Firefox 4.0 mockups

[Descartes]

How the hell am I supposed to drag the window with the tab bar occupying almost the entire titlebar space? Aim for the tiny empty area next to the icon?

[Inctye]

How the hell am I supposed to drag the window with the tab bar occupying almost the entire titlebar space? Aim for the tiny empty area next to the icon?

Yeah, that is pretty much how it is done with Chrome, but not really a big deal once you get used to it. I wouldn'y be surprised if they bundled both version A and B by default, and then let you choose which style you prefer rather than forcing it on everyone. There are always those few people who just rebel against everything.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Wow, they actually took the progress line from MSN Explorer...

[DrCheese]

Tabs on top is horrible, just because chrome does it, why does firefox?

[ViperAFK]

Tabs on top is horrible, just because chrome does it, why does firefox?

A lot of people would argue that it is better and gives more screen real estate along with other advantages. They aren't doing it "just because chrome is" and other browsers like opera have done it long before chrome.

[PT 13]

Tabs on top is horrible, just because chrome does it, why does firefox?

Agreed, it's the worst of the 2 "options"

[bigmehdi]

I prefer tabs on bottom , because:

1) I still want the title bar

2) I don't like that tabs, are located in "same line" as close/maximize/minimize buttons . This might induce problem in usability.

3) The extension "tab mix plus", allows to display tabs on multiple lines, with the B theme , that's not possible.

4) Looks too much like google chrome, and I'm not a fan of it.

[DrCheese]

A lot of people would argue that it is better and gives more screen real estate along with other advantages. They aren't doing it "just because chrome is" and other browsers like opera have done it long before chrome.

Then those people should use other browsers or install an extension that lets them changing it. If that can't be done on the current firefox, then I'm all for them adding an option. Moving the tab bar is such a massive change to existing users of the browser. There's a reason that Apple went back on it's choice of having it up the top in the early Safari 4 beta's

[Denis W. Veteran]

In Version B, there's no need for Page and Tools to have text beside them. The button is too unnecessarily big.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

I'm for option B, more screen real estate for the actual page content.

Lastly, why do we even need a "Go" button? There doesn't need to be anything physical to click on for the Go function. If you're typing in the address bar you just press enter. Only a cretin types in an address then grabs the mouse, moves the pointer to the go button and clicks it. It just not necessary. Just press enter for God's sake.

[Denis W. Veteran]

There is a reason why Go is sometimes needed, on these forums anyway.

Sometimes you attempt to view the last unread post, and if pictures don't download in time, the page continues to reflow until it finishes loading, so your actual last unread post gets shoved up or down a number of pixels. You can then simply hit Go to jump right to the last unread post.

It's better in my opinion to do that than clicking on the address bar to return focus to it, then hitting Enter.

Firefox, Opera, and maybe IE (not sure though) correctly jump you to the last unread post without reloadng the page if you hit the Go button after a page is done loading. Chrome doesn't; it always insists on reloading the page.

[Salty Wagyu]

I at least hope they keep both versions A and B in final release so we can choose what we like best via the options. And Mozilla could either set A or B as default on install based on app feedback from beta.

[Ayepecks]

I don't mind either option, I just wish they'd not go away from OS integration.

[i_was_here]

^ Amen.

Also it makes me wonder if the Firefox 4.0 mockup could be applied to OSX and Linux.

[Owen W Veteran]

^ Amen.

Also it makes me wonder if the Firefox 4.0 mockup could be applied to OSX and Linux.

Actually they are changing that too, I believe. There's an empty Wiki page just waiting to be edited here

[Inctye]

Actually they are changing that too, I believe. There's an empty Wiki page just waiting to be edited here

I think they are just primarily focusing on the Windows platform, as it has the largest Firefox base. But, they certainly will apply the changes once they finalize the Windows skins.

[ViperAFK]

Saw this post on digg, looks like they will support tabs on top and bottom:

Hi, Alexander Limi from the Firefox User Experience team here.

Let me try to clear up some common questions that are raised here ? and feel free to ask more questions, I'll try to keep an eye on replies to this comment. Some of these are taken from the Reddit thread, since it hit there a little bit earlier, I hope you don't mind me re-using my answers:):)

"I really like this, but hope that all the interface customization ability stays in place" ? That is indeed one of our goals with this. You should be able to go back to something very, very close to what you're using right now, regardless of what that is.

"I love tabs on top! / I hate tabs on top!" ? Fortunately, we want to support both. What we ship with as the default isn't decided yet, but it's pretty clear that there are compelling reasons to have both available as options.

"It looks just like Chrome! Where's the innovation?" ? Chrome was not the first browser to have tabs on top, not the first browser to have glyphs instead of icons for the buttons, etc. If you read the proposal, there's a lot of new interesting things hidden here (home tab, progress bar, the stop/reload/go combination), but it's not all expanded on at once. Just because another browser has something, doesn't mean we *have* to do it differently. There's a lot of cool things in all the major browsers these days.

"Why are they doing this instead of focusing on speed and memory usage optimizations?" ? Because they are done by different people, and once does not preclude the other. We can do both, and there's a lot of effort invested in stuff like this as we speak ? vastly improved startup time for Firefox 3.6, etc. Follow the Mozilla blogs at planet.mozilla.org if you want the in:)de scoop. :)

"Whoever thought it was a good idea to remove the menu bar?" ? Quite a number of other browsers. But to give you a proper answer, the amount of functionality you use in day-to-day use of the browser really isn't that large, so having a dedicated bar for the menu makes less sense. On the Mac side, things work differently, and the menu bar will probably stay in place, as the OS X user interface has a different approach to menus.

Also, we have some cool s?t lined up for this that isn't in thes;)mock-ups yet. ;)

"I think tabs on the side or having no tabs at all is a better approach" ? We want to support this too. See the article on this here: http://limi.net/articles/reinventing-tabs-for-the- ...

Let me know if you have other questions! I'll keep an eye out and try to answer as many as I can.

? Alexander Limi ? Firefox User Experience

[Ayepecks]

Very cool. ^

[Kyle A]

Finally... I've been waiting for something like this. Good to see the quality too. There are too many user-created glass themes that even though they are mostly good attempts to match Aero/Glass, they have little bugs and quirks. This looks nice and polished. (Y)

[LUTZIFER]

Well At least the buttons can be moved, cuz personally, I think the buttons being on the far right is awful, especially when you click Bookmarks, and the list opens on the wrong side, cuz it has no choice but to. Same goes with the Tools.

And tabs on top is very ugly, but then again, I hate tabs period, and have never used them on any browser.

I don't understand why Mozilla would copy Google Chrome, cuz that's the ugliest browser ever. They should make firefox look more like IE 8, which in my opinion, is designed very well.

[OnePostWonder]

I think it looks absolutely stunning. But I will agree, they are mimicking Chrome and Windows 7.

But hey, go with whats popular before everyone else does ;) or get left behind

[Minifig]

Call me crazy, but I'd like to see the URL bar and search bar down near the status bar, and the tabs up near the top.

My reasoning?

My mouse spends 90 to 100% of the time at the bottom of a browser anyway, when I'm reading pages, so when I'm done reading a page, I could just move it over to type in a new page at the bottom of the browser.

Note if ANY DESIGNERS SEE THIS: I'm copy-writing the idea.

[Ci7]

Call me crazy, but I'd like to see the URL bar and search bar down near the status bar, and the tabs up near the top.

My reasoning?

My mouse spends 90 to 100% of the time at the bottom of a browser anyway, when I'm reading pages, so when I'm done reading a page, I could just move it over to type in a new page at the bottom of the browser.

Note if ANY DESIGNERS SEE THIS: I'm copy-writing the idea.

that sound about good idea.

*run to nearest phone*

*looking for quick line to patent the idea*

*hiding before Andy notice me and get angry * :shiftyninja:

[primexx]

Call me crazy, but I'd like to see the URL bar and search bar down near the status bar, and the tabs up near the top.

My reasoning?

My mouse spends 90 to 100% of the time at the bottom of a browser anyway, when I'm reading pages, so when I'm done reading a page, I could just move it over to type in a new page at the bottom of the browser.

Note if ANY DESIGNERS SEE THIS: I'm copy-writing the idea.

my mouse is usually at the center of the page.

Plus I wouldn't want to have to drag the mouse the entire height of the screen just so I can select a tab and immediately change the URL. It just makes sense for all the interface elements that are related to be located near each other.

[OnePostWonder]

my mouse is usually at the center of the page.

Plus I wouldn't want to have to drag the mouse the entire height of the screen just so I can select a tab and immediately change the URL. It just makes sense for all the interface elements that are related to be located near each other.

Same, its always bobbing all over the center.

Another problem with this idea is that 99% of not EVERY website is designed around top navigation.

and that would be Because all browsers have top navigation.