I like software that’s functional, does the task required. The ability to change the look and feel of the UI is also quite high on my list of priorities. I’ve possibly been using Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape, whatever, for too long. Trouble is, I’m definitely a look and feel Luddite, due to my age I expect ;)…
I was not looking forward to the Australis interface. – It was with great trepidation that I clicked “Accept” when the upgrade came through. Having first ensured a complete backup of ~/.mozilla was safely squirrelled away; starting Firefox I fully expected to find a few extensions not compatible; and, visually, rather a mess. I’d been following the thread over on “Mozillazine” for the “Classic Theme Restorer” quite closely, anticipating this would be the first “new” extension to be installed.
So, what actually happened? – Much to my surprise :O…
Firefox started, spat it’s dummy out because of only one extension (Movable Firefox Button), then looked almost the same as it previously had done. Quite amazing, I’d retained my existing prefs.js, userChrome.css and localstore.rdf files. Apart from a couple of minor things in userChrome it was happy with those. Then spent some minutes rearranging a few icons and I was almost a happy bunny! I use the “Vertical Tab Style” extension, which must take most of the credit for the look and feel remaining almost unchanged.
I’ve subsequently installed the “Classic Toolbar Buttons” extension, (safely ignore the warning “not available for your platform”) which has restored some sanity to the icons in terms of image and colour. Deleted localstore.rdf and allowed it to be rebuilt, was it worth it(?), it went from ~90k to 6.7k. I like to tell myself there was a marginal performance improvement, :\ (there wasn’t).
Just thought I’d share. – So any other Luddites out there who’re hanging back, go on, give it a go.
I’ve been surprised at the extent of the negative reaction to ff29.
Yes, it looked a little different. But, when all is boiled down, it is still the old firefox.
Okay, the tabs have rounded edges, and the tabs are above the address bar. And the main menu button is now on the right instead of the left, and now uses icons. But that’s a relatively modest change. The font seems to have changed to one with less vertical spacing, so that now the bookmarks don’t extend all the way to the end of the page. I like that particular change.
In the meantime, life goes on as usual. I’m surprised that so many people are engaged in a gripe fest.
I do not know how many people have spend how much time on making those sides of he tabs not vertical, but oblique. I could not care less.
And the menus are back in two clicks.
Only thing is that I keep hitting the “NoScript button” instead of the “back a page button”. It seems that they have exchanged place, else I can not understand why I do make that mistake again and again. >:)
This is in General Chit-chat, Thus I do not dare to ask a technical question.
People are telling here their experiences. My experience is typical for myself. I click autmaticaly on a place without realy looking. Thus when something in a UI is changed it will take at least a week before I can use it normaly again.
The result is of course that I hate these changes. Specialy when I do not see the need behind them.
And I will ask in Applications if it can be changed when I am afraid that I am getting insane because of this.
Yes, so am I. It’s only an internet browser, and now with “go faster stripes”, although it does seem a bit snappier on my now middle-aged ThinkPad (C2D T6670).
Then I only access the menus once or twice per day (same on SeaMonkey) - it’s the displayed content that’'s important [stupid].
… then, on the other hand, there are some people who – if you don’t give them something to complain about – will go on a safari to locate something they can gripe about.
Yeah, yeah, well just because Henk (and others) “doesn’t see the need behind them” doesn’t mean there is “no reason” for the change. To avoid change don’t be successful…
On Windows, Firefox did extremely well against MS and IE. It clearly lost ground there (its largest market sector) to a slicker and faster Chrome browser, so they have now responded. Maybe in response to all that online feedback data they’ve been collecting.
Change to give the user more options and choice, especially in Security: Good.On this, for the past few years, the Firefox crew has been doing exactly the opposite! Very bad.
Change to make it run faster: Good.
Change to remove security options, changes to make round corners, changes to arbitrarily hide the menu, changes in positioning on the menu, and other changes that confuse some users: All NOT good.
I am not agianst new features. But the first thing I always ask when confronted with them (being it on FF, or elsewhere on computing or elsewhere in life): how can I switch it off? The idea that others decide for me that I would like a new feature so dearly that it is “of course” switched on by default. most probably hitting me at the moment when I do not have time to explore and learn about it.
Do not say: “but then you could postpone using it until you can plan a switchover”. Yes, that is when I plan to go for a new openSUSE e.g., I install it for testing, spend time on it, find out how my way of working has to adept, personalize anew, etc. Then inform my users. Then do the switchover.
But this new FF was offered as a security patch. Thus more or less could not be avoided. And hits one in the middel of some project.
And about that reasoning: people asked for those features. Remember that possibly a huge amount of users were satisfied users and thus never asked for any change, let alone a change that involved their way of working. Thus a new feature and saying that it can beswitched on is OK. But is it very wise to pester your user/customer base that love your product as it is and thus is silent? Those are the poeple that will most probably will switch to a competing product without further notice.
Think of it. You bring your car to the dealer because they told you that for security reasons, your tyres have to be replaced before you go for that long holliday trip. Then you get the car back, but the complete upper half of the dashboard meters is gone. There are now some new buttons on another place without any readable text, but they have some markings that you do not understand. Please start your planned holliday now.
Welcome to the world of “off-the-peg” software. The solution “of course” would be bespoke tailoring for those who can afford it.
But this new FF was offered as a security patch. Thus more or less could not be avoided. And hits one in the middel of some project.
Tossed on the horns of a dilemma. You would have to ask the developers about their dilemma, and why they chose to combine different types of changes.
Think of it. You bring your car to the dealer because they told you that for security reasons, your tyres have to be replaced before you go for that long holliday trip. Then you get the car back, but the complete upper half of the dashboard meters is gone. There are now some new buttons on another place without any readable text, but they have some markings that you do not understand. Please start your planned holliday now.
I’d rather not if you don’t mind. It’s an unlikely parable involving a car purchased from a dealer, where typically they prefer doing as little work as possible for the most money they can get away with. YMMV lol!.
On 2014-05-07 19:36, hcvv wrote:
>
> I do not know how many people have spend how much time on making those
> sides of he tabs not vertical, but oblique. I could not care less.
Those tricks take CPU power, more so if the video driver accel support
is not complete, as is often the case in Linux. So an option to disable
those niceties would be nice.
Interesting reading so far, lot’s of valid points raised. A polarising moment for FF users, love it or hate it.
I believe most peoples reaction to this will depend very much on how much customisation they’ve done to pre V29 FF. Those who use a ‘standard’ install won’t actually see huge differences, rounded tabs and the ‘hamburger’ menu button will already be familiar to users of Thunderbird. The menu bar can easily be restored for those who prefer it.
For those, such as myself, who have customised FF’s appearance, it is still possible to obtain a very similar if not identical look. I was not looking forward to the change to ‘Australis’ UI, but it turned out far less of a ‘problem’ than I had anticipated it would be. Over the last day or two I’ve made a few more minor tweaks and I’m very happy with it.
I too don’t like change just for the sake of change; but I see real advantages in the new layout, especially the menu, for users of tablet PCs. Not to say I agree with all of the developers decisions though, the decision to progressively remove various settings from the GUI for instance. Although virtually all of those are still able to be changed/set via ‘about:config’. Even without resorting to extensions, FF and it’s derivatives are perhaps the most customisable browser around still. (If anyone is able to recommend a better one I will gladly give it a try).
Whilst I basically agree with ‘hcvv’, this forthcoming change was known about well in advance. Although I do entirely empathise with the ‘most probably hitting me at the moment when I do not have time to explore and learn about it’; having exactly that happen to myself with the Nepomuk → Baloo transition… but that’s a completely different story. >:(
> But this new FF was offered as a security patch. Thus more or less could
> not be avoided. And hits one in the middel of some project.
Well…
The openSUSE people abandoned the idea of backporting security patches
to FF long ago, because it became too complicated. Instead, they
switched to updating to the current FF from upstream instead, with some
customizations.
> Yes, so am I. It’s only an internet browser, and now with “go faster
> stripes”, although it does seem a bit snappier on my now middle-aged
> ThinkPad (C2D T6670).
Well… it is taking here a constant 22% CPU load here, while idling. I
need something to find out what TAB is using that load, and the only way
I have is start closing them one by one till load drops. Not nice.
