
Firefox 29 - epaga
http://www.firefox.com
======
hbt
If you want a highly customizable browser, Firefox is it. Chrome is in its
infancy when it comes to customization and they often make decisions that
prevent power users from taking advantage of their browsing experience.

For example, they've disabled custom stylesheets in recent releases despite a
clear indication that people were sharing themes, they have very old bugs that
don't get resolved (like the stupid white flashes on dark themes), major
accessibility issues.

Generally they try to appeal and prioritize regular users (which is fine) but
go out of their way to make decisions that ignore power users and not even
provide alternatives intentionally.

Finally and the most frustrating part is they don't value feedback.
[https://code.google.com/p/chromium/](https://code.google.com/p/chromium/) is
a joke and a waste of time. The most starred issues are often closed to the
public when it reaches a certain level and users are asked to submit a new bug
again if the old one is not fixed. This means that if there is still a bug,
you have to wait months before other users experience it, find the time to
search for the bug and star it, reach enough stars to get attention and then
get a response. Bugs are often miscategorized and the wrong team has it in its
backlog. It's a mess.

There isn't a feature in Chromium or Google Chrome that Firefox doesn't
deliver.

Take it from a serious chrome user and extension developer for several years,
switch to Firefox if you want to tweak anything that bothers you _easily_
without having to change the damn source code.

~~~
nandhp
> There isn't a feature in Chromium or Google Chrome that Firefox doesn't
> deliver.

Multi-process browsing. It is incredibly annoying when my entire browser locks
up because one of the fifty tabs I have open is doing something stupid. That
never happened in several years of using Chrome, and it happens several times
a day in Firefox.

~~~
sentenza
So imagine you are a person that stopped browser hygiene during a few months
while finishing their PhD and now _still_ carries around about 900 open tabs
waiting to be sorted into bookmarks and junk. (Yeah, that's me.)

I have to re-start Firefox every 48 hours or else its resource consumption
starts affecting the overall system. This is my primary issue with current
Firefox versions, although I am aware that I'm an n-sigma outlier.

Intrestingly, however, the Firefox team has been greatly improving memory
management, so that currently, even with my completely pathological browser
session, Firefox remains usable for 48 hours with 900 tabs open.

~~~
CyberShadow
Right-click the tab bar, select "Bookmark all tabs", save them all to a new
folder (name it after the current date or whatnot).

~~~
lomnakkus
Or just close all those tabs. Realistically you're never actually going to get
around to reading them and they're just _there_ weighing you down. Seriously,
close them. Forget they were ever there. If you haven't looked at them yet it
means that they're not that important!

~~~
lelandbatey
Yeah, this is the only way I keep my browsing sane. Over the years, a kind of
"tab garbage-collection" habit has emerged. I find it works really well, since
if a tab hasn't been visited in the last 20 minutes, I probably won't open it
again.

Additionally, the history-tracking of the browser is good enough and my
google-fu sufficient so I can find anything I need that I've previously
visited.

Keeping my tabs lean makes me much happier!

~~~
tempestn
I've found Evernote with it's web clipper to be great for this. Anything I
figure I might want someday, but I don't know exactly when or why, goes into
my EN archive. The full text is searchable, so it's like having Google for
only stuff that I've found interesting in the past. (And the clipper can even
add results from your library to search engine results, so you can re-find
things even when you're not specifically looking.)

------
dilap
I love Firefox -- for what it's done, what it represents, and what it helps
guard against. I have fond memories of those early versions of Firefox (nee
Firebird) that busted open the IE monopoly, and where hands-down the best
browser going at the time.

But it's never felt very good on the Mac to me, and it still doesn't. Here's a
few early thoughts on this release, from the perspective of a happy Safari
user, w/ a pretty (nit-)picky eye.

* Separate address and search bars is old-fashioned. As a user, I don't want to have to make this distinction, and it's hard to imagine most users-on-street wouldn't find this confusing

* The address bar is square edged while the search bar is round edged, which is displeasingly visually. (I realize this is because there's a convention of "search bars are rounded," but the inconsistency remains.)

* Tapping the hamburger menu on the far right, it appears with a combined drop-and-fade-in effect, and then disappears instantly.

This is jarring on the Mac, because it is exactly the opposite of native menu
behavior, which is to appear instantly, and disappear with a fade. (I also
believe the native behavior makes more sense: when you're tapping a menu, you
want to do something, so you don't want to be slowed down by an animation --
just show the menu.)

(Addition of a hamburger bar on the far right at all is suspicious; often it's
a UI "dumping ground")

* The "what's new" slideshow that appears at the bottom of the screen has to be controlled by clicking small <\- or -> arrows, instead of just scrolling, which feels very outmoded

* The scroller applies a fade effect to incoming content, but only to the text, not the image, which is jarring.

* Multi-touch swipe to go back/forward shows no feedback! (Safari does this best, where the whole page slides away, revealing what's underneath; Chrome does a half-assed thing with arrows fading in, which isn't nearly as nice, but at least better than no feedback.)

Pretty nitpicky, I know, but I recently read an article trumpeting this
release of Firefox's incredible attention to detail.

On the Mac at least, I think it still falls short.

~~~
dec0dedab0de
_Separate address and search bars is old-fashioned._

Exactly how I like it, I _HATE_ getting search results when I make a type-o,
or try to go to an internal site and forget to specify [http://](http://)

~~~
Svip
Indeed. I love seeing Mozilla true to their mission. By separating them, the
user knows where their input is going at all times. Only Firefox gets to see
what you are typing in your address bar. Moreover, I love you can click ctrl+k
in a tab, then type something you are reading _on that page_ and then hit
alt+enter to open your search result in a new tab.

~~~
iamtew
I think for some time already you could also just select text on a page,
right-click and choose "Search <search engine> for 'Lorum lipsum'" and it will
open a new tab for it with your set search engine searching for that term.

I use this all the time, small thing but it's awesome! I'm pretty sure it
exists in other browsers as well though.

------
brudgers
[Sorry for going meta]

As I write this, the story is about one hour old, there are 118 other comments
and the top voted comment - _the top voted comment_ \- is criticism by someone
who doesn't use Firefox. The comment is totally without technical analysis of
why Firefox does what it does nor does it mention anything that FireFox gets
right. The only positive thing the author says involves dragging out some
tired anti-microsoft trope.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667040](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7667040)

That's the problem when stories have this sort of velocity. The quality of
comments goes down to the point where "It doesn't try to be an Apple product"
is what collects the most upvotes. It's little more than trolling for defenses
of FireFox and Safari fan upvotes.

~~~
radmuzom
So true. I was hoping for a discussion on improved WebGL support (if any),
performance improvements, new HTML5 feature support, etc. rather than whether
the address bar and search bar should be merged. The latter is important, but
IMO should not be the most discussed item.

------
CompuHacker
Where the hell is my forward button? Why does browser.tabs.onTop not mean
anything anymore? Where's my refresh button? On the... right side, inside the
Awesome Bar? Why isn't a separate button? Why can't I put the Home button back
beside the Back button? Why is the back button permanently part of the Awesome
Bar? Why does the Awesome Bar change shape and size to allow the forward
button to exist? Why isn't the forward button an element that I can move
around like the refresh button? Why can't I move the Awesome Bar at all? What
happened to the Status Bar? Why can't I replace the Status Bar with the
Bookmarks Bar at the bottom of the screen? Why is the Start Button now
permanently overlapping with anything displayed in the browser? Why can't I
move the Menu Button? Why is your Menu Button right where Google Chrome's
menus are by default? Also, when you remove the Title Bar, I can't grab the
window because I keep my bookmarks as icons without titles on the Menu Bar.

Why are you messing with everything, Mozilla? Why are you breaking the UI
metaphor? With the tabs on the top, all the elements under it are made to
appear a part of that tab. There's no reason that I can see for the tabs to be
on top. It doesn't look pretty, it takes extra pixels to render the smooth
curve where the tab meets the next bar. Even if I'm insane and it's the same
width, it still looks awful.

I've got five HD screens, and everyone is taking the tablet friendly,
ergonomic approach. I want consistency. Please stop breaking everything.
You're the last good browser, Firefox. Don't ruin it.

Please bring back: tabs on bottom, the permanent forward button, the refresh
button, the bottom bar anchor, and the separate back button.

[http://i.imgur.com/cFMoZ5b.png](http://i.imgur.com/cFMoZ5b.png)

~~~
ExpiredLink
They won't "stop breaking everything" because they feel the irresistible urge
to constantly "improve" and "reinvent" the UI until it becomes unusable
(a.k.a. the Linux desktop syndrome).

BTW, the refresh button is in the 'menu config', you can drag it to the old
place. The stop button and other 'classic' buttons are gone. Meaningless
'browser.tabs.onTop' prepares you for your transition to Chrome.

FF is so frustrating and disappointing. I'm not angry, just sad.

~~~
NotOscarWilde
> "improve" and "reinvent"

I don't remember any change in the UI in the last two years that was not
copying what Chrome does.

So "improve" may be right, but hardly "reinvent".

~~~
insky
That's pretty much how I feel.

I was thinking for a second the whole UI might get a shake up, or rather,
there would be innovative useful functions, that would set the browser apart.

The bookmark and history managers are still pretty aweful. Some of the UI has
been polished, but certainly not all.

The refresh button irritates me, because for some reason it feels smaller.

I feel the whole tab placement is a little moot, as it should follow the OSs
style. Quite why we haven't good tab management/redesign/overhaul in modern
window managers/desktops yet is beyond me.

Personally I'd rather a tool menu. And a location/search bar, a bookmark
manager, and a browser pane. All pretty much separate.

Text input would be a nice centralised overlay/popup as and when needed, which
I could make huge or small. In other words help with web forms. Android's
Chrome browser kind of does that. In opera I used to be able to float the
address bar, but it lost it's 'awesome' qualities - autocomplete etc.

It's OS/UX territory, why reinvent controls and the way we interact with each
application? The overall UX ends up feeling like a right hodge-podge.

------
exodust
What's this about the status bar / add-on bar gone?

The main reason why I use Status-4-Evar is because when I hover over a link I
don't want that link to pop-over the page content, which is what Chrome did
first, then Firefox copied like sheep. It's distracting, like a tiny little
pop-over in the corner of your eye.

I like having URLs show in a status bar separate to the main web window. It's
out of the way, and I just like having my web browser framed by an interface.
Is that so wrong?

What's so bad about a status bar? Why is there this idea that everyone wants
the full screen web?

First Mozilla forces their CEO to resign, now they're being the soup nazi over
the status bar which has been with browsers since day one of web browsers. You
call that progress? I call it chopping down an old tree that nobody wanted
chopped down.

~~~
amarraja
It's the first thing I noticed changed, and the first thing I tried (and
failed) to re-enable. I am part of the "don't like change" crowd, but normally
just get used to it can carry on. This is the first functional change which
actually made me a little angry!

EDIT: Found this to restore just the addon bar:
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/the-addon-
bar...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/the-addon-bar/)

 _Nerdrage subsiding_

~~~
a3n
The one that got me was when they took away 'n' to get to the next search
result. Not anything to rage quit over, but it pissed me off. I now use VimFX
for a few vim navigation keys, and vim-like search.

~~~
stefantalpalaru
They replaced it with F3 for some reason.

~~~
mrec
Maybe because it's the Windows standard, and they think there are more Windows
users than vim users?

~~~
a3n
It wasn't the n for vim search I was missing, it was the next function with a
keypress, which happened to have been done with n in FF's searchbox, and
coincidentally n in vim. I didn't know that they replaced it with F3.

~~~
core1024
C-G is still working so I'm fine with it :)

------
michaelhoffman
Release Notes: [https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/29.0/releasenotes/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/29.0/releasenotes/)

~~~
yahelc
Developer Release Notes: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/Firefox/Releases/29](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/Firefox/Releases/29)

~~~
angersock
_" Added the console API to Web Workers (bug 620935). Now you can log messages
to the Web Console from Web Workers."_

About bloody time. Does anyone know why that wasn't the case from the get-go?

~~~
asutherland
Originally, exposure of APIs to JS was done using the XPConnect JS/XPCOM
bridge in Firefox. Simplifying a little, XPConnect is not thread-safe, so
exposing APIs to workers required manually writing code using the SpiderMonkey
JS API. This was done in an ad-hoc fashion for a while. Additionally,
XPConnect allowed JS code to be written to expose functionality to content on
the main thread, but was basically a non-starter on the worker thread because
of the lack of XPConnect. (Simplifying slightly again, XPConnect also provided
required security protections.)

Between having to write thread-safe code and custom JS exposure, the overhead
could be significant. This has now been greatly improved through the use of
automatically generated WebIDL bindings, although C++ is still used and
threading issues do have to be dealt with (usually by remoting a runnable to
the main thread), so worker versions of an API still aren't free.

New Web APIs implemented by the platform team should usually be designed from
the ground-up for worker exposure and have worker support land soon-after or
at the same time as the main-thread support. Experimental APIs related to
Firefox OS and developed by Firefox OS Gaia teams are more likely to be
prototypes implemented in JS for rapid prototyping and will need another rev
before they can be exposed to workers. This last bit frequently happens as
part of an effort to standardize the API informed by the prototype.

Links for context: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/Tech/XPCOM/...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/Tech/XPCOM/Language_bindings/XPConnect)
[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/WebIDL_bind...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/WebIDL_bindings)

~~~
angersock
Thank you very much for your explanation!

We ended up writing a goofy little console.log() replacement that sent
messages back to the main UI thread for processing and logging, but that kind
of thunking is a might-bit janky.

~~~
bzbarsky
The console.log exposed to workers just sends the messages to the UI thread
for logging...

~~~
angersock
I forget whether the workaround was done for Firefox or Chrome...I remember
hitting it in one or the other, and putting in the workaround for both.

On a related note, transferable objects are handled a bit differently between
IE, FF, and Chrome. Some are a bit stricter than others.

~~~
bzbarsky
That's not surprising, but annoying. Please do file bugs as needed; the spec
is generally pretty clear about how things should work here, so if browsers
don't agree one of them is just buggy.

------
NathanKP
Overall I love the redesign, but I wish they would have compacted the top
chrome a bit so it matches the height of other major browsers. Firefox has
slightly taller chrome for no good reason, as seen in this picture:

[http://i.imgur.com/BlPRitn.png](http://i.imgur.com/BlPRitn.png)

When I'm doing cross browser development I want my stuff to line up in all
three browsers.

At least Firefox no longer has the heaviest browser chrome. Safari wins that
dubious distinction now by keeping the tabs below the address bar.

I also noticed that Firefox finally added a better option to disable cache for
one tab which will be very useful while developing:

[http://i.imgur.com/Nc5eamq.png](http://i.imgur.com/Nc5eamq.png)

It's still not as good as Chrome's ability to automatically disable cache
while devtools are open, but its way better than what I had to do before,
which was override the automatic cache management settings to limit cache to 0
MB of diskspace.

~~~
gcommer
If you want to shrink the top chrome, you can right click on it (getting the
menu to choose toolbars), hit customize, then check "Use small icons". With
this option, FF is thinner than chrome both fullscreen and floating.

Edit: Actually, just updated and it looks like they got rid of that...

~~~
NathanKP
The "Use small icons" option used to be there, but I don't see it anymore. I
think that they removed it.

~~~
gcommer
Yeah, they did. But you can get it back with Classic Theme Restorer[1], which
has the "Small buttons on navigation toolbar" option.

[1] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/)

~~~
barrkel
Beware this extension. I installed it and it broke the Customize feature
completely, even after uninstalling it.

~~~
barrkel
Disregard this. Update:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7676747](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7676747)

------
INTPenis
Am I the only one who's not comfortable with the fact that the "whatsnew"[1]
page can activate my browsers menu with Javascript?

[1] [https://www.mozilla.org/sv-
SE/firefox/29.0/whatsnew/?oldvers...](https://www.mozilla.org/sv-
SE/firefox/29.0/whatsnew/?oldversion=28.0)

~~~
lucb1e
I don't think any page can do that. Probably something built into the browser
specifically for this page, identified by the domain or something.

~~~
gulbrandr
It seems so:

[http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-
central/source/browser/app/pr...](http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-
central/source/browser/app/profile/firefox.js#254)

~~~
abus
Strangely if you erase or change the value of that preference, it still runs.
Does that mean it's checking something else?

~~~
mnoorenberghe
Hello, I'm one of the developers of the tour module on the Firefox team. The
whitelist preference adds the whitelisted domains to the permission database
when the application is upgrade to today's released (version 29) so changing
the preference doesn't change the domains already whitelisted. You can disable
the feature using the browser.uitour.enabled if for some reason this feature
bothers you. Note that is also requires HTTPS for the whitelist domains too.

------
Too
* Where is the "use small icons" option? This should be priority #1 to fix.

* Can't double click top left corner to close on windows.

* How do i get to the hamburger menu with only my keyboard?

* If my mum accidentally removes something from the hamburger menu, like options, and one day i have to guide her to that option over the phone there are like hundreds of steps to go through. First i have to figure out if she actually is looking at the right menu, then i have to figure out if she actually has the icon on her menu or not. When that is done i have to guide her to the customize menu, then pull the icon back, close the customizer, open the menu again and then click the icon. These steps will all be different depending on how your mum customized the menu. Previously i could just tell her click the top left menu and go to add-ons. There is no standard path to follow (except the alt-key, down-key keyboard fallback still using the old menus from version 3). The hamburger menu should be a shortcut for your favorites, not the only way to find an option. Seriously, it's __as if Windows forced you to add a control panel shortcut on the start menu before you can access your network settings __. This is trying too hard to be too user "friendly".

* How do i find the dropdown menus for my add-ons? Seem like the only path to get there is again to use the hidden alt, down keyboard fallback and then go to tools.

------
WizzleKake
The incessant rearrangement of the UI is why I switched to Chrome. Each time
they change the interface, it is unclear to me what the benefit is to the
user.

I was fine with Firefox when it looked like this:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mozilla_Firefox_3.5.png](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mozilla_Firefox_3.5.png)

~~~
davexunit
Speaking of things that don't benefit the user, Chrome is proprietary software
(dare I say spyware) that sends your keystrokes to Google. I think Firefox's
frequent UI changes pale in comparison.

~~~
chris_wot
Turn off search suggestions.

~~~
davexunit
I don't use Chrome, but from what I recall it's not that simple. Better to use
Chromium instead of Chrome.

~~~
chris_wot
I believe it is that simple. If you can find them sending your keystrokes
through any other means, then please download Fiddler and write a blog article
with the results of your testing :-)

~~~
davexunit
Fiddler is proprietary software. Just like I won't use Chrome, I won't use
Fiddler either.

~~~
chris_wot
Then use Wireshark then. Sheesh.

------
nhebb
I like it. There are a few changes that I will need to get used to, but in a
few weeks I doubt I'll notice the difference.

One thing that I think FF doesn't get enough credit for is how efficiently it
runs these days. I prefer Chrome's developer tools, but for browsing, FF gets
my vote.

~~~
nnethercote
> There are a few changes that I will need to get used to, but in a few weeks
> I doubt I'll notice the difference.

I wish people would take this attitude more often.

------
thiht
I liked the screenshots but I really don't like using it...

* it's no longer possible to open a new tab by double-clicking in the tabs bar, seriously guys...

* I really liked the Ctrl + / status bar, I used it to drop my add-ons icons, it didn't use much space and I was able to use them whenever I wanted, now I can't do this anymore (except if I overload the top bars with icons I use... say once a week ?) // EDIT: I just figured out I can use the sandwich menu to do this, that's pretty cool

* it's not possible anymore to move the refresh button... WHY ? I loved it on the left with the previous/forward buttons, why would it be in the URL bar ?

* and it seems it's no longer possible to add a button to show the bookmarks (Ctrl+b), there's only this awful double button with "add fav" and this useless menu.

It's beautiful but lacks a lot of customizations that were possible before...
I'm really considering switching to another browser (maybe Opera ?)

------
habosa
I think it's beautiful. I can't explain exactly what I like (I'm not much of a
designer) but I can say that I now find it more visually appealing than
Chrome. The only reason I'm staying on Chrome is because of a few extensions
and because it syncs so well with my Android phone.

I think there is a lot of hate here with the tone "I liked it the old way
because I was used to it!". New designs change things, that's why they're new.
If we didn't ever want anything to change, we'd still be looking at this every
day:

[http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-old-new-
design-2007.png](http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-old-new-design-2007.png)

And just like the old Firefox design, that has more features up front and
almost everything today's version has. But I'm glad I see this instead
[http://cl.ly/image/2d3a0c2h1Z2R](http://cl.ly/image/2d3a0c2h1Z2R).

Maybe I'm an idiot, or not a power user. But I like pretty things and I
appreciate Mozilla's effort here. I'll be using Firefox more often.

~~~
tagawa
Interesting to hear that extensions are your reason for sticking with Chrome.
What sort of addons do you find lacking in Firefox?

~~~
habosa
Not too many critical extensions, but a few: Motorola Connect, Google
Hangouts, and Hacker News Enhancement Suite.

The real reason I stick with Chrome is because it works so well with my Google
accounts and syncs everything I do to my phone.

I could partially move to Firefox if I could find a good way to do bi-
directional bookmarks sync between the browsers. I tried XMarks but it would
totally fuck up all of my Chrome bookmarks once in a while.

~~~
tagawa
Thanks. I'm also looking into bookmark sync. They have Firefox Sync (
[https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/sync/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/sync/) ) but I haven't tried it out yet.

~~~
limpangel
I have been using Sync ever since it was introduced in FF(4 I think?!?) and I
have to say it worked really well for me.

Not only does it sync your usual suspects bookmarks/passwords/history, but it
also syncs your installed addons and their settings (if supported). For
example it syncs AdBlockPlus's list of whitelisted websites.

Another neat Sync feature is the possibility of seeing the open tabs on all
your synced devices. For example I am looking right now on my phone and I can
see the add HN comment tab in the mobile version of FF (Android).

On top of that the Sync server is open source so basically you could deploy it
yourself if you have privacy concerns, although your data is encrypted before
it is uploaded to the server anyway.

------
Tenoke
This is just one anecdote but on my (currently) somewhat slow computer at
work, the new Firefox is noticeably faster. This is under Windows.

Additionally, I am not sure about the new UI yet, but I probably wouldn't care
about the changes after I get used to them.

~~~
untilHellbanned
I agree. Chrome won because it was faster. Now that Chrome is slow and Firefox
is seemingly faster, I'm thinking of switching back. I'm on Mac OSX 10.7.5.

------
sergiotapia
Firefox team, thank you for another great release!

* I just tried and your developer tools don't cause the tab to freeze for 1 second every time I switched into the tab.

* Wanted to see the addons I had, clicked the menu > nice icon that said Add-ons - massive UX win.

I feel at home with this browser. You stand up for privacy and for that you
deserve so much more praise than you get. I'm switching to Firefox and see how
it goes. The only thing keeping me on Chrome are the Dev Tools, and I want to
give Firefox another try.

~~~
mnemonik
_> I just tried and your developer tools don't cause the tab to freeze for 1
second every time I switched into the tab._

Can you give steps to reproduce and a test case? Which panel do you have
active? What URL are you on?

~~~
sergiotapia
I'm not sure if you're part of the Firefox team, but either way sorry I don't
remember exactly the circumstances. But it was on Firefox 27 - Mac OSX 10.8 -
any page.

Any page that had the dev tools open froze for about 1 to 2 seconds when
switching back to it.

~~~
mnemonik
Want to try on the latest release? I can't reproduce with Release (29) or
Nightly (32) on 10.9. If you can give some solid STR and a test case we can
investigate further, but as it is now, this isn't very actionable from our end
:-/

~~~
sergiotapia
Just tried and there is -ZERO- lag. I'm tremendously happy and the dev tools
are white now!

20 tabs, each with it's dev tools open. Zero lags! I'm in love.

~~~
mnemonik
:D

We have a light and dark theme; you can toggle back and forth via the options
panel (the little cog sprocket thing top left)

------
acqq
I expect that this release will mark the point of rapid decrease of Firefox
usage. Lets wait a few months and see. Such UI changes are. The best way to
irritate the users who actually used the browser and got used to the placement
of the controls. It seems as the designers themselves at the same time used
Google's Chrome and now "unified" their own experience. Well at least now they
removed some reasons for users to not switch to Google's browser.

------
shmerl
About Australis:

Good:

* Menu bar is hidden by default on Linux and can be opened with Alt (that didn't work before).

Bad:

* Menu ("Firefox") button is still not movable for no obvious reason.

* Reload/Stop button is now forced to be in the URL bar (before users had a choice where to place it). That's pretty annoying, it's very uncomfortable when Back/Forward and Reload buttons are so far apart.

* Bookmarks button is now outside the URL bar and looks bulky.

~~~
DSMan195276
I felt the same. I recommend you grab Classic Theme Restorer. I'm not sure how
to modify the URL bar (Which is the issue with the bookmarks and reload
button), but the add-on will allow you to move the menu and adjust other
various settings.

~~~
shmerl
Thanks, that's much better. Now I just need to figure out how to reduce space
between toolbar buttons (it's way too wide). Startup time with this add-on is
pretty long though.

~~~
DSMan195276
I didn't notice any start-time issues, but I only have Firefox 29 currently
installed on a higher-end laptop so that might be part of it. I'll be
interested to see how this fairs when I put 29 on a netbook that I have (Intel
Atom, single core).

I had the same gripe you did, if you grab 'classic toolbar buttons', it'll
give you the smaller layout with the 'enable small buttons' option on.

~~~
shmerl
It looks like startup time problems weren't caused by that add-on, so you can
ignore that remark.

------
brianstorms
I've always had a bookmarks bar of single and double letters, like R for
Reddit, Y for YCombinator, F for Facebook, $ for stocks, etc. Now with FF29 I
have these blasted file folder icons next to each of my little codes,
cluttering up the whole bookmarks bar.

I can't find any way of getting rid of the file folders -- not even thru
Customize. Anyone found a way?

~~~
kbrosnan
Inspect the Firefox chrome and set the class of the folder to display: none
using userChrome.css

chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome.css](http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome.css)

------
sehugg
I like it so far. Seems pretty responsive.

Firefox 28 had been crashing at least once a day for me (which is rare, I
didn't have any crash logs since 2011) so I'm hoping they squashed whatever
bug was causing that.

------
reidrac
Gamepad API enabled! Cool! I used that API with Chrome, shame the browser
prefix... my old games* won't work with Firefox without changing the source
code :(

* eg [http://www.usebox.net/jjm/alien-gamma/play.html](http://www.usebox.net/jjm/alien-gamma/play.html)

------
billiam
Um, just wondering how people feel about actually using FF 29, rather than
talking about what it isn't? A really great browser is being obscured by a
bikeshed.

tl;dr It's awesome.

~~~
wahsd
Agree that it is really good. I think Chrome has gotten all the cool kids'
attention without them having a respect and understanding for the mission and
value of Mozilla and Firefox. That being said, Mozilla and Firefox could
probably do a bit of a better job at selling themselves and their features.

I am not sure what you mean by a bike shed, but it's now a pretty nice bike
shed, no?

~~~
function_seven
I believe he's referring to Parkinson's Law of Triviality
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality))

------
higherpurpose
Can Firefox get a sandbox for tabs already? It may be the more privacy-
friendly browser, but it's far from being the most secure, it seems, and
that's mainly because of its lack of a sandbox:

[http://www.extremetech.com/computing/178587-firefox-is-
still...](http://www.extremetech.com/computing/178587-firefox-is-still-the-
least-secure-web-browser-falls-to-four-zero-day-exploits-at-pwn2own)

~~~
agapos
Tab sandboxing is planned to be part of the ongoing e10s (Electrolysis).

------
Geee
They still haven't get rid of the checking updates for add-ons dialog. Damn I
hate that.

~~~
insertnickname
Yeah, it's a huge pain having to wait a few seconds every six weeks.

~~~
noir_lord
Indeed over a lifetime (of 78 years) waiting 3 seconds for updates every 6
weeks wastes 33m48s, that is nearly 3 cappuccino's!.

------
Narretz
the only question: will tree style tabs work as before?

~~~
potch
Yes, we made extra sure this add-on got updated. Lots of TST users at Mozilla
:)

~~~
maxerickson
Do I have to install an add on to get narrow tabs?

This is like the 3rd or 4th time that minimum tab width settings have been
changed. I understand the motivation to change the experience for the typical
user. I don't understand the constant churn in what is customizable. If I
customized the location of the reload/stop button last time it was moved, is
the thought really that I won't want to this time?

I guess there is some argument about the amount of code that needs to be
maintained, but if things go the way they go, there will be incremental
changes for a year or 2 now, and then a big jarring shift to the new thing
that is more fashionable.

~~~
sp332
You could use the Custom Tab Width extension [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/custom-tab-wi...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/custom-tab-width/) Or, you could make a UserChrome.css file
in your profile directory and put this in it (edited):

    
    
      /*
       * Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning
       */
      @namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* set default namespace to XUL */
    
      .tabbrowser-tab:not([pinned]) {
        max-width: 250px !important;
        min-width: 100px !important;
      }
      .tabbrowser-tab:not([fadein]) {
        max-width: 1px !important;
        min-width: 1px !important;
        max-width: 1px;
        min-width: 1px;
      }
    

From
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=574654](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=574654)

~~~
maxerickson
As it turns out, I have that, I didn't consider that I was in safe mode when I
posted the complaint.

------
Nux
[https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/all/) \- Halleluya! Finally the 64bit builds for Linux are listed.

Every god damn time I had to install I had to go in ftp.mozilla.org ...

About 5 years late, but better than never. :-)

~~~
shmerl
Yeah, that always surprised me. 64 bit Linux builds are available for a long
time already.

------
666c6f
I really don't like the new UI. I miss the good old menu bar on top of the
screen and i don't understand why firefox is trying to copy chrome :/. I wish
there were an alternative to firefox and chrome, s it looks today I don't want
to use either of them.

~~~
wila
You can customize most of the parts on what you like or don't like about the
new UI with this addon:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/)

------
dom96
I must say I am impressed. When I saw the screenshots of the new UI I thought
that I would not like it but now that it's finally landed in stable I find it
really nice. I was afraid that the new tabs would behave too much like
Chrome's (when a lot of tabs are present they all become smaller), I'm glad
this is not the case. I also think that making only the selected tab curved
and keeping the rest a straight shape was a good call.

Apart from the UI changes I noticed that memory usage went down considerably.
But we'll see how it behaves after some prolonged usage.

The one weird thing I noticed was that my bookmarks are gone. I'm not sure if
this happened in this release, or some previous one, or whether I accidentally
deleted them somehow.

------
mhitza
Without the contrasting tabs, 29 looks worse. Compare

28 [http://i.imgur.com/FcqNtmj.png](http://i.imgur.com/FcqNtmj.png)

29 [http://i.imgur.com/MIMG0s8.png](http://i.imgur.com/MIMG0s8.png)

------
conradfr
I always thought I would dislike the tabs. Well after upgrading, I was right.
Congrats, you succeeded to make them uglier than Chrome's.

I'm even surprised I hate the non-active tabs more than the active one.

Sorry about the rant.

------
pjmlp
Already using it.

I am impressed with the updated supported on the developer tools, although
Chrome DevTools still wins in tooling.

~~~
sawrubh
Any particular feature you would like, that is missing?

~~~
pjmlp
\- The whole resources view

\- JavaScript profiling (heap, cpu, events)

\- DOM events monitoring and breakpoints.

\- JavaScript code completion

~~~
danford
> \- The whole resources view

I'm not sure what the exact criticism is here.

> \- JavaScript profiling (heap, cpu, events)

is this what you mean?

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Tools/Profiler](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Tools/Profiler)

> \- DOM events monitoring and breakpoints.

You can do this now (at least in nightly)

> \- JavaScript code completion

Works in the JS console.

~~~
pjmlp
> > \- The whole resources view

> I'm not sure what the exact criticism is here.

How can I see the whole data available to the browser in FF, similar to
ChromeDev Tools

[https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-
tools/docs/re...](https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-
tools/docs/resource-panel)

> \- DOM events monitoring and breakpoints.

> You can do this now (at least in nightly)

Cannot install nightly versions on customers. Good to know it is coming,
though.

> > \- JavaScript code completion

> Works in the JS console.

But not yet on the Scratchpad, unless I am missing something.

~~~
danford
>How can I see the whole data available to the browser in FF, similar to
ChromeDev Tools

It's a lot different than what chrome does, but I believe they're integrating
the resources with the network tab: (scroll to the bottom where the pie charts
are.)

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Tools/Network_Monit...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Tools/Network_Monitor)

> Cannot install nightly versions on customers

Do your customers develop web pages? If so why are they paying you to install
a browser?

>But not yet on the Scratchpad

This appears to be true.

~~~
pjmlp
> It's a lot different than what chrome does, but I believe they're
> integrating the resources with the network tab: (scroll to the bottom where
> the pie charts are.)

Thanks for the link. What about IndexDB, Web SQL and Local Storage?

> Do your customers develop web pages? If so why are they paying you to
> install a browser?

They surely do. My employer does Fortune 500 consulting and many times we get
to use what their IT allows us to.

~~~
bgrins
> Thanks for the link. What about IndexDB, Web SQL and Local Storage?

Not yet, but a storage inspector panel is being worked on:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970517](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=970517)

------
denzil_correa
The birth year (while signing up for Sync) is a neat feature. It doesn't ask
your exact date of birth but only the year. Further, it doesn't ask for your
DOB if you are born 1990 or earlier.

------
ninkendo
In the screenshot, they misspelled Mozilla as "Mozila" in the tab title. (At
least on OSX... maybe they tailor the screenshot depending on your user
agent.)

~~~
hoosteeno
I filed a bug for it here:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1003389](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1003389)

------
Gracana
Hmm, I think the separators between tabs in the new tab bar are too subtle,
and overall it is too dark. The curved appearance of the selected tab also
seems out of place.

edit: also, transparent elements with text on them? Noo! Maybe I am just
sensitive.. I don't have the best eyesight, and I don't have the best
monitors. In any case, I am thankful for Classic Theme Restorer, which someone
mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

~~~
lurkinggrue
What I find weird about the design is the idea of "Getting the other tabs out
of the way" idea. I don't care about the selected tab as I can see what page
it it. When I go looking for another tab to go to they make it harder to read!
The hell?

~~~
Gracana
That's a very good point. I wonder if that design decision came from user
studies, and if so I wonder if the study was flawed, because I can't identify
with that need at all.

------
inglondon
Just made the switch from Chrome to Firefox. I noticed that even on a high-end
Macbook Pro, when I opened a large amount of tabs in quick succession Chrome
would lag intolerably. It did so on earlier releases of Firefox but I just
tried on 29 and it opened 40+ tabs with without a hick-up. Very pleased indeed

Edit: I just noticed that the text selection now works as it does in text
editors with blinking cursor and all. Great feature!

~~~
mook
The text selection thing probably means you turned on caret browsing; press F7
to turn it off again if you need to. That's been there ~forever (like, Firefox
1.0 or earlier).

------
chunkstuntman
Had to revert back to 28 to mitigate UI issues caused by Pentadactyl in the
new update. I'm not sure I'm going to be missing much in 29.

~~~
binaryapparatus
Some issues here too. Can't temporarily show address bar and I need it to
access lastpass, there is weird horizontal line near the top etc.

How did you revert back? Is there some interface option or I have to dig out
old download?

~~~
chunkstuntman
A quick google search turned up a support page with a "Directory of other
versions and languages" link

[https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/](https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/)

------
rschmitty
Anyone know how to "tighten up" the spacing between icons?

[http://imgur.com/YYmEuED](http://imgur.com/YYmEuED)

~~~
xmonkee
And does anyone know how can I make the bookmark bar a bit thinner?

------
BrownBuffalo
Just a question, but why is the interation cycle so extreme with Mozilla?
Version 29? What is so different from version 3.x.x ... where we had normal
interations I could wrap my head around. The whole number upgrades are insane.
I know its such a simple thing, but trying to relate with software interation
steps on such a fast moving number, just is mind boggling.

~~~
3rd3
Because of Chrome:
[http://krzysiu.net/misc/history_version_numbers_internet_bro...](http://krzysiu.net/misc/history_version_numbers_internet_browsers)

I think it's a marketing strategy to convey active development.

~~~
3rd3
Another possibility might be usability, since whole numbers are easier to deal
with than longer version names. Otherwise, I find Paul-ish’s theory above the
most plausible one.

------
Siecje
The area above the is too large, takes up too much space.

When you hover over the close button ('x') on a tab the red outline is square
and looks weird on the rounded tab. Why not make the outline rounded or make
the 'x' bold on mouseover.

Why use the hamburger icon and not the Firefox logo or the old Firefox button
(and keep it on the left side)?

------
alinspired
While I love firefox, the new UI is too much for me and
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/) came to the rescue

------
fiendsan
the lack of options is what kills me, also the UI is filled with clear design
flaws, and i still need an addon-bar, now i have to use even more add-ons just
to make it work like it used to... ohh but we still have the weak performance,
thats far from a priority...

------
sebnukem2
Now, how to get rid of those fugly rounded fat tabs?

A: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/)

------
dale-cooper
I really want to like firefox, but it is just so much slower/unresponsive than
chrome. Is this something specific to my setup? I tried this new version out
on a clean profile and compared it to chrome:
[http://fixme.se/pub/chrome_vs_ff.flv](http://fixme.se/pub/chrome_vs_ff.flv)

I searched a bit and found this bug:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=924411](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=924411)
Nothing seems to have happened though, and google maps is far from the only
example..

~~~
m_gloeckl
Vanilla Google Maps is not a lot slower on Firefox than on Chrome for me, but
third party apps that build upon GMaps, like Garmin Connect (Running / Biking
tracking tool for Garmin GPS watches) are definitely much slower and less
responsive for me on Firefox than on Chrome.

~~~
zobzu
same i noticed that switching the UA to chrome on ff made those fast.. until
they switched everything to webgl, now that trick doesnt work no more

------
habosa
Not super relevant to the design, but does anyone know which browser (Chrome
or Firefox) uses less memory on a Mac these days? Not talking about base
footprint, but let's say I have 25 tabs open. Chrome uses ~100MB per tab, more
for long-running tabs with a lot going on like GMail. Seems totally insane to
me, a website that's not a complicated web app should have a tiny memory
footprint. If Firefox could significantly improve this I'd move.

~~~
rmccue
I currently have 62 tabs open (in this tab group; more in the background, but
they're not loaded), and Firefox is using 1.41 GB, which is ~23 MB/tab. That
also includes a bunch of videos, pictures and Flash.

~~~
habosa
That's definitely lower than Chrome.

------
lucb1e
Been using it for a few hours now. I hear a lot of complaints about the
address bar having gotten bigger by a whole 10 pixels and the addons bar being
gone, but honestly I think it's a great update. On a full hd screen I can't be
bothered by the 1.1% increase in height and the addons bar has only annoyed
me. Actually, it's a bit ironic to complain about 10px while at the same time
complaining about an entire toolbar having disappeared.

~~~
chr1
It's not ironic at all. People are complaining about adding 10 useless pixels,
and about removing a feature they were using, only to save 15 pixels. Many
people liked addon bar, which was hidden by default anyway.

~~~
lucb1e
> which was hidden by default anyway

Until you installed an add-on. Or like me, a dozen.

------
edoloughlin
I use vimperator and had the location/search bar disabled/removed until now.
It looks like I can no longer do that and have to have them visible. <Sigh>

EDIT: I just found the Classic Theme Restorer add-on
([https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/)) which lets me have the best of both
wolds. <Yay>

------
twodayslate
Related HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7664837](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7664837)

------
tiziano88
Woah, the download size is 56MB for the OSX version! I'm curious to what
accounts for the big size, is it assets or actual executable code?

~~~
mbrubeck
It's a fat binary; it includes both 32-bit and 64-bit compiled code. Normally
only the 64-bit code is used, but it can restart in 32-bit mode for
compatibility with legacy plug-ins.

------
wahsd
I kind of wish they would focus on building out the bookmark functionality
with some easier workflow, e.g., fixing functionality issues like only being
able to accept auto-complete suggestions in tags with the right arrow keyboard
button.

I definitely think bookmarks are highly undervalued. To a certain extent, I
think curated and cultivated bookmarks even have monetary value.

------
truncate
First look. Like the new access menu. I was hoping that they would make
history and bookmarks in new tabs instead of windows.

~~~
fournm
If I remember right, this is an (optional) potential setting on the UI
roadmap.

------
berkut
Odd - I'm using Firefox 24, and I get "Congrats! You’re using the latest
version of Firefox" printed.

~~~
mahouse
Is that on Linux? You only get what your distro gives to you.

~~~
cookiecaper
Depends on the distro. Firefox reports that I'm behind on ArchLinux with
Firefox 28. I don't know if that's a thing that Mozilla has worked out with
some big vendors or if they've just patched it to always pretend to be
healthy.

I've never been a big fan of distro meddling, which is a reason I've been an
Arch loyalist for workstation Linux since 2007.

------
kennywinker
On an iOS device this page informs me firefox isn't available for iOS. There
is no link to view the contents of the page, so I'm locked out of finding out
what's new in Firefox 29 until I'm off mobile. Consider adding a "full site"
link, or a "view desktop version" link.

~~~
hoosteeno
iOS users can read about Firefox here: [https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/desktop/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/desktop/)

A bug to make this easier for iOS users filed here:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1003379](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1003379)

------
SkyMarshal
Fwiw I've been using Aurora (Firefox 30) Beta full time on OS X for the past
few weeks, and it's more stable than Chrome under my tab & memory-abusing ways
(20 browser windows open, god knows how many tabs, 4 Haswell cores and 8GB
memory available). Great work Mozilla.

------
randallsquared
With all the UI hate, I guess I'm lucky that F29 didn't break Side-Tabs, my
favorite addon ever. It does look weird, though, to have the nicely rendered
foldertab graphic for only one tab, and with nothing around it to continue the
metaphor.

------
talles
Sorry, I know isn't that interesting or constructive but I have to say: in UX
terms, Firefox just NAILED IT.

I have used for just a short term (a whole day) and I probably gonna find this
or that to dislike. But so far I'm in love with it.

------
ldng
Where is the reopen last closed tab menu entry ? VERY helpful when you close
an old tab inadvertently ! And no, the history does not cut it if a don't
remember the tab content and/or if it's one or two day old ...

~~~
ahoge
Press Alt -> History -> Recently Closed Tabs

The one at the very top (with "Ctrl+Shift+T" next to it) is the most recently
closed one.

You can of course also just use that shortcut.

~~~
ldng
Great ! Many thanks for the tips.

------
Fuxy
Well it's ok however i have a few issues with it.

1\. Support for it in most themes is non existent so no more dark themes until
they update

2\. The Open menu button cannot be moved (Wanted to move it back to the left
where the old firefox button used to be)

------
rexreed
I love Firefox, but gosh - when I have many tabs and windows open it's a major
memory hog. Maybe all browsers are like that, but it feel particularly worse
on Firefox, despite all their efforts to fix memory leak issues.

~~~
sp332
Compared to what, IE? Memory leaks are about memory being left claimed when
isn't actually used. It doesn't just mean using more memory than you think it
ought to.

------
hit8run
My Clean Firefox 29 Install (upgrade from beta) has one single bar:

[https://twitter.com/tschundeee/status/457986734324580352](https://twitter.com/tschundeee/status/457986734324580352)

~~~
grandpoobah
You can put the search bar back in using the menu customize option - as for
why it's missing in the first place.. dunno

------
noisy_boy
One of the first things I notice after installing, the text on the Gmail
buttons is blank (I can see the button outline but can't see the text so I
have to rely on the tooltips). Kind of a deal-breaker.

~~~
noisy_boy
Replying to myself as it was my mistake: the toggle images option was turned
ON. Turning it off, fixed the problem.

------
homulilly
Overall I like the new UI but it doesn't play well with custom themes on
windows 7. There's a weird cutout where the window controls are that doesn't
adjust to different sized controls.

------
electrotype
One mini complaint about the new customization : It's not possible anymore to
place the URL input on the menu bar.

Because of that, I have to display both bars (I like to see the menu).

Otherwise : good job Firefox team!

------
BuckRogers
I was very happy with the way Firefox was before, and this is definitely an
improvement. Gotta say, bravo to Mozilla on this one. I love the changes and
customization.. much better UI.

------
erikpukinskis
I feel like Mozilla's UIs always look amazing in the high-res vector mockups
they post, but at 1x resolution they just look sloppy. Maybe I just need a 2x
resolution display!

------
mech4bg
Looks like Firefox is still incredibly laggy on a 13" MBP Retina, which is a
shame. Safari runs perfectly, so I wonder what the issue is.

~~~
walid
Most likely it is your extensions. I have the same issues when I load one
particular extension which I can't live without. Unfortunately Firefox's major
weakness is its major strength.

~~~
mech4bg
No extensions installed here unfortunately.

------
ape4
<input type="color"> could be handy

~~~
dukerutledge
yes, but fuck me why won't the implement type="date"

~~~
bzbarsky
In brief because it needs some UI design work that hasn't happened yet. Except
on FirefoxOS, where it has happened and date inputs are enabled.

------
wildmXranat
I just updated and it looks fantastic. The esthetic and functional changes are
great

------
benaston
Open new tab. The recent sites are displayed. Enter a url and hit return. The
website is displayed. Now try and click the back button to return to the
recent sites list... You can't, the back button is disabled. Despite the
profession of attention to detail this speaks otherwise.

------
dsrikanth
one feature that I like is the "Tab Groups" \- I can organize my open tabs
into groups and only open the group I want. Comes with a tab search
functionality too..

------
friendzis
I tried it: [http://imgur.com/lO7Rmxd](http://imgur.com/lO7Rmxd)

------
vjdhama
I just love it.

------
e1dwqscdasd
Firefox RIP 29.04.2014

Sorry but i try and this is shit, chrome,opera look better

Digg Killed Digg

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Why's it matter what it looks like, it's literally a few tabs and an address
bar to wrap around your webpages. Does it function well?

~~~
e1dwqscdasd
nope, check on windows 8 or XP + Menu Bar and grey theme

------
TazeTSchnitzel
Oh hey, I up- MY EYES! This new UI!... it's certainly a change.

~~~
Touche
Just a note that you can restore the look if you prefer the square tabs:
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/)

~~~
nix1
Why I do have to install an addon, which restores something, what IMO everyone
on this thread and probably most people out there would love having as native?
Namely not flat-design visually easy to parse tabs! Any occurence of flat-
design stuff on software, which is used day by day, was and is awkward,
because it causes displeasure and it is more time- and eye-consuming.

------
JimmaDaRustla
I shouted out "Oh, it's pretty!"

As a masculine, 29 year old male...I felt pretty awkward in my own skin.

~~~
jbeja
Rolling my eyes!

------
puppetmaster3
Are we using or boycotting FF?

------
super_mario
Fucking idiotic morons. Completely ruining what used to be a good browser.
I've had enough of this shit. Every single updated has to fuck up my
Pentadactyl experience. That's it. I give up. If I can't use Pentadactyl, I
have 0 reason to use Firefox. Goodbye. I'm removing it from all my computers
and never looking back.

~~~
fournm
I use Pentadactyl with it just fine in the Aurora channel and have since it
first landed.

Part of the problem, though, is that the guys at Pentadactyl messed with
userChrome.css as part of the newest pentadactyl builds, which causes a TON of
issues with other addons (especially anything that adds a toolbar). Vimperator
doesn't do it, but ew Vimperator, so.

~~~
wyclif
There needs to be a solution for people who want a solid Pentadactyl/Firefox
instead of the newest version of FF breaking a lot of functionality.

~~~
SilasX
Definitely. I assumed it was an issue of the sites not maintaining good user
interfaces, but that excuse doesn't work when every FF update breaks
pentadactyl's ability to select search fields on Google...

------
davidcollantes
I have not downloaded it, so forgive me if it is there and I don't see it.
Still no omnibar? Why a separated dedicated search field?

~~~
espadrine
"Omnibar" is how Chrome calls it. "Awesome bar" is the name Firefox had given
its own, even before then.

The main difference is that the Omnibar logs all your keystrokes to Google's
servers. The Awesome bar searches through the data it already has locally
(bookmarks, history, open tabs), and it makes a Google search if the data you
entered isn't a URL. Not logging your keystrokes is a privacy feature. On the
other hand, the dedicated search field does, and that's its feature.

I personally can't see the difference in usage between the Omnibar and the
Awesome bar, apart from the fact that the search suggestions make more sense
in the Awesome bar, since it only uses my past searches. Follow my advice: use
the brand new interface customization UX and remove the dedicated search
field.

~~~
renox
Note that you can't remove reliably the suggestions from the Omnibar bar, used
an "embarrassing" website in non-anonymous mode? Too bad for you, because your
wife can see the suggestion..

~~~
nullc
Highlight the suggestion and hit delete. This works reliably for me. This was
basically the only awesomebar behavior I didn't like, it became much more
usable for me after that... not even embarrassing sites: I'd typo a URL and
awesomebar would help me typo it forever more.

I wish the delete feature were more discoverable, however.

~~~
renox
Yes, I've read this tips many times, but it still doesn't work..

------
sidcool
Some of the UI ideas are borrowed from Chrome. I like the UI.

------
jmacd
This is sad. Firefox has been reduced to playing catch-up on UI and struggling
to get to parity with Chrome on features. The vision is dead.

Perhaps Mozilla needs to move on from web browsers? Perhaps their work is
done, or the torch needs to be taken up by someone who can lead again.

I'm not sure what's in store for Mozilla, but if it's just a Chrome skin on a
Mozilla rendering engine, then I don't think it's good.

