Firefox 29: Redesign

An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 29 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. This is a massive release: Firefox Sync has been revamped and is now powered by Firefox Accounts, there's a new customization mode, and the company's major user interface overhaul Australis has finally arrived. 'The tabs are sleek and smooth to help you navigate the Web faster. It’s easy to see what tab you’re currently visiting and the other tabs fade into the background to be less of a distraction when you’re not using them. The Firefox menu has moved to the right corner of the toolbar and puts all your browser controls in one place. The menu includes a “Customize” tool that transforms Firefox into a powerful customization mode where you can add or move any feature, service or add-on.' Here are the full release notes and a demo video."

Comments

Addon: Classic Theme Restorer

[V for Vendetta]

For those that want the old GUI back: Classic Theme Restorer.

Re:Addon: Classic Theme Restorer

[Anonymous Coward]

"if firefox has made any improvements since the 3.x series, I don't know what they are."
Like, pretty much anything that is not visible at first glance? Standards support, memory management, add-on handling, JavaScript performance, responsiveness, developer tools, networking, etc

did you checked the video?

[JcMorin]

According to the video you can select the icons and menus you want to display in the toolbar... that include all the addons/plugins/extensions too. What customization has been dropped?

Re:did you checked the video?

[rudy_wayne]

According to the video you can select the icons and menus you want to display in the toolbar... that include all the addons/plugins/extensions too. What customization has been dropped?

The video is deliberately misleading and the claim of "a powerful customization mode where you can add or move any feature" is a complete lie.

A few examples:

Tabs On Top -- No thanks, I want my tabs below the URL bar, where God intended them to be. First, they removed the menu item a while back. No problem, I can just go into about:config and change it. But just removing the menu item and burying the setting in about:config isn't enough. With Australis, even if you go into about:config and change the setting, it does nothing. Firefox says: Fuck You. You're getting Tabs On Top whether you like it or not.

There are only 2 toolbars - Menu bar and Bookmarks toolbar. No more Add-On Bar, which means the Status Bar Extension doesn't work because there's no place to put it. Firefox says: You want a Status Bar? Fuck You. Sure there's probably some hidden fiddling you can do to work around the problem, but that just proves my point -- A user should not have to spend copious amounts of effort just to restore the standard and expected UI.

In Australis the Back and Forward buttons are now glued to the URL Bar, so you can't arrange your buttons any way you like. The Reload Button has been replaced with a swirly arrow that is glued to the far right side of the URL Bar and can't be moved, and the Stop Button is gone completely. Want text labels with your buttons? Firefox says: Fuck you.

There's a lot more, but I give up. If I wanted a browser with a lousy UI that can't be changed, I would use Internet Explorer or Chrome.

Just as I feared -- Firefox has joined the growing list of applications that can never be updated because the new version sucks.

Re:did you checked the video?

[compro01]

You might like the Classic Theme Restorer addon. Tabs back down, multiple bars, back/forward separated and arbitrarily movable, reload next to them, addon bar back at the bottom, and text labels on everything.

Re:did you checked the video?

[Anonymous Coward]

Use this to restore the old style with tabs on bottom https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/

I researched it months ago when I learned about Australis.

Prove yourself question: "degrade". Such a irony :-)

Re:did you checked the video?

[fustakrakich]

For a traditional UI in Mozilla plus all the other goodies you miss, Look no further

Re:did you checked the video?

[vux984]

With all respect, it didn't really have other uses anymore,

Thats sort of buying a van, and then having the dealer gradually remove all the doors and windows from a van and then declaring that you don't need all that cargo space either because it doesn't have any uses since you can't get to it, and then removing the removing the space too leaving you with a nice little 2 seater smart car.

But the whole reason I bought this car in the first place is because I wanted a VAN. Doors, windows, cargo space.

There are a LOT of things you could do with a status bar. You could display status... like WHAT THE FUCK IS THE BROWSER IS DOING RIGHT NOW now aka "STATUS"? I mean sure there is a spinning green circle in the tab icon space and that's all we get for feedback?

Download speed, how many items are in the download manager queue, dns look ups, time outs, server errors, do I have internet access, page validation status, plugins starting up, encryption characteristics, extensions / addon messages, what is it doing with cookies... I can imagine more things to do with the status bar then will FIT in 5 status bars. Do I want or need all of those all the time? Hell no... but I'm using firefox because I want more advanced feedback than a spinning circle.

It has a combined address/search bar

[sjbe]

You can search in the address bar. I do it all the time. No special add-ons needed either. It will search your default search engine very similar to Chrome. Why they have an additional search bar I don't really know. I never use it because I don't need to.

Re:It has a combined address/search bar

[houghi]

You don't, but I do. I do not have a 'default' search engine that I use. The ones I use are google, google images(1), KickAssTorrent, ImDB, Debian Packages, ThePirateBay, Wikipedia and a pron search engine.

So to me a search is not always the same thing I am searchning for. Guessing, I would say Google itself would be 3 or 4 in what I use.

This is not saying what I do is worse or better. It is just explaining why they have an additional search bar, as you did not know.

(1) I have added &sout=1&tbs=isz:lt,islt:4mp to the search result, so I get images that are large enough to be wallpapers and shown in the old fashioned way,

Use Pale Moon instead.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a fork of FF engine with the older interface (from around version 26 I believe).

Re:more downgrades

[rudy_wayne]

I would, if Chrome supported a NoScript type plugin.

Actually Chrome allows you to selectively disable Javascript by domain. Chrome's only good feature and a feature that I wish Firefox would copy.

NoScript blocks all Javascript by default and forces you to manually whitelist everything. Unfortunately, that's now the exact opposite of what we need. NoScript was created back in the old days when you could completely disable Javascript and most websites would still mostly work. Now, more and more sites won't load at all -- you literally get a blank page -- without Javascript.

Re:more downgrades

[ChronoReverse]

There's a called YesScript that lets you do that in Firefox. Extensions is still the reason why I use Firefox/Pale Moon.

If you don't like Australis, there's an extension to make Firefox look like classic. If you think the Australis buttons are too large (like me) then you can install an extension to make them smaller.

Re:more downgrades

[StarFace]

Have a look at SeaMonkey. It is the way Firefox used to be before it all started to go to shit when Chrome came out. It is as far as I know, the last real browser being maintained, since Opera died.

You get extension compatibility with FF, too.

Re:and addons work on a new firefox?

[compro01]

Yes. This addon was specifically developed for FF29 to deal with the new GUI.

Memory hogging: Add-ons for re-starting Firefox

[Futurepower(R)]

"... a future dominated by retards." I think retards may rise in protest: "We may be retards, but we're not dumb!"

Let me guess: The new version of Firefox will be even less stable. The memory-hogging flaws have not been fixed. The memory-hogging flaws are so widely acknowledged that there are add-ons for re-starting Firefox: Firefox Re-start Add-ons. I use Restartless Restart.

Please no obvious replies to this. Please don't make it necessary to post my list of 22 excuses for not fixing the Firefox memory hogging again.

I'm having another problem with the latest version of Firefox. The toolbar icons change back to the default. I have to go to View > Toolbars > Customize and take away the ones I don't want and put back the ones I want.

Also, when I log into Slashdot, I'm recognized as my user name. However, often when I open a tab for a Slashdot story, the story shows that I am not logged in, and logging in at that tab does nothing. Re-starting Firefox fixes that problem for a while.

Pale Moon: Firefox with adult supervision.

[Futurepower(R)]

I forgot to mention Pale Moon, an interesting version of Firefox. It has adult supervision! What! Where did they find an adult?

Two examples: In Firefox the "Find in page" field is on the left and the "Highlight All" and "Match Case" buttons are on the right. In Pale Moon they are together so that you immediately see if something is chosen from a former search.

Pale Moon has a 64-bit version. Firefox doesn't. The 64-bit Pale Moon uses the Firefox add-ons; no problem there except with some unusual add-ons.

Pale Moon is completely independent. Pale Moon is in no way associated with Mozilla Foundation.

Re:All lies

[Ducho_CWB]

These: http://forums.mozillazine.org/...

One can summarize as
"The Firefox has been REMOVED. You will have to find an add-on that restores functionality."

New but inferior sync

[chrisvdb]

So, the new FF finally implemented a more userfriendly sync functionality. Apparently less than 1% of its users was using the old (but very secure system). The new sync system is (unsurprisingly) similar to Chrome's sync system: you create an account, when you log in your info is encrypted based on your account password and uploaded to Mozilla's servers.

What I cannot get my head around is that Mozilla claims they cannot access your data (as they don't know your password) but that they are able to reset a lost password... how can that be a secure system??

Also, in the new version it's no longer possible to use a master password... if you want to use sync all your password will be in plaintext (well, obfuscated) in FF's password file. Any malicious or vulnerable application can get access to ALL your passwords. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=995268

Doesn't sound like an improvement to me...

Re:New but inferior sync. MOD PARENT UP!

[quixote9]

MOD PARENT UP! Up, up, up. I haven't seen that noted anywhere else yet. And that strikes me as pretty damn critical in the current environment.

Re:more downgrades

[StarFace]

Opera died in the sense that it is no longer a leader in browser technology, as it has been for well over a decade, and is just skinning the Chromium project now. Out of context, that's okay, there have been plenty of skinning projects over the years that have been worth merit, but its the equivalent of say, Mozilla just giving up and using the IE engine and building a shell around it. They have ditched all of their code, from what I can tell, and unless you are keen on Chromium in general, I don't really see why you would be inclined to use the newer Opera versions over grabbing the latest Chromium build.

Opera before the transition vs. now simply is not comparable on any grounds. I used Opera for years, it was my favourite browser even though it didn't have the extension library that FF did, in large part because it natively did what it needed to do without extensions, and I liked their M2 client as well, which was one of the few e-mail clients that captured some of what Gmail got right. But, all of that is gone now. 100%, gone.

Perhaps some day they will rebuild some of their legacy, but I'm not crossing my fingers, especially with the misguided notions about bookmarks being worthless and so on.