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How to make a better default Firefox UI

github.com

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Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#21

Post by vdaea »

dudefeliciano wrote: post #19
vdaea wrote: post #6

This is the same problem that modern Windows has: these systems are designed by 20-something year old designers who wear specs with thick coloured frames and who only use Mac and Safari. They don't give a shit because they don't have to use these systems ever; for them these systems are something they screenshot and put in their portfolios.

> these systems are designed by ... I don't understand what you're referring to, this firefox addon? Or standard firefox? I'd image that firefox developers actually use it as their browser too..

Standard Firefox.

>I'd image that firefox developers actually use it as their browser too..

The graphic design of Firefox is not made by developers, it's made by designers who don't use Firefox.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#22

Post by OJFord »

Whenever I see someone using (or a screenshot of) horizontal tabs I'm just shocked that people put up with it, or perhaps even more so that it's still the default in all major (and minor?) browsers.

I recommend Sidebery, but more than that I just recommend something to get your tabs listed vertically in a sidebar, so they don't squash each other up as you add more until you can't tell what's what at a glance, the width is fixed, and you can always read the title.

Which probably means implicitly 'I recommend FF', since I imagine Safari/Chrome/Edge don't let you make that kind of modification? FF actually doesn't even need an add-on for it, I used to do it just with a userChrome tweak I copied from somewhere, but Sidebery has a nice 'panels' (like tabs of tabs to switch between that the sidebar shows) feature, and you can bind them to the built-in 'container tabs' (which I always think should surely be called 'tab containers'?) so that work stuff opens in your work panel, for example.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#23

Post by FirmwareBurner »

ihateolives wrote: post #11

Ever since Firefox borked their tabs I've given up on it as my default browser. Every now and then I open it up for testing and when I still see buttons instead of tabs I make a mental note of trying again in half a year or so. Light theme is especially insulting with white buttons on light-light gray. It even doesn't repsect Windows' system theme settings, because in Windows you can have apps keep light theme but ap…

I use Firefox as my alternate browser. And whenever I fire it up it needs first to get in my way and interrupt me to tell me about the new changes and features it has implemented since the last time I opened it like Pocket, VPN, etc.

God, stop it, just let me start browsing what I came here for, stop imitating Microsoft and their dark patterns of shoving Office 365 and Gamepass in your face between updates. Go and advertise your features to people who don't yet have Firefox installed, but I'm already your "customer", so stop bugging me.

This is why I'm mainly on Chrome. It may be inferior and spying on me but it never gets in my way.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#24

Post by werdnapk »

thecosmicfrog wrote: post #10

Is anyone else not at all bothered by the tabs "being buttons"? I feel like I'm the only one sometimes. Are they really that jarring for first-time users?

I'm a daily FF user and I wasn't even aware this was considered an "issue". I haven't put a single thought into this until seeing these comments... and I'll go back to not thinking about it again as I find the tab bar completely usable as-is. Thanks for the thoughts though.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#25

Post by hobs »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #23
ihateolives wrote: post #11

Ever since Firefox borked their tabs I've given up on it as my default browser. Every now and then I open it up for testing and when I still see buttons instead of tabs I make a mental note of trying again in half a year or so. Light theme is especially insulting with white buttons on light-light gray. It even doesn't repsect Windows' system theme settings, because in Windows you can have apps keep light theme but ap…

I use Firefox as my alternate browser. And whenever I fire it up it needs first to get in my way and interrupt me to tell me about the new changes and features it has implemented since the last time I opened it like Pocket, VPN, etc. God, stop it, just let me start browsing what I came here for, stop imitating Microsoft and their dark patterns of shoving Office 365 and Gamepass in your face between updates. Go and ad…

Damn that new tab must pop up for me like... once a month! What a distraction! I guess giving all my data to Google is probably worth it.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#26

Post by alex3305 »

Brave browser recently also introduced buttons. I was a tad annoyed with it, but accepted it. Until my wife recently saw the new look while I was working and asked how I could even put up with this. She argued that tabs should look like tabs and not buttons.

Fortunately for Brave the rollback is quite easy with a flag in `brave://flags` where you can disable the `brave-horizontal-tabs-update` feature.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#28

Post by yoavm »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #23
ihateolives wrote: post #11

Ever since Firefox borked their tabs I've given up on it as my default browser. Every now and then I open it up for testing and when I still see buttons instead of tabs I make a mental note of trying again in half a year or so. Light theme is especially insulting with white buttons on light-light gray. It even doesn't repsect Windows' system theme settings, because in Windows you can have apps keep light theme but ap…

I use Firefox as my alternate browser. And whenever I fire it up it needs first to get in my way and interrupt me to tell me about the new changes and features it has implemented since the last time I opened it like Pocket, VPN, etc. God, stop it, just let me start browsing what I came here for, stop imitating Microsoft and their dark patterns of shoving Office 365 and Gamepass in your face between updates. Go and ad…

I feel exactly this way, but about Chrome. I suspect it's just bias - I only open Chrome once a week or so so this screen is very annoying. Firefox is always open so I don't even recall seeing anything like that.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#29

Post by FirmwareBurner »

hobs wrote: post #25
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Firefox as my alternate browser. And whenever I fire it up it needs first to get in my way and interrupt me to tell me about the new changes and features it has implemented since the last time I opened it like Pocket, VPN, etc. God, stop it, just let me start browsing what I came here for, stop imitating Microsoft and their dark patterns of shoving Office 365 and Gamepass in your face between updates. Go and ad…

Damn that new tab must pop up for me like... once a month! What a distraction! I guess giving all my data to Google is probably worth it.

Joke all you want but Firefox's market share agrees with me as most users value convenience above all else.

At least Google knows not to be intrusive and not fuck with the UI so often. Chrome looks almost exactly like it did over 10 years ago. Why can't Firefox imitate that quality of life feature? It's not that hard to not change shit at the surface.

They've been bleeding market share for years including faithful long time users who enjoyed the 'old, boring' Firefox but don't agree with the current direction of imitating Chrome at every step.

Old Firefox = Windows 7

New Firefox = Windows 11

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#30

Post by rekado »

yoavm wrote: post #4

If anyone is interested, I've worked on creating a cleaner interface for Firefox with sidebar tabs here: https://github.com/bjesus/fireside

This is very nice. I'm using [Sidebery](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/) for vertical sidebar tabs. How does fireside differ?
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