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Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

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Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#21

Post by zeotroph »

infl8ed wrote: post #12

I've settled on AllTabsHelper https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/all-tabs-help... Not as full featured as some of the others but does what I need. I wish any of the tab managers would allow me to sort by domain, as it is I've installed a second add on just to do this https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/order-tabs-by...

As someone who keeps tabs open forever (as better bookmarks), resulting in tens of windows with each tens of tabs, I finally settled on Tab Session Manager [1] which allows me to "stash" these Windows and restore them later.

It seems this add-on manages and AllTabsHelper open tabs only and does not have a separate session manger (the one built into Firefox is a joke, sadly).

1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-session-m...

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#22

Post by dizhn »

throwaway914 wrote: post #10
taraparo wrote: post #2

I settled down on SideBerry after having used Tree Tab Style for ages: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ It adds contexts/categories. So you can have trees of tabs per topic.

Sidebery is wonderful, but the real gem is Tab Stash. Lets me organize tabs into topic-related groups, with the added bonus that not all of these are "living" tabs. Some are archived/hibernated. By default, live tabs are in an unorganized/unnamed group. The only issue I had was I couldn't tell which tab was playing audio. Tab Stash doesn't have indicators for this, so I installed the Sound Control extension to list t…

I use Simple Tab Groups which has similar features. It works great and its autosave also saved my open tabs a few times.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#23

Post by ronjouch »

ccakes wrote: post #16

If any Firefox devs or PMs are reading, PLEASE build even a simple tab grouper into the browser natively. Regardless how recommended a given extension is, all tab manager extensions require access to all web content which is too much. I’d rather use something built in but barebones rather than an addon

Yes a million times. Please go vote for issue https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1509350 (and please add to the discussion, but do refrain from pure-noise "me too" comments :). If no one comments there today, tomorrow I'll post a summary of stuff discussed here in this HN thread, I see are a couple things worth surfacing.

As to why a "simple native tab group" is important even when there are umpteen extensions offering some version of it (in addition to OP's legit point about addon permissions), my take is in comment 40, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1509350#c40 .

TL;DR: 1. Feature parity with a Chrome feature that is actually visibly used a lot (from direct observation at work), 2. Shipping a simple high-quality "baseline".

Pleaaaaase, Moz PMs & devs, some attention to this!

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#24

Post by catach »

jaytemple wrote: post #8
bigpapikite wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been using this as my userChrome.css: https://gist.github.com/BrianGilbert/1ad7e3931406f485a86a35a...

Thanks. Surprised there isn't an extension to allow toggling on/off.

Regretfully Mozilla hasn't gotten around to providing the API for that.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#25

Post by Sakos »

miroljub wrote: post #9

I don't want to piss on the OP effort, some people will find it useful. For me, I don't understand the problem. Why do so many people need a tab manager in say Firefox, but not in Word, Excel, Windows Explorer or Total Commander?

I think it's largely a solution for bad UI, both in the web and in the browser.

I have a window open just with YouTube tabs of videos that interest me and that I intend to watch in the near future. As an OS-level window, it has weight and presence. Inside the window I have vertical and nested tabs. So I have videos grouped by topic or just by the rabbit hole I used. I can collapse them, move them around, etc. It's tactile. If I put all those videos into a YouTube playlist, it becomes static. It's a link in a list. It becomes less convenient and natural to add things to the list or even interact with them. There's no nesting, no grouping. Have you tried working with a YouTube playlist? It's abysmal. I'd rather keep them in a more concrete state as a tab which is integrated into my browser's tabs system (or whatever extension I use for it, in this case Sidebery) as part of a window that's a natural part of my OS.

This is all before considering how incredibly bad and basic Chrome and Firefox's history tabs are, which we also end up replacing with hundreds of tabs. I wish I had a vim-like undotree or anything like it to navigate my past tabs. There's a whole spatial component that's missing, whole dimensions missing, and I've never understood why.

You don't manage your Word documents in Word. You use the OS for that. That's pretty much why nobody needs tabs in Word.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#26

Post by wintermutestwin »

taraparo wrote: post #2

I settled down on SideBerry after having used Tree Tab Style for ages: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ It adds contexts/categories. So you can have trees of tabs per topic.

I am a huge fan of Sidebery, but it really highlights how messed up Mozilla is. Not only have they failed to provide a native vertical tab solution, but then you go to turn off the damn horizontal ones and you have to jump through convoluted hoops by enabling the userChrome.css and then figuring out where the hell to put the file and all of this for one edit. Yeah sure, I have figured it out (and have to re figure every time I install FF), but there is no way that I could ever tell a random user to switch to vertical. I cannot fathom how Mozilla could not add a checkbox to their anemic settings menu.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#27

Post by wintermutestwin »

ccakes wrote: post #16

If any Firefox devs or PMs are reading, PLEASE build even a simple tab grouper into the browser natively. Regardless how recommended a given extension is, all tab manager extensions require access to all web content which is too much. I’d rather use something built in but barebones rather than an addon

While you have their attention:

Where are native vertical tabs? Or at least a settings checkbox to turn horizontal tabs off.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#28

Post by toyg »

svlasov wrote: post #20
vladvasiliu wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I don't understand why modern browsers don't allow disabling tabs. I already have a window manager that's quite good at managing windows. I don't need another level for that with its own rules.

Having a separate window per tab will consume more resources, than showing only a single tab content at a time.

Meh, window management is optimized to the hilt. The real expense is the web view, which you're going to have anyway, as these days all browsers use separate processes.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#29

Post by wyuenho »

ccakes wrote: post #16

If any Firefox devs or PMs are reading, PLEASE build even a simple tab grouper into the browser natively. Regardless how recommended a given extension is, all tab manager extensions require access to all web content which is too much. I’d rather use something built in but barebones rather than an addon

I'd be completely satisfied if they brought the old MRU tab ordering back. The MRU tab extension is a very poor substitution for it.

Re: Show HN: Advanced Tab Manager for Firefox

#30

Post by wintermutestwin »

burner420042 wrote: post #18
miroljub wrote: post #9

I don't want to piss on the OP effort, some people will find it useful. For me, I don't understand the problem. Why do so many people need a tab manager in say Firefox, but not in Word, Excel, Windows Explorer or Total Commander?

For myself at least vertical tabs can be easily grouped to visually show task or subject. If I’m doing ticket work for example,each ticket gets a main tab with their related child tabs indented underneath. I’ve even written a small web app that creates custom tab titles which I use for organizing tabs. Lack of vertical tabs is why I don’t use Chrome.

>Lack of vertical tabs is why I don’t use Chrome.

The funny thing is that edge and brave managed to enable native vertical tabs.

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