Author Topic: Firefox 29 - soooooo similar to Chrome (Read 27191 times)

anandcoral · « **on:** April 30, 2014, 02:24 AM »

Firefox upgraded to 29 and it looks so similar to Chrome now that I have to take a closer look at the extension icons on top-right to assure I am in FF and not in Chrome.

At least it should have the 'fox' icon some where to differentiate it.

Regards,

Anand

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #1 on:** April 30, 2014, 02:50 AM »

Firefox upgraded to 29 and it looks so similar to Chrome now that I have to take a closer look at the extension icons on top-right to assure I am in FF and not in Chrome.

At least it should have the 'fox' icon some where to differentiate it.

Regards,

Anand

-anandcoral (April 30, 2014, 02:24 AM)

Wow Anand is right. I tend to stay a version or two back. This new one is such a mess I might try to downgrade maybe Version 28 or something.

At least PaleMoon is sensible ... but I haven't updated that one yet!

eleman · « **Reply #2 on:** April 30, 2014, 02:52 AM »

Fortunately, there is this add-on.

If I wanted a browser that looked like chrome, I would either use chrome, or one of the clones such as yandex (which probably does the reporting to KGB, instead of CIA). Would I use firefox? doubt it.

Anyway, the ESR (Extended support release) channel is still based on 24, so I'll be fine for half a year or so.

skwire · « **Reply #3 on:** April 30, 2014, 08:09 AM »

As eleman mentioned, there is the Classic Theme Restorer add-on. Martin, over at gHacks, recently did an article on it.

http://www.ghacks.net/2014/04/26/turn-new-firefox-29-old-firefox/

40hz · « **Reply #4 on:** April 30, 2014, 09:40 AM »

Shades of the tablet mindset and overall hubris that drove Win8/Metro! (And mostly into the ground AFAIC.

)

Did Mozilla hire Sinofsky or something?

MilesAhead · « **Reply #5 on:** April 30, 2014, 10:07 AM »

Firefox upgraded to 29 and it looks so similar to Chrome now that I have to take a closer look at the extension icons on top-right to assure I am in FF and not in Chrome.

At least it should have the 'fox' icon some where to differentiate it.

Regards,

Anand

-anandcoral (April 30, 2014, 02:24 AM)

Wow Anand is right. I tend to stay a version or two back. This new one is such a mess I might try to downgrade maybe Version 28 or something.

At least PaleMoon is sensible ... but I haven't updated that one yet!

-TaoPhoenix (April 30, 2014, 02:50 AM)

For Firefox Portable I recommend 27.0. Even 27.01 introduced funky behavior. I tried 28, then went back to 27.0. Pale Moon latest(24.5.0) seems ok. I notice Opera now is basically chrome while maintaining the old "click x times to copy a line" mouse actions. Although the x64 Opera is fast. Still I find FF/Pale Moon lets me have the FF AddOns.

Edit: I find Firefox Portable 27.0 plenty fast. The main reason I have Pale Moon is so I can install it as the default browser. As far as speed goes I really can't distinguish between them.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #6 on:** April 30, 2014, 10:13 AM »

At least it should have the 'fox' icon some where to differentiate it.

I hate it when they do the ribbon bit. The first thing I have to do is enable the menu bar. Now it just wastes vertical space. The only compensation is if you are running Glass.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #7 on:** April 30, 2014, 11:25 AM »

Shades of the tablet mindset and overall hubris that drove Win8/Metro! (And mostly into the ground AFAIC. )

Did Mozilla hire Sinofsky or something?
-40hz (April 30, 2014, 09:40 AM)

Well, after reading skwire's Ghacks article I'm inclined to agree with you. Here's why:

The Firefox button is gone. It has been replaced with what web designers call a Hamburger button
-GHacks

Um... Hamburger Button? Is that the new shit design excuse paradigm being used these days, to just give something a catchy sounding name to explain away why stuff just got piled together in a corner instead of putting in the time to find a right way of doing it?

Yeah, that's a finger-rific design alright ... And I know just what finger to use too.

app103 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 30, 2014, 12:03 PM »

Alrighty then, Firefox is no longer my default browser. Pale Moon it is. Firefox shortcut moved into 5th place among browsers, after IE.

Cloq · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2014, 12:18 PM »

As skwire mentions, Firefox 29 - Classic Theme Restorer is a must. Unless you like chrome like interface..

Took me awhile to set everything back (interface) to pre-FF 29 (update various plugins and settings).

rgdot · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2014, 12:48 PM »

Mozilla have done one of the sillier things I have ever seen online. To quote Gump ... That's all I have to say about that.

rjbull · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2014, 03:49 PM »

Firefox is no longer my default browser. Pale Moon it is.
-app103 (April 30, 2014, 12:03 PM)

Do you still use K-Meleon?

Deozaan · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2014, 04:57 PM »

I don't mind the new look. In fact I think I kind of like it.

What I don't like is how every few seconds the CPU usage spikes up and Firefox becomes unresponsive for a second or two. What's up with that?

Firefox CPU Usage.png

tomos · « **Reply #13 on:** April 30, 2014, 05:08 PM »

What I don't like is how every few seconds the CPU usage spikes up and Firefox becomes unresponsive for a second or two. What's up with that?
-Deozaan (April 30, 2014, 04:57 PM)

us being the final beta testers?

I havent tried 29 yet (but now I've checked the 'About', it looks like I will after the next restart...)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #14 on:** April 30, 2014, 05:09 PM »

As skwire mentions, Firefox 29 - Classic Theme Restorer is a must. Unless you like chrome like interface..

Took me awhile to set everything back (interface) to pre-FF 29 (update various plugins and settings).
-Cloq (April 30, 2014, 12:18 PM)

Well that's a start, though it's different from the way I had it before, but I only use FF proper for a few things so I'll think about it.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 30, 2014, 05:46 PM »

Regarding the the Firefox button changing to a "Hamburger button" - I'm running FF 28 and I don't see a Firefox button, so I guess I won't miss it.

In fact, from looking at the screenshots in the GHacks article, it looks like the only thing I'd notice in a move to v29 is the new rounded corners on the tabs. I wonder what's wrong with my v28 install?

app103 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 30, 2014, 06:27 PM »

What I don't like is how every few seconds the CPU usage spikes up and Firefox becomes unresponsive for a second or two. What's up with that?
-Deozaan (April 30, 2014, 04:57 PM)

us being the final beta testers?

I havent tried 29 yet (but now I've checked the 'About', it looks like I will after the next restart...)
-tomos (April 30, 2014, 05:08 PM)

That's what I thought too, then I went and changed my settings to ask before installing any updates and then deleted the contents of the folder whose name was in all caps, sitting in C:\Users\[NAME]\AppData\Local\Mozilla\updates before restarting Firefox.

That will stop the update dead in its tracks, if you have accidentally triggered it and haven't restarted your browser yet.

Firefox is no longer my default browser. Pale Moon it is.
-app103 (April 30, 2014, 12:03 PM)
Do you still use K-Meleon?
-rjbull (April 30, 2014, 03:49 PM)

On occasion, I do, but for the most part, I have been using Firefox for quite awhile. It depends on the specs of the machine I am using at the moment, and what work I am required to do.

Regarding the the Firefox button changing to a "Hamburger button" - I'm running FF 28 and I don't see a Firefox button, so I guess I won't miss it.

In fact, from looking at the screenshots in the GHacks article, it looks like the only thing I'd notice in a move to v29 is the new rounded corners on the tabs. I wonder what's wrong with my v28 install?
-mwb1100 (April 30, 2014, 05:46 PM)

Oh, it would be a MAJOR change for me.

Imported my Firefox profile to Pale Moon and it is about identical now to what I had in Firefox (with the addition of the RSS icon in the address bar):

Firefox 29 - soooooo similar to Chrome

And I just cleaned up the bookmarks toolbar, today. So it's only 2 rows, instead of 3 showing and scrolling to see the rest, which is what it was when I woke up this morning.

But you guys should expect as much from me, knowing how I keep my taskbar.

Edvard · « **Reply #17 on:** April 30, 2014, 09:19 PM »

http://nightly.mozilla.org/

As of this writing, Nightly is at ver. 32.0a1, so I've had rounded tabs and "hamburger button" for a few months now. I do have the Nightly app icon in the upper left though, so I can tell it's not Chrome (-ium).
Meh. It's still Firefox, Classic Theme Restorer mentioned above should do the trick.

dr_andus · « **Reply #18 on:** May 01, 2014, 06:58 AM »

As eleman mentioned, there is the Classic Theme Restorer add-on. Martin, over at gHacks, recently did an article on it.

http://www.ghacks.net/2014/04/26/turn-new-firefox-29-old-firefox/
-skwire (April 30, 2014, 08:09 AM)

Does anyone know what option to choose to restore the "plus" button next to the tab for "Open a new tab" (as in this image)?

https://addons.cdn.m...?modified=1396443041

MilesAhead · « **Reply #19 on:** May 01, 2014, 09:12 AM »

That will stop the update dead in its tracks, if you have accidentally triggered it and haven't restarted your browser yet

Thanks for that tip App. I hate that when it tries to update even though I have it set to ask me first. I haven't bothered to look if that bug is already registered. If I do "check for updates" just to see if there is one, it tries to install it if it finds it. Really annoying.

tomos · « **Reply #20 on:** May 01, 2014, 09:35 AM »

That will stop the update dead in its tracks, if you have accidentally triggered it and haven't restarted your browser yet

Thanks for that tip App. I hate that when it tries to update even though I have it set to ask me first. I haven't bothered to look if that bug is already registered. If I do "check for updates" just to see if there is one, it tries to install it if it finds it. Really annoying.
-MilesAhead (May 01, 2014, 09:12 AM)

+1

oddly, in my case, the update didnt work anyway

MilesAhead · « **Reply #21 on:** May 01, 2014, 02:38 PM »

That will stop the update dead in its tracks, if you have accidentally triggered it and haven't restarted your browser yet

Thanks for that tip App. I hate that when it tries to update even though I have it set to ask me first. I haven't bothered to look if that bug is already registered. If I do "check for updates" just to see if there is one, it tries to install it if it finds it. Really annoying.
-MilesAhead (May 01, 2014, 09:12 AM)

+1

oddly, in my case, the update didnt work anyway
-tomos (May 01, 2014, 09:35 AM)

Somebody needs to take that mechanism out of the portable builds. When you click to install the update on a portable it should pop up a dialog saying "We don't need no stinkin' updates! 'dis is da' portable version!"

tomos · « **Reply #22 on:** May 01, 2014, 08:08 PM »

Well, I've nothing against the new chrome style (I value vertical space), but finally got around to installing PaleMoon x64 (ver.24.5 on Win7). I seem to have been able to install or replace my most important addons, I'm even sharing a Session Manager folder with Firefox, so a fairly seamless move...

So far I'm happy with a noticeable improvement in performance (my main complaint with FF for a good while now). With about 60 tabs 'open' (only about 10 loaded) CPU usage a *lot* better than same session in FF; GPU (mainly dwm.exe) same or lower with videos playing

Apologies for veering slightly off-topic ;-)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #23 on:** May 01, 2014, 08:19 PM »

Apologies for veering slightly off-topic ;-)
-tomos (May 01, 2014, 08:08 PM)

Heh I'd argue that it's not - "FF-Chrome" is sending lots of people here to PaleMoon!

CleverCat · « **Reply #24 on:** May 02, 2014, 01:14 AM »

Took me 3 hours yesterday to get FF 29 to the way I like it!