This may sound like heresy, but I think Internet Explorer has the right balance between tab space and the URL bar. It's not perfect, but it is smaller than in F

This may sound like heresy, but I think Internet Explorer has the right balance between tab space and the URL bar. It's not perfect, but it is smaller than in Firefox and Chrome, while still being usable. I'm waiting for a complete "Sane" plugin in Firefox that has all the modifications you mentioned rolled into one.