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The future Firefox UI

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Re: The future Firefox UI

#181

Post by RyanMcGreal »

Silhouette wrote: post #74
blauwbilgorgel wrote: post #61

What I don't like about these Chrome UI's is that they don't respect my OS settings. I am on Windows 7 with the classic NT skin. iTunes and Chrome are one of the few programs that don't respect this skin. While in this case it is simple user preference, in other cases it could mean an accessibility concern, or even give room to malicious attacks: With all these custom browser skins, pop-ups over the HTML body (link d…

> What I don't like about these Chrome UI's is that they don't respect my OS settings Hear, hear. On our new serious workstation, we mostly run a variety of developer tools and browsers, some basic office software, various graphics/DTP/modelling stuff from companies like Adobe and Autodesk, and a bunch of tools to automate things and join the dots. On a quick look, exactly none of the major products there uses the st…

> every application having different and increasingly obnoxious methods of giving you "important" notifications;

This is one area in which the browsers seem to be getting better. Consider the humble Javascript alert, which used to grab and hold focus so that you could not interact with any other browser window or dialog until you had addressed the alert. Nearly all of the browsers have now switched to less intrusive alerts that display but do not dominate.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#182

Post by streptomycin »

carussell wrote: post #170
streptomycin wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can't be it, he said, "it's on its own line with the tabs showing up below it".

nxn messed up his or her pronouns. The "it" in "its own line with the tabs showing up below it" refers to the the title bar. It's that on Windows, the tabs and button take the place of the traditional title bar. On Linux, drawing in the title bar proved too difficult for a generalized approach that worked across window managers, so the title bar remains intact, and everything is offset by it.

oh. well, in that case, i like my titlebars too. i guess if someone doesn't, they can use a WM without titlebars?

also, chrome gives you the option of disabling the titlebar, so it must be possible.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#183

Post by dpark »

ZoFreX wrote: post #176
dpark wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In particular, vertical pixels are at a premium for me, and Firefox 5 has done a lot to improve this... this is a step backwards, as the main bar at the top is larger. Really? Looks like an improvement to me, because tabs have now consumed the titlebar area. The tab area itself is larger, but the total change is a reduction in the amount of vertical space used. > And seriously, those curves take up a ridiculous amo…

> Really? Looks like an improvement to me, because tabs have now consumed the titlebar area. I compared FF5 and these screenshots on my screen together, FF5 uses slightly less real estate. It's only a minor regression though, and hey, this is Firefox - I can customise it! It's just that prior to the current look, I had to modify Firefox quite a lot to optimise vertical real-estate, and it's quite nice that it's now g…

What OS are you on? Comparing my FF5 install on OSX to the mockups, the mockups use less space due to the tab / titlebar merging. I don't recall if FF5 is already doing that merging on Windows or not. Looking at screenshots online, it also looks like the mockup is smaller than stock FF5 on Windows, but I haven't confirmed myself.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#184

Post by acemarke »

BlazingFrog wrote: post #94

I'm hoping they will do away with the "you need to restart Firefox after installing an add-on". Chrome has been able to install/uninstall/disable/tinker with add-ons without the need to restart for years. That and a new logo (tired of that fox) and I may give it another try.

The reason for the restart requirement is that Firefox extensions interact with the browser at a deeper level than Chrome extensions. Firefox does have a newer extension API called Jetpack that allows restartless extensions, but most extensions are written with the older (and more powerful) API.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#185

Post by ZoFreX »

dpark wrote: post #183
ZoFreX wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really? Looks like an improvement to me, because tabs have now consumed the titlebar area. I compared FF5 and these screenshots on my screen together, FF5 uses slightly less real estate. It's only a minor regression though, and hey, this is Firefox - I can customise it! It's just that prior to the current look, I had to modify Firefox quite a lot to optimise vertical real-estate, and it's quite nice that it's now g…

What OS are you on? Comparing my FF5 install on OSX to the mockups, the mockups use less space due to the tab / titlebar merging. I don't recall if FF5 is already doing that merging on Windows or not. Looking at screenshots online, it also looks like the mockup is smaller than stock FF5 on Windows, but I haven't confirmed myself.

Oh, I'm on Windows, which already has that merging in FF5.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#186

Post by jamesteow »

jonathansizz wrote: post #154
viraptor wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes what actually happens is that people get used to the change and get tired of fighting against. But they still don't like it at all. It's hard to see the difference from outside.

Exactly. Someone might have their leg amputated and complain for a while, then eventually accept it and adapt. This does not mean that having a leg amputated is a good thing.

That's not a fair analogy.

The alternative to not having your leg amputated in given example is likely eventual spreading of a disease and death.

With consumer goods and services often no one forces you to have to accept their changes.

No one forces you to use touch screen phones: there are plenty of alternatives which do include a keyboard.

Even if you don't like one input box does all approach, you can use previous browsers or browsers which retain the standard model.

If you don't like Netflix's price hikes, you can just use another service or don't subscribe at all. Your life won't decline because of it.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#187

Post by dpark »

ZoFreX wrote: post #185
dpark wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What OS are you on? Comparing my FF5 install on OSX to the mockups, the mockups use less space due to the tab / titlebar merging. I don't recall if FF5 is already doing that merging on Windows or not. Looking at screenshots online, it also looks like the mockup is smaller than stock FF5 on Windows, but I haven't confirmed myself.

Oh, I'm on Windows, which already has that merging in FF5.

Ah, ok. Perhaps it is worse with respect to space in Windows.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#188

Post by starwed »

trezor wrote: post #180
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…

Folk are focusing on the two changes that make this more like chrome (tabs in title bar, and apparent removal of search bar.) This has been in FF since version 4. These mockups are for FF 8.

Err, no it hasn't? Certainly not on the mac -- mine has looked exactly like this(http://mozcom-cdn.mozilla.net/img/covehead/firefox/gettingst...) for a while now.

Also, I don't even think these will land for FF8, since I've been running the nightly for a while now and they haven't appeared.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#189

Post by viraptor »

jamesteow wrote: post #186
jonathansizz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Someone might have their leg amputated and complain for a while, then eventually accept it and adapt. This does not mean that having a leg amputated is a good thing.

That's not a fair analogy. The alternative to not having your leg amputated in given example is likely eventual spreading of a disease and death. With consumer goods and services often no one forces you to have to accept their changes. No one forces you to use touch screen phones: there are plenty of alternatives which do include a keyboard. Even if you don't like one input box does all approach, you can use previous…

Not in every case. I want to use firefox because of some plugins. There is pretty much no alternative for them. Given that is was the best choice so far, I get to choose again between something that doesn't do stuff I need, or something that doesn't look the way I'm used to. Staying with previous versions is never an answer due to lack of bugfixes, security updates, etc.

Same mistake ubuntu does sometimes. It's the best in general, but has more and more really annoying changes in my opinion.

You cannot "just switch" in many cases. In some other you'll have to choose between two things you don't like the least. That's not a good outcome.

Re: The future Firefox UI

#190

Post by phreakhead »

51Cards wrote: post #58
sp332 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

We are going through a redesign for my company's web app and now we're going to have to insert a tiny bit of blank space at the bottom because Chrome's pop-up statusbar is covering a vital part of the UI! Doh!
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