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Well maybe if they updated their shitty UI, I would be inclined to install it. Why can’t firefox combine the search and address bar like every other major brows

Well maybe if they updated their shitty UI, I would be inclined to install it. Why can’t firefox combine the search and address bar like every other major browser? Why can’t Firefox ditch their slow animations, buttons, menus, and do with less skeumorphisms? They need a serious refresh if I were to ever start using it again.

bzbarsky 9y ago
> Why can’t firefox combine the search and address bar like every other major browser? Because they don't want to send all your keystrokes in the URL to your search provider just so you can get autosuggest. So there is one bar that does autosuggest and a different bar where you can put things that your search provider should not see. Obviously Chrome doesn't have that problem, since they _want_ your search provider to see all the URLs you visit.
- rubatuga 9y ago
  You can combine them and then turn off search autocomplete. Seems like the best option for me.
  - bzbarsky 9y ago
    Except users actually want search autocomplete. If you personally don't, then you can combine them yourself in Firefox right away: just remove the search bar entirely via the normal UI customization mechanism, and use only the URL bar, which doesn't do search autocomplete.
    - glandium 9y ago
      Note that the URL bar does search autocomplete now (new in 55 maybe?).
      - bzbarsky 9y ago
        Hmm. It doesn't seem to in 54, but you're right that it does in a 55 beta. If that's the case, then there's really no point to two separate bars. Looks like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1344928 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1344928 is where the behavior change happened. Based on the diffs there, looks like the 55 feature can at least be turned off by setting the "browser.urlbar.suggest.searches" preference to false... (That preference doesn't affect the search bar.) Also looks like there's preferences UI for this (the "Show search suggestions in location bar results" checkbox).
        glandium 9y ago
        There's also a dropdown showing up the first time you use the url bar. Depending on the value set for browser.urlbar.suggest.searches on that first run, the dropdown will either tell you about suggestions with a button leading to the prefs where you can disable them, or ask you whether you want to enable or disable them. I think there were talks about not presenting the search box for new profiles, too, but it looks like that hasn't happened yet.
callahad 9y ago
Check back in November. Literally all of those things are in progress and scheduled for Firefox 57.
lucb1e 9y ago
> Why can’t firefox combine the search and address bar like every other major browser? They have. Try typing "test test" in the address bar and hit enter. If you mind the separate field, hit menu -> customize -> drag the field away -> hit done. Then have a beer. > Why can’t Firefox ditch their slow animations On mobile? No idea. On desktop? Which ones? Might it be a Windows thing that I don't notice on Debian? > buttons Wait what? You mean the, like, five buttons that are left in the interface by default (menu button, new tab button, and some in the toolbar)? I added extra ones myself for things like enabling/disabling flash, user agent switcher, etc. but besides that, I don't think Chromium does any better on that. > menus There is one menu... I don't know what you're talking about.
- rubatuga 9y ago
  Their buttons and menus are slow, and clicking the three bar button at the very right usually results in a stuttery menu.
  - lucb1e 9y ago
    For me it appears instantly with no animation. I'm using Debian Stretch on some sluggish (though recent) Intel i5 CPU.
PudgePacket 9y ago
I think the new UI looks quite good, here is a screenshot from an install of nightly with the dark theme http://i.imgur.com/LVZSyTS.png http://i.imgur.com/LVZSyTS.png.

bzbarsky 9y ago

> Why can’t firefox combine the search and address bar like every other major browser? Because they don't want to send all your keystrokes in the URL to your search provider just so you can get autosuggest. So there is one bar that does autosuggest and a different bar where you can put things that your search provider should not see. Obviously Chrome doesn't have that problem, since they _want_ your search provider to see all the URLs you visit.

rubatuga 9y ago
You can combine them and then turn off search autocomplete. Seems like the best option for me.
- bzbarsky 9y ago
  Except users actually want search autocomplete. If you personally don't, then you can combine them yourself in Firefox right away: just remove the search bar entirely via the normal UI customization mechanism, and use only the URL bar, which doesn't do search autocomplete.
  - glandium 9y ago
    Note that the URL bar does search autocomplete now (new in 55 maybe?).
    - bzbarsky 9y ago
      Hmm. It doesn't seem to in 54, but you're right that it does in a 55 beta. If that's the case, then there's really no point to two separate bars. Looks like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1344928 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1344928 is where the behavior change happened. Based on the diffs there, looks like the 55 feature can at least be turned off by setting the "browser.urlbar.suggest.searches" preference to false... (That preference doesn't affect the search bar.) Also looks like there's preferences UI for this (the "Show search suggestions in location bar results" checkbox).
      - glandium 9y ago
        There's also a dropdown showing up the first time you use the url bar. Depending on the value set for browser.urlbar.suggest.searches on that first run, the dropdown will either tell you about suggestions with a button leading to the prefs where you can disable them, or ask you whether you want to enable or disable them. I think there were talks about not presenting the search box for new profiles, too, but it looks like that hasn't happened yet.

callahad 9y ago

Check back in November. Literally all of those things are in progress and scheduled for Firefox 57.

lucb1e 9y ago

> Why can’t firefox combine the search and address bar like every other major browser? They have. Try typing "test test" in the address bar and hit enter. If you mind the separate field, hit menu -> customize -> drag the field away -> hit done. Then have a beer. > Why can’t Firefox ditch their slow animations On mobile? No idea. On desktop? Which ones? Might it be a Windows thing that I don't notice on Debian? > buttons Wait what? You mean the, like, five buttons that are left in the interface by default (menu button, new tab button, and some in the toolbar)? I added extra ones myself for things like enabling/disabling flash, user agent switcher, etc. but besides that, I don't think Chromium does any better on that. > menus There is one menu... I don't know what you're talking about.

rubatuga 9y ago
Their buttons and menus are slow, and clicking the three bar button at the very right usually results in a stuttery menu.
- lucb1e 9y ago
  For me it appears instantly with no animation. I'm using Debian Stretch on some sluggish (though recent) Intel i5 CPU.

PudgePacket 9y ago

I think the new UI looks quite good, here is a screenshot from an install of nightly with the dark theme http://i.imgur.com/LVZSyTS.png http://i.imgur.com/LVZSyTS.png.