supported.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1446713

JTL

Ananiujitha Thanks for linking to that bug. This userChrome.css is similar to the older behavior pre Firefox 57.

/* Revert tab throbber - for Nightly 57 as of 9/20/2017 */
.tab-throbber[busy]::before {
  background-image: url("chrome://global/skin/icons/loading.png") !important;
  animation: unset !important;
}
.tab-throbber[busy]:not([progress])::before {
  /* Grays the blue during "Connecting" state */
  filter: grayscale(100%);
}
@media (min-resolution: 2dppx) {
  .tab-throbber[busy]::before {
    background-image: url("chrome://global/skin/icons/loading@2x.png") !important;
  }
}

KM

For future reference since I currently don't use my PC: Since by now we know both Android and PC color changes (profiles/settings) can introduce eye strain, it may be worth to check out Firefox's color management settings in about:config
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1171999
It is on by default, and maybe turning it off might help. I believe even looking at text (anything) inside a Firefox window was painful, but maybe it was the images. Certainly worth a try.

hpst

KM Has anyone had strain ONLY in their browser? For me it's all or nothing it seems and no particular application or site causes it where another is safe. Even a text editor like mousepad or kwrite hurts on the bad displays.

KM

hpst You can probably only find this particular problem if you have a device chain that's otherwise good for you (or not that bad).