Why remove the single most used item, the addons bar?
Why does their v29 change log says "added options", when the only thing most of us see are removed options, including the single most used section: the addon bar? I do not want to install an addon to see the addon bar that has been present since pre-Firefox Mozilla days. So why remove the single most used item? Did the previous pro-life CEO like it too much and the new management cannot have that?? Seems like Firefox is going backwards, not forwards.
Chosen solution
NO... I'm not citing exact examples, but putting MORE junk up top after we got flooded with being REQUIRED to use the tabs (which are redundant copies of windows below only cramped in to the top bar at the same time) bar, now I have 22 full size icons and text buttons dropping my window space even further down in to my work space. It's not that the icons/buttons/addons don't work. (I swear I don't know how people who work in support could need such detailed explanations) It's the fact that to keep the premium screen space open, we need to crush the tabs back to windows and Firefox destroyed that option. So we're left with closing and opening the addon bar every time we need an addon. Not to mention the addons like a certain Instagram addon that shows when new pictures have arrived, or my security bar which shows how many ads and sights were blocked as well as a mouse over to view them separately in a shadowed popout. Are Firefox developers so stuck on their own crud that they REALLY think that everyone has and uses apps on a Galaxy phone and crunches everything to icons like a 13 year old? Those of us who are older, more mature and use addons for something other than sharing pictures... (like my Google Voice addon that doesn't work now to accept calls without opening a bar and clicking the icon, waiting for it to accept the click, oops dropped call or went to voicemail because you didn't answer in 3 rings)... Phone, Flash development, downloading videos from websites, eBay sales, Amazon purchases, torrents, and every business platform model has their own addon INHOUSE. You've DESTROYED, NO DECIMATED, the business model of less clicks is more, IN FAVOR OF A SUPPOSEDLY SLIM, STREAMLINED BROWSER! It's no wonder Firefox Execs are clueless. We who care, block our use habits and therefore only the usage details of the under 15 kiddies at noticed by FF's telemetry.
The basic concept is, don't remove something unless you replace it with something equal in use and work.
Making users create a addon bar to replace the addon bar is stupid! Pointblank and simple.
Adding more clicks to get to the new addon bar was stupid and stupider still was the destruction of a upper level bar worth of window space by making the new addon bar be an addon or a creation of the user between the Bookmark Bar and Address Bar. STUPID!
Lastly, why is Firefox streamlining anything. That's at the discretion of the user when building his browser him or her self. That's what being a modular browser means. It's not Mr Potato Head with only 4 kinds of eyes, nose, and mouth. It's supposed to be an open canvas to work with and create our idea of art working.
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I suppose in user studies, it was determined that for most people, the space on the main toolbar would be sufficient?
If you want an add-on toolbar back, there are a couple of extensions that can do this:
- https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ (allows for many other changes)
- https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/the-addon-bar/ (I haven't tried it)
With 20 years in tech support and working on thousands of user end computers, the number 1 area used by people both in offices and in their personal computers was the add on bar. Considering the sheer number of addons that make use of it (just a preliminary dig through the addons earlier today), I would say in excess of 75% of legitimate addons make use of it. By removing it, it essentially nullifies hundreds of thousands of man hours put into programming all those addons. Why require an addon just to be able to make use of other addons? Sounds like a VERY flawed study to me, or there was no study and it's just Mozilla big wigs deciding to change what they want, spitting in the face of the open source/common community licensing.
Modified by jollygiantsd
Hi jollygiantsd, the add-ons are not nullified. So far I have heard of one that does not work without an Add-on bar, which I think was ForecastFox.
In my limited experience with my own upgrade, the icons from the Add-on bar moved to the main toolbar. When I narrowed the Firefox window, they overflowed onto a drop-down from the bar. I used the Customize feature to rearrange the bar to have only the most important ones on there to reduce crowding.
What was your experience?
There were years of testing of this UI. I'm sure you can find the information on Mozilla blogs if you look for it. Of course, it wasn't unanimous, but what is?
Chosen Solution
NO... I'm not citing exact examples, but putting MORE junk up top after we got flooded with being REQUIRED to use the tabs (which are redundant copies of windows below only cramped in to the top bar at the same time) bar, now I have 22 full size icons and text buttons dropping my window space even further down in to my work space. It's not that the icons/buttons/addons don't work. (I swear I don't know how people who work in support could need such detailed explanations) It's the fact that to keep the premium screen space open, we need to crush the tabs back to windows and Firefox destroyed that option. So we're left with closing and opening the addon bar every time we need an addon. Not to mention the addons like a certain Instagram addon that shows when new pictures have arrived, or my security bar which shows how many ads and sights were blocked as well as a mouse over to view them separately in a shadowed popout. Are Firefox developers so stuck on their own crud that they REALLY think that everyone has and uses apps on a Galaxy phone and crunches everything to icons like a 13 year old? Those of us who are older, more mature and use addons for something other than sharing pictures... (like my Google Voice addon that doesn't work now to accept calls without opening a bar and clicking the icon, waiting for it to accept the click, oops dropped call or went to voicemail because you didn't answer in 3 rings)... Phone, Flash development, downloading videos from websites, eBay sales, Amazon purchases, torrents, and every business platform model has their own addon INHOUSE. You've DESTROYED, NO DECIMATED, the business model of less clicks is more, IN FAVOR OF A SUPPOSEDLY SLIM, STREAMLINED BROWSER! It's no wonder Firefox Execs are clueless. We who care, block our use habits and therefore only the usage details of the under 15 kiddies at noticed by FF's telemetry.
The basic concept is, don't remove something unless you replace it with something equal in use and work.
Making users create a addon bar to replace the addon bar is stupid! Pointblank and simple.
Adding more clicks to get to the new addon bar was stupid and stupider still was the destruction of a upper level bar worth of window space by making the new addon bar be an addon or a creation of the user between the Bookmark Bar and Address Bar. STUPID!
Lastly, why is Firefox streamlining anything. That's at the discretion of the user when building his browser him or her self. That's what being a modular browser means. It's not Mr Potato Head with only 4 kinds of eyes, nose, and mouth. It's supposed to be an open canvas to work with and create our idea of art working.
Rather than be forced into seriously flawed design changes because some corporate big wigs chose to change everything, many of us have gone to browsers looking forward and making code changes truly needed, like full 64 bit support and so much more... Like Pale Moon.