Internet Browsers: What are YOU using? (And why?) (1 Viewer)

[farnsbarns]

Another setting (in Advanced Settings) I always turn off is 'Continue running background apps when closed'.
Have no special knowledge on this setting but seems there's no need to have it on and likely saves resources.

 

[theJman]

I do the same. I can't fathom a legitimate reason why a browser would launch a background app in the first place, let alone want it to keep running after it had been closed.

 

[jcroy]

Brave lets you open a new tab with blank page like the (also Chromium based) new Edge and Chrome browsers used to allow, but no longer.

For the longest time, I always had a blank opening page for my default browser configurations.

Back in the day, my first browsers had the Infoseek search engine as the default page. It got kinda annoying, when I preferred to use the Altavista search engine instead.

Since then, I rather just have nothing on the page whenever I start up the browser or open up new tabs.

 

[farnsbarns]

Back in the day, my first browsers had the Infoseek search engine as the default page. It got kinda annoying, when I preferred to use the Altavista search engine instead.

I had the distinct "advantage" of getting into computers very late (around y2k) so never had to deal more than passingly with dial-up, Windows 95, and other hazards of the day like Infoseek. : D

MS and Google want to push their own content obviously. Can't have that on a blank page, right?

 

[jcroy]

MS and Google want to push their own content obviously. Can't have that on a blank page, right?

Even with google or other search engines, I always forced myself to type out the actual search engine's address by hand into the url bar, and not use the "search" specific boxes built into firefox.

 

[jcroy]

Heh.

Firefox changed the layout in the beta version 89.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Heh.

Firefox changed the layout in the beta version 89.

Yup. My FF just updated to the non-beta 89.0 and all-the-sudden my tabs are sitting at the bottom of the page. (But I can only see the active tab.)

Do any of you gents have any new .css code?

 

[Malcolm R]

Odd. Mine updated to 89.0, as well, but my tabs remained at the top.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It's probably got something to do with the .css code I'm currently using to get the tabs below the Bookmark Toolbar.

 

[jcroy]

It's probably got something to do with the .css code I'm currently using to get the tabs below the Bookmark Toolbar.

The Aris t2 suite has a fix for that. It is in the files:

tabs_below_navigation_toolbar_fx89
tabs_below_navigation_toolbar_fx74

CustomCSSforFx/classic/css/tabs at master · Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx

Custom CSS tweaks for Firefox. Contribute to Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

You might also have to disable the new proton interface in about:config by setting

browser.proton.enable to false


Proton seems to act weird with this tabs below bookmark hack.

 

[BobO'Link]

It's probably got something to do with the .css code I'm currently using to get the tabs below the Bookmark Toolbar.

Yep - you're probably using the one I posted. I stupidly updated today without doing my normal backup of the folder and got the same results. I'm sick and tired of the FF devs screwing with this - they need to get their act together and provide *easy* ways to disable all these bad UI changes, provide an easy switch to tabs on bottom and leave the UI alone! I absolutely detest chrome but I'm seriously considering changing because of all the hoops I have to jump through every time the FF devs decide to chase the chrome rabbit again. If that's what they want then I'm done... I'll just go with the rabbit.

 

[BobO'Link]

Here's what I was able to pull together to mostly fix the stuff the FF devs broke with the last update. It puts tabs back on bottom with a top menu bar, disables the scrolling tab overflow junk, black close tab "X", and prevents the URL bar from expanding in size when you click in it.

I also attached the css as a zip file.

Spoiler

/* Source file https://github.com/MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks/tree/master/chrome/tabs_on_bottom.css made available under Mozilla Public License v. 2.0
See the above repository for updates as well as full license text. */

/* Modify to change window drag space width */
/*
Use tabs_on_bottom_menubar_on_top_patch.css if you
have menubar permanently enabled and want it on top
*/

/* IMPORTANT */
/*
Get window_control_placeholder_support.css
Window controls will be all wrong without it.
Additionally on Linux, you may need to get:
linux_gtk_window_control_patch.css
*/

:root{ --uc-titlebar-padding: 0px; }
@media (-moz-os-version: windows-win10){
:root[sizemode="maximized"][tabsintitlebar]{ --uc-titlebar-padding: 8px }
}
#toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"] > .titlebar-buttonbox-container,
#TabsToolbar > .titlebar-buttonbox-container{
position: fixed;
display: block;
top: var(--uc-titlebar-padding,0px);
right:0;
height: 40px;
}
/* Mac specific. You should set that font-smoothing pref to true if you are on any platform where window controls are on left */
@supports -moz-bool-pref("layout.css.osx-font-smoothing.enabled"){
:root{ --uc-titlebar-padding: 0px !important }
.titlebar-buttonbox-container{ left:0; right: unset !important; }
}

:root[uidensity="compact"] #TabsToolbar > .titlebar-buttonbox-container{ height: 32px }

#toolbar-menubar[inactive] > .titlebar-buttonbox-container{ opacity: 0 }

#navigator-toolbox{ padding-top: var(--uc-titlebar-padding,0px) !important; }

.titlebar-buttonbox-container > .titlebar-buttonbox{ height: 100%; }

#titlebar{
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 2;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
--tabs-navbar-shadow-size: 0px;
}

.titlebar-placeholder,
#TabsToolbar .titlebar-spacer{ display: none; }
/* Also hide the toolbox bottom border which isn't at bottom with this setup */
#navigator-toolbox::after{ display: none !important; }

@media (-moz-gtk-csd-close-button){ .titlebar-button{ -moz-box-orient: vertical } }

/* These exist only for compatibility with autohide-tabstoolbar.css */
toolbox#navigator-toolbox > toolbar#nav-bar.browser-toolbar{ animation: none; }
#navigator-toolbox:hover #TabsToolbar{ animation: slidein ease-out 48ms 1 }


/* Source file https://github.com/MrOtherGuy/firef...hrome/tabs_on_bottom_menubar_on_top_patch.css made available under Mozilla Public License v. 2.0
See the above repository for updates as well as full license text. */

/* Menubar on top patch - use with tabs_on_bottom.css */
/* Only really useful if menubar is ALWAYS visible */

:root:not([sizemode="fullscreen"]){ --uc-window-control-width: 0px !important }

#navigator-toolbox{ padding-top: calc(29px + var(--uc-titlebar-padding,0px)) !important }
:root[sizemode="fullscreen"] #navigator-toolbox{ padding-top: 0px !important; }
#toolbar-menubar{
position: fixed;
display: flex;
top: var(--uc-titlebar-padding,0px);
height: 29px;
width: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
}

#toolbar-menubar > .titlebar-buttonbox-container{ height: 29px; order: 100; }

#toolbar-menubar > [flex]{ flex-grow: 100; }
#toolbar-menubar > spacer[flex]{
order: 99;
flex-grow: 1;
min-width: var(--uc-window-drag-space-width,20px);
}

#toolbar-menubar .titlebar-button{ padding: 2px 17px !important; }

#toolbar-menubar .toolbarbutton-1 { --toolbarbutton-inner-padding: 3px }


.tab-close-button {
color: black!important;
}

/*** Disable tabs scrolling on overflow ***/

.tabbrowser-tab {
min-width: initial !important;
}
.tab-content {
overflow: hidden !important;
}

/*** Disable tabs scrolling on overflow end ***/

/*** BEGIN Firefox 77 (June 2, 2020) Override URL bar enlargement ***/

/* Compute new position, width, and padding */

#urlbar[breakout][breakout-extend] {
top: 5px !important;
left: 0px !important;
width: 100% !important;
padding: 0px !important;
}
/* for alternate Density settings */
[uidensity="compact"] #urlbar[breakout][breakout-extend] {
top: 3px !important;
}
[uidensity="touch"] #urlbar[breakout][breakout-extend] {
top: 4px !important;
}

/* Prevent shift of URL bar contents */

#urlbar[breakout][breakout-extend] > #urlbar-input-container {
height: var(--urlbar-height) !important;
padding: 0 !important;
}

/* Do not animate */

#urlbar[breakout][breakout-extend] > #urlbar-background {
animation: none !important;;
}

/* Remove shadows */

#urlbar[breakout][breakout-extend] > #urlbar-background {
box-shadow: none !important;
}

/*** END Firefox 77 (June 2, 2020) Override URL bar enlargement ***/

 

[BobO'Link]

Here are a couple more changes you may want... These are done using about:config

Menu spacing fix:
browser.proton.contextmenus.enabled
set to "FALSE"

Set menus/color to system style:
browser.proton.enabled
set to "false"

With the new menu spacing there's waaaay too much space between lines and looks like it was designed for fat fingers on mobile or touch enabled devices (so it appears that they're too lazy to fork distros for desktop or make this an easy setting, eh?).

The menu color bit makes some distinction between the menu/bookmark/tab colors/lines. Without it everything is the same light grey color with no delineation.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Awesome, Howie.

Like a charm.

 

[BobO'Link]

Happy to help! It just annoys me that I was forced to spend almost half a day looking for and putting these changes together. Because of this I've activated my "Never update" css file which completely blocks updates. It has to be removed/renamed and FF restarted before an update will dl. That's on a "portable" version and I keep a standard install for general testing (one that has no settings changed or userChrome.css file). They'd been so good this past year about not making wholesale changes and breaking those files/settings that I became complacent and was installing updates without backing up first. Never again...

Most of this could be easily done by the "developers" if they chose to put them in as switchable options or just be more transparent about those "hidden" settings and publish an "official" css file to address what many people want. Today's "programmers" just seem to be too lazy to do that type of work though.

Based on reading some of the bugzilla reports it also seems that the Mozilla developers are quite arrogant and think they know what's best for everyone. Everything they do seems to indicate they're mostly looking to duplicate the look/feel/style of Google's Chrome browser not understanding that most of the people who use FF do so because they *do not like* the look/feel/style or restrictions of Chrome.

 

[jcroy]

Most of this could be easily done by the "developers" if they chose to put them in as switchable options or just be more transparent about those "hidden" settings and publish an "official" css file to address what many people want. Today's "programmers" just seem to be too lazy to do that type of work though.

Based on reading some of the bugzilla reports it also seems that the Mozilla developers are quite arrogant and think they know what's best for everyone. Everything they do seems to indicate they're mostly looking to duplicate the look/feel/style of Google's Chrome browser not understanding that most of the people who use FF do so because they *do not like* the look/feel/style or restrictions of Chrome.

You know the answer to all this. It doesn't matter if these developers are complete dolts.

YOU have to be the person calling the shots with veto power in the decisions. If YOU do not have the power + veto in such design decisions, then it doesn't matter what you, I or anyone else says or thinks.

 

[jcroy]

(With all that being said).

In my experience, I have found that folks who do computer programming/development primarily as a contractor or 9-to-5 job, are easier to deal with.

In contrast, the hardcore types who are willing to do programming / development for days on end without sleep and fueled by coffee, are much more difficult to deal with. These are the type of folks who "live, eat, and breathe" computer code.

Which one of these types are making the decisions at Firefox, is not clear to me from reading mozilla's technical message boards.

 

[BobO'Link]

Firefox 91.0 broke tabs and menu spacing again. They apparently disabled a couple of about:config settings to turn off the horrible "Proton" UI.

BUT - here's some code to put in your userchrome.css file to fix that... again...

Spoiler

/*** Disable Proton UI changes, and tighten menu spacing ***/

.tab-background{
border-radius: 0px 0px !important;
margin-bottom: 0px !important;
}
.tabbrowser-tab:not([selected=true]):not([multiselected=true]) .tab-background{
background-color: color-mix(in srgb, currentColor 5%, transparent);
}
menupopup > menu, menupopup > menuitem{
padding-block: 2px !important;
}
:root{
--arrowpanel-menuitem-padding: 2px !important;
}

/*** END Disable Proton UI changes, and tighten menu spacing ***/

This seems to work best if it's above any other settings that make tab/UI changes.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I was wondering if people were going to be reporting issues after this latest change. The only reason I even knew FF had updated was because now my tabs have rounded corners.

But my tabs are still below the bookmarks bar, so I'm okay.

I DO wish that I could do something about the look of the tabs. I use to love the add-on "Colorful Tabs" (or something to that effect.) Now my active tab is gray with black text. All my non-active tabs are dark black (meaning I cannot see their outline against the black bar. I also cannot see the black "x" to close them.) with white text.

It's okay. But the aesthetic should be better.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I absolutely detest chrome but I'm seriously considering changing because of all the hoops I have to jump through every time the FF devs decide to chase the chrome rabbit again.

I've never understood why Mozilla seems so focused on making Firefox work just like Chrome. If we wanted to be using Chrome, we'd be using it. Why doesn't Firefox play to its own strengths instead?