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Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

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Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#132
post #66

And Firefox continues the inexorable march towards Chromeness by removing the actual title of the page from the window chrome. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Firefox. This just strikes me as wrong; the rest of the new UI is fine.

That's one of the things I despise about Chrome... plus the fact that it doesn't have a title bar at all. They taking exactly the things that make Chrome less usable to me and putting them in Firefox. /sigh

I read about people who like their tabs on the left, because they have so many. Opera allows this AFAIK.

But why do you think the Firefox tab placement is better?

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#133
post #124
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's right there in the settings: (in Chrome) Settings > Appearance > "Use system title bar and borders". edit: clarified I meant Chrome.

Not on my Mac. Am I missing something?

It is available on Chromium (Linux)

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#134
post #122
post #66

And Firefox continues the inexorable march towards Chromeness by removing the actual title of the page from the window chrome. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Firefox. This just strikes me as wrong; the rest of the new UI is fine.

I'd like Firefox to give me back the ability to choose "full screen" and have it make the web page itself fill the screen from corner to corner, with no "chrome" (no title bar, no tabs, no menu bar, no URL bar, etc.) It used to be possible to use Firefox on Mac OS X to do a presentation with HTML and have the web page, and only the web page, fill the whole screen. (It was an option in the "View" menu.) That feature d…

Works for me, as the other commenter stated.

In addition I'm running the Tree Style Tabs addon, which moves all tabs to the left. While I look at a full screen Firefox I can move the mouse to the left side of the screen and the list of tabs will show up -> There's no way to get better screen estate usage, imo.

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#135
post #77
post #66

And Firefox continues the inexorable march towards Chromeness by removing the actual title of the page from the window chrome. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Firefox. This just strikes me as wrong; the rest of the new UI is fine.

The window titlebar doesn't make sense in every application. In this case, the title is already displayed on the tab. Showing it in two areas that are very close to each other is just redundant. On Windows Vista, 7, and 8, explorer does not have a titlebar since the location breadcrumb trail makes more sense. On OS X, iTunes and the App Store also do not have titlebars, favoring other ways to show information that ma…

My tabs are all way too small to read the title.

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#136
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like Firefox to give me back the ability to choose "full screen" and have it make the web page itself fill the screen from corner to corner, with no "chrome" (no title bar, no tabs, no menu bar, no URL bar, etc.) It used to be possible to use Firefox on Mac OS X to do a presentation with HTML and have the web page, and only the web page, fill the whole screen. (It was an option in the "View" menu.) That feature d…

I have the Full Screen option in the latest version, on Ubuntu and I don't remember a time when it wasn't there. It's still in the "View" menu. I just press F11, the default shortcut. Furthermore, Firefox implements the HTML5 Fullscreen API, which gives the ability to websites themselves to request the full-screen mode, with a dialog pop-up that allows you to either deny, or to temporarily or permanently give this pr…

The fullscreen API works fine. A website can display itself without any other clutter on the screen (with user permission). Unfortunately, it is no longer possible for a user on Mac OS X to cause the switch to fullscreen. The view menu (Firefox 21.0, for example, on OS X) still offers an "Enter Full Screen" menu item. Unfortunately, all it does is hide some of the chrome (it hides the menu bar and the title bar), leaving other bars (tabs, URL) still cluttering the screen.

It has been this way for a couple of years, if I recall correctly, and it is only a "feature" on OS X. Nothing is being done to change it, AFAIK.

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#137
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, but unlike Chrome, in Firefox, you can configure your client to look exactly like it did before. I know this is extra work for you (and me), but I guess it might work better for the vast majority of users.

The new ui update has the specific goal of reducing configurability, so new users dont get "confused". Such changes include the inability to edit any of the UI except a row of buttons on the top left, shockingly just like chrome!. I'm sure these changes will help focus their design vision, or something. So in short, no, you wont be able to configure your client to look exactly like it did before.

It seems that too many times I have to install a plugin to revert some design decision I don't like. This sounds like one of those times.

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#138
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about letting the user decide? I find myself installing addons to cut or move parts of the UI back to where it was when I was used to it. Starting with the location bar ending with status bars. Additional fumbling around in the config became the normal thing to do after an major update... I know it's nice if your are the developer and you can force stuff on your users because most of them can't do anything about…

The reason why X Windows was so much more popular than Mac OS X or MS Windows was because it was so configurable, right? As a matter of good design, configuration options should be used very sparingly. Yes they diversify the UX, but they also diversify the UX! Some decisions just have to be "made," like losing the title bar. > you will cross a border for another part of your customers and then somebody will come up w…

It's more of a case of good defaults vs bad defaults. When 90% of your customers will never know how to change the defaults (or never like your system enough in the first place to bother) then being served up something weird by default doesn't help your popularity.

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have three tabs open, all of which begin with the title of the site. How do I distinguish which is which?

Use a tab manager add on like Tab Mix Plus. It is the first thing I install on any new installation of FF. You can rename tabs or set a minimum width to see more of the title. Plus numerous other customizations.

When the solution to a problem that nearly every user will have is, "Use an add-on", then that's clearly a time when the design/dev team should go back and re-think their implementation. I can see the phone calls now, "Yes, mom - you need to go install an add-on. What's an add-on? Well, maybe they call it an extension - depends which screen you're on. What's an extension?" Ugh - awful idea.

Re: Firefox 25 will get a major UI overhaul

#140
post #95
post #19

Whenever I download a new browser, the first thing I do is remove as much UI as possible. This saves space, removes clutter and generally makes it more robust. My Firefox currently looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/93yRvie.png?1 A browser is the software I use most often, every UI change has great impact. Can't wait to see what they are bringing.

Hmm, makes me think there should be a way to keep the taskbar when you press F11. Sounds like that'd be an easy solution for what you're doing. (Offtopic: Oh wait nobody wants a taskbar anyway, ain't it so Windows 8? :P)

I'm on Windows 8 right now and I have a taskbar. Perhaps you were referring to the start button?
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