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I'm honestly surprised that we aren't talking about tab behavior here. Literally the only reason I keep using Chrome is that no matter how many tabs I have open

I'm honestly surprised that we aren't talking about tab behavior here. Literally the only reason I keep using Chrome is that no matter how many tabs I have open, they're all visible at the top. There's visual persistence of state. On Firefox, even with the trick of reducing minimum tab width, my tabs overflow and I have to click through to get different groups of tabs. It is utterly maddening and I don't know why every other browser refuses to do Chrome like tabs. Why the continued choice to violate the first rule of UI design which is to keep things in the same place?

WorldMaker 7y ago
Different people use tabs for different things. I have had browser sessions with 100+ tabs before as it can be a "spatial organization" tool more interesting than the History or Favorites lists because while I have to scroll through the tab bar, there are recognizable "neighborhoods" of tabs. Firefox has a lot of options for tab extensions if you wanted to explore for something more to your liking.
zipperhead 7y ago
If you want to talk about tab behaviour, you might want to have a look at the Tree Style Tabs extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... Tabs are placed in the sidebar, nested in collapsible trees, with a scrollbar. It's a major game changer.
- kylek 7y ago
  I'm always surprised when I find out more people don't know about this (or other vertical-tabs addons). I typically have dozens of tabs and keep them open for weeks at a time (ff is set to restore previous session. So most are usually unloaded, but I also have an addon to unload tabs at-will if it's ever a problem). Horizontal tabs feel so arcane after getting used to it, I'm surprised it's not a standard feature yet.
- acemarke 7y ago
  Still the primary reason why I use Firefox. It allows me to have effectively an infinite number of tabs open, grouped, organized, and opened based on what I'm actually trying to get done now, or what I need to get back to later.
- generatorguy 7y ago
  At that point how are they different from bookmarks? I suppose with tab tree every page is ‘bookmarked’ until you close it, or bookmark it for real. Personally I save anything I actually want to refer back to as a PDF since the bookmarked web page will probably disappear.
- wakkaflokka 7y ago
  This is the main reason I use Firefox. Absolutely love Tree Style Tabs.
pornel 7y ago
I'm completely opposite. I can't use Chrome once my tabs shrink down to this: ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| With Firefox no matter how many tabs I have open, they all remain usable. There's also "% name" keyword search in address bar that finds open tabs, and check out Tree Style Tabs extension.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  Chrome fixed that a few months ago. There's no tab scrolling, but the many tabs that are visible don't break any more.
  - yoasif_ 7y ago
    > Chrome fixed that a few months ago. > > There's no tab scrolling, but the many tabs that are visible don't break any more. Not really. Resize your window to 1920x1080 and open 150 new tabs. In the last tab, open any site you want. Now switch back to the next to the last tab. Hover over the tab bar. That pop-up doesn't show you the last tab.
    - Dylan16807 7y ago
      > Hover over the tab bar. That pop-up doesn't show you the last tab. I'm not sure I follow. The popup shows you the tab you're hovering over. You wouldn't be hovering over the last tab because it's not in the visible area. But that's unrelated to the problem they fixed. Right now, when you open a large amount of tabs, it always shows favicons. What it used to do, when tabs got smaller than about 30 pixels, was this: https://www.technorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/TooManyTabsVikiTech.png https://www.technorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/TooMany...
      - yoasif_ 7y ago
        >I'm not sure I follow. The popup shows you the tab you're hovering over. You wouldn't be hovering over the last tab because it's not in the visible area. That was my point. >But that's unrelated to the problem they fixed. Right now, when you open a large amount of tabs, it always shows favicons. What it used to do, when tabs got smaller than about 30 pixels, was this... I mean, I guess it is better, but I wouldn't consider that "fixed".
noisem4ker 7y ago
The most sane solution would be to show tabs in multiple rows. Every other piece of software (notably including OSs) does this, but somehow it's an alien concept in browser land. With Firefox, thankfully, there's a way to enable such display style: https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Dark-Full-Theme/blob/master/Multirow%20and%20other%20functions/Multirow%20tabs/Readme.md https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Dark-Full-Them...
deadbunny 7y ago
I for one prefer tab overflow (ans thus scrolling) over the Chrome nightmare that becomes /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ where I have to mouseover to try and find the tab I want rather than being able to visually identify it with a glance. My other bugbear with Chrome tabs is the inability to make all new tabs get added to the end of the list rather than after the active tab, in FF it's just a simple `about:config` option: `browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent=false`
Liquid_Fire 7y ago
FYI, you don't need to click to scroll the tabs, you can just scroll with the mouse wheel.
yoasif_ 7y ago
> Literally the only reason I keep using Chrome is that no matter how many tabs I have open, they're all visible at the top. That might be true for you, but on my 1920x1080 screen, Chromium appears to stop even trying to show any new tabs in the tab bar after around 125. I have 453 tabs in this Firefox window.
jituc 7y ago
Personally, I like the firefox way. Even if I have hundreds of tabs open I can just scroll tabs by hovering mouse and using wheels alternatively there is a popup menu which works for some.

WorldMaker 7y ago

Different people use tabs for different things. I have had browser sessions with 100+ tabs before as it can be a "spatial organization" tool more interesting than the History or Favorites lists because while I have to scroll through the tab bar, there are recognizable "neighborhoods" of tabs. Firefox has a lot of options for tab extensions if you wanted to explore for something more to your liking.

zipperhead 7y ago

If you want to talk about tab behaviour, you might want to have a look at the Tree Style Tabs extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... Tabs are placed in the sidebar, nested in collapsible trees, with a scrollbar. It's a major game changer.

kylek 7y ago
I'm always surprised when I find out more people don't know about this (or other vertical-tabs addons). I typically have dozens of tabs and keep them open for weeks at a time (ff is set to restore previous session. So most are usually unloaded, but I also have an addon to unload tabs at-will if it's ever a problem). Horizontal tabs feel so arcane after getting used to it, I'm surprised it's not a standard feature yet.
acemarke 7y ago
Still the primary reason why I use Firefox. It allows me to have effectively an infinite number of tabs open, grouped, organized, and opened based on what I'm actually trying to get done now, or what I need to get back to later.
generatorguy 7y ago
At that point how are they different from bookmarks? I suppose with tab tree every page is ‘bookmarked’ until you close it, or bookmark it for real. Personally I save anything I actually want to refer back to as a PDF since the bookmarked web page will probably disappear.
wakkaflokka 7y ago
This is the main reason I use Firefox. Absolutely love Tree Style Tabs.

pornel 7y ago

I'm completely opposite. I can't use Chrome once my tabs shrink down to this: ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| With Firefox no matter how many tabs I have open, they all remain usable. There's also "% name" keyword search in address bar that finds open tabs, and check out Tree Style Tabs extension.

Dylan16807 7y ago
Chrome fixed that a few months ago. There's no tab scrolling, but the many tabs that are visible don't break any more.
- yoasif_ 7y ago
  > Chrome fixed that a few months ago. > > There's no tab scrolling, but the many tabs that are visible don't break any more. Not really. Resize your window to 1920x1080 and open 150 new tabs. In the last tab, open any site you want. Now switch back to the next to the last tab. Hover over the tab bar. That pop-up doesn't show you the last tab.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    > Hover over the tab bar. That pop-up doesn't show you the last tab. I'm not sure I follow. The popup shows you the tab you're hovering over. You wouldn't be hovering over the last tab because it's not in the visible area. But that's unrelated to the problem they fixed. Right now, when you open a large amount of tabs, it always shows favicons. What it used to do, when tabs got smaller than about 30 pixels, was this: https://www.technorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/TooManyTabsVikiTech.png https://www.technorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/TooMany...
    - yoasif_ 7y ago
      >I'm not sure I follow. The popup shows you the tab you're hovering over. You wouldn't be hovering over the last tab because it's not in the visible area. That was my point. >But that's unrelated to the problem they fixed. Right now, when you open a large amount of tabs, it always shows favicons. What it used to do, when tabs got smaller than about 30 pixels, was this... I mean, I guess it is better, but I wouldn't consider that "fixed".

noisem4ker 7y ago

The most sane solution would be to show tabs in multiple rows. Every other piece of software (notably including OSs) does this, but somehow it's an alien concept in browser land. With Firefox, thankfully, there's a way to enable such display style: https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Dark-Full-Theme/blob/master/Multirow%20and%20other%20functions/Multirow%20tabs/Readme.md https://github.com/Izheil/Quantum-Nox-Firefox-Dark-Full-Them...

deadbunny 7y ago

I for one prefer tab overflow (ans thus scrolling) over the Chrome nightmare that becomes /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ where I have to mouseover to try and find the tab I want rather than being able to visually identify it with a glance. My other bugbear with Chrome tabs is the inability to make all new tabs get added to the end of the list rather than after the active tab, in FF it's just a simple `about:config` option: `browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent=false`

Liquid_Fire 7y ago

FYI, you don't need to click to scroll the tabs, you can just scroll with the mouse wheel.

yoasif_ 7y ago

> Literally the only reason I keep using Chrome is that no matter how many tabs I have open, they're all visible at the top. That might be true for you, but on my 1920x1080 screen, Chromium appears to stop even trying to show any new tabs in the tab bar after around 125. I have 453 tabs in this Firefox window.

jituc 7y ago

Personally, I like the firefox way. Even if I have hundreds of tabs open I can just scroll tabs by hovering mouse and using wheels alternatively there is a popup menu which works for some.