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The future Firefox UI

people.mozilla.com

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Re: The future Firefox UI

#51

Post by starwed »

lion0 wrote: post #5

Seems much cleaner. They should do a comparison of how much screen space is used by the chrome vs. other browsers. Can't wait for this to high the nightly / dev builds.

I've been running the nightly, and there was a brief period where the tabs were moved into the title bar. Not sure why they backed it out, but I didn't really like it anyway. (I kind of like knowing the title of the page I'm on -- for instance, with this particular link it conveyed semantic information that was missing from the page itself.)

Re: The future Firefox UI

#52

Post by sirn »

starwed wrote: post #37
jgranby wrote: post #19

I wonder whether this latest proposed redesign will finally have Firefox behaving like, y'know, a native OS X app, or whether it'll be just as shallow as all previous efforts.

Curious, since I only recently started using a mac. How does firefox not act like a native app?

Emacs keys binding not working in some place (e.g. Ctrl+N, Ctrl+P not working on Awesome Bar). Missing contextual services menu when you right click on some text. Missing text services (e.g. Cmd+Shift+D popup dictionary), etc. etc.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#53

Post by ryanpetrich »

starwed wrote: post #37
jgranby wrote: post #19

I wonder whether this latest proposed redesign will finally have Firefox behaving like, y'know, a native OS X app, or whether it'll be just as shallow as all previous efforts.

Curious, since I only recently started using a mac. How does firefox not act like a native app?

All of the Cocoa UI controls are reimplemented in XUL. They look and behave close to, but not 100% the same as the native Cocoa ones.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#55

Post by kstenerud »

starwed wrote: post #35

Folk are focusing on the two changes that make this more like chrome (tabs in title bar, and apparent removal of search bar.) There's more going on here.[1] * Simplified, customizable graphical menus. No idea how well this will work, but it's only a mock-up at this point. * Removal of the forward button, merging the back button with the URL bar. * Refinement of per tab UI. In chrome you still get the browser chrome o…

I hope there's an option to put the forward button back in. I use it a lot.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#56

Post by dpark »

tedkimble wrote: post #34
bostonpete wrote: post #9

I can't believe nobody's complaining about the missing dedicated search box. I thought that was everyone's big beef with Chrome. Then again, I haven't used Firefox in quite some time so maybe they've already dropped it.

Having a dedicated search box is my big beef with every other browser.

If Firefox adds a single bar for search and URLs, I'd consider switching back, especially if they do a better job of history search than Chrome. (Chrome's history search sucks pretty bad in my experience.)

Re: The future Firefox UI

#57

Post by kstenerud »

mitchty wrote: post #44
sp332 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you use the bottom statusbar for?

Personally I just hover to see where a link goes at times, but chrome's method of showing the link at the bottom after N milliseconds is more than sufficient. It doesn't need to permanently take up pixels otherwise.

Except that chrome's version obscures the navigation links in a lot of websites, which means you have to be quick to point and click in order to be able to navigate before the popup info tooltip blocks your click.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#58

Post by 51Cards »

sp332 wrote: post #20
51Cards wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for me the Chrome UI is the primary reason I can't stand Chrome and stay with FF. Whatever they do to the default layout in FF doesn't bother me, just keep giving me the option to put it back the way I like it. So far, so good... other than needing a plug-in now to get a bottom status bar.

What do you use the bottom statusbar for?

I use it for the standard things like hovering over URL's and watching page load progress. And I also agree that the pop-up in Chrome works reasonably well for this too... however...

FF went and added an 'Add-Ons Bar' to replace the bottom real-estate that plugins wanted to sit in lost by the status bar removal. So now, if I use the Add-on bar, AND allow the Chrome style status pop-up, I loose even more space since the URL is now outside the bottom bar, and I'm left with a ton of unused space on the Add-on bar. FF should have just made the Status label a movable element and allowed it to go back in the bottom bar if desired. Since the bar is going to be there anyhow for some people with plugins then their effort to save UI space just cost me 2x the UI space. It frustrates me that what could have been a simple and flexible change (optional, draggable status label) has turned into a hodge podge of work-arounds.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#59

Post by gkoberger »

beck5 wrote: post #54
beaumartinez wrote: post #36

The dev tools' UI[1] looks amazing . http://people.mozilla.com/~shorlander/devTools/devTools.html

Are they going to fully integrate firebug into firefox rather than having it as an extension?

As I understand it (it's still somewhat in the planning stages, and things are evolving), Firefox will ship with a set of developer tools which will cover the major use cases (inspector, console, etc). Firebug will be an extension, and will add more advanced functionality. It's being rewritten in JavaScript, and could potentially work on any browser (Firebug and Firebug Lite are going to merge).

This is how I understood it when I talked to the Firebug team a few months ago. Mozilla has since hired a ton of people for their Dev Tools team and John J Barton has left Firebug due to lack of funding from IBM -- so I have no clue if things have since changed.

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