In 3.0-whatever if I only had one tab open it still had the x to close it on it. Is there any way to have this in 3.5?

you might have to go into tab options and enable it.

i dont think its an option

EDIT:

Found this in about:config

browser.tabs.closeButtons

Then found: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.tabs.closeButtons

which states:

Possible values and their effects

0

Display a close button on the active tab only

1

Display close buttons on all tabs (Default)

2

Don’t display any close buttons

3

Display a single close button at the end of the tab strip (Firefox 1.x behavior)

However, with the integer set to 1, a close button does not appear on a tab if it is the only tab open. It did in previous versions (3.0.*)

I don't know if this is a bug or intended behavior.

You could use the Tab X extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/785

Make sure you bump the max version. You can use Nightly Tester Tools to do it.

I can't remember the bug #, but I recall that there was a long debate over the correct behavior of closing the last tab. Some say that it should just close the window (which is what Chrome does; though this debate predates Chrome), and some say that it doesn't make sense to close the final tab and that it should not be a valid action (which is what IE does). The issue with the status quo was consistency: when more than one tab is open, closing the tab closes the tab, but when there is only one tab open, then the behavior of the command changes to clearing the tab, which is something that many wanted to avoid.

(not that I agree with this change; I'm just pointing out that this new behavior was intended)

In 3.0, there were no tabs being shown when you were only browsing one page. When you opened a new tab, you could then see the tab bar.

In the 3.1 beta, tabs would show at all times. When you clicked close on the only tab up, Firefox closed entirely. Since then, they've made it to where you can't close the only tab being shown. You have to close Firefox which essentially does the same thing really. Really, it'd be nice if closing the only tab simply took you to your home page or a blank page, but that's not how it functions (currently).

You could go to your Tab options and uncheck "Always Show the Tab Bar". This will make it function as the old 3.0 version of Firefox did.

Thanks code, at least now I know it's intended behavior.

Here's a bugzilla about it:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=490166

"browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab" toggle that and it should give you what you want