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What was the dev team thinking with Firefox v29?

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  • 21 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Baby_blue

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So I was just auto-upgraded to firefox 29, and I need to know: What exactly was the dev team thinking when they designed it? Title bar disabled by default? Total removal of the add-on bar? Tabs forcibly on top? Seriously, stop trying to be chrome. Chrome is aesthetically and functionally terrible, why do you keep trying to emulate them? I can't speak for the community, but for myself and for people I know, one of the main reasons we use firefox is because we strongly dislike chromes layout. For the time being, I've downgraded to v28, and disabled auto-updates.

So I was just auto-upgraded to firefox 29, and I need to know: What exactly was the dev team thinking when they designed it? Title bar disabled by default? Total removal of the add-on bar? Tabs forcibly on top? Seriously, stop trying to be chrome. Chrome is aesthetically and functionally terrible, why do you keep trying to emulate them? I can't speak for the community, but for myself and for people I know, one of the main reasons we use firefox is because we strongly dislike chromes layout. For the time being, I've downgraded to v28, and disabled auto-updates.

All Replies (9)

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Hi Baby_Blue,
sorry I am not clairvoyant and can not say what the developers were thinking  ;-)

I do wish Firefox would give users a direct warning at least a week or so ahead of such drastic changes it would at least give you an opportunity to read up on what is about to happen. Instead of updating and only then providing information.

Firefox has always been customisable and remains so.

I am nothing to do with the design team, I am just a fellow Firefox user, but as you ask what they were thinking some articles

Maybe as more advanced users we do not like an over simplified Firefox, but I guess it needs to be designed for the majority and also looking for compatibility and ease of use on other devices. Other programs or applications looking similar to one another is probably at least in part due to similar goals in function and ease of use leading to a convergence in feature sets.

See Also


I would not recommend downgrading Firefox. Unsupported versions are not secure. You increase risks to your System and Personal data by using insecure software. When security fixes are released and publicised that also publicises the potential exploits.

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First, thank you for the prompt reply.

Second, thank you for providing the links to fix this mess.

Third, you are correct in that, as an advanced user, I do not like an oversimplified anything. I am honestly of the opinion that all should be forcibly educated in basic computer knowledge, but I am very, VERY biased in that regard.

And finally the question remains, with FF, they don't have to change the aesthetics to change the back end. Things like adding cross platform compatibility (really like this btw) can be implemented without changing the overall positioning of pre-existing functions/buttons. So then why make aesthetic changes that are sure to upset the advanced users? Again, I am probably biased, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

As far as security, I'm not too worried. I have a very specific setup for anyone that wants to break into my machine, and I don't do anything of note over the internet on this computer anyways.

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I believe the goal was to have one code base for reduced maintenance costs, to be used by desktop and mobile devices, with mobile devices getting what they needed - regardless of how that impacted desktop users.

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Let's take advantage of the fact that we have Developers around.

You are obviously unhappy with the development decisions, and that is normally off topic in this forum, but right now because of Firefox 29 Release we will have Developers around popping in to the forum. I will add an escalate tag. If we are lucky a Developer may give an explanation and a proper answer to your question.

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Hi Baby_blue,

I agree, change in functionality does not require a change in aesthetics. However this is not to say there were no improvements in back end functionality as well. (See John99's link to the release notes)

However there was an add on created as well for those who would like the best of both worlds. The Classic Theme Restorer will help you out in that regard.

Modified by guigs

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What annoys me is that none of the fixes for Mozilla's mistake fix the Customize Screen, which is one of 29's biggest offenders in terms of regrettable design choices.

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I tried classic theme restorer, however I found it rather complex for a relatively simple task. After alls said and done, I decided to switch my main browser to pale moon, for a couple of reasons. I will not be listing said reasons, but I encourage anyone reading this to give the browser a try. Http://www.Palemoon.org/ I find it a little upsetting thst the only use I really have for FF any more is Google play music, and only because the macro intercepter I use to enable my keyboard macros doesn't appear to work for palemoon. I will be following FF's updates, in the hopes that things will get better. Until then, c'est la vie.

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Is there a Pale Moon for Android? I'm cool with simply not updating to 29 on my desktop, because 28 is wonderful, but I find endless frustration with the fact that every single browser for Android that I've been able to find including Firefox is awful, and Pale Moon seems like a viable fix for that.

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Unfortunately there is not. However I found a list of android browsers here http://m.alternativeto.net/software/palemoon/?platform=android There were a couple I didn't recognize so hopefully it helps you.