Firefox 147 brings GPU boost, tidier tabs, and video that follows you around

The latest Firefox is here with some handy changes – most of which differ depending on what OS and type of CPU you run it on. We suspect that the most visible feature in Firefox 147 is improved Picture-in-Picture video playback. Now it can be triggered automatically when a tab is sent into the background. PIP video appeared …

[tip pc]

1 button option to turn off AI

There should be a 1 button option to turn off AI.

I just use FF to connect to management pages via a proxy. it can't connect to the Internet via that proxy but somehow knows when a new version is available.

[DrXym]

Re: 1 button option to turn off AI

Just right mouse on a page and click Remove chatbot. Technically three clicks.

[Nathan Brathahn]

Re: 1 button option to turn off AI

WRONG! AI must be an opt-in, not an out-out!

[Anonymous Coward]

So they've reorganised the tabs settings page.

Yet still there isn't an option to have newly opened tabs automatically load my homepage or a specific pre-defined page.

Why do I need to install the "NewTabHomepage" extension to get simple functionality that every other browser can do by default?

[Rich 2]

I was just writing to say you can set what you want. But you’re right - you can’t!!

You can set it for “Homepage and new windows” but not “New tabs”. How bloody stupid is that?

[Ian Johnston]

On the mobile version you can't - any more - set it for new page either. Functionality which was built into NCSA Mosaic, and which Mozilla saw fit, quite recently, to remove.

[MaChatma CoatGPT 2.0]

Why do I need to install the "NewTabHomepage" extension?

Those of us that have been around Firefox since before it was Firefox will recall that part of the premise for it was minimum features/minimum bloat You added what you needed with extensions. Today we have bloat and you still need extensions.

v0.8 was 7 MB, v147 is 80 MB. (via ftp.mozilla.org)

[Liam Proven]

> Yet still there isn't an option to have newly opened tabs automatically load my homepage or a specific pre-defined page.

File a bug.

But I warn you... I don't want this, but what I wanted was the bookmarks toolbar to appear in the first tab in a new window and not just on new tabs in existing windows.

They responded -- and they _argued!_

My argument: "the toolbar appears on new tabs and a new window is not a new tab."

Response: no, new windows are _different._

I said a new window can't be empty, and always contains a tab, and that tab is new, therefore, it should show the toolbar.

Anyway, they rules-lawyered about how this rule does not apply and they wouldn't do it.

But the point is, _you have to ask_ or it won't happen. Bugs _do_ get looked at.

[uhhhhh]

I would like exactly the opposite. A browser that does not auto-play videos under any circumstances, I cannot stand the distraction of a video moving about as im reading the surrounding text.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

From my experience, LibreWolf does an excellent job of blocking autoplay. I'm allergic to autoplay myself, and I haven't noticed any videos playing unexpectedly since I started using it. It's also blessedly free of AI crapola.

[_wojtek]

I use Firefox and bocked autoplay in settings and it works well (only had to get an extension for YouTube...)

[FrogsAndChips]

I have autoplay disabled and still some videos autoplay on the Grauniad's homepage.

[JessicaRabbit]

Well I'm looking forward to LibreWolf picking up the latest changes and I'm hoping (though I'm not too optimistic) that they'll strip out all the AI shit too while they're at it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Librewolf has AI disabled already.

Check the linrewolf.cfg file in the librewolf installation directory for more details

or view the .cfg on librewolfs Gitlab source

[Mockup1974]

Also, Firefox for Android now has Fission (site isolation) enabled by default.

[Anonymous Coward]

example.org

Firefox always pings example.org even though IANA specifically requests that the example site(s) not be used in production.

Firefox also pings cloudflare-dns.com and detectportal.firefox.com even though I have those features disabled in about: config.

(I block them at the DNS level)

Also, the tech website, The Verge requests a remote icon for its bookmark every time I use Firefox on Android so I had delete the bookmark.

I don't like browsers phoning home if it's not necessary.

[coredump]

seems like

... what I want from Mozilla lately is less of what they've been working on.

I'm probably not their typical user/consumer at this point; I just want to look at (mostly text, fairly static) web pages with a minimum of fuss and preferably no moving parts. I'm not really interested in animated whiz-bangs or dancing graphics. I might watch the occasional clip but it's often some video thing I could find anywhere. I'm not interested in watching movies and feature films and such in the browser.

I really don't want a browser to "follow me around", advertising at me on some other web page because I shopped for new socks over here. Comfortable socks are important, but I don't need to be stalked to buy them.

Along with that goes anything to do with so-called AI. Don't hoover up my data, don't regurgitate everyones' back at me, and please don't make up your own from the ether. I recognize the latter parts is often google's doing, and openai and such, but still -- Mozilla doesn't have to help them. Or maybe they do, to keep the money spigot on, more's the pity.

I find I can do away with most of the browser behavior irritants with a small set of add-ons, for which I'm appreciative. One might ask why Mozilla don't just do that themselves, but it's not hard to guess.

Most of what I might want them to work on probably won't happen, if history is any indicator. So absent that, what I think I'd like most is an easy off switch/button for anything new they add.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me who finds picture-in-picture a pain in the nuts which I keep having to hit with a mallet to make it go away when websites are desperately trying to shove something in my face?

Anyway, gave up on FF recently and moved to Waterfox - welcome improvement.

[xyz123]

So basically you close an advert, and it FOLLOWS you and will not absolutely stop until you are dead.

Well there's another reason to abandon firefox.

[Liam Proven]

> So basically you close an advert, and it FOLLOWS you

Not really because it's Firefox, which means you can install UBlock Origin:

https://ublockorigin.com/

And I suggest also building a PiHole -- I am fond of mine.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/08/pi_hole_6_flyby/

Silent. Uses about 2 Watts. It must have had half an hour of maintenance in the last year. Blocks ads on phones, including inside apps. No, not all, but enough that I notice the blank spaces or empty screens.

[coredump]

I am definitely a fan of uBlock Origin.

I merely find it somewhat unfortunate that it is practically necessary to use in Firefox.

[Charlie Clark]

Not much use on your phone when you're not on the local network… unless you route everything through a VPN.

I've been using Blockada on my phones for years and it does a great job at blocking most ads. Very occasionally I have to disable it briefly – resolving DNS queries, for example.

[Liam Proven]

> Not much use on your phone when you're not on the local network…

Absolutely true but I have other ad-blocking measures in place on the phone for then.

[AJ MacLeod]

Given the minuscule cost of the extremely basic type of VPS required and the efficiency of WireGuard, routing it all through a VPN is exactly what I do. It's remarkably reliable.

[chroot]

No. That is not how it works. PIP is an button that you have to click to enable it. If you don't like it, don't click it. I do use it sometimes, not often though.

[DrewPH]

Nothing here of value. Sticking with Waterfox which I'm very happy with.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was waiting for this version because it should include the fix for the missing title bar. It's been disappearing even when enabled for some months now.

[Liam Proven]

> I was waiting for this version because it should include the fix for the missing title bar.

Not seen that on macOS or Linux. You do not give steps to reproduce or what you tried. Have you filed a bug?

File a bug. It's free and takes 5 min.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not me, but someone did, hence why I'm expecting the fix:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1996961

ETA: I myself only saw it on my Window 11 laptop, not on my Windows 10 desktop.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

autoplay videos should be hit with a very large hammer.

[Mizerka]

>We've seen reports of people finding these settings mysteriously getting re-enabled when they update Firefox. It hasn't happened to us, but you might want to check anyway.

its re-enabled itself in your own screenshot in article...

[Liam Proven]

> its re-enabled itself in your own screenshot in article...

This was a new clean install on a test machine, with sync configured. I usually use Waterfox on Linux, TBH. This is an experimental installation of Pop OS on a machine with a now-unsupported-by-binary-drivers GPU.

Incidentally: that experiment was a success. Pop OS sees the 2nd GPU, correctly IDs it, uses it, and offers to offload apps onto the 2nd GPU.

TBH that's all I care about so I have not attempted to measure performance.

[Grunchy]

Need an alternate internet

I don’t use “pihole,” instead I use adguard home which I run in my router! I rummaged around and scrounged up a 512MB usb key which contains the entire program. Of course I’m running adguard within did-wrt on a vintage D-Link router.

But at work sometimes I connect to ad-enabled websites suggested by DuckDuckGo on the Win11 laptop and I’ve only got 10 seconds to figure out what I need before the page erupts in advertising: I’m not accustomed to seeing that with Librewolf and adguard on my Linux box.

Maybe it’s time for an alternative internet with a different search engine and non-ad based pages. Something that doesn’t use cookie files, etc.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Need an alternate internet

> Maybe it’s time for an alternative internet with a different search engine and non-ad based pages

But will come with a monthly use fee and you have to log on to use it, otherwise it won't be financially viable

[sabroni]

It's a good feature, stop your whining.

I don't know if they've changed it in the new release but the pop out video player is really useful and nothing to do with Autoplay.

If you end up on a site where the video player controls won't hide or don't work properly, pop the video out and it gets firefox's controls.

If you end up on a site where after 10 minutes the video is blocked by UBlock because the site wants to switch to an advert, pop out the video. The ublock scrim sits on top of the browser page and blocks the advert stream while the pop out video player continues, letting you watch the video in peace. (tubi.tv I'm talking about specifically)

I often watch videos like this, it's a neat feature and exactly what firefox is about. Letting me control the browser experience.

All the AI shite they're adding is another thing entirely, but no need to throw the baby out with the bath water.

[Cardinal Fang]

Would be fine but

Enabling GPU acceleration in the past has consumed every increasing amounts of VRAM.

Likely partly as a result of earlier attempts at process isolation ;)

AI will do the same.

Since I mainly use a PC for gaming these days, and don't really see any need for AI or accelerated rendering of mostly text pages .... um, yeah. Burn that **** with fire ;)