Firefox Australis

[Catfish666]

This is a rant thread.

So starting from version... ugh X?? (go on, find the version)... Firefox ships with the Australis interface.

I hate it.

I've been using the Status-4-Evar extension^* and now the status bar is gone again!

^* a third-party extension for a damn status bar!
Might as well have a third-party extension for the Bookmarks bar!

The helpful Firefox button on the top left is gone. Why? Because it used up valuable space?

On Windows 7 with Aero enabled, the inactive tabs look like in Internet Explorer i.e. crappy. Black text on dirty translucent grey looks so nice! Not!

I knew Mozilla went crazy a long time ago, when they decided that minor versions numbers aren't "cool" so they started throwing around big numbers. Previous Firefox version I used was 28. Ludicrous. Still, I remained loyal to the brand. And today I'm ready to ditch it!

Rant complete. Feel free to agree, disagree, give suggestions setting up Ausfailis, etc.

[Peter87]

Sometimes I think it's time someone forked Firefox to offer a more traditional user interface.

[IWishIKnew]

it looks like they want to cater to the people who use touch screens....

[helios]

helpful Firefox button

**** that button. All it does is take up space in order to redistribute the functions in the menubar, which is easily accessible by hitting Alt.

I knew Mozilla went crazy a long time ago, when they decided that minor versions numbers aren't "cool"

From an end user standpoint, the only function version numbers serve is allow the user to find a particular release. The major.minor.revision scheme reflects changes that are irrelevant to an end user, and isn't strcmp()-sortable. Fun game: browse any GNU release directory and find the latest release of some program.
I'm a longtime supporter of the YYYYMMDD scheme, which is equally meaningless as any other scheme, but at least can be sorted and tells you how old the software you're using is.

On Windows 7 with Aero enabled, the inactive tabs look like in Internet Explorer i.e. crappy. Black text on dirty translucent grey looks so nice! Not!

Guess someone skipped a few usability tests. I looks fine on W8, but I can see how it would look awful on 7.

I do have to say that the new interface uses a handful more vertical pixels than I like.

[Albatross]

I honestly wonder what prompted them to redesign the interface. Was there anything really wrong with what they already had? I was perfectly satisfied, and in fact preferred it over Chrome's. I suppose "consistency across platforms" is all the rage nowadays, but I really fail to see the point of that when the same UI will not perform equally well across those platforms.

-Albatross

[IWishIKnew]

Albatross: I really appreciate the ability to use the exact same thing, the exact same way I use it, accross any platform operating system (but, I'm different than most when it comes to change: I hate it). However, the redesign was not necessary. It was perfectly fine, aside from not being the same interface for each operating system.

[helios]

I really appreciate the ability to use the exact same thing, the exact same way I use it, accross any platform

Only that's not actually possible, unless you carry around a pair of full sized Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to use with your phone/tablet/etc., or your desktop monitor is a touchscreen.
Different HIDs require different GUIs for maximum efficiency. That's just the way it is.

Although I don't feel the new interface has anything to do with platform consistency. Rather, I get the feeling they're trying to make Firefox look like Chrome for some reason.

[Stewbond]

Vertical pixels is the main thing that I like about Chrome. The tab bar is integrated with the conventional title bar. The other thing which got me hooked was the ability to drag tabs into new or other existing windows.

That being said, chrome is slow-to-start and is quite the resource hog and that's why I switched back to FF. I still keep it around for flash support (I'm on Mint).

I have an Ubuntu touch ultrabook and I love the firefox touch addin for that one.

A great alternative to FF on a linux desktop is uzbl (except for some HTML5 stuff). It's especially good for my xmonad machine I use for coding because it has no borders. You get maximum real-estate, but the drawback is that you need to remember all of your keyboard shortcuts.

[IWishIKnew]

Helios said:

Only that's not actually possible

I should have said Operating System, instead of "platform", because that's what I meant. Accross operating systems, it is possible.

[ResidentBiscuit]

chrome is slow-to-start

This is my only complaint with Chrome. Takes a good ~5 seconds to start up on my Mint machine.

[Albatross]

I should have said Operating System, instead of "platform", because that's what I meant. Accross operating systems, it is possible.

This was never an issue with Firefox, though, was it? Even if it did inherit the system's theme by default, there were ways to change it.

-Albatross

[Catfish666]

helios wrote:

Although I don't feel the new interface has anything to do with platform consistency. Rather, I get the feeling they're trying to make Firefox look like Chrome for some reason.

You are definitely not the only one.
http://dedoimedo.com/computers/firefox-29-sucks.html