

What’s Next For Firefox? - jor-el
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/28/whats-next-for-firefox/

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thesimp
My hope is that they see positive pickup from their "developer" release and
also start making a "power-user" release. Because all the good work that they
have been doing with regards to speed/responsiveness & memory management is
being undone by dumbing down the interface to Chrome levels or worse. And if I
wanted my browser to look like Chrome, I've would have installed it already.

Why is it that in the year 2014 there are still buttons that I cannot move
(back/forward/reload/etc..)? Why is it that there still is the obsession with
making all button bars and menus smaller or even hide them completely? I
needed that on my Asus eee netbook in 2007, now, in 2014, I have retina
screens everywhere. The icons for home/bookmarks/reload are so small on my
screen that I have problems positioning my mouse over them. no: I do not want
to hunt for a 18pix target when I have at least 1440pix vertically available.

And don't even get me started on hiding parts of the url. WHY would anyone on
purpose hide parts of the web address that I need to see, if only to check
that it is correct...

Of course there are many things that can be configured by userchrome scripts
and about:config settings. But I do not want to carry around my personal
"patchset" just to make a browser usable.

~~~
theandrewbailey
The UI before Australis was far more customizable. I usually throw out the
back/forward buttons because I have a 5 button mouse and/or use the hotkeys.

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Teckla
From the article:

 _In many ways, it feels like the Firefox team is mostly fighting a battle of
perceptions. Ask anybody why they don’t use Firefox and they’ll say: “It’s too
slow.” That’s not actually the case anymore._

I'm sorry, but this is just not true. Firefox's UI _often_ goes (Not
Responding) for me, while Chrome's UI is always responsive.

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mooreds
Yes, this worries me, quite a lot. I think that the web needs a healthy
Firefox. I know it's their standard marketing messaging, but I don't think any
org but a non profit with a large userbase can keep the web open.

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wodenokoto
Apple still doesn't allow 3rd party browser engines, which is why Firefox is
nowhere to be seen on iOS.

What Apple do allow is to build a custom app around a limited version of the
Safari engine.

