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There is a reason for the taller top chrome: it makes the window easier to drag around. Compared with Chrome, there is a larger window drag area above the inact

There is a reason for the taller top chrome: it makes the window easier to drag around. Compared with Chrome, there is a larger window drag area above the inactive tabs (but not the active tab). I think this is a pretty neat design.

NathanKP 12y ago
On the contrary, Firefox actually has less drag space: http://i.imgur.com/atYV8Xo.png http://i.imgur.com/atYV8Xo.png If you count it by pixel there is 10px of window drag space above the tabs in Firefox, but 11px of window drag space in Chrome. So technically Firefox would be harder to drag around. The thing that is bigger in Firefox is the fat tabs, and all the extra space above and below the address bar, which seems to be there solely for the purpose of allowing the back button to be larger than the address bar. It's a nice looking design touch, but not that much more usable, just wasteful.
- simonster 12y ago
  You are looking at the drag space above the active tab. Only the inactive tabs get expanded drag space. You can see this by putting the mouse pointer above an inactive tab and slowly moving it down. The inactive tab doesn't highlight until you are 3 px(?) within the borders of the tab, and until that point, dragging will drag the window. It's not huge, but having that larger drag target does make the window easier to drag. The tab height difference is also only 3 px, so given that Firefox gives 1 px less above the active tab, it's 1 px "wasted" vertical space for a design that looks much more visually appealing IMO.
  - NathanKP 12y ago
    Good point. Yeah I agree that is a nice feature. Now if Firefox just kept the shrinking of inactive tabs like they currently have, but reduced the size of the back button, and reduced the extra padding around the address bar then they could shrink their browser chrome size to the same size as Google Chrome or even smaller, while making it more usable than Google Chrome.

NathanKP 12y ago

On the contrary, Firefox actually has less drag space: http://i.imgur.com/atYV8Xo.png http://i.imgur.com/atYV8Xo.png If you count it by pixel there is 10px of window drag space above the tabs in Firefox, but 11px of window drag space in Chrome. So technically Firefox would be harder to drag around. The thing that is bigger in Firefox is the fat tabs, and all the extra space above and below the address bar, which seems to be there solely for the purpose of allowing the back button to be larger than the address bar. It's a nice looking design touch, but not that much more usable, just wasteful.

simonster 12y ago
You are looking at the drag space above the active tab. Only the inactive tabs get expanded drag space. You can see this by putting the mouse pointer above an inactive tab and slowly moving it down. The inactive tab doesn't highlight until you are 3 px(?) within the borders of the tab, and until that point, dragging will drag the window. It's not huge, but having that larger drag target does make the window easier to drag. The tab height difference is also only 3 px, so given that Firefox gives 1 px less above the active tab, it's 1 px "wasted" vertical space for a design that looks much more visually appealing IMO.
- NathanKP 12y ago
  Good point. Yeah I agree that is a nice feature. Now if Firefox just kept the shrinking of inactive tabs like they currently have, but reduced the size of the back button, and reduced the extra padding around the address bar then they could shrink their browser chrome size to the same size as Google Chrome or even smaller, while making it more usable than Google Chrome.