Mozilla Reveals Possible New Firefox UI Direction

[IncinX]

I gave up a while ago and I have every browser installed on my system. I use each for different tasks, whatever I feel gives me the best feel for what I am doing.

 

[RazberyBandit]

Why the hell can't they just make a browser that's fully-customizable by the user? You want an old-fashioned Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop, Home button setup, followed by the address, followed by the search, you can have it. If you want your tabs at the top or at the bottom, the choice is yours.

I wish they'd quit telling us what we want and just make the freakin browser completely customizable so each user can set it up in whatever fashion he or she prefers. And for your own sake, Mozilla, stop flippin copying the other browser layouts and get back to being unique.

 

[adipose]

From the article: "The tabs themselves appear to be much more flushed out."

The correct term is "fleshed out."

 

[jacobdrj]

Meh. Looking more like Opera, perhaps...

I think they should focus on speed and dependability. I am happy with the 3rd party apps taking care of customize-ability and functionality in terms of plugins, etc. But I want FF to be as stable as it was pre 3.5... When I stopped using it because it crashed more often than IE... Until I discovered Chrome... Which is also buggy...

Just stabilize it...

 

[gm0n3y]

How is it a 'dumbed down' GUI? Interfaces should be minimalist; the reason that we have to have all those extra words is for the 'dumb' people that don't understand what the icons are for or where the menu options can be found. These are the same people that have 3 toolbars along with all of their bookmarks listed taking up half of their browser window. Minimalism FTW.

 

[netbanshee]

FF used to be the leader, now the follower? Do away with the menu's and I'll do away with FF.

 

[Guest]

You know, one of the many things that makes FF better than Chrome is that you can customize how it looks.

Changing the default UI means nothing to the advanced user. My FF looks completely different from yours. I don't have a home button, back, forward, or stop. They don't need to be there because there is something called hotkeys which can be executed faster than dragging your cursor around.

All the people complaining are completely clueless. I see commentators asking why it can't be customizable when it already is. Even without extensions.

 

[Guest]

Firefox crashes? News to me, its extremely rare for firefox to crash for me. Like mabye twice a year. With heavy use.

But then again i use noscript, so i assume thats probably the difference. Lot of those buggy scripts and flash crap is blocked by default.

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]Maybe someday they will stop it from crashing all the time. In my own unscientific testing IE9 is faster than FF5.[/citation]
For some applications.

Both could be faster if Oracle allowed the old Java Runtime to integrate back into Windows...

 

[someguynamedmatt]

There's no way in hell I'm using this if they release it. Looks like I'm gonna be filling up the "why did you uninstall our program?" box up relatively quickly this time.

As of right now, my Firefox is essentially perfect to how I want it. Doesn't crash, nice custom UI, and all of my Addons are working nicely. If they come along with something like this and screw everything over, I'll be going to some other browser... not sure which one, since I'm, not a Chrome fan, either, but I'm sure I'll find something.

 

[walter87]

So we can expect this new version when? Holidays?
I'm still using 3.6 and see no reason to upgrade to 4 or 5 when they keep updating it every few months.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]IE9 was planned and developed and released before FF4. You could have easily downloaded the first preview with the same layout well over a year ago. Not sure how they copied FF4 when IE9 has a much slimmer interface than FF4.I personally don't like the rapid deployment that FF has adopted mainly because pluggins wont keep up. FF5 was not a major change from FF4 yet ABP was not compatable with it until a bit after.[/citation]

Amazing I pissed off some FF-Fans... but I guess they are fragile.

But no... while IE was in development forever, the FF4 UI was mostly finished when IE9 was in BETA and didn't have squat. When FF4-UI was in beta, they were still debating on how to do the design and shift the tabs into Opera style.

What people see in FF4~5, is what the Opera style is for almost 2 YEARS!
IE9 looks kind of like a minimalized version of FF4... but still a crappy interface, I'm already seeing IE9 users with 3-4 add-on tool bars which makes it look like typical IE crap.

The address box in IE9 looks very much like a tab... overall, its a crappy design and makes bad use of space. It is somewhat improved over IE8 thou and whats under the hood is pretty good.

But still, as of today - Opera 11 is still the most flexible and best UI design... And things we've been doing on Opera for years... have been added to IE9 and FF4. Yeah, Opera eats memory - but its also holding a boat-load of history in its tabs. I can close a days worth of tabs and get them back.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]RazberyBandit[/nom]Why the hell can't they just make a browser that's fully-customizable by the user? You want an old-fashioned Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop, Home button setup, followed by the address, followed by the search, you can have it. If you want your tabs at the top or at the bottom, the choice is yours.I wish they'd quit telling us what we want and just make the freakin browser completely customizable so each user can set it up in whatever fashion he or she prefers.[/citation]

download Opera from opera.com... then you'll have the features you want. All those buttons, windows, tabs, you can move them, add them, replace them.... put them on the side, the bottom, etc etc.

FF is still incompatible for my needs, but I use it for testing... nothing more.

 

[Vampyrbyte]

I hope Mozilla don't get sucked in to bloating the browser out.
Release the extra crap as addons. I don't need or want social network or e-mail integration in my browser. Leave it out.

 

[bv90andy]

when I install this I know what will the first thing I'll google for... removing firefox homepage, adding forward page.

 

[eddieroolz]

I saw that and I went "Chrome?".

Firefox is sinking, friends. Jump ship...

 

[gigabyter64]

Wish they would fix the firefox friggin memory leak first before worrying bout new versions, its shocking, now using an app "firemin" to keep it under control.

 

[fulllee]

I think firefox and chrome are brothers when i see this picture (Just like avant and orca are sister , but they have different engines.)

 

[JOSHSKORN]

The Plane-arium! (South Park, anyone?)

 

[magnus909]

Quote :
"There was no information when this UI could be released, but Firefox 7 or 8 sounds like a reasonable estimate to us."

I'm running Firefox 8 - 64 bit, which is released as nightly builds right now(but quite stable). It is the version where new features may be incorporated or removed.
Iin firefox 6 and 7 no new features are added at this point.
But I haven't seen anything like this so far and I doubt it will make an appearance before Firefox 9.
Firefox 8 will be released in November and Firefox 9 sometimes in late december this year.
So the best guess is that if this is true, the earliest date for this to be released would be late december this year.
But probably this is something that either won't appear at all or at best will be relased next year.