Firefox 29 Beta (And The UI Overhaul)

bigdogchris

Fully [H]
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
18,697
For those who don't know already, the Firefox 29 beta has the UI overhaul, Australis, enabled by default.

What are your thoughts on the update? Does the browser feel any faster to you?
 
I tried it for a few days, and switched back to Chrome. Firefox still, and always has, felt more clunky then Chrome in my eyes. Gave the new one a chance, and Chrome still felt smoother. I will try the beta though, as I was trying Aurora, but I doubt it's changed much.
 
I have not tried Firefox in a long time. Downloading the beta now to give it a shot.
 
I noticed in 29 you can click the bookmarks button and click "View Bookmarks Sidebar" like you used to be able to.
 
I'm going to admit something. At first I was really irritated by the new UI because I thought it was an outright attempt to look like Chrome. Regardless of if that's true or not, this new UI is freeking slick.

One of the things I really like about it is it seems to be an actual true UI replacement. The stuff they've been doing since FF 4 was just a skin. Sometimes when you clicked popup links you got the skin stripped off. This UI is the real deal.

A couple things I'd like changed is more ability to customize the UI. They won't let you move the refresh button, which I use a lot. I also miss my status indicator.
 
Last edited:
Sticking with FF25 since them removed the legacy download window and replaced it with download history.
 
I'm not looking forward to this, TBH.
I switched from Chrome back to Fx because of the customizing.
I hope they don't drop too much of that with Australis...might have to fire this up portable and/or in a VM to play around and see what's up.

May end up switching to ESR.
 
Making your UI more like Chrome (a UI disaster and abomination) is one of the worst ideas ever. What's next - single row tab bar that can't be resized and random crashes?
 
Making your UI more like Chrome (a UI disaster and abomination) is one of the worst ideas ever. What's next - single row tab bar that can't be resized and random crashes?

Well someone at least created this but by and large yes I agree.....and again I'm probably going to switch to the ESR or stay at 28.

Before, I was happy with one of the older releases (before the RR cycle started...3.6 something I think). I'm finally at a point where I'm happy with 27/28 and not wanting to switch again.
 
Firefox 29 and the UI overhaul went live today. You have to go into the Help -> About Firefox to manually update to it. The download link on the website isn't up yet.
 
Thanks for the heads-up... The UI change doesn't seem intrusive to me, and the new changes are not getting in my way.
 
Ugh, where's the "use small icons" checkmark/button? No longer listed under 'Customize' [toolbars].
I'm going to give this new UI a shot, but that's already one thing that (initially) is irritating me.
 
Ugh, where's the "use small icons" checkmark/button? No longer listed under 'Customize' [toolbars].
I'm going to give this new UI a shot, but that's already one thing that (initially) is irritating me.
Somehow when I upgraded, all my icons were small and I did something to make them larger again but can't remember now. The setting may still be there. I upgraded for 28 without wiping settings.
 
Classic Theme Restorer lets you have the small buttons, but the tabs look off (and almost 'separate' from the top of the window).

wRORuth.png


It sounds like there's a split of likes and hates, and I'm hoping maybe they decide to update and let people revert to the old non-Australis theme.

I just don't like this. I used to love Chrome, but now that I've been used to Firefox again, I prefer the Firefox way. I would have thought that anyone and everyone would have learned from Microsoft's blatant disregard for a massive UI shift without letting people stick with what they know. :confused:

Forget it. Pale Moon it is.
 
Last edited:
How you people like this I don't even know? It really sucks. I know I can change it on my own but still.
 
It doesn't look that bad, I don't think the color is that great though.
 
Go into the customization and toggle the Title Bar box.

My chief complaint is the wasted vertical space, too. Removing the title bar doesn't do justice. MrGuvernment, you might want to check MicroFox theme out.
 
My chief complaint is the wasted vertical space, too. Removing the title bar doesn't do justice. MrGuvernment, you might want to check MicroFox theme out.
I guess I'm not following you. FF29 is slimmer than FF28. Are you talking about using small icons?

Also checked it on an XP station. Runs very well.
 
I'm not sure if you're blind or not. See http://arstechnica.com/information-...h-firefox-29-more-customizable-more-chrome-y/

See the green portion? That's a lot of wasted space. Maybe some people like it.
/shrug. No, not blind. The XP station I'm on right now the tabs are directly at the top of the screen. There is no space like the image you linked to. I'll have to check my Windows 8 box later to see if there's a space like that on there.

*edit* Just checked on Windows 8 and that space is not there, either.

*edit 2* I just realized that Firefox does add that bar for the windows control buttons if you are running in Windowed mode. When you look at the picture, you clearly see that the fullscreen button is not enabled. Since all applications do this, I think it's unfair to specifically target FF for this.
 
Last edited:
Firefox 31 was released today.

The hidden gem not in the patch notes is that they added a close button on a single tab. It's a blessing!
 
i'm really getting fucking tired of using firefox. random, stupid problems come up with every new release and all the old issues are never fixed. for the past 6 months youtube videos won't play the first time, i always have to refresh the page, and if i skip around the video too much it won't load anymore. the update two or three days ago randomly moved my addon icons and enlarged one of them to be bigger than the others (wtf??), and after the update last night, the entire browser starts hitching every few seconds. it also won't stay at a constant framerate which makes scrolling look like choppy shit, regardless of all the tweaks you can make in about:config. god i wish chrome had support for the addons/customization i need. why is every browser such a piece of shit?
 
i'm really getting fucking tired of using firefox. random, stupid problems come up with every new release and all the old issues are never fixed. for the past 6 months youtube videos won't play the first time, i always have to refresh the page, and if i skip around the video too much it won't load anymore. the update two or three days ago randomly moved my addon icons and enlarged one of them to be bigger than the others (wtf??), and after the update last night, the entire browser starts hitching every few seconds. it also won't stay at a constant framerate which makes scrolling look like choppy shit, regardless of all the tweaks you can make in about:config. god i wish chrome had support for the addons/customization i need. why is every browser such a piece of shit?
Maybe the problems you experience are due to the add-ons and about:config changes. Have you ever thought about removing the browser and deleting your profile then starting back with an absolutely fresh, unmodified version and see if your problems persist? I don't get any of those types of errors but I also don't make many changes to the browser. I do occasionally have delays with YouTube videos playing that are embedded in other sites but I just copy the URL and go to YouTube to watch them and it works fine.
 
Back
Top