>"Wait for it to buffer, scroll down halfway, wait to buffer."

It could be the download is slow? The site supplying it is slow? Some sites will send PDF in a way that can be rendered as it is downloading (you don't have to wait for it to finish to see or scroll, but if it isn't loaded yet, there will be delays).

I just opened a LOCAL 652 page PDF in Firefox/Linux. It loaded instantly and it renders as fast as I can drag the scrollbar.... all the way to the end.

Then I just went to here https://spytm.com/test-files/p... and clicked on a 100MB PDF and everything was nearly instant once downloaded which took about 4 seconds (that site doesn't support view while download, it depends on how it is presented).

I compare to Chromium at times, and speeds under Linux seem to be about the same, as does memory usage. It does vary depending on types of tasks and sites. Often Chromium uses considerably more memory, but is also sometimes faster.

So I would say they are both perfectly acceptable from that perspective (phone use might be different, but I don't care because I rarely browse on a phone). However, what is not acceptable to me is Chrom* lack of privacy and user control, and their bullying trying to control standards and such. And that is why I will not use/support Chromium-based browsers.

>"FireFox IS NOT a frugal option for anything"

(Yet no less so than any other full, multi-platform browser)

>"but if on top of the non-frugal option of firefox you deploy the non-frugal option of full fat adobe acrobat PDF editing, well... you go non-frugal times two. Underpowered machines running on the edge would trip over that edge (pun intended)"

Bingo

A computer without a full browser is almost useless nowadays. A computer without a full PDF editing monster is still very useful and not uncommon at all.

But if you can slide in some of the most important PDF handling into an existing program that everyone will already have on their machine (a browser), with little resources added, then it is a big win. And that is exactly what Mozilla did.

The USA is physically HUGE. Some people just don't grasp how huge. It covers almost the same area as all of Europe, that is split into something like 44 countries. https://www.worldatlas.com/geo...

At some point it will all be fiber here, but it is much more of a challenge compared to most countries with far, far, far less area and far, far fewer customers.

>"As someone who's been on VOIP for around 8 years now, what's wrong with that?"

Because if your ISP goes down, so does your landline phone service. I specifically have a Verizon basic copper line as a hedge against cellular failure (phone, tower, or interconnect), and also ISP failure (which on Cox coax happens far more than my copper line). So I have separate paths for home ISP, home phone, and cell phone.

The problem, as most know, is they keep raising the price of the copper POTS lines. My *metered* (number of calls restricted) line with zero features (no caller ID, no call waiting, no toll calls, etc) is now $47/mo (which a lot of that being local taxes). Which means it costs more than my cell service with T-Mobile that has unlimited calling/texting/toll-calls AND includes lots of data, AND caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, conferencing, voicemail, etc. Crazy.

PDF is not primarily a web function, that is true. But as you said, there is a HUGE overlap between PDF and interacting with web sites. The ability to fully handle PDF, including filling forms and editing them in the browser, is majorly convenient. So much so that I welcome all efforts for that in Firefox. Especially under Linux, where the FOSS options for simple PDF editing are not quite as numerous.

I, too, wouldn't mind if it were a separate addon that was included/enabled by default and users could choose to remove it. But having that integrated as a non-addon doesn't offend me much.... Even though I do think it would be better as an addon. Even so, it can currently be turned off/disabled if not wanted and isn't huge.

>"Why is being an ESR so important, you ask?"

I don't need to ask :)

We use Firefox ESR at work as the most stable/predictable version for production use. It means we can focus on policies/config/testing on our machines (several hundred, all Linux) and sites, then roll it out and not have to worry about new "features" popping up that cause confusion for users, require additional training/support, or cause unexpected issues for a reasonable period of time (1 year). It is a good release model. Point updates to ESR are just bug fixes and security fixes, no feature or UI changes.

At home, my machines (all Linux) run the latest non-ESR versions.

Maybe we'll get lucky and that'll make Sam Altman's head explode!

That's simplistic. I like the flavor of coffee... but sometimes I like the flavor when it's combined with cream.

I mean when someone cooks a stew, do you tell them they wouldn't have to make stew if they just bought higher-quality carrots?

Of wine? ;-)

Your "medicine" isn't allowed to taste good, after all.

Nonsense, I have it on good authority (from a Very Stable Genius) that this is the most transparent administration EVAR!!

This "change of direction" probably has more to do with Trump and Co. being able to wet their beaks.

I don't drive like a maniac, but I probably wasn't particularly careful about the clutch... not to mention that, for some years, a fair bit of my driving was on the hills of Seattle.

Regardless, the distance you've gotten out of your clutch is extremely impressive!

It was definitely quite odd. I'm very impressed by the balance the robots displayed; on the other hand, the aiming of their attacks (which were predominantly kicks) also seemed almost unrelated to where the other robot actually was (TFS' "sometimes" is an understatement).

Each robot seemed to have a very limited set of moves - just one or two specific attack moves, but several celebration moves.

I was a bit concerned that a human might be the target for a random roundhouse kick to the head towards the end of the video.