

Firefox 4.0: New Design Changes Revealed - iiijjjiii
http://mashable.com/2009/12/22/firefox-4-mockups/

======
rlm
Non-linkjacked: [http://blog.stephenhorlander.com/2009/12/21/windows-
themeui-...](http://blog.stephenhorlander.com/2009/12/21/windows-themeui-
update/) (which I submitted earlier:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1007484>)

~~~
tengkahwee
Mashable doesn't seem to enjoy giving others credit. The only link to the
author is just a tiny link with the word "share". Even the name isn't
mentioned. The original author deserves more than that.

~~~
Mystalic
I'm sorry about that. I've added a [via] tag at the bottom and expanded the
link text to make sure credit is given where it is due.

\- Ben (Co-Editor)

~~~
pavs
Thanks for this. I was about to write a comment dissing Mashable for this.

Also, please consider doing it more often. Mashable rarely links to the
original source (if at all), many times I have to Google to get more
information; an extra step that can be easily avoided. Its in good form to
link the original source.

~~~
Mystalic
We link regularly to the original source, I'm sorry if it's not as visible,
but I assure you we do regularly. The exception are ones coming in the form of
company announcements, but even then we often link back to their blog posts.

I'll try to make it more visible in the future.

~~~
pavs
OK, I should have said "from my experience". That was my experience most of
the time when I was subscribed to mashable RSS, most of the time posts were
deep linked to more mashable posts, instead of original source. It was a quite
bit frustrating.

Anyways, I just checked the last couple of post you guys had they all seem to
link to the source. The fact that you come here to reply to readers opinions,
clearly means you guys care. That's good enough for me.

Thanks.

------
d0m
Do you remember in the comics of chrome, they said they were doing it to help
other browsers. They also said they'd really like to have their ideas borrowed
to make the web a better place.

~~~
treyp
which parts are so Chromish?

the new Firefox button comes from Microsoft Office.

the space between tabs comes from either Opera or Microsoft Office.

the tabs on top, which is only a possibility at this point, comes from Opera
first, but was implemented by Google Chrome down the line.

the use of so much transparency in the menu may come from Microsoft Office or
Chrome.

the non-flat buttons can come from Opera or Chrome.

the use of only three buttons on the left, however, comes from Chrome. it
should be mentioned that Firefox is playing with the idea of getting rid of a
refresh button on the left by building it into the location bar.
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/3.7_and_4.0_Theme_...](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/3.7_and_4.0_Theme_and_UI_Revamp/Direction_and_Feedback#Merging_Stop.2FRefresh.2FGo_Into_One_Button)

just want to give credit where credit is due.

~~~
pavs
Have you used chrome recently? While they might have borrowed ideas from other
UI designs, never before did Firefox look more like chrome.

Not that its a bad thing. Throughout its history FF have taken design ideas
from IE, Opera extensively. For all we know, FF most likely wouldn't even
consider such a drastic UI change if chrome wasn't in the picture. FF UI
changes has always been incremental and subtle.

------
ryandvm
Very Chromish. I'm glad they're not too proud to borrow good ideas when they
see them. Now if they can just improve stability and speed I may switch back
from Chromium.

~~~
andyking
The Firefox menu in the top-left corner looks remarkably similar to the O menu
that's appeared in the latest Opera alpha (<http://goo.gl/Chfb>).

I like the way a lot of the cruft from 1990s Windows applications is starting
to disappear from programmes that really don't need it like modern browsers.

~~~
mcantor
Out of curiosity, why did you post a shortened link here instead of the
canonical one? Does goo.gl give you some kind of clickthrough monitoring, or
was there another reason?

------
samdk
This makes me very, very happy. I use Chrome on my netbook for two reasons:
it's faster, and it takes up significantly less screen space. It's nice to see
Firefox beginning to compete in at least one of those two areas.

~~~
uggedal
If you need to maximize usable window space, try vimperator for Firefox. Works
wonders on my netbook.

~~~
thehigherlife
do you know of a way to set certain UI elements to load on every launch so
that i don't have to type in 'set guioptions' every time i launch the browser?

~~~
uggedal
create a ~/.vimperatorrc file with your specific settings

------
metra
How is this saving space? How is this Chrome-ish?

Chrome saved space by getting rid of the title bar (a bar that would just say
"Chrome"). From these pictures, Firefox still has a whole bar that just says
"Firefox." Why?

Mozilla, please allow us to place tabs on the Title bar!

And if you really want to blow Chrome out of the water, explore innovative
vertical tab options. Tree style tabs is an immensely popular extension for a
reason.

------
yason
All I ever wanted from Firefox 4.0 is the user interface latency (or rather,
lack thereof) of Chromium and the process-per-tab / process-per-plugin model.
The latter would probably help a lot with the former.

The screenshot mockups don't tell.

------
Luyt
I wish they'd optimize for vertical space instead of eye candy. Most
applications use way too much vertically stacked menubars, toolbars, bookmarks
bars etc..., nibbling away precious display space from the document.

------
nopassrecover
Some of the sample back/forward button mockups are quite nice and subtle but
the one they use in the final 4.0/3.5 comparison image is terribly chunky.

------
albemuth
For those people that said it was pointless for google to enter the browser
market, here's why.

~~~
ghotli
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Chrome showcased multiple
innovations in browser technology. Things like a single process per tab, a
much tighter security model, and proof that javascript implementations could
be much faster.

By doing this they have set trends in how browser technologies should progress
and thus had an influence on their ability to implement "html 5" webapps in
the future that work cross browser. It was much more than "check it out we put
tabs in the title bar guys".

------
dirtbox
Hey, that's just like Opera!

Again.

