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How to make a better default Firefox UI

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Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#51

Post by medstrom »

mikae1 wrote: post #41
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…

Install Sidebery[1] and hide the native tabs[2]. This is the way. :) [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ [2] https://superuser.com/a/1424494

I have neither! No visible tabs at all. Just cycle tabs with Ctrl+Tab hotkey.

This is clean. Once in a month I want some kind of overview, but extensions like Tab List can give me a popup menu. The tabs needn't be visible constantly!

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#52

Post by thrdbndndn »

Astraco wrote: post #35

The same happens with Thunderbird. The new UI is a mess I can't find anything now. I fear when the rename K9 mail for Android to Thunderbird they break the UI too.

It's (almost) every major software.

I mainly use Chrome, and in their newest M121 release they made not one, but three major UI changes and I hate every single one of them.

For the curious, they are (together with my rant):

1. the new "simplified" bookmark save flow which is more complicated than the old one;

2. loss of the ability to disable system notification (i.e. to use Chrome's built-in one, which I prefer);

3. loss of the ability to disable "copy to highlight" context menu option via a command line argument, which I never use and it just messes up my muscle memory for right click -> copy.*

* Seriously, why is it so tough for software in the CURRENT YEAR to just offer fully customizable context menus? How hard is that? Funnily enough, this used to be a staple feature in nearly all the popular freeware back in the 2000s and 2010s. It feels like the whole UI/UX scene has taken a nosedive lately.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#53

Post by viraptor »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #29
hobs wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lo…

Google mainly knows how to display ads. The raise of Chrome wasn't so much about features at the time as about people being bombarded with "install chrome" ads. On Google results, in Gmail, in Adsense, everywhere. There was an absurd amount of money sacrificed (not really spent since the ads were internal) to gain the users. I'm not sure any other aspect can be reliably compared in that scenario.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#54

Post by vikeri »

Will try it out. Regardless of if I’ll use it or not I think this project is a great example of the rare type of engineering craft that seems to be a pre-requisite to build truly great software. A great signal if I were hiring.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#55

Post by yoavm »

rekado wrote: post #30
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?

You can use Sidebery with Fireside. Fireside doesn't really care what extension you're using for your tabs sidebar, but you might need to adjust some spacing. Fireside isn't an extension - it's a userChrome customization to hide the tabs, and move the location bar to the left so it's feel "merged" with the sidebar.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#56

Post by medstrom »

mvdtnz wrote: post #33
OJFord wrote: post #22

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 wid…

Edge has vertical tabs out of the box. And yeah we get it, because vertical tabs people and tree tabs people are the vegans of browser discussions. Please, we get that you like vertical tabs. No need to keep going on about it.

Please, don't perpetuate the myth that vegans "keep going on about things" unless you've seen someone do it in real life.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#57

Post by yoavm »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #47
hobs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree that most people would be glad to give up their privacy for minor convenience. if I was a developer of Firefox I might care that its marketshare is falling, but truthfully nobody needs to be married to a web browser, or take its rise and fall too seriously. Still not going to use a Google browser though, that's just a self own.

The rise and fall reflects user popularity. And Firefox is less popular than ever, with both the new generation who grew up only knowing Safari and Chrome, and also with the old generation who they pissed off by trying to copy the shitty parts of Chrome instead of staying true to what made them popular in the first place such as speed, light weight, and getting out of your way by not charging the UI every 6 weeks.

Sure, maybe everyone left Firefox because of the "what's new" tab and the UI changes. But maybe it's because Safari is default on some devices, and Chrome has the world biggest marketing company behind it.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#58

Post by jFriedensreich »

Instead of losing the basics of usability I whish firefox would embrace new directions that have been shown by arc browser or at least allow the level of customiziation it used to. I made a prototype but the step to fork just to modify the ui seems ridiculous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxE8CD4dylQ

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#59

Post by mort96 »

OJFord wrote: post #22

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 wid…

I find that having a huge sidebar shifts the content off-center in a really uncomfortable way.

Re: How to make a better default Firefox UI

#60

Post by OJFord »

foolswisdom wrote: post #40
OJFord wrote: post #22

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 wid…

I know edge at least supports vertical tabs? I don't like them though (I don't have enough horizontal screen space, plus it doesn't free up the top bar space). If I start to have many open tabs I start cutting them down anyway.

Fair enough not having the horizontal space for it. It's usually still the opposite that annoys me (small centred content not making use of space) but of course this depends on zoom level etc. too.

I'm not sure what you mean about not freeing the top bar though? The topmost thing I have is the back/forward/refresh/URL/extensions/menu bar. (file/edit/view/etc. hidden unless I press Alt, but that's not where tabs would be I don't think.)

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