Firefox Australis

[R0H1T]

The new UI has made it onto the nightly builds & its fugly to say the least D:

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, it's a joke. They remove functionality, and say they're making it more customizable by removing options to customize. Orwell would be proud.

 

[R0H1T]

Yea, it's a joke. They remove functionality, and say they're making it more customizable by removing options to customize. Orwell would be proud.

Don't think it'll stick though, I've seen this UI sometime before on the UX branch & it was dropped midway in favor of the traditional FF skin. I think Mozilla is just experimenting with these builds & if they see a backlash they'll be quick to revert the offending changes unlike what MS & Google do with their closed source browsers.

 

[lxskllr]

Don't think it'll stick though, I've seen this UI sometime before on the UX branch & it was dropped midway in favor of the traditional FF skin. I think Mozilla is just experimenting with these builds & if they see a backlash they'll be quick to revert the offending changes unlike what MS & Google do with their closed source browsers.

Everything I've read said this is the way it'll be. They give piss poor arguments for their decision, and ignore competing opinions. This has been in the works for a long time, and they've put a lot of work in it. Experimentation is over, and only minor tweaks are left. There's supposed to be an addon that reverts the changes upon release, but we'll have to see.

Pale Moon would be a good option for Windows users. I use Debian, and don't know what I'll be doing. Either hoping for a fork, or I'll switch to Seamonkey.

 

[R0H1T]

Everything I've read said this is the way it'll be. They give piss poor arguments for their decision, and ignore competing opinions. This has been in the works for a long time, and they've put a lot of work in it. Experimentation is over, and only minor tweaks are left. There's supposed to be an addon that reverts the changes upon release, but we'll have to see.

Pale Moon would be a good option for Windows users. I use Debian, and don't know what I'll be doing. Either hoping for a fork, or I'll switch to Seamonkey.

You could try the ESR branch which brings all the latest security patches minus the abhorrently frequent & annoying updates ~ 24.1.1esr

 

[lxskllr]

You could try the ESR branch which brings all the latest security patches minus the abhorrently frequent & annoying updates ~ 24.1.1esr

That'll buy a bit of time, but I still need a solution. I'm currently on 26, and I'll pin the last old version when Australis hits the Aurora channel. Being on Debian, I'm somewhat isolated from security problems. It's not a magic bullet, but there's fewer attacks against my system.

:shrugs: I'm posting from Australis now. I'll edit some screenshots in. Forecastfox is nowhere to be found, and there's no place to put it without an addon bar. I can't put navigation buttons where I want, and it doesn't honor my icon theme. I'm pissed, and there's no one to tell it to because Mozilla doesn't listen :^S

Edit:
My old setup. It took me a bit to put things back, and it still isn't 100%. Loading Australis hosed my setup :^S

Australis

 

[R0H1T]

That'll buy a bit of time, but I still need a solution. I'm currently on 26, and I'll pin the last old version when Australis hits the Aurora channel. Being on Debian, I'm somewhat isolated from security problems. It's not a magic bullet, but there's fewer attacks against my system.

:shrugs: I'm posting from Australis now. I'll edit some screenshots in. Forecastfox is nowhere to be found, and there's no place to put it without an addon bar. I can't put navigation buttons where I want, and it doesn't honor my icon theme. I'm pissed, and there's no one to tell it to because Mozilla doesn't listen :^S

Edit:
My old setup. It took me a bit to put things back, and it still isn't 100%. Loading Australis hosed my setup :^S

Australis

Like I said I do think & certainly hope that Mozilla wouldn't stick to Australis but as for you why don't you backup the profile manually, or use FEBE addon, & move onto the stable/ESR channel & see how the UI evolves cause I expect Mozilla not to go down that "chrome UI" route permanently as it'll definitely hurt them in the long run.

 

[jigglywiggly]

Looks great to me.
Your theme at the top looks pretty unappealing to me, the australis theme looks much bellow.

And you pick low contrasting colors, hard to read.

Honestly, your the last person I would ask for advice for something like this, a Linux user about UI? Better to ask your average person.

 

[lxskllr]

Looks great to me.
Your theme at the top looks pretty unappealing to me, the australis theme looks much bellow.

And you pick low contrasting colors, hard to read.

That's fine if you don't like my setup. The great thing about freedom is you're free to use what you want. Now imagine if my setup were mandated. Would you be happy about that?

Now tell me what your comment has to do with the discussion at hand...

 

[jigglywiggly]

There is no way they can manage two themes, it's too much work.

I am sure someone will release a legacy FF theme.

The new tab design takes up less space at the top of the browser. That's reason alone for me looking forward to it.

 

[lxskllr]

There is no way they can manage two themes, it's too much work.

I am sure someone will release a legacy FF theme.

It's not merely a "theme". They've removed the addon bar. They've combined the navigation buttons with the url bar. They've removed menu options for customization... There's nothing Australis adds that couldn't be done with the old model, aside from curvy tabs, and a crappy menu. Those would be a trivial addition.

Btw, my browser isn't themed at all. Both screenshots show a vanilla setup, aside from addons installed, and button placement.

 

[balloonshark]

I've been rocking a minimal "top of the browser" look for a very long time. What made it great was that I and others had the choice to go minimalistic or go all out and add anything we wanted.

A browser is about viewing and using the internet the way I want and not about forcing me to view the internet the way some company wants me to. What is wrong with giving people options nowadays?

 

[crashtestdummy]

I see both sides of it. You're right that they could have left in the option of having the addon bar and other components. It would be theoretically easy to have a design that can alternate between the "clean" look of something like chrome and the more full-featured interface that you have. What Mozilla is trying to do, though, is force extension developers to minimize the visual footprint of their design.

Firefox walks a fine line between being an enthusiast browser and a mainstream browser. Most users prefer the simpler, smoother look that chrome has. In order to retain market share (especially with the increasing dominance of Android as a major internet-viewing OS), it needs to appeal to these users. At the same time, it still does want to add features and extensibility over what other browsers provide.

Unfortunately, those paths have diverged enough that I'm not sure it can achieve both goals well enough to make everyone happy. Leaving in the possibility of an addon bar (and thus the ability of extension developers to use it) maintains the reputation Firefox has of being "clunky" and "cluttered", which will lose it more users than keeping the addon bar will hold onto.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Hands-on with Firefox’s new “Australis” interface

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/hands-on-with-firefoxs-
new-australis-interface

 

[ninaholic37]

And you pick low contrasting colors, hard to read.

I disagree. I find white text on dark backgrounds (like the one in lxskllr's pic) a lot clearer and easier to read. There is an accessibility feature integrated into Windows called "High Contrast Mode" which I've used regularly for years, and guess what the colors are? White text on black background! And it's designed specifically for people who can't see well. I suppose you believe the designers of Windows are wrong for calling white on black "High Contrast Mode" and calling it an accessibility feature? When I read your reply, I immediately thought "What a strange little man". :awe: