The Mozilla Firefox 118 web browser is now available for download ahead of its official release on September 26th, when it will be rolling out to various of the supported platforms.
I consider Firefox 118 a major release because it finally brings the built-in translation feature for websites. Previously planned for Firefox 117, the new translation feature will let you automatically translate websites from one of the supported languages to another.
The translation feature can be accessed from a new “Translate page” menu entry in the application menu (the hamburger menu on the far right side of the window). When clicked, a pop-up dialog will open in place to let you choose the languages you want to translate from and to.
Translation is really cool. It's rare we get new features these days, mostly it's just better and better tracking protection which is nice also, but this feels very fresh.
Just keep doing things Google will never do, and show why it's better for the user.
Just keep doing things Google will never do, and show why it’s better for the user.
I get that but Google has had built-in translation for years! There are other features that Chrome and Chromium-based browsers have that Firefox still doesn't including, some sort of implementation of tab groups, easy profile switching, having multiple open simultaneously with only one copy of Firefox (you don't need multiple copies of Chrome to have multiple profiles).
That's irrelevant for 99% people sadly, if people cared about that more they would have already switched to FF ages ago. Google Translate was the top dog for years (and still is for most scenarios) so people are more than happy that their translation was being done by the best service around.
Yes I know, but people who use and appreciate Firefox will like the feature. The majority don't care as always. They run windows with full telemetry and use Chrome as a browser. :)
The world is filled with mostly "don't care" people. Nothing we can do about that. They are also not thinking for themselves at all. Perfect slaves to the system.
You should edit the comment to mention that. I just thought you meant translation. While its cool its wouldn't be beneficial except for users or in situations with unstable wifi or times when you have no internet but have pages load.
And privacy, that is the most important thing for me. Why would I want Google to see what I want to translate any more than I want them to see what web sites I visit and what I search for.
uuuuuh what?
Google has had built-in translation for years
Nope. The translation is not built in into Chrome. It's running on Google. That's like saying Chrome has "built-in Wikipedia"!
some sort of implementation of tab groups
There's like 12 to choose from in Firefox. (Still, admittedly, not nearly as good enough as Tab Groups were in Opera Presto, or in Firefox Aurora)
easy profile switching
this one is defo conceded. There is a profile manager, but they've never made it accessible while Firefox is itself running, not that I know.
having multiple open simultaneously with only one copy of Firefox
¿???? This has existed since at least 2011 in Firefox. Not to mention there's also --no-remote.
Well, it's a website, i bet google already has access to whatever might get translated..
No its a feature in Firefox. A firefox button you can press to translate the website. I played with it this morning and it's pretty cool. Animates the text as it is being translated, without sending the data anywhere.
I know
I am saying that google is already in business of scanning websites, so sending another website to Google is like throwing a bucket of water in the ocean.
Of course it depends what else gets sent along, so it's always better to run locally
Translation has been pretty clunky with extensions. I’m glad that there’s finally an integrated solution that isn’t MS or Google.
If 250 MB of ram is an issue then you probably aren't doing much modern web browsing. I have what I'd think are basic pages that are using 200MB of ram. Same if you don't have the 300mb of free space, god have mercy on your soul if you've got less than a gig free.
The amount of ram this feature takes up is negligible compared the the bloat of modern webpages. Plus I'm sure there's an about:config setting to disable it if you want to go crazy.
While I agree, I think there's a pretty large community (like myself) who will use this regularly.
Though I'm unsure of the statistics on how many would use it. If it's under 50% for sure should have been an extension.
lets get tab groups, how is that missing at this point. I want to use FF as my main browser but the available options for organization are horrible
I wonder why Firefox can implement complicated systems such as translation but can't fix the basic UX of handling profiles.
Because it's just using a pre existing translation package. It's not a big and complicated system, the big and complicated part was done by someone else
Try container tabs, it's built in, and they're perfect for multiple logins like that.
Nope. I need browser profiles to quickly switch between different websites logged with different users.
Chrome can do that trivially. Firefox cannot.
It's not exactly the best UX I have seen in my life, but you can enter firefox -P in a terminal or you can open the about:profiles page to start a window with another profile.
Firefox does that trivially with container tabs, which I would argue are a far better solution anyhow.
It took Firefox this long to get a feature that Chrome had for years...
Wow the FOSS community is way behind the curve.
I literally think the only reason Firefox remains relevant is for those who don't want Big Brother watching their every move.