Mozilla shares tentative vision for Firefox 4
By Sean Hollister 
posted May 10th 2010 10:48PM
posted May 10th 2010 10:48PM
posted May 10th 2010 10:48PM
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I'm all in as long as it doesn't use 1.5gb like my copy of 3.6
I hope you can reposition the tab bar to be below the Address bar. That is one thing about Chrome that absolutely detest beyond anything else, is that god-awful setup.
Looks good, Opera does look very similar to this but in a sloppy sort of way. But either way, Chrome is both slick and more importantly, blazing fast.
Oh, wow, I absolutely hate this in every way. This is hideous. This is awful. No thank you.
I know what this looks like!
Utter crap.
Man, this could be the end of FF for me, and that's sad. Every release since 2.5 has been buggier and slower than the previous one. If they go with the "tabs on top" monkey-see layout, I'm done.
And yet we still have separate box for google search...
@frippi
That box is very useful. I install ebay, google translation, youtube, several dictionaries and other search engines there. I can do whatever kind of search I want without going to that particular website first.
@Rockchan He was pointing out that since they're already copying Chrome, why didn't they just go the whole nine yards and go with unified search (which allows for all that neat stuff too.)
I like menus.
I know they seem to be out of style with UI developers nowadays, but my brain has been wired to use them over the past 15 years.
File Edit View History Bookmarks Tools Help
It's a familiarity thing, and a comfort thing... everything I want to do is somewhere in the menus. And it's written in text so I don't have to guess what a little icon is meant to represent.
I am quite happy if functionality is duplicated in more ergonomic places, but the menus are easy for old farts like me. I hope I can turn them on.
I dont understand why all these programs are moving away from the tried and true file_edit_tools_help menus and going for some half-assed single-button 'make it easy for the idiots' menu that makes it harder to get to more advanced options.
I can only pray they keep about:config and don't turn that into some gui mess.
@guroth
I agree, and it's why I don't use Chrome much. (I sometimes use it when I need to have multiple sessions going at once, so I have two browsers open.) I absolutely cannot figure out how to get anything done in Chrome beyond typing a url into the address bar and visiting a web site. Call me stupid, but I'm used to those menus and I rely on those menus. It makes no sense to get rid of them.
If its faster and actually closes is process when you exit ill be downloading this and using it along side chrome...which cant block popups like firefox. or stop ads like firefox...quality plugins ftw.
I kinda liked Chrome... the first time it was released.
I stuck with Firefox because I liked it better.
I guess I will not be upgrading, if this is the final UI. If I want the Chrome interface, I'll just run Chrome.
Right. Forgot Mozilla was an actual company... How do they make revenues again? Their competition still pay them for default search engine placement?
@collindow
Unified search is good if I don't have any preferred website. Otherwise, it is actually more inconvenient than the box.
For example, if I only want to know the meaning of a Japanese term. I can simply change the search engine in the box to a particular dictionary website and get the meaning. If I use the unified search in Chrome, it will show up lots of option that I don't want. Then I need to waste time to look for that website.
The freedom of the box is you can link the box to the search boxes of most websites in the world, no matter it is a popular search engine, a dictionary website or the search box of a taxation office.
I hope they don't change the layout that much.. I like chrome to look like chrome, opera to look like opera, and firefox to look like firefox... this looks like a cross between opera and chrome.
It looks like Opera fyi not chrome.
@InfDaMarvel
Not only that but Firefox has plenty of skins.
@InfDaMarvel It looks like both, which look like IE. There's probably some Safari in there as well.
When did Engadget become a software blog?
@Paul Ryan Software and hardware will always be intertwined.
Everyone copied Chrome UI, even Opera copied Chrome.
Looks just like Google Chrome. I bet it still has all the same memory leaks as every Firefox version before it unfortunately >.>
Why must they stick with horizontal tabs?
The world has moved to widescreen monitors and because of this vertical pixels have become much much more expensive. I will never go back after installing the treestyle tabs plugin in firefox.
I normally have upwards of 15 tabs open and that gets impossible to fit across the top of the screen.
So much hatred and this isn't even an Apple post. *sigh*
At least Firefox has one advantage over Chrome as far as UI goes....if you don't like it, you can change it. Personally I like it alot and have actually been using the Strata40 mockup theme for awhile now.
looks a lot like Chrome to me but no surprise Google put a lotta money into Firefox already
Why is it that chrome, now FF are forcing the window to have non standard title bars? I like the "classic" windows and thats what I use. But now for chrome and FF, the min/max/restore buttons in different locations.
I wish they would do what chrome does and have the tabs Flush with the top of your screen. It makes it so easy to click tabs because you literally flick the mouse to the top and its there without having to hunt. Plus Screen real estate is pricey.
I'll probably give up Chrome when this comes out. To unstable...
Reaching above the address bar to hit Tabs = fail.
I wonder if we finally do get antialiased fonts (or as known on Windows 'ClearType') in the browser, it's the only reason I don't use Firefox (but ofcourse reading text is one of the most important things you use a browser for, at least I do).. and no, I don't want to enable cleartype in windows completely, I only want to use it in the browser, just like it's an option for IE..
@SuperDre
[1] You “get” antialiased fonts in Firefox by default, becuase every version of Vista and Windows 7 ships with clear type on by default, you choose to turn it off.
[2] Whilst you may be able to turn ClearType on “just” for IE, it's likely that because it's Microsoft's browser.
@(Unverified) : Well I don't have Vista of Windows 7, and in FF2.0 is was possible to turn it on/off... Aliasing fonts should be an option of the browser, not the OS...
they need to lose the damn status bar. what waste of space. i like chrome's implementation.
It still has some way to go to beat chrome
This exactly looks like Opera 10.xx. They just have copied the Opera's UI instead of creating a new one.
They are ripping off opera? Again?
Make something original for a change...
Chrome much? Looks good though.
Well now I'm conflicted. I just got tired of Firefox and switched over to Google Chrome but when Firefox 4 comes out, I really won't know which one to choose.
And what? Looks like my FF3.6 w/ Strata4 UI theme:
http://s59.radikal.ru/i163/1005/aa/d9ccd96c3058.png
You can use this in your very own Firefox 3 right now in the form of a theme: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14284