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Ever since Firefox borked their tabs I've given up on it as my default browser. Every now and then I open it up for testing and when I still see buttons instead

Ever since Firefox borked their tabs I've given up on it as my default browser. Every now and then I open it up for testing and when I still see buttons instead of tabs I make a mental note of trying again in half a year or so. Light theme is especially insulting with white buttons on light-light gray. It even doesn't repsect Windows' system theme settings, because in Windows you can have apps keep light theme but apply colors to taskbar, Start menu and title bars. Edge gets it, Chrome doesn't, but at least there's enough contrast, Firefox completely misses the mark.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
I use Firefox as my alternate browser. And whenever I fire it up it needs first to get in my way and interrupt me to tell me about the new changes and features it has implemented since the last time I opened it like Pocket, VPN, etc. God, stop it, just let me start browsing what I came here for, stop imitating Microsoft and their dark patterns of shoving Office 365 and Gamepass in your face between updates. Go and advertise your features to people who don't yet have Firefox installed, but I'm already your "customer", so stop bugging me. This is why I'm mainly on Chrome. It may be inferior and spying on me but it never gets in my way.
- hobs 3y ago
  Damn that new tab must pop up for me like... once a month! What a distraction! I guess giving all my data to Google is probably worth it.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    Joke all you want but Firefox's market share agrees with me as most users value convenience above all else. At least Google knows not to be intrusive and not fuck with the UI so often. Chrome looks almost exactly like it did over 10 years ago. Why can't Firefox imitate that quality of life feature? It's not that hard to not change shit at the surface. They've been bleeding market share for years including faithful long time users who enjoyed the 'old, boring' Firefox but don't agree with the current direction of imitating Chrome at every step. Old Firefox = Windows 7 New Firefox = Windows 11
    - medstrom 3y ago
      But your premise that one is more intrusive, isn't even true. Like others said by now, Chrome does the same thing if you don't open it often.
    - hobs 3y ago
      I would agree that most people would be glad to give up their privacy for minor convenience. if I was a developer of Firefox I might care that its marketshare is falling, but truthfully nobody needs to be married to a web browser, or take its rise and fall too seriously. Still not going to use a Google browser though, that's just a self own.
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        The rise and fall reflects user popularity. And Firefox is less popular than ever, with both the new generation who grew up only knowing Safari and Chrome, and also with the old generation who they pissed off by trying to copy the shitty parts of Chrome instead of staying true to what made them popular in the first place such as speed, light weight, and getting out of your way by not charging the UI every 6 weeks.
        yoavm 3y ago
        Sure, maybe everyone left Firefox because of the "what's new" tab and the UI changes. But maybe it's because Safari is default on some devices, and Chrome has the world biggest marketing company behind it.
        FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        Of course Google won the browser war mainly because they're World Heavyweight Advertising Moneybags World Champion, but Firefox also did itself no favors by annoying it's old and faithful userbase with often, unnecessary and unpopular UI changes a while ago.
    - viraptor 3y ago
      Google mainly knows how to display ads. The raise of Chrome wasn't so much about features at the time as about people being bombarded with "install chrome" ads. On Google results, in Gmail, in Adsense, everywhere. There was an absurd amount of money sacrificed (not really spent since the ads were internal) to gain the users. I'm not sure any other aspect can be reliably compared in that scenario.
- yoavm 3y ago
  I feel exactly this way, but about Chrome. I suspect it's just bias - I only open Chrome once a week or so so this screen is very annoying. Firefox is always open so I don't even recall seeing anything like that.
- pprotas 3y ago
  Chrome automatically opens up a tab with an ad for their new features after every automatic update. Isn’t that kind of the same thing?
  - dathinab 3y ago
    yes hand the amount of times Firefox has done so in the last few years is also just a handful (like less then 1 time per year in average) And some of this notifications where really reasonable to have like the containers. (Except the color thingy, that was some nonsense.) The only exception is if you somehow end up in a situation where the browser (profile) is for whatever reason frequently fully reset, in which case you might have seen the same notification multiple times.
mikae1 3y ago
Install Sidebery[1] and hide the native tabs[2]. This is the way. :) [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ [2] https://superuser.com/a/1424494 https://superuser.com/a/1424494
- medstrom 3y ago
  I have neither! No visible tabs at all. Just cycle tabs with Ctrl+Tab hotkey. This is clean. Once in a month I want some kind of overview, but extensions like Tab List can give me a popup menu. The tabs needn't be visible constantly!
  - DonHopkins 3y ago
    And the tabs should have pie menus, too.
    - medstrom 3y ago
      Are you serious? Details? This sounds new and interesting.
      - DonHopkins 3y ago
        See my other posts, and the links! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39432170 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39432170

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

I use Firefox as my alternate browser. And whenever I fire it up it needs first to get in my way and interrupt me to tell me about the new changes and features it has implemented since the last time I opened it like Pocket, VPN, etc. God, stop it, just let me start browsing what I came here for, stop imitating Microsoft and their dark patterns of shoving Office 365 and Gamepass in your face between updates. Go and advertise your features to people who don't yet have Firefox installed, but I'm already your "customer", so stop bugging me. This is why I'm mainly on Chrome. It may be inferior and spying on me but it never gets in my way.

hobs 3y ago
Damn that new tab must pop up for me like... once a month! What a distraction! I guess giving all my data to Google is probably worth it.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  Joke all you want but Firefox's market share agrees with me as most users value convenience above all else. At least Google knows not to be intrusive and not fuck with the UI so often. Chrome looks almost exactly like it did over 10 years ago. Why can't Firefox imitate that quality of life feature? It's not that hard to not change shit at the surface. They've been bleeding market share for years including faithful long time users who enjoyed the 'old, boring' Firefox but don't agree with the current direction of imitating Chrome at every step. Old Firefox = Windows 7 New Firefox = Windows 11
  - medstrom 3y ago
    But your premise that one is more intrusive, isn't even true. Like others said by now, Chrome does the same thing if you don't open it often.
  - hobs 3y ago
    I would agree that most people would be glad to give up their privacy for minor convenience. if I was a developer of Firefox I might care that its marketshare is falling, but truthfully nobody needs to be married to a web browser, or take its rise and fall too seriously. Still not going to use a Google browser though, that's just a self own.
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      The rise and fall reflects user popularity. And Firefox is less popular than ever, with both the new generation who grew up only knowing Safari and Chrome, and also with the old generation who they pissed off by trying to copy the shitty parts of Chrome instead of staying true to what made them popular in the first place such as speed, light weight, and getting out of your way by not charging the UI every 6 weeks.
      - yoavm 3y ago
        Sure, maybe everyone left Firefox because of the "what's new" tab and the UI changes. But maybe it's because Safari is default on some devices, and Chrome has the world biggest marketing company behind it.
        FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        Of course Google won the browser war mainly because they're World Heavyweight Advertising Moneybags World Champion, but Firefox also did itself no favors by annoying it's old and faithful userbase with often, unnecessary and unpopular UI changes a while ago.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    Google mainly knows how to display ads. The raise of Chrome wasn't so much about features at the time as about people being bombarded with "install chrome" ads. On Google results, in Gmail, in Adsense, everywhere. There was an absurd amount of money sacrificed (not really spent since the ads were internal) to gain the users. I'm not sure any other aspect can be reliably compared in that scenario.
yoavm 3y ago
I feel exactly this way, but about Chrome. I suspect it's just bias - I only open Chrome once a week or so so this screen is very annoying. Firefox is always open so I don't even recall seeing anything like that.
pprotas 3y ago
Chrome automatically opens up a tab with an ad for their new features after every automatic update. Isn’t that kind of the same thing?
- dathinab 3y ago
  yes hand the amount of times Firefox has done so in the last few years is also just a handful (like less then 1 time per year in average) And some of this notifications where really reasonable to have like the containers. (Except the color thingy, that was some nonsense.) The only exception is if you somehow end up in a situation where the browser (profile) is for whatever reason frequently fully reset, in which case you might have seen the same notification multiple times.

mikae1 3y ago

Install Sidebery[1] and hide the native tabs[2]. This is the way. :) [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ [2] https://superuser.com/a/1424494 https://superuser.com/a/1424494

medstrom 3y ago
I have neither! No visible tabs at all. Just cycle tabs with Ctrl+Tab hotkey. This is clean. Once in a month I want some kind of overview, but extensions like Tab List can give me a popup menu. The tabs needn't be visible constantly!
- DonHopkins 3y ago
  And the tabs should have pie menus, too.
  - medstrom 3y ago
    Are you serious? Details? This sounds new and interesting.
    - DonHopkins 3y ago
      See my other posts, and the links! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39432170 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39432170