New Look of Firefox 4.0 - possibly

[amsum]

I have been a Firefox loyal but this week I installed Chrome on my Windows system and wow... it looks it is going to be a serious contender to FF. It is Fast and Secured but what possibly make me to ditch FF is Chrome's Minimalist look (Yes! its UI, It makes my 15 inch screen look like a 17 inch while browsing). FF still has many advantages over Chrome and I don't want to start a FF vs Chrome debate but I wish FF gives us more screen space. It really looks ugly and devoid of space with those 3-4 bars on my widescreen monitor. Then I came across this https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Windows_Theme_Mockups and I must say this is enough to keep me loyal to FF.

[howefield]

(Yes! its UI, It makes my 15 inch screen look like a 17 inch while browsing).

Learning the keyboard shortcuts means you can make maximum use of the F11 full screen switch, if it is screen real estate you are after.

And it's quicker.

[bodhi.zazen]

Moved to the cafe as it does not appear to be a support thread.

[NoaHall]

So they've decided to steal more of Opera's looks? It's almost identical.

[amsum]

Learning the keyboard shortcuts means you can make maximum use of the F11 full screen switch, if it is screen real estate you are after.

And it's quicker.
But it has its own limitations. What if I want to switch between different tabs in the same window.

[geoken]

You can try this theme out (note, it supports a stylish script to put tabs on top -like chrome);

http://spewboy.deviantart.com/art/Strata40-v0-4-3-132191373

http://fc09.deviantart.com/fs50/i/2009/258/a/5/Strata40_Beta_v0_4_3_by_SpewBoy.png

Although it's just a normal theme, it depends on a lot of other stuff (like personal menu and the omni bar extension) so read the instructions before applying the theme.

The first step in the instructions tells you to install a plugin which allows for the transparency in Windows, you can skip this step without issue (or at least I could).

[geoken]

But it has its own limitations. What if I want to switch between different tabs in the same window.


Ctrl+TAB

[amsum]

Ctrl+TAB

thanks!!!

[howefield]

But it has its own limitations. What if I want to switch between different tabs in the same window.

Well, that's easy enough, I see you have the answer though. :)

[kk0sse54]

I have been a Firefox loyal but this week I installed Chrome on my Windows system and wow... it looks it is going to be a serious contender to FF. It is Fast and Secured but what possibly make me to ditch FF is Chrome's Minimalist look (Yes! its UI, It makes my 15 inch screen look like a 17 inch while browsing). FF still has many advantages over Chrome and I don't want to start a FF vs Chrome debate but I wish FF gives us more screen space. It really looks ugly and devoid of space with those 3-4 bars on my widescreen monitor. Then I came across this https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Windows_Theme_Mockups and I must say this is enough to keep me loyal to FF.

Try out vimperator

[Giant Speck]

This will look great in Windows, but I'm curious as to how ugly this is going to look in Linux.

[Excedio]

This will look great in Windows, but I'm curious as to how ugly this is going to look in Linux.

I was just thinking something similar. Is it going to look that good in Linux?

[carso]

hmmm, I've seen chrome, but I'll be waiting for the 4.0 of FF........*gulp*:confused: I don't think FF or Chrome will look THAT good on Linux....

[Skripka]

hmmm, I've seen chrome, but I'll be waiting for the 4.0 of FF........*gulp*:confused: I don't think FF or Chrome will look THAT good on Linux....

WTF is with Mozilla's priorities?

Gecko is making new strides in being slow, second only to IE...and they're worrying about theming????? :confused::confused::confused:

[23meg]

WTF is with Mozilla's priorities?

Gecko is making new strides in being slow, second only to IE...and they're worrying about theming????? :confused::confused::confused:

This is not "theming"; it's interface redesign.

And different people with different skills work on interface design, theming, and Gecko internals, so that's a moot point.

[Regenweald]

Looks like the lovechild of Chromium and Opera. Anyways, I'm a webkit guy.

[lespaul_rentals]

Everytime someone speaks of a "feature" of Fx, I just chuckle to myself. It's usually something I've been using forever on Opera. I really chuckled this time. The theme looks just like Opera.

I would highly suggest that more users go download Opera and give it a try. It renders Firefox obsolete, in my humble opinion.

[geoken]

This will look great in Windows, but I'm curious as to how ugly this is going to look in Linux.

Here is how it looks with the Windows glass portion disabled. It still looks good IMO.

I took one with the tabs on top and one in the classic position.

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[geoken]

I would highly suggest that more users go download Opera and give it a try. It renders Firefox obsolete, in my humble opinion.

I just did that after reading the first guy post this. I quickly concluded that anyone who thinks this mockup looks 'just like' Opera 10 also must think KDE 4 looks just like Windows 3.1.

[lovinglinux]

I just did that after reading the first guy post this. I quickly concluded that anyone who thinks this mockup looks 'just like' Opera 10 also must think KDE 4 looks just like Windows 3.1.

Not to mention saying Firefox is obsolete next to Opera. That was a funny one.

[lespaul_rentals]

I just did that after reading the first guy post this. I quickly concluded that anyone who thinks this mockup looks 'just like' Opera 10 also must think KDE 4 looks just like Windows 3.1.

Perhaps my post was a rash response to the blatant fanboyism prevalent in this thread. Fair enough, this mockup does not look just like Opera.

There's much attention given to Firefox that I think is undeserved. It's frustrating for me to see the "underdog," one of my favorite free software projects, get so little coverage. Opera was a pioneer in a lot of ways. Naturally, some elements are going to get copied or borrowed in other applications.

Perhaps I'm letting my feelings get in the way, here.


Not to mention saying Firefox is obsolete next to Opera. That was a funny one.

Well, I haven't noticed Firefox blazing new trails in web browsing. Ever. Find something cool that Firefox can do? 90% of the time there's a way to do it in Opera, without the third-party extension. Fx is buggy, Fx is slow, Fx crashes on me more often than Opera.

Firefox 3 was buggy for months after the initial release came out. I installed Opera 10 just a couple days after the release and have had no problems whatsoever.

[howefield]

blatant fanboyism prevalent in this thread.

Where ?


Perhaps I'm letting my feelings get in the way, here.

Maybe.

[zekopeko]

Perhaps my post was a rash response to the blatant fanboyism prevalent in this thread. Fair enough, this mockup does not look just like Opera.

There's much attention given to Firefox that I think is undeserved. It's frustrating for me to see the "underdog," one of my favorite free software projects, get so little coverage. Opera was a pioneer in a lot of ways. Naturally, some elements are going to get copied or borrowed in other applications.

Did I miss something? Since when is Opera open source?

[PhilGil]

Firefox can be easily customized to maximize the display area (and there's always F11).

http://pgilston.smugmug.com/photos/688583648_aWyLq-O.jpg

I could also hide the status bar, but I find it useful enough to keep it visible.

[mivo]

I would highly suggest that more users go download Opera and give it a try. It renders Firefox obsolete, in my humble opinion.

Chrome, even in its current beta state, is noticeably faster than Opera (on both my netbook and my desktop, your mileage may vary). Once the normal version (not just the dev build) allows extensions and the non-Windows versions are released, I am pretty sure it'll gain market share quickly.

[Nerd King]

Side tabs make a big difference. Look for tree style tabs in Mozilla Add-ons and you won't go back. You'll also never be able to use any other browser again muahahahahah!

[Rainstride]

I would highly suggest that more users go download Opera and give it a try. It renders Firefox obsolete, in my humble opinion.

hmm... strange I can't seem to find a hysterical laughter smiley. opera is the slowest, most unusable browser I have ever used in my entire life. I refuse to ever touch that garbage again.

[hoppipolla]

I really need to keep an open mind to this. I was going through a phase where I was kinda fed up with Mozilla for not putting in what I considered to be "enough effort" and just giving us a lazy, slow version of what can be quite a slow and ugly browser compared to Chrome anyway (IMO). However, if they really are trying and they're putting in work then I will cautiously start paying attention again :)

All I want is a Firefox that runs fast, if it competes with Chrome and at least matches it, then I will probably still choose Mozilla over Google :)

I'll certainly be keeping my eye on FF 4, as it does look pretty awesome from the screenshots!

[hessiess]

Try out vimperator

this.

[koleoptero]

Here is how it looks with the Windows glass portion disabled. It still looks good IMO.

I took one with the tabs on top and one in the classic position.

132673

The tabs on top don't blend with the window decoration so it kinda beats the purpose of having tabs on top. Pity, I really liked the mockups. :(

[bruno9779]

That's a win7 theme....

I won't use that

[hoppipolla]

hmm... strange I can't seem to find a hysterical laughter smiley. opera is the slowest, most unusable browser I have ever used in my entire life. I refuse to ever touch that garbage again.

rofl I don't know if it's THAT bad, but I've had problems with Opera too! I find it renders pages quite poorly compared to Firefox, Chrome and Arora, and that it sometimes breaks elements of pages that work fine on others.

I do however love Opera Mini on my phone - it's an excellent little browser :)

[Pasdar]

Lol, thats identical to Opera browser.

[hoppipolla]

Lol, thats identical to Opera browser.

Opera Mini? o.O

[RoestVrijStaal]

Oh no, yet more copycatting from IE :x

FF3 has given me a bitter taste in my mouth because i had to install a add-on to nuke the NewTab-button they steal from IE.
I think I've must install tons of addons when I install FF4 to make fine.

I think this will be the top 5 of addons after the launch of FF4:
1. GiveMeTheSearchFieldBack
2. RefreshButtonPlz
3. HomeButtonPlz
4. StopButtonPlz
5. MenuBarPlz

[geoken]

The tabs on top don't blend with the window decoration so it kinda beats the purpose of having tabs on top. Pity, I really liked the mockups. :(

They do if I enable the glass extension. I just disabled it to show what the theme would look like if it were run without transparency as someone commented that it would probably look bad on Linux. If you go to the deviant art page I linked to in the first page of this thread you'll see a pic of this theme with the glass extension enabled which causes the tab area background to blend seamlessly with the window border.

I also want to point out that the theme I'm running is a third party theme and is not related to Mozilla. It was merely a persons attempt to replicate the Firefox 4 mockup via a selection of addons and a theme.

[NoaHall]

I like how most replies in this thread was just the same as mine. Damn you, GPL.

[hoppipolla]

Oh no, yet more copycatting from IE :x

Kind of but you have to admit ANY incarnation of Chrome or Firefox (or Opera) looks much better than IE o.O

[Shpongle]

Ctrl+TAB

thats really useful i never knew that thanks

[DigitalDuality]

Learning the keyboard shortcuts means you can make maximum use of the F11 full screen switch, if it is screen real estate you are after.

And it's quicker.

Not that i'm a fan of the new UI, F11 isn't really what is meant by screen real estate, many people like their browser to share screen space with terminals, IM windows, etc.. and are concerned with the real estate taken up by the interface when it is maximized or not. This is why i love vimperator with tree style tabs. No interface at all expect a tab bar at the left. No buttons, nothing.

[howefield]

Not that i'm a fan of the new UI, F11 isn't really what is meant by screen real estate, many people like their browser to share screen space with terminals, IM windows, etc.. and are concerned with the real estate taken up by the interface when it is maximized or not. This is why i love vimperator with tree style tabs. No interface at all expect a tab bar at the left. No buttons, nothing.

Can only imagine that you didn't read the original post ?

The OPs point revolved around making the most of a 15 inch screen, whilst browsing. That is why he likes the look of Chromes Minimalist look. What "many people" want is pretty irrelevant.

He wants to use screen space more effectively and wished Firefox gave him more screen space, F11 and use of keyboard shortcuts might make his browsing experience more enjoyable on his hardware.

All of course, imvho. :)

[hellmet]

Well, it IS time Firefox started redesigning the UI and Mozilla had talked (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/351808/firefox-tidies-up-with-office-2007s-ribbon)about it sometime back. Right now, in Ubuntu, I have the upper panel, lower panel, the titlebar, the Firefox menu, the address bar, the tabs bar, and the status bar, all eating up valuable 'WIDE' screen space on my laptop. Chrome scores in this area, since it combines up several 'bars' into one, and the status bar is non-existent, yet status is displayed perfectly well.

However, I'm too long a user of FF to make any browser switches. I sometimes use Chromium too, but, in my opinion, there can only ever be healthy competition between two open-source applications. It is all for community-good.

[Pogeymanz]

There's much attention given to Firefox that I think is undeserved. It's frustrating for me to see the "underdog," one of my favorite free software projects, get so little coverage. Opera was a pioneer in a lot of ways. Naturally, some elements are going to get copied or borrowed in other applications.

Perhaps I'm letting my feelings get in the way, here.

Opera is not free software.

I do enjoy both Opera and Firefox, for different reasons. Opera is certainly more lightweight though, and if you don't need some of the really fancy addons and don't mind that Opera is not libre, you should try it.

[Warpnow]

Opera users saying that's identical are referring to the new opera skin. I don't think its default yet, but it will be. Its the new look of Opera.

Which makes it funny that this is the "new look of firefox" considering that the entire way the tabs look is a direct rip of the new opera skin.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/3526/screenshotspeeddialoper.png

And anyone who calls Opera unstable or garbage is obviously either extremely biased or hasn't tried it. Its a very stable and the most featureful browser out of the box available. It does what firefox needs extensions to do, without extensions, and it does it all while using less space, ram, and cpu usage than firefox even out of the box, not to mention with all the extensions people add to make Firefox as featureful as Opera.

Build-in adblock, IRC, email, a download manager that is without a doubt superior to Firefox's, a note manager, and a widget manager that can challenge gscreenlets.

I'm not a fanboy. I don't currently use opera...but come on, it is a very good piece of software. For someone who wants a full featured browser without using an abundance of resources, it is King. It will run on a PII fine (I did it for over a year), a system not even slimmed down versions of firefox would launch on, and it would run flawlessly and quickly.

Opera is the kind of browsers Chrome is trying to be. An all-in-one solution that can suit all of a user's needs. People use firefox to browse the internet- people use Opera to power their networking needs.

[vishzilla]

You guys should actually take a look at this,

Linux Theme Mockups (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Linux_Theme_Mockups)

Mozilla are looking for a unified UI similar to what Chrome are doing.

[Ray()]

So they've decided to steal more of Opera's looks? It's almost identical.

+1 that's my exact reaction :-D

[Rhapsody]

You guys should actually take a look at this,

Linux Theme Mockups (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/4.0_Linux_Theme_Mockups)

Mozilla are looking for a unified UI similar to what Chrome are doing.
Isn't that a case of going backwards? They had a unified UI for Windows and GTK+/X11 prior to Firefox 3.0, with the result that it looked great on Windows and not so great on anything that wasn't Windows. For example, the "Consistent Back/Forward Buttons" idea is just "make it look like it does on Windows", and how the hell is that better on Linux? The "Curvier Tab Shape" idea makes this more explicit by actually saying "Match the tabs to the proposed tabs on Windows and Mac", making it literally the absence of an idea.

Also, I'm still not sure about the tabs-on-top design. I keep my browser full screen, and also have an auto-hiding panel at the top. I can imagine hours of fun moving my mouse to a tab at the top of the screen and accidentally floating the panel, covering the tabs. Yeah, that's an improvement over what I have now.

[jperez]

5. MenuBarPlz

Exactly! Where's my File Menu Bar? That's one thing that led my girlfriend to abandon Chrome and if FF does the same, I feel it will just lose some sort of productivity.

I like being able to see all my menu options at the top instead of having to look for them under the Wrench Tool or "Tools" or anything like that.

Don't get me wrong, I love Chrome/Chromium, but I also love Firefox 3.x and below for the concept of having a Menu Bar at the top that allows me easy access to bookmarks, history, tools, etc.

Anyway, that's my thought.

Jesse~

[Skripka]

Exactly! Where's my File Menu Bar? That's one thing that led my girlfriend to abandon Chrome and if FF does the same, I feel it will just lose some sort of productivity.


Meh. File/menu bar is a waste of screen space--which is made worse by the LCD panel companies desire for everyone to use a widescreen format monitor.

[Erunno]

Here's a summary page on what is planned for Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 on the visual side:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/3.7_and_4.0_Theme_and_UI_Revamp#Linux

[SomeGuyDude]

The only problem with Chromium-esque tabs is that it means whatever Metacity/Emerald/Openbox theme you have either gets overridden or looks ugly as sin.

[Tipped OuT]

The only problem with Chromium-esque tabs is that it means whatever Metacity/Emerald/Openbox theme you have either gets overridden or looks ugly as sin.

Too bad Metacity/Emerald/Openbox doesn't work like Windows Aero:

http://cdn.alanedwardes.com/tabs-in-google-chrome.png

[SomeGuyDude]

Too bad Google won't do a direct port of Chrome to Linux. I've got a feeling we're missing out on it slightly. :P

[pwnst*r]

I like how most replies in this thread was just the same as mine. Damn you, GPL.

lol, win