I like to file bugs about any software or service I use, too. Just did a quick check, under my current email I have 101 bugs filed for Chromium and 91 for Firefox (which I no longer use extensively, so they're mostly years old). Since I'm more of a power user than dev (I don't work in software or CS field) my "hit rate" isn't as high as the author, but I'm still proud about it.
One unfortunate thing is that browsers are probably one of the only remaining major services/applications (that are not directly developer-oriented) which you can report bugs and actually get some tractions, or even get them fixed.
Try to report a bug about MS Word. Or Spotify. Or Google Maps. I've tried all of them and it's safe to say nothing happens no matter how obvious the bug is or how easy it would be fixed. I don't even know if the "feedbacks" I sent ever reached the developers.
For example, recently Google Sheets has a bug that if you input data in the formula bar (instead of directly in the cell) and then press Enter, it somehow enters the edit mode of the next cell, instead of just highlights it like if you edit in the cell. This is driving me crazy and I've filed multiple feedbacks about it, but I have no hope to see it getting fixed any time soon.
It can't be a coincidence that the three apps you mention are all closed source, while both Firefox and Chromium are (at least nominally) open source.
I'd go further than that and say that it's not just not a coincidence, but that I've had the opposite experience in that the vast majority of user-facing programs I've reported bugs against have gotten better responses than anything I've ever submitted to Firefox. The difference is, of course, that every single program on the computer I'm typing this from right now is libre / open source software.
I can't reproduce your google sheets bug, it always highlights the next cell for me (not in edit mode) regardless of whether I input data into the formula bar or the cell. Are you sure it's not an extension or something?
Oh God, after reading your post, it suddenly struck me that maybe I should try using a different Google account, even though I don't really have anything special in my main account.
I registered a new account, and voilà, it suddenly worked!
I compared all the options and couldn't find anything that would cause this until I discovered that my main account's Tools > Accessibility Settings had "Turn on screen reader support" enabled, for which I have no idea why.
I turned it back off, and the issue immediately disappeared.
To be fair, I think enabling this accessibility option shouldn't cause such a bug; but for now, I can finally use it again.
I can reproduce it with Chrome, Firefox, both with no extension.
On three computers.
In case it was not clear, here is the full STR.
1. Click on a cell.
2. Click on the formula bar.
3. Type something, Press enter (you can even directly press Enter).
Expected: the next cell is highlighted but not in edit mode. So you can use arrow keys to move highlight around.
Observed: the next cell is in edit mode; you cannot move arrow around.
To make it worse, sometimes (but not always), if you press enter AGAIN, it would go to the next (the third one) and STILL in edit mode; you need to press enter AGAIN, which makes the highlight move to the fourth cell, only then it properly exists edit mode.
The bug is also reproducible with Esc (cancel change):
1. Click on a cell; 2. Click on the formula bar; 3. Directly press Esc.
Expected: exit edit mode
Observed: you are still in edit mode. You have to press Esc again.
Try to report a bug or request a feature on the LLVM issue tracker. It is like shouting into the void. They have so many open issues GitHub apparently refuses to count them, it just shows "5k+". They have nearly two thousand pull requests waiting for their review. It's insane.
I just filed https://chrome-please-fix-your-audio.xyz the other day for chrome bug #327472528 - apparently all audio output is noise-reduced from audio input in Chrome - even when using headphones and when explicitly disabling this feature in the Web Audio API. It basically means you can't make any music app where you sing along with a background track, among other obvious use cases for microphones.
Unrelated to the post, but I tried out your Loopbox app you linked in the bug report. I couldn't quite figure out how to get it working, so I clicked the question mark icon for a tutorial. But the linked YouTube video is of someone's holiday photos! Just fyi
Haha those are my photos! Forgot I had that placeholder in there. I'll remove it until I have a tutorial video in place - that's my last major task left, outside some bug fixes and waiting for Chrome to fix their audio.
As for how the site works - make sure you have a microphone and ideally headphones. Click START and you'll hear a metronome. Click ADD TRACK to record a loop. If you're musically inclined you can combine multiple recordings to make a short looping song, by either adding bars to a loop or layering multiple tracks. Hit CTRL or right-click (long press on mobile) a track to modify how it sounds or delete it.
> WebKit is kind of odd in that a lot of these bugs turned out to be in proprietary Apple systems (Safari, iOS, etc.) rather than WebKit proper. (At least, this is what I assume the enigmatic rdar:// response means.)
This is an incorrect assumption. Apple engineers prioritize all of their work in Radar, so most of their WebKit bugs will get imported into Radar as a matter of course.
72% is pretty impressive. I have only filed against Firefox, and my fix rate is less than 20%. Some of the rest are "won't fix" but many are still open, the oldest at 16 years.
Yeah I have the same experience with Firefox. I guess that their limited budgets has something to do with that.
As well as context. I mostly ran into this with webextensions and various cases that a lot of extension developers likely run into that issue less often. It seems, from the outside, that web extensions just generally have a low priority within the team. Which seems, for webextensions, seems to be a very small team anyway as I kept seeing the same three names or so.
Not as long as your 16 years, but still pretty old. To be fair, there are a few other related issues where work has been done. But all moves at a glacial pace.
And yes, to be clear again, I realize why this doesn't get a lot of priority. It's still a frustrating endeavor.
Imagine how could the browser could be if they spent all the money that gets donated on the thing people actually donate because of, i.e the browser. It's nice they try to do other things but I don't need them to do that, there is EFF and other non-profits to handle most of the things the Mozilla foundation tries to do. Just stick to the browser and the mission.
Nope, or at the very least, much more complex than just that.
Firefox is developed by the Mozilla Corporation, a for-profit corporation.
This corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Mozilla Foundation.
In order for an organization to be eligible for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, it has to have a “charitable mission”. So it can't just be a “normal” business that simply retains all profits and keeps public financial records. On top of that, if it is determined that the organization is allocating a “significant portion” of its resources to economic activity that does not directly service the nonprofit mission, then it can lose its nonprofit status. Also, lastly, an organization with a 501(c)(3) exemption is literally not allowed to funnel resources into assets which cannot be scrutinized (like a wholly owned for profit subsidiary).
Long story short, literally the only money that Mozilla can use to support Firefox development is the money they get from its commercial ventures, and any profits these commercial ventures would theoretically be for the Mozilla Foundation to use to perform consumer advocacy, which is what they supposedly “really” do, at least as far as the IRS is concerned.
So it is very likely that some of the "stupid things nobody wants" have been initiatives from the foundation.
On top of that, the large majority of revenue of the Mozilla *Corporation* comes from Google as part of a search deal. This makes that income stream very precarious and uncertain.
So, a lot of the remaining things on the list of "stupid things nobody wants" have been the result of the corporation attempting to branch out and find other, more sustainable sources of revenue.
Not to say that all decisions made by the corporation have been to my liking either, but I figured I'd give this context.
This is not an excuse. Either the nonprofit can have the charitable mission of building a free web browser or the corporation can accept donations that aren't tax deductible. Their leadership obviously wants to spend their money on stupid things nobody wants and chose their corporate structure accordingly
I never filed bug tickets until I had graduated college and worked on software full time. Then I learned that the devs _do_ care (at least on the small software I've worked on) and they love to know if something isn't working, especially because most people don't file bug reports.
I remember an HN thread from probably two years ago about how the Linux version of some software got way more bug reports than the Windows and MacOS versions, despite way fewer users. The bugs were actually mostly cross-platform and non-Linux specific, but Linux users were just more used to actually filing bug reports for the software they used.
> I remember an HN thread from probably two years ago about how the Linux version of some software got way more bug reports than the Windows and MacOS versions, despite way fewer users. The bugs were actually mostly cross-platform and non-Linux specific, but Linux users were just more used to actually filing bug reports for the software they used.
This is a great post and a bit inspiring so thanks for writing it up. There is a bug in FF on Mac (maybe others too) that popped up in the last 2 years or so that is super niche but I've been too intimidated to try to file a report. Sometimes I do a quick CMD + L (to focus and highlight the address (Location) bar contents), CMD + V, CMD + A, CMD + C to copy text without formatting (or just remove newlines from a PDF. It usually works great but sometimes it copies the URL of the page you're on that was previously in the address bar. Not even sure what I'd search for in the issue tracker but it feels almost like a spacebar warmer (https://xkcd.com/1172/) type bug.
Yesterday I wrote about fixing M4B audiobook support on Jellyfin iOS/safari without writing any code [0]. When describing the process to my girlfriend I realized it was a kind of skill to know how to navigate a new community and their various communication platforms (GH, Forums, Matrix, socials) and post the right things.
Who knows maybe one day I'll look into fixing it. Until then I guess I'll just keep using my bash script with raycast that removes newlines and then pastes.
Hit a funny on Edge the other day: every time a page would open the browser "don't close this tab" dialog (like if you need to save something), the browser window would go on a crazy loop of resizing 1px width and repositioning itself 1px to the left, till it arrived on the left border of the monitor.
One unfortunate thing is that browsers are probably one of the only remaining major services/applications (that are not directly developer-oriented) which you can report bugs and actually get some tractions, or even get them fixed.
Try to report a bug about MS Word. Or Spotify. Or Google Maps. I've tried all of them and it's safe to say nothing happens no matter how obvious the bug is or how easy it would be fixed. I don't even know if the "feedbacks" I sent ever reached the developers.
For example, recently Google Sheets has a bug that if you input data in the formula bar (instead of directly in the cell) and then press Enter, it somehow enters the edit mode of the next cell, instead of just highlights it like if you edit in the cell. This is driving me crazy and I've filed multiple feedbacks about it, but I have no hope to see it getting fixed any time soon.