FireFox v.2.0 sucks big green donkey dicks

Ugh, that blows. No thanks Firefox, I’ll stick with my current version.

That really isn’t so much incorporating an extension as it is a design change, though. You could do it with an extension before, but it wasn’t an add-on, just a customization. If it were always like this with an extension to do the opposite (which there no doubt will be eventually), then people would be just as annoyed if the switch were in the opposite direction. It’s a moot point for me anyway, though, since I use middle-click on a tab to close it, or a mouse gesture via All-In-One Gestures.

It appears that they’ve also incorporated some session management into this. I would have a problem that, but they seem to have done it in a very minimalistic style (there’s crash recovery and undo close tab, but it appears to just use text logs instead of fully saved sessions), and the new browser is so fast that it doesn’t bother me.

You can get the old behaviour (single close button at the end of the bar) back by going to about:config and setting the browser.tabs.closeButtons property to 3.

(Edit: Fixed the property name)

cough

OOOOOOOOOPERAAAAAAAAA

See, that’s why reasonable people use Opera.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Firefox is getting bloated? I originally switched to Firefox in part because it was a lean, simple browser, unlike say Opera or Mozilla. If I wanted extra functionality, I just went hunting for extensions. Now, though, with so many features built in, it’s like it’s moving further away from what I originally liked about it…

shrug Oh well - still free. And I am one stingy bastard.

Well done, sir!

What kind of bloat does FF have built in? Maybe I’m being overgenerous, but it doesn’t have integrated mail or ftp or anything. Just browsing.

Well, “bloat” is probably too strong a word so far, but looking at FF 2.0’s release notes, there’s a “Swiss Army Knife” feel to it: they’ve added a search engine manager, in-line spell checking, and an RSS feed reader.

All of which could be handled by extensions. I just want a barebones browser.

Sure, if your extension API is stable. If it isn’t, then the extensions will just break on updates, so they need to be included!

Works for me! Tabs look nice too. :)

This article explains how to get your bookmarks back:

Bookmarks missing after installing Firefox 2
Quite a number of people are reporting that after installing Firefox 2 their bookmarks are missing. This is a different issue and much easier to fix than the usual crash issue. The bookmarks are also NOT lost. In some cases the installer isn’t exiting existing Firefox processes properly and not updating some of the old files. This causes several odd issues including tabs not working properly, and for bookmarks to not show up. A bug has been filed, a permanent fix will be available ASAP. Bug 357922
The fix
There are two ways to fix this:

  • Uninstall Firefox, delete the install folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\ by default) and install Firefox 2 again. Everything will be back to normal, including the bookmarks. This will not cause any loss of any other personal data. That data along with bookmarks are kept in the profile folder in Application Data.
    • Install Firefox again using the custom install option and chose to install it to a new folder. Again, no loss of personal data as this installation will still detect and use your existing profiles.
      Everyone has reported both of this fixes clear the issue right up and that no other issues are encountered.
      Update: You shouldn’t have to delete the install folder for a reinstall to be effective. Uninstall Firefox 2, then make sure firefox.exe isn’t running in the task manager (be sure to check other users) and then install again. The files causing the problem should be overwritten.
      To avoid this issue on installation
      Until the bug is fixed you can absolutely avoid this problem by closing firefox before running the installer (check the processes tab in task manager), or by using the custom install and installing Firefox 2 to a new folder.
      We are still working to narrow down exactly why this is happening to some users and not others. So far we’ve had several people install Firefox 2 with 1.5.0.7 running and they’re not hitting the issue. This might be caused by another issue that is preventing the firefox process from exiting, for example some extensions do this on occasion. I’ll be sure to update this blog, and the bug as more information becomes available. If you have experienced this issue yourself and would like to help narrow it down, comment here, or on the bug or come find us in #firefox on irc.mozilla.org

Firefox 2.0 wouldn’t save my cookies for google/gmail and loaded web pages more slowly. It also did not support about half of my add-ons (small potatoes).

Opera 9 had a verticle line of “dead pixels” on the left and right edges, which drove me up the wall. I don’t know about 10.

Sticking with firefox 1.5 for now.

Middle click on the tab. No X required, click anywhere. Win!

Yeah, but I also liked closing several tabs just by hitting the button off to the side. It’s handy when you go to a news site like Drudge where there are multiple headlines that interest you. You can click on them all, open multiple tabs, tab between them on the keyboard and then quickly close them all once done pretty easily.

It was just better design.

How can I get that close tab icon back on the right instead of on each tab? I fucking HATE that change. Its driving me mad. Instead of the close tab button over there is a ‘list tab’ buttons.

edit:
Props to google and this site

[i]The new version of firefox handles the tab close buttons differently than version 1.5. To change back to a single close button is not very difficult at all. Here is how to change the method for closing tabs.

  1. Type about:config in the address bar

  2. Change browser.tabs.closeButtons to the value you wish.

    0 - Display close button only on the active tab
    1 - Display close buttons on every tabs
    2 - Never display close buttons
    3 - Display single close button at the end of the tab strip (This is the old, default Firefox 1.5 behavior)[/i]

If you’re tabbing on the keyboard, why not close tabs on the keyboard instead? Next tab can be ctrl+tab or ctrl+w…

Thanks for that link Clay, fixed my problem with my bookmarks.

I have to say that after using it a bit, FF2’s default theme has backslid for the worse in terms of overall quality. A minor gripe since you can switch to another of the many out there.

Many of my plugins have been updated over the past few days and now work. YMMV, of course.