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Firefox 45 Will Remove Tab Groups Today, Get This Add-on To Replace It (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Firefox 45, set to be released today, will remove the Tab Groups feature, a feature that many people used, but Mozilla decided to ask due to buggy code. The good news is that a developer created a perfect replacement for this feature as an add-on. Users that use Tab Groups on a daily basis are urged to install the add-on before upgrading to Firefox 45. The add-on will take over from the browser's Tab Groups feature without any complex configuration. Users that update to Firefox 45 will have their tab groups moved to their Bookmarks as folders, which may be difficult to move back into the Tab Groups add-on later on, especially if some people have hundreds of URLs.
As someone who's used Firefox since way back when it was named "Phoenix," I say that removing anything and everything that isn't strictly necessary (except tabs themselves and support for extensions) is a good thing!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
but Mozilla decided to ask due to buggy code
Ask - a question, to question, a query or inquiry.
Axe - to cut, chop, or remove.
Unless you're using some sort of ghetto slang, in which case "Axe" can be used for both.
Example: "Fry, let me axe you a question."
They promised to remove Extension support several years ago, with some foolish idea that they could drive people to use their "jet" thing. Not only was Jet utter crap, but the outcry at the threat of removing extensions echoed for a long time in their ears. I don't think they have enough remaining customers to make good on that stupid promise again.
The only reason I've remained loyal to Firefox is the extension model works so well. I can live with most of their ugly and awkward UI changes, even though they're all user-unfriendly and I hate everything about them. Extensions have replaced some of the missing needed features they've removed. But the main thing is there is no reason to use any browser that doesn't run NoScript. There's no reason to contact any server of a resource if I have no intention of loading or viewing said resource. And all the major alternatives are worse. Chrome is actively sending browsing habits directly into the world's largest advertising company, and I have no desire to feed that rapacious tiger. Microsoft's old offerings are laughably as insecure as swiss cheese, and their new browser phones home with practically every keypress.
Yes, I could run privoxy, but that's a really awkward approach when compared to NoScript's brilliant rules engine. But if the only choice becomes running through a filtering proxy, then I'm no longer bound to Firefox. May as well use the built in browsers at that point - they're less hassle.
John
Can somebody please mod down the parent comment? It's absolute, unsubstantiated garbage.
Tabs are an essential part of any web browser. It doesn't matter if we're talking about Firefox, IE, Edge, Opera, Safari, Chrome, or whatever other modern browser you want to bring up. This is functionality that nearly all, if not all, users want and will actively use.
Likewise, tab grouping is an essential part of the default tab functionality. Like tabs themselves, tab grouping is functionality that the majority of users want to use, and will use. If it's broken, it should be fixed properly, regardless of the browser we're talking about.
The people who get angry with Mozilla do so over Mozilla's decisions that are truly idiotic. This includes when Mozilla forces non-core functionality on all Firefox users, especially when almost nobody wants this functionality, and it won't see much use at all.
Take the integration of Hello. It's something that next to no Firefox users want, and fewer users will actually use it. If we want to engage in video calls or file sharing with people we know, we will use Skype. We won't use Mozilla's half-arsed imitation! Hello should never have been included in Firefox.
Pocket is also something that almost no Firefox users want. It's not core functionality, so it shouldn't come with the browser by default. Anyone who is angry about Pocket is fully justified in being angry.
The worst is perhaps the ads that Mozilla included in Firefox. Yes, that's right, many of the most popular Firefox extensions involve blocking ads, yet Mozilla did an idiotic thing and included ads in Firefox itself. This was an unbelievably stupid thing for them to do.
When somebody is angry with Mozilla, it's almost guaranteed that it's justified.