Firefox 3 to go native in appearance

[mlauzon76]

What do you get when you cross a Firefox with a chameleon?

An open-source Web browser whose user interface is adapted to the look of the operating system it's running on. One change planned for the upcoming Firefox version 3, code-named Gran Paradiso, is this more native appearance.

"The Web browser is an incredibly central piece of the user's operating system, and we don't want the user's initial reaction to be that they have modified their computer to add some type of strange, foreign application," said Mozilla interface designer Alex Faaborg in a blog posting last week. "Mozilla's user experience team literally wants to do a better job of visually integrating with Windows than IE, and a better job of visually integrating with OS X than Safari. I don't know if we will be able to pull that off, but that's the goal."

Firefox will have different looks for Windows XP and Windows Vista, but the much broader diversity of Linux interface options makes it more challenging. Red Hat, Suse and Ubuntu all look different, just to name three popular versions, and as a further complication, each is available with the KDE and GNOME graphical interfaces.

"We still aren't sure what the best way to visually integrate with Linux is, given the number of different distributions," Faaborg said. He also referred those interested in the issue to related posts by lead Firefox engineer Mike Connor and Firefox user experience leader Mike Beltzner, who detailed some of the problems.

The Firefox native-look approach goes counter to one trend.

There was a time when user interface guidelines for operating systems were rigorously set. Buttons and menus and scroll bars had to look and behave in a certain way so computer users would know what to expect and have an easier time figuring out how to accomplish what they wanted.

But user interfaces today are exploding in diversity. Years ago, software such as media players forsook a traditional appearance in favor of an interface that looks like a car radio. Followed suit are a profusion of smaller programs called widgets and gadgets such as clocks or weather monitors. And rich Internet applications, which run in Web browsers, are designed to look the same across operating systems.

Software that's adapted for multiple operating systems always faces something of an identity crisis. Should the software look the same from one operating system to the next, providing a familiar look regardless of where it's running, or should it fit in with the local system?

Faaborg said he believes people will imprint more on what Firefox can do than on how exactly it looks.

"I personally think Firefox has in the past established its identity through interactions as opposed to the visual design of the interface itself," he said, citing for example people's recognition of the tabbed browser windows in Firefox 1.0. And users similarly might identify in Firefox 3 with a feature that lets them navigate to a Web page by typing some part of its name in the location bar, with Firefox suggesting full links based on bookmarks and previous pages visited.

"When you think about the difference between Firefox 2 and 3, or the difference between Firefox and other Web browsers, I think it is streamlined interactions like this, or one-click bookmarking, that are likely to spring to mind, as opposed to the application's unique visual style," Faaborg said.

Source: News.com

[Julius Caro]

What about gnome and kde? I guess it is already adapted for gnome since it uses gtk... right?

Nevermind.. xD

[Impact]

I'm gonna say its gonna be next to impossible to beat ie 7 for looking the most like vista.

[Stokkolm]

I'm gonna say its gonna be next to impossible to beat ie 7 for looking the most like vista.

Not really, it's not hard to make it look like Vista. They will make it more useful than the IE7 interface, at least I hope.

[Quillz]

It will, however, be hard for Firefox 3 to look any more native on OS X than Safari. But, hey, at least Firefox 3 is finally using native system widgets.

[Stokkolm]

I've been using the nightly builds and so far I haven't seen any changes. I wonder when they are going to implement it.

[Digitalx]

yeah alpha8 there's nothing major changed in UI besides downloads manager really

[Stokkolm]

So far in the a9 nightly's there's nothing changed either.

[shakey_snake]

...you mean prea9 nightlies.

I've always thought Firefox does a pretty good job at mimicking Windows.

[andrew_f]

I agree, fits in well with XP and Ubuntu - but on Vista it has a weird purple tint and on OS X it just looks out of place - although it's slightly better with the addition of aqua/cocoa controls in the nightlies.

Also - I hope they add the close button on tabs to the left - moving from Safari it's very confusing and also the scrolling needs smoothened out - without it is too jagged and enabling the current option makes it really slow, then fast and then slow again - its a really annoying effect/bug and makes me feel dizzy.

[night_stalker_z]

They had native interface before then didnt and now they are going to again. So far it looks nice enough that I dont need a theme.

[Thaumbody]

I've been using the nightly builds and so far I haven't seen any changes. I wonder when they are going to implement it.

From what I read in the builds forum and elsewhere, the changes to the UIs will start to happen with Beta 1 and be fully implemented by the Final Release. The main problem is fitting all 120 icons that Firefox uses to each OS. This website mentions the icons needed

[duntkno]

^yup. cant wait for that beta, will probably be out next year...

[xankazo]

that's gonna be a interesting beta to try out.

[Ayepecks]

AWESOME!

Firefox and Firefox 2 just don't look good in Vista unless you skin the heck out of them... very glad about this :)

[medosa]

can't wait more ..............................

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

im using the "leaked beta" now and it seems to load stuff a little faster and there is little things i have noticed that have been tweaked since 2, such as assigning applications to file types :p

[mancode20]

How is Firefox 3 the "leaked beta" compared to Opera 9.5 in terms of speed?

[shockz]

im using the "leaked beta" now and it seems to load stuff a little faster and there is little things i have noticed that have been tweaked since 2, such as assigning applications to file types :p

You mean a nightly???

[dysmatik]

How will this affect the use of themes? Will themes have to be OS specific rather than universal?

[mancode20]

Didn't realize my post went through. My browser crashed. Ironically it was Opera.

[CloudEngineer]

How is Firefox 3 "the leaked beta" compared to Opera 9.5 in terms of speed? Rendering pages and stuff like that.

there's no such thing as a leaked beta for firefox because all builds are public.

[shakey_snake]

a8 (2007091216 GranParadiso/3.0a8) seems quite a bit quicker than my 2.0.0.9 install, but that could just be because my Gran Paradiso profile has fewer extensions.

[ViperAFK]

Are they going to bring back native looking tabs? I loved that about 1.5, the tabs in 2.0 are kind of ugly and don't really fit.

[Aaron44126]

Going to be cool (I hope) but it's not in yet.

(Firefox 2 didn't get its new theme until around Beta 2, and they continued changing it even after that.)