Mozilla Readies Major Firefox Redesign

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Mozilla is getting ready to introduce its redesigned Firefox browser to such an extent that Mozilla even wants to stop referring to Firefox as a browser. The new version called Australis, will be highly customizable to the user’s needs and tastes while remaining simple to use. Expect to see Australis working its way through the Dev channels soon and introduced as a stable product sometime in late fall.

The idea behind Australis was to design a browser that was just as capable as today, but simpler to use. The team was also tasked to look closely at how people actually use their browsers and then design the user experience around this.
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For the time being I've blocked automatic updating. I have too many web development addons installed that are apt to be incompatible Australis.
 
I gave up on Firefox long ago. Started out as the baddest ass browser on the planet, but meh....Chrome for me now.:cool:
 
I still can't let go of Firefox because I've become too accustomed to certain add-ons.
 
And I thought Chrome was horrid. The UI in new programs is utter trash. I am still using 3.6 and am thinking of upgrading to the current version though there are UI changes in that which slow down the interface. I can't imagine using this garbage of a UI. :rolleyes:
 
This update will be 2 full version number increases... I'll wager.
 
Mozilla has been infected by the same disease that the GNOME programmers have. They are so concerned with their precious brand image and "user experience" that they don't care how hard it ends up actually being to use the program. Anytime someone complains, they are either "using it wrong" or it is because we are not designing a browser for people who want to <insert basic feature here>.

Australis does not make it more customizable On the contrary, it makes it less. One of the plans is to remove the addon bar at the bottom; forcing all addons to live at the top in the navigation bar (It may or may not happen in Firefox 25 but I don't see them giving up their quest on this). That means no more status bar addons, for example. They are also trying to get rid of the ability to have multiple toolbars as well as the ability to remove the back and forward buttons (some people use addons that allow for keyboard navigation such as Pentadactyl and have no need for such things). They are even talking about removing the ability to disable Javascript from the preferences menu because an idiot user might accidentally turn it off and break a bunch of webpages.

The new interface violates a ton of basic interface design guidelines, not the least of which is the invisible tabs. Tabs in the title bar are inappropriate for a number of reasons and it was bad when they did that in Firefox 4 but making it so that it isn't even apparent there is a control there is even worse. Curved tabs ensure that more space is wasted.
 
Firefox for life.

Running it on my Windows 98 VMs
Running it on my XP machine
Running it on my Windows 8 machine
Running it on my Linux machine

Not a fan of the name/logo/UI of "Australis" though.
 
damicatz said:
Mozilla has been infected by the same disease that the GNOME programmers have. They are so concerned with their precious brand image and "user experience" that they don't care how hard it ends up actually being to use the program. Anytime someone complains, they are either "using it wrong" or it is because we are not designing a browser for people who want to <insert basic feature here>.

Australis does not make it more customizable On the contrary, it makes it less. One of the plans is to remove the addon bar at the bottom; forcing all addons to live at the top in the navigation bar (It may or may not happen in Firefox 25 but I don't see them giving up their quest on this). That means no more status bar addons, for example. They are also trying to get rid of the ability to have multiple toolbars as well as the ability to remove the back and forward buttons (some people use addons that allow for keyboard navigation such as Pentadactyl and have no need for such things). They are even talking about removing the ability to disable Javascript from the preferences menu because an idiot user might accidentally turn it off and break a bunch of webpages.

The new interface violates a ton of basic interface design guidelines, not the least of which is the invisible tabs. Tabs in the title bar are inappropriate for a number of reasons and it was bad when they did that in Firefox 4 but making it so that it isn't even apparent there is a control there is even worse. Curved tabs ensure that more space is wasted.
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All in the name of touch screen compatibility I presume. Not a fan either though TBH. We'll see how it pans out
 
No matter how horrid the new ui is, if they leave the ability to customize the UI via prefs files then someone could gives us something less jacked up. I too miss the 3.6 version UI though. Wish someone would find a way to glue it atop the newer rendering platform actually. I do some web development and troubleshooting so I'm kind of tied to FF due to the wealth of extensions i find useful.
 
I just hope they are going for "simple" as in "easy" rather than "simple" as in "dumb".

I, quite honestly, don't give a flying fuck if they leave behind the bottom 50 percent who can't differentiate an address bar from a search page.

That's the problem with designing for mental defectives. They're ALWAYS dumber than you can possibly understand or plan for.
 
I hope Australis does not have Chrome's stupid and inflexible UI.

Tab Below
Tab Focus
Ad blocking
 
'STRAYA!!

If it's nice and minimalist (or easily customisable to) like chrome I could change.
Switching from chrome to anything else in the past has just pissed me off.
 
It's always interesting how people can be fanatically in love with / hateful toward web browsers when they're all practically identical.
 
Its obvious that either the people in control of firefox are in love with Chrome or are trying to get hired to the Chrome project.

If the people at firefox want their browser to be Chrome, why would I want it. I'll just a grab a Chrome variant instead of a wannabe.
 
Plain and simple it took them to 2008 to get me on they're system which I love . . but if they change, My original IE browser has gotten stronger in this lapse of time and Ill switch without hesitation :D Please firefox do what you do best a browser
 
The team was also tasked to look closely at how people actually use their browsers and then design the user experience around this.
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Like MS 're-imagined' Office & W's8?

let us pray
 
Ill give it a shot but I always seem to wind up back on Chrome. Just tried the new Opera Next tonight and was back on Chrome in a matter of hours. Firefox was always my 2nd choice and 99% as good as Chrome so maybe a total redesign will make up the extra 1%. Hope they dont screw it up.
 
I really hate the trend of "newbie-fying" computers. I hated the Mac, I hated Windows when it first came out, and every time someone redesigns the interface on an OS or browser they move all the controls, hide what's important, or make it so you have to jump through three extra steps to get to what was instantly available before. Throw in the move away from printed text menus that make sense to stupid pictograms that even ancient Egyptians would have trouble understanding and it gets even more frustrating. Windows 8 Metro is the pinnacle of this march toward idiocy. I wish people would quit reinventing the wheel and start optimizing their bloated, inefficient code instead.
 
So.... um..... browsers are hard to use? And they're fixing this? Or something?

I mean. I use the three big ones. They go to sites. And render them. There are favorites. What else is there? It's not about the browser. I don't give a fuck about anything other than perf and site rendering.
 
I think Mozilla is just trolling at this point... first they shamelessly rip off the look of opera now it's chrome, wonder when we get to see Firefox IE ripoff edition 2.0. It's really hard to have any respect for Mozilla anymore.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Funny... my needs were more than met way back in 3.6 land.
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My needs were more than met when it was still called Phoenix... and they had to go and fuck it up.

Back in the day when it was a fork to make it the leanest browser and the Mozilla suite was too bloated and unwieldy... they assume the fork as the primary browser... and go and make it all bloated and unwieldy again.

Meanwhile everyone else has already switched to Chrome.
 
Phoenix333 said:
I really hate the trend of "newbie-fying" computers. I hated the Mac, I hated Windows when it first came out, and every time someone redesigns the interface on an OS or browser they move all the controls, hide what's important, or make it so you have to jump through three extra steps to get to what was instantly available before. Throw in the move away from printed text menus that make sense to stupid pictograms that even ancient Egyptians would have trouble understanding and it gets even more frustrating. Windows 8 Metro is the pinnacle of this march toward idiocy. I wish people would quit reinventing the wheel and start optimizing their bloated, inefficient code instead.
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This as well as forcing us to use real names (ever hear of privacy?) and forcing us to tie accounts together is resulting in diminishing utility of the internet and computers in general. I fear in the next 2-3 years computing will be back to pre-2000 standards. Accept everyone will know your name, address, how much you earn and where you live just because you want to browse youtube.
 
They THINK we need new browser over Firefox? That's the mentality of new car dealerships - trying to sell us new cars when we are satisfied with our current cars.
 
It would be nice to have a browser that (by default) knows how to choke off ads that kill battery life, suck up cpu cycles, and burn up lots of electricity.
 
Phoenix333 said:
I really hate the trend of "newbie-fying" computers. I hated the Mac, I hated Windows when it first came out, and every time someone redesigns the interface on an OS or browser they move all the controls, hide what's important, or make it so you have to jump through three extra steps to get to what was instantly available before. Throw in the move away from printed text menus that make sense to stupid pictograms that even ancient Egyptians would have trouble understanding and it gets even more frustrating. Windows 8 Metro is the pinnacle of this march toward idiocy. I wish people would quit reinventing the wheel and start optimizing their bloated, inefficient code instead.
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Amen to that, homes. Gawd damn. You speak the truth.

Almost everything I read in that article sounds horrible to me. I forget when Firefox came out with their current UI but I changed it almost immediately upon first use. I use custom themes and I try to customize everything at the top of the browser as much as they will let me. Not looking forward to Australis and having to spend way more time than I would like trying to get it to look how I want. I've been using FF since the very first version (and before that I used every version of Netscape), and I'm hoping Australis is not gonna run me away from FF cuz I really don't like any of the other browsers.

We don't need new UIs, we don't need the features we use changed, we don't need access to the features and tools we use moved around. All we really need is what Phoenix333 said, for their gawd damn bloated inefficient code to be hella optimized. And maybe a 64-bit version for Windows as their main version (with full support like the Linux version) would also be nice.

And fuck those piece of shit curvy tabs. And I swear, whether it's Windows or the X360 Dashboard or GMail's Contacts view or these damn web browsers, every damn new UI is always fuckin' worse than the one before. Developers continue to surprise me in how much shittier they can make things look and function. And yeah I'm still gonna complain about not being able to put the Win7 Control Panel in a Details list view like I could in Vista and WinXP. I always find a way to bring it up, and I never stop complaining about it.

I just find a lot of these browser changes unnecessary. From the look of this thread, I'm not the only one.

"One area that’s also changing with Australis is how you customize the look and feel of your browser. Mozilla currently offers quite a few tools for this, but the team believes they are hard to find and not 'fun' enough to use."

WTF? This isn't a video game. I don't need my browser to be "fun" to use. It was already simple enough to use and highly functional. I knew where everything was and how to use it. It didn't need to change.

Several people in this thread seem to miss Firefox from around the v3.6 days, and hells yeah so do I.

They need to stop tacking on new useless features. Firefox was already great and then after it hit its peak long ago the devs really started slipping up. But so far none of it has been bad enough to make me go running for the hills (although the fact that I like the other browsers even less is at least partially responsible).

I just really really hope they don't fuck up Firefox. Man, is that too damn much to ask for?
 
damicatz said:
More full on stupidity from Mozilla :
http://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/11/mozilla-removes-sensitive-options-from-firefoxs-preference-window/

Because of course, no company would ever run their own internal CA and thus want to load their own root certificates.

And of course, why would anyone need to turn off Javascript? You should just trust the code that all websites run.
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Oh gawd damnit Mozilla, are you fuckin' serious?!

"While changes to some of these preferences may have an effect on the browsing experience and usability, I'd prefer them to stay available in the browser. For me, it is like saying 'our users can't be trusted with making decisions on their own, therefore we need to make decisions for them'."

Yeah, pretty much. Damnit, I can't fuckin' stand it when devs take control away from the users, especially when the user is already used to having such controls be available.
 
DrezKill said:
Oh gawd damnit Mozilla, are you fuckin' serious?!

"While changes to some of these preferences may have an effect on the browsing experience and usability, I'd prefer them to stay available in the browser. For me, it is like saying 'our users can't be trusted with making decisions on their own, therefore we need to make decisions for them'."

Yeah, pretty much. Damnit, I can't fuckin' stand it when devs take control away from the users, especially when the user is already used to having such controls be available.
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At this point, it basically looks like I'm going to be using Seamonkey full time. Seamonkey is the continuation of the original Mozilla Application Suite. Firefox was created because Mozilla at the time was bloated; ironically, SeaMonkey now is more responsive and uses less memory than Firefox. It also helps that it doesn't have a bunch of morons for developers and that it is mostly compatible with Firefox add-ins (the major ones are already ported and it isn't very difficult to port non-compatible ones).
 
The Lynx UI hasn't changed since 1992 which is ages ago, around 20+ years before I was even born and the current version is 2.8.7rel.2 which means they aren't adding version numbers for no reason like Chrome or changing the UI for no reason like Firefox. Yeah, IE is pretty secure, isn't Chrome-Creepy, and doesn't require a hundred of JoeBlow's Warez-y addons, but smart pet parents pick Lynx.
 
damicatz said:
More full on stupidity from Mozilla :
http://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/11/mozilla-removes-sensitive-options-from-firefoxs-preference-window/

Because of course, no company would ever run their own internal CA and thus want to load their own root certificates.

And of course, why would anyone need to turn off Javascript? You should just trust the code that all websites run.
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At some point you have to wonder if FF is being sabotaged from within? I mean is roughly 1/3 of the browser market and if it goes under both Chrome and IE stand to look good. And then the leadership jumps ship to Google or MS. The FF leadership already did jump ship to Google and I don't blame them. But I have to wonder if that is influencing the leadership at FF.
 
But in the real world people rarely if ever 'customize' their machines or browsers.

If I had a dollar for every old laptop that still defaulted to the OEMs MSN/support page on the browser I'd have quite a lot of dollars.

Once again the reality disconnect of tech developers and real world users.

Most users don't even notice when annoying toolbars appear let alone customize and remove them.
 
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