How to turn the new Firefox 29 into the old Firefox

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 26, 2014
Updated • Apr 26, 2014
Firefox
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126

Firefox 29 will introduce changes to the web browser that will rock the world of some users of the browser. The version of Firefox ships with Australis, a design, layout and feature change that introduces major changes to Firefox and is in my opinion comparable to the major switch from Firefox 3 to 4.

So what are those changes?

If you are running Firefox Beta, Aurora or Nightly, you have already been switched to Firefox Nightly. The same will happen to stable users next Tuesday, the 29th of April.

Firefox Australis simplifies the main interface of the Firefox web browser. Not only that, but it is also optimizing the browser for touch-input, for instance by displaying large icons in the new menu. While that may appeal to some, Mozilla decided to remove options from the browser such as the ability to display small buttons.

Once you have upgraded your browser and restarted it, you will notice quite a few changes right in the main interface. The most obvious ones are the following:

  • The Firefox button is gone. It has been replaced with what web designers call a Hamburger button (displaying three horizontal bars). The position of the button has changed as well, it is now in the same location where Google Chrome displays it.
  • Tabs in the browser use a curved design now and are displayed by default on top of the other toolbars.
  • If you have used the add-on bar, you will notice that it is gone now. The add-on bar was displayed in the footer area of the browser.
  • All extension icons are now displayed in the main Firefox toolbar along with the address bar and search form.

Once you start to use the new Firefox version, you will stumble upon additional changes.

The bookmarks icon is not displayed in the address bar anymore and it is linked to the bookmarks listing, the home button was moved to that toolbar as well, and here you also find the download button.

Once you click on the Hamburger button, you will notice that the menu is totally different from the menu the Firefox button offered.

While you find some items here that were also displayed in the Firefox button menu, you won't find others. You may also notice that the menu takes up quite some space, and the core reason for that is that it displays large icons for most options displayed here.

One improvement here is that you can customize the menu to your liking. When you click on Customize in the menu, Firefox will switch to an edit the interface mode.

You can now drag and drop interface elements around -- most but not all (the address bar is not for example) are movable.

So what is displayed in the new menu by default?

  1. Cut, Copy and Paste operations.
  2. Zoom out, default zoom and zoom in.
  3. New window and new private window.
  4. Save Page and print.
  5. History.
  6. Full Screen.
  7. Find.
  8. Options.
  9. Add-ons.
  10. Developer.

There are also sign in to Sync, customize, the help button, and an exit Firefox button but those cannot be altered in any way.

The core change functionality-wise to the Firefox button menu is that you do not have access to sub-links anymore. The old menu displayed direct links to web developer tools which the new does not anymore.

There are six additional tools and features that you can drag and drop to one of the toolbars or Firefox's new Hamburger button:

  1. Open File.
  2. Subscribe.
  3. Character Encoding.
  4. Email Link.
  5. Sync.
  6. Tab Groups.

Several features native to Firefox 28 and earlier are missing such as the ability to select small buttons, to display text only buttons, or the ability to display tabs on bottom.

Making Firefox 29 look like the old Firefox

Firefox would not be Firefox anymore if it would not allow you to customize the browser to your liking. With Australis, you have to rely on add-on authors to bring back functionality to it.

Good news is that you can modify the browser to your liking or restore the interface so that it looks similar to the one you used to work with. Bad news is that you have to rely on third-party authors to do so.

While you have quite a few options in this regard currently, it is possible that authors may stop development in the future so that their extensions cannot be used anymore in newer versions of the browser. Plus, with new changes introduced you need to wait for these authors to update their extensions so that it remains functional.

Classic Theme Restorer

classic theme restorer

Classic Theme Restorer is without doubt the major add-on for Firefox to change its look and feel to pre-Australis. Once you install it, you will notice quite a few changes right away.

The Firefox button is displayed again in the interface instead of the Hamburger button, and it behaves exactly like the button that was implemented in Firefox 28 and earlier. Tabs are displayed squared again as well right away, and the add-on has been restored at the bottom of the browser window.

To restore some features, you need to go through the options the extension makes available. Since there are quite a few, I'll concentrate on the most important ones only:

  1. You can modify tab behavior and design further. The add-on ships with several tab designs that you can check out -- squared and curved in several iterations -- the option to display tabs on bottom again, and to configure min and max widths for tabs. Here you can also move tabs from the titlebar to their own toolbar instead.
  2. Small buttons on navigation toolbar. This feature reduces the height of the main toolbar which saves quite a bit of space.
  3. Movable back and forward button. You can now drag and drop the back and forward button to another location again.
  4. Star button in urlbar displays the bookmarks star button in the url bar.
  5. Display small or large icon sizes in the Firefox navigational toolbar.
  6. Show icons only, icons and text, or text only for buttons.

Firefox can look like this after you have installed Classic Theme Restorer and made a couple of modifications in the interface.

old firefox design

Here are the changes that I made to the Classic Theme Restorer settings to achieve that:

  1. Enabled "Small buttons on navigational toolbar".
  2. Used customize to move the add-on icons to the status bar, and the home, download and bookmarks icon to the main toolbar again.

While it may not be 100% identical, it comes very close to how Firefox looked previously.

Other Australis related extensions for Firefox

Most add-ons listed below concentrate on the restoration of one or a couple of features only. They may be the better choice if you only want to modify these individual items as Classic Theme Restorer may be overkill in this case.

Summary
Make the new Firefox 29 look like the old
Article Name
Make the new Firefox 29 look like the old
Description
With the update to Firefox 29 comes Australis, a design and interface modification. This guide provides you with information about Australis, and tools to restore functionality that may not be available anymore.
Author
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Comments

  1. LeeD said on May 26, 2016 at 10:34 pm
    Reply

    I use Pale Moon – a Firefox clone, which can be easily made to look like the old Firefox.
    Also I had problems with Firefox in Linux Mint, so I switched to Pale Moon there -and had no more problems. Pale Moon works fine.

  2. Gibbs said on May 26, 2016 at 5:57 pm
    Reply

    I use Classic Theme Restorer on GNU IceCat you can make it look like circa Firefox 3.xx style. Before the crappy Chrome age of browsers. You don’t even need a theme, the Classic addon is a combo of old theme plus config options that lets you play around with tweaks.

  3. James Witney said on March 9, 2015 at 7:16 pm
    Reply

    I also couldn’t believe the changes that were introduced, what an own goal!
    .
    I have been & still am using FF.26 happily — it all works and makes so much sense for basic users, no matter their AGE.
    I have 9 PCs at home all using XP — my core browser FF.26 runs inside a Sandbox, I do this because they all work great and don’t crash.
    Consequently for security, I’m covered —> Find out about Sandbox browsing!!
    .
    Updating is a sure-fire way to spoil your computing experience… still we are all free to make our choices and live easily, or confused and not in control.
    .
    My choice is XP & FF.26 — its the bomb in simplicity. Does what it says!
    Nowadays the big players are trying to convert everyone to ‘their’ system, be it Facebook, Google & YouTube.
    .
    Gone are the days of personal setups… But I remain, with my FF.26 not updating.
    Also have a newer FF for special occasions when the big players try to outdate FF.26 (YouTube etc).
    Because I am running Sandboxed I also do NOT update Windows. Never have!
    I like total control. For the elderly confused, who I speak to when hearing about their woes with new Win/browser updates etc. I feel the most for — they have been bypassed by the big players.

  4. RIP Opera Presto said on February 23, 2015 at 12:53 pm
    Reply

    I hate the “mobile only and shut up” take to “mobile first” UI. “All” I wanted that I apparently can’t get with just “usertstyles” would be the “menu bar” in a drop-down menu. That seems such a elementary option to have. Alongside with hiding the tab bar and have it also as only a drop-down button, but I’m probably alone on that.

    The best GUI customizability bar none, and just about best browser overall was Opera Presto. You basically could do anything with the GUI, anything. With no “actual” add-ons, only somewhat hackish tiny snippets of text, a sort of “language” of the browser. For linux users (and some windows users) it had the extra benefit that you could create menu items that would run another application (or a script) with a given parameter. Now it’s all gone, and it’s even more Chrome than the Firefox rip-off. I don’t “hate” Chrome though, but lately it’s somewhat heavy for my machine, compared to FF, and maybe even to Chropera. But this changes every once in a while.

  5. Trebuchette said on June 10, 2014 at 6:20 am
    Reply

    The stupid web is funny: I’ve got ANCIENT versions of software [that would make people laugh so I’ll STFU about it], but an old browser isn’t the answer. I hate that; I hate that so much that I’m SERIOUSLY considering jumping ship to Apple. Their new thing,
    killing location tracking, is impressive as all get out: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/9/5792970/ios-8-strikes-an-unexpected-blow-against-location-tracking

    (Not that we can’t manage that otherwise, but FOR HOW LONG? And Apple is supporting it.)

    Maybe I should give Safari a fair trial. IDK… FF29 is such a fuck-up, and I respect TF out of Brinkmann here for reporting on this, and the CTR guy for a temporary solution, but we can’t hope for forks except Mozilla saying “stick a fork in us we’re done.” The ONLY thing I want to see now is the DOJ breaking up Google and letting their identity servicers they service something alright… >:( and their ad conglomerates be one company, and the other branches (that can be quite brilliant, though rarely known) be another, and cloud another, and …the DOJ has to get up off its ass and DO something. I KNOW (have a strong feeling) Google’s paying for FF is what got us this BS. Google, and maybe Mozilla, can goto hell.

    1. fixitmanarizona said on June 13, 2014 at 1:10 am
      Reply

      Trebuchette you can always use Linux, and then use Chromium, which what Chrome is BUILT on, but I still don’t like its minimalistic looks. So far, the changes in the Linux versions of Firefox, are customizable and minimal and YOU decide if you want to update. If Aquarius or Antarctia or whatever theyr’e calling this horrible thing, isn’t for you, simply go to the repositories and replace it with an older version that works better!
      And.. you don’t have to accept “tiles” or whatever the Ubuntu version is. There’s probably a distro out there that’s just the way you like it! If you want something that looks like Windows 2000 so be it. If you want something out of this world and totally unusable by any former computer user, it’s there. YOU decide.

  6. Raj said on June 7, 2014 at 9:07 pm
    Reply

    No need to turn again old version. But some times we need to turn again previous version. Lot of time I think about some softwares. In Firefox latest version hanged some times. Your post is very informative, I follow your guidelines what you informed here. Thanks for nice share

  7. BillD said on June 5, 2014 at 6:16 am
    Reply

    In the next major version of Firefox, which will be named Antarcticus, they will be making the following additional feature and functionality changes to Australis:

    • Removal of the Bookmarks Toolbar completely
    • The bookmarks interface will be converted into an XML-format super-Database with “intelligent” editor
    • All icons will be required to be animated, 3D, glowing, and glassy
    • All (existing) toolbars will be forced to auto-hide with animated re-display upon cursor hover or middle-click
    • The GUI will be more like Internet Explorer than Internet Explorer
    • Major modifications will be required for all extensions to be compatible
    • Bugzilla and Mozillazine will be moth-balled
    • All right-click functionality will require a double-right-click
    • Users will be required to pay a monthly $1 user license fee if they want timely future updates
    • All “employees” of Firefox/Mozilla will be given HUGE raises, bonuses, and advancement opportunities

  8. Scoox said on May 20, 2014 at 5:17 am
    Reply

    Classic Theme Restorer may do the trick for NOW, but as we all know this add-on will be broken with the next FF update, as usual. I think FF was great already, just make it lighter on resources, that’s it. Please don’t keep changing the fucking interface, thus forcing us to re-learn this piece of shit over every month.

  9. Phred E said on May 19, 2014 at 10:17 pm
    Reply

    Apart from having the tabs detached from the pages to which they relate, I’m finding that FF29 is quite usable.
    Menu ‘=’ icon over on the –> right where it’s easily touched (85% of the world’s population is right-handed)… Makes sense. More…

    Interesting that you want to tell us, Adesanmi… others. Morally outraged personality, is it..?

  10. Adesanmi Adedotun said on May 15, 2014 at 11:39 pm
    Reply

    Firefox team are really doing a great job, I was once a Firefox fan but the fact that the old one pissed off pc i decided to uninstalled it but with this update, I should be able to go along way with firefox again as a close substitute for Google Chrome

  11. rpwheeler said on May 9, 2014 at 8:00 pm
    Reply

    Thanks and kudos and praises to Martin Brinkmann The Great!

    Now using his advise my setup of FF29 looks more or less like I want it to look: after adding Tab Mix Plus to Classic Theme Restorer I have somewhat very like FF3 interface (except title and buttons) and even tabs at bottom.

  12. Richard Steven Hack said on May 9, 2014 at 5:19 am
    Reply

    Mozilla developers are morons living in their own fantasy development world, completely divorced from the end user. It will only get worse – as will the bugs.

    In general, that is also the state of the rest of the software development industry.

  13. hexploy said on May 8, 2014 at 4:52 pm
    Reply

    What the fuck, Firefox?
    I like how looks old Firefox withseveral add ons (which incompatible with Australis!!!)

    If you think that Chrome is better -> I will setup Chrome!

  14. Joseph Ohler, Jr. said on May 5, 2014 at 9:28 pm
    Reply

    Seriously, no one here has found a valid hyperlink to the old Firefox 28?

    Well, I have — but I’ll be condescending about it and make you read through my blog post to find the link. : ]

    Once you click on my user handle above or on the link below, scroll down in the new tab to find the means of downloading and installing the stable, American English version 28.0 of Mozilla Firefox.
    http://joeohlerjr.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/firefox-28-0-in-spite-of-mozilla/

    1. jimmyjake said on May 10, 2014 at 7:10 am
      Reply

      Thanks for the link to FF 28, but your flashing, disco-esque blog page set up is annoying and obnoxious to the point where I couldn’t even read the whole blog post. Next time I’ll find the link myself to avoid this headache – I mean it really did give me one! I hope my pc didn’t contract anything…

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on May 5, 2014 at 10:38 pm
      Reply
  15. Anonymous said on May 4, 2014 at 10:25 am
    Reply

    http://www.waterfoxproject.org/

    its firefox 28, but is only for 64 bit computers

    1. Wayne Erfling said on June 8, 2014 at 1:37 pm
      Reply

      Woo Hoo!

      “Old Add Bookmark Behavior 3.2” is the only add-on that I was neither fixed nor duplicated by another add-on, so Waterfox not only runs faster, it lets me get back to the “Add Bookmark” behavior that Firefox keeps screwing up.

      Too soon to tell how stable Waterfox is, but my functionality is back.

  16. Dismayed said on May 2, 2014 at 8:08 pm
    Reply

    Just installed FF29: wasted about 45mins on it; found the changes completely pointless for my use and uninstalled the thing. It seems to have gone the way of Ubuntu and Win8 in trying to force unwilling users to “DO AS YOU’RE TOLD AND USE THIS MESS BECAUSE WE TOLD YOU TO”!
    MS regretted it and I think Shuttleworth must do as well when he found large numbers of Ubuntu users just pissed off to alternatives rather than meekly accept his UI design changes.
    Me too – I’m gone (after many years), – though I’ll stick with Pale Moon 32bit or 64bit – unless they change that as well, as they currently still have the old Firefox type UI.
    Long Live Pale Moon!!! (for now)

  17. bob said on May 2, 2014 at 5:25 pm
    Reply

    I have a simple question

    How do I reduce the Tab Heights? (I am meaning the height of the individual tabs, NOT the number of Tab rows being displayed)

    When I go into the Tab Mix Plus settings, there are options to change the number of tab rows displayed, the width of the tabs but where oh where can I change the actual Tab Height?

    The height of these tabs wastes so much space on my system

    Individual Tabs are showing about 1.5 times the height of the Top menu button, multiply this by 3 and that’s a lot of lost real estate on my screen, especially when each tab button has wasted space within it – a lot of wasted space within it

  18. lut008 said on May 2, 2014 at 12:32 pm
    Reply

    @Mozilla, if you do not listen to all the (/your) user feedback complaints in this forum and you dare again to update this browser as you did now (v29), by disregarding my customisations and forcing me with this new look instead of just presenting them and leave the choice for me, i’ll say bye-bye.

    1. George Melendez said on May 6, 2014 at 9:27 pm
      Reply

      Hi Wayne Erfling… Glad to hear that you solved the “bright blue” issue and that you are now pleased with your FF start page. Good idea enabling the title bar and using the Chrome tweak that way you didn’t have to use any more add-ons. I use Version 2 of Lava Fox… and Stylish 1.4.3 with a couple of scripts and it looks very nice. Maybe you should try them. Thanks and have a great day my friend,

      George

  19. Wayne Erfling said on May 2, 2014 at 10:45 am
    Reply

    Color – you don’t mention color, but on my system the traditional “File Edit View…” menu lives in a BRIGHT BLUE sea up with the tabs on top…

    and I don’t WANT the bright blue sea. How do I customize the color up top?

    The ONLY other change I want is to put the tabs back on the bottom (why even call them “tabs” any more if they’re only disembodied tabs separated from their content? It’s like slicing the top off of a physical folder… I can’t remember anybody ever doing that for their paper filing).

    My pinned tabs are also now just disembodied icons swimming in the same sea with no borders of any kind.

    Ugh! Why does every browser have to try to look like every other browser – it matters less and less now which one you choose.

    1. George Melendez said on May 2, 2014 at 2:23 pm
      Reply

      Hi Wayne …

      If you don’t like the blue color on top of tabs just go to FireFox Themes or Personas and choose the color you like. I personally use Version 2 of Lava Fox. You can also restyle your FireFox home Start Page completely with Stylish 1.4.3 were you can use different scripts and do as many changes as you like. With Stylish you can even give web pages styles you desire. Just go to Add-ons in your FireFox home Start Page and pick as you please. Hope this info is of your liking…..
      Hope to hear from you soon,
      George
      Puerto Rico

      1. Wayne Erfling said on May 6, 2014 at 6:03 pm
        Reply

        In practice I did two other things that eliminated the big empty bright blue area at the top:
        1) I re-enabled the title bar, and 2) I used a userChrome.css tweak to push the tabs back down to just above the windows.

        Voilá! No more vast expanse of bright blue emptiness and I didn’t need to add a single add-on (I already have 3 or 4 mostly small ones).

        Other than keeping the tabs in contact with the windows (I still don’t “get” the idea behind disembodied tabs) and getting back the title bar, I have no big desire to make my browser “look” like it did five years ago. But the vast blue emptiness was a bit much.

        Thanks, George!

  20. Jenny said on May 1, 2014 at 9:06 pm
    Reply

    Please help! I followed your directions, but I can’t get mine to look like yours. I downloaded CTR and some features are back, however I can’t get the Firefox logo box that has the “print, email, new, etc” over to the left again. Mine is still on the right and the hamburger button is still there.

    This new version is awful!

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on May 1, 2014 at 9:35 pm
      Reply

      You need to enable the application button in the options to display the old Firefox menu button.

  21. Spike said on May 1, 2014 at 8:30 pm
    Reply

    Thanks to the author for at least gathering up some options.

    I really don’t mind the new look…too “Chrome-like” for my taste. I do absolutely HATE the complete disregard for users with all of the customization options that have been eliminated. Without that ability to customize your tools and browser components to suit you best, Firefox is nothing more than another mediocre browser. Might as well be Chrome

    The one I will NEVER understand….permanently moving the Forward and Back buttons to the left side. Haven’t ANY of the browser developers done the ergonomic research??? The majority of things you interact with in a browser are on the right half of the screen, so draggin my mouse all the way to the top left is a pain. This is especially mind-boggling, since the “Menu” button has been moved to the right. Every button you interact with is on the right, except two of the most used. I know not everyone agrees, but moving the buttons around was one of the the ONLY reasons I had left for staying with Firefox.

    I also detested the way the update came with no warning of what to expect, no way to back out, and no change log. People that don’t read tech blogs (yes, there are a few) are in for a shock!

  22. Bill47 said on May 1, 2014 at 1:21 am
    Reply

    I have used Firefox as my browser of choice since the early days, first with Windows and then with Linux. FF29 has to be the most backward ‘upgrade’ I have ever seen. I had FF28 customised and set up just how I needed it and liked it. Then FF upgraded to v29. What a bloody shambles. Now I find I can’t have the tabs on the bottom unless I use an addon. The default toolbar icons are appalling and the bloody thing got stuck in fullscreen mode and I had to kill FF and delete a file in the profile folder to fix it (F11 only momentarily switched out of fullscreen mode before reverting back to it).

    I can only conclude that someone at Mozilla wants to destroy the Firefox market share for some reason. This is the most retarded upgrade in the history of Firefox. I am now looking for an alternative browser. Goodbye Firefox, it was nice knowing you.

    1. Marq said on May 3, 2014 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      Try Pale Moon, my friend. It’s a 64-bit FF fork that will NOT be switching to the Australis UI, as stated by the developers. All your add-ons will work with it.

      I stuck with FireFox through some tough times, but I downloaded the beta of 29 and put my foot down there. You don’t take away options and functionality from me and call it progress.

  23. GoneBabyGone said on April 30, 2014 at 10:08 pm
    Reply

    As soon as some idiot starts talking about changing everything for your browsing “experience”, you know it’s a deader.

    Same as in restaurants. I want a MEAL, not a “dining experience”, you hipster moron.

  24. Critter said on April 30, 2014 at 12:00 pm
    Reply

    Unfortunately I’m with the majority of FF users on this one. This is such a mess I’m now looking to uninstall FF29 and reload FF28 back, then I ‘might’ update once the FW fix this mess.

    Just wondering if there’s been some top dog change in the FF dev side of things? Because I can’t belive they would let such a cofuckel out!

  25. crissa said on April 30, 2014 at 8:42 am
    Reply

    Hello,
    the first thing I did after the update to 29 was to search for a way to get the old interface back. I want to have the Tab near to the windoiw it belongs to. Thanks to this website and Classic Theme Restorer! But I still think I will stop using Firefox and Safari at the same time and only start Firefox if a website really dislikes Safari.

    What I really would like to see is a big button with the label “Switch back to pre 29 design!”.
    Bye

    1. PhredE said on May 1, 2014 at 5:34 pm
      Reply

      I can’t help but agree with you, Crissa. Computer interfaces are usually analogues for the physical world and it seems that most of the just-newly-adult world has forgotten what GUI cues are meant to be – your mention of tabs’ appearing near to the pages they belong to is a case in point.
      Has the just-newly-adult world forgotten manila folders? You know – those light-cardboard folders that you put pad paper and sheets inside; ones that you slip into a filing cabinet, long-edge down, with TABS showing along the now top edge, so that you can read what they contain. Indeed, have you looked, people, Mozillians, at the symbol universally used for File/Windows Explorer? A manila folder!
      The edges of manila folders are the tabs that ….wait for it, signify what they contain or represent. Simple. Similarly the just-newly-adult world may have forgotten tabbed diaries. ‘Calendar books’ with tabs down the opening side that let you select a page somewhere in the diary with information in it described by words or symbols on its tab. Simple!
      Tabs should be attached, indeed, be part of, with NO separation from, the pages to which they belong, IMVHO.

      As for the newly missing add-ons bar, its constant appearance is contrary to good sense, IMO. Would you want your car’s bonnet/hood release control on your steering wheel under a thumb on a paddle stalk – when you might use it every few months? I think we’d all agree that that would be absurd. Similarly, the add-ons bar.
      Mine is secreted inside my All-In-One Sidebar where, with a flick of my mouse pointer, it’s revealed. Recommended.
      Simplify the interface, designed according to good real-world principles.
      PhredE – 1st May 2014

      1. fixitmanarizona said on June 13, 2014 at 12:56 am
        Reply

        I agree on the tabs.
        However, i use the so- called add-ons bar(status bar)CONSTANTLY, it’s where the link you’re hovering over appears. It shows how many emails you have. It shows which scripts are blocked by NoScript. It shows which Greasemonkey scripts are active. It shows the DOWNLOADS progress bar, the zoom function, the Flashblock icon, and the re-size gripper. They tried to do away with all this once before, thank you, no.
        What if you had to tap the damn steering column thingy, then search around your dashboard for the display of HOW FAST you’re going, when the speedometer could be ALWAYS SHOWN in the same place as it always was? Or the Temperature gauge, not an idiot light, the tach, the oil pressure gauge, or the upshift indicator? (supposing you have a stick shift, which I doubt. See, something ADDED that was useful!) I suppose you don’t have a real car, that you need all these things for, and don’t even care about speeding tickets since you can just pay the ticket, if you’re going 120 mph in a school zone. Right.

  26. Maxâ„¢ said on April 30, 2014 at 5:08 am
    Reply

    Incidentally, does anyone know why the new tab button keeps disappearing when I put it next to the tabs themselves?

    1. ern said on May 5, 2014 at 2:58 am
      Reply

      In older version of firefox, adding a flexible space after the new tab button made it stick at the right of the tabs and take it’s particular appearance at this place.
      However since flexible space were removed as of ff29 I have no idea how to do it…

  27. Maxâ„¢ said on April 30, 2014 at 4:59 am
    Reply

    Just for those trying to get the tabs to touch the top of the screen (seriously mozilla, a button which touches the top of the screen has infinite vertical height) you can use hide-titlebar-plus add-on to tweak the margin for the top and other options, but I had to use the classic restorer to get my address box and tabs back on the same bar. No need for multiple vertical bars, thanks.

    http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o396/maxarutaru/buttonstouchingthetop_zpsc813c8b8.png

  28. George Melendez said on April 29, 2014 at 11:31 pm
    Reply

    Hi theMike…

    Good to know that some of use are quite pleased with the new Firefox. I have the same experience with much better speed and no crashes so that’s 2 thumbs up. I see no reason at all why a couple of guys are so mad, it’s like you say ” dumb reasons” that’s for sure, just aren’t ready for change. Lets leave it at that. How did you get the “options” button on the toolbar??? Hope to hear from you soon……..

    …click on your FF home “start page” and watch the video…

    1. George Melendez said on April 29, 2014 at 11:43 pm
      Reply

      …click on your FF home “start page” symbol and watch the video…
      Reply

  29. Disappointed said on April 29, 2014 at 9:45 pm
    Reply

    Not sure if HTML code is allowed to embed a picture, in case it isn’t I made a comparison on how the two versions use the space they have. It turns out the nav. bar on 29 takes exactly as much space as the one on 28 PLUS the add-on bar.
    The link (in case the embed doesn’t work) is

  30. DatNFFd said on April 29, 2014 at 6:05 pm
    Reply

    I saw the australis blog months ago with TONS of feedback asking the devs to AT LEAST give the option to retain the old look. They obviously did not listen to their users.

    The design is horrible. This ridiculous obsession with making everything “minimalistic” and hiding things inside of menus and menus, what’s the point? It doesn’t look better, the extra space added between the tabs and the top of the screen is completely wasted (not to mention it looks bad) but the space that add-on bar took had to go?
    What’s the logic behind that? It feels kind of like: Let’s take something a ton of users need and use multiple times on a daily basis and hide it under an extra click because it takes “browsing” space, but at the same time let’s reduce browsing space by adding a blank stripe at the top. Really?

    Since I first saw the design months ago I disable auto-update and updated manually. I just tested 29 on a VM and I’m dreading updating. Even with the 3rd party “fix” (which goes a long way but still is not the same). Seriously, why make it look like Chrome?? I don’t want Chrome, I want FF.
    I’m starting to think that IE might be the best choice here…

  31. 0h lawd said on April 29, 2014 at 4:41 pm
    Reply

    Hey the new AIDS edition is here. ‘Australis’ hahaha I think they spent more time thinking up a stupid name then how people actually, USE the thing.

    The numbering system is a meaningless farce.

  32. blah said on April 29, 2014 at 4:28 pm
    Reply

    It just keep getting, worse and worse. Changes for the sake of change so that they can justify their beggers existence.

    People get larger screens and these guys think it’s a good idea to shrink everything. Taking things away isn’t progress. These are like failed art students or something. Let’s see how little we can put into this program to make it run and then in six months, reorganize it. The desktop for the past… 3-4 years has been one giant step back and they wonder why sales are in the toilet. Oh you thought if you just shooved tablets down our throat we’d except it. Didn’t happen? Let’s persist with that and forget the platform that put us here.

    These guys aren’t google or apple or microsoft however and yet, they think they’re. This copying of everything, everyone else is doing… it’s cowardly. I don’t see donators the same as shareholders. If the consensus is, Windows8 is horrible, why spend the next year trying to make your thing look like it? Why try to integrate in something nobody wants to use? The gui’s these days aren’t some cutting edge design. They look like something meant for small children or people with learning disabilities.

    Ubuntu is probably the champ of that. Google… ahhh

    Ghacks with this story and. “How to test a new Firefox version before your browser is upgraded” are great but how many people had the update forced on them (long history or ignoring user settings on updates with ff) only to discover a screwed up system? Nice way to start the day. None of this is user requested. There’s no long await features here. There never is. Which might be why it’s the browser with the most security issue. They changed the design when they have hundreds of unresolved issues… some for years… but if someone makes a big enough stink about something, then they have the time to fix something. Yeah because being a reactionary, caring about appearances more than substance, that’s the culture. Oh and of course, not being able to disagree with it, because somehow, people with zero qualifications, they know best. Remember that PR women from a couple of years ago? Practically, couldn’t turn a computer on. But she’s was black and a woman, so that was some how great for us. You’d have to ask them the relevance. To hear someone who knew nothing about anything to do with the company get like 100++ k a year to vomit in our ears. Other people spending donation money to travel around the world and talk about the security of it… as it went completely downhill.
    A second rate brower from a second rate group of people.

    1. George Melendez said on April 29, 2014 at 11:36 pm
      Reply

      WOW… you have quite a rampage going on……. all i can say is many are pleased with FireFox…… it works.

      1. Trebuchette said on May 14, 2014 at 5:26 am
        Reply

        You are mistaken, Melendez. People are NOT impressed with a slower browser, jacked-up (or “slapped together”) UI elements, and a loss of basic functionality. Not at all. Google BOUGHT OFF Mozilla to dump us with FF 29, FF devs let them because of some politics (hurt feelings) probably revolving around the leadership struggles at Mozilla (Eich!), and Mozilla’s going down. It’s sad, but that’s how it is.

        WHO would want to double (DOUBLE) their add-ons just to have what FF28 already HAD? Giant Step Backwards!

  33. mtbink.com said on April 28, 2014 at 10:31 pm
    Reply

    MarDark, do you work in Mozilla office?

    Look what happen to Windows 8, it is a lot better now in Windows 8.1 Update 1.
    The metro apps is now inside A WINDOW with minimize button, with close button, with title bar, it has its OWN WINDOW; we can right click and have CONTEXT MENU on the Live Tiles.
    The point is, you cannot force the user to embrace the UI changes drastically, eventually, the user will rebel and complaint, and Microsoft is going back to the OLD STYLE WINDOW now.

    If Mozilla removed the addon bar but put a tick box in the Advanced option to show the addon bar again, then I do not care whether the addon bar is disabled by a default install, you can always re-enable it through settings.
    BUT NOW, you have to use “New Add-on Bar” addon to show that addon bar, how am I suppose to know which addon to use for this purpose? Should Mozilla advertise this “New Add-on Bar” addon on the homepage? Should Mozilla put a link to this “New Add-on Bar” in the Mozilla Firefox 29 tutorial? Should every 1 billion internet users in this world open ghacks.net to get the URL of the addon? I prefer the showing of addon bar is handled by Mozilla itself through advanced settings (not even that dreadful about:config), and not by A SINGLE USER where the addon might break in the future.

    How many programmer would Mozilla need to implement a tick box to bring the addon bar back? Is it too hard to do? Must we rely addon to show addon bar? Can we REMOVE ADDRESS BAR and ask a person to program an addon to show address bar? Can we REMOVE THE PAGE VIEWER, so there is nothing to show, if you want to view the webpage, you have to install one addon to view a webpage?

    Sorry for using capital letters, some commenters inside here are too rude (calling people retarded) to be nice with.

    1. fixitmanarizona said on June 13, 2014 at 12:49 am
      Reply

      Remove the page viewer. Hmmmmm Don’t give them ideas or we’ll wind up with a totally useless browser (like an “app”) where you can only, say, open it to get the latest updates, and not do anything with it.

  34. sam said on April 28, 2014 at 9:58 pm
    Reply

    congrats to moz: yet another chrome clone. what a bullshit! but expectable: who pays…

    ff -1, pale moon +1

  35. MarDark said on April 28, 2014 at 9:21 am
    Reply

    But why would you want to do that? Oh ok…stop improvement, go old style because I’am an old person that can’t adopt to change.

    1. Mats Svensson said on April 28, 2014 at 5:12 pm
      Reply

      Why?
      Maybe just to piss off assholes who cant stand it when people do things just a little different from them.

      1. NotSoHumblePie said on May 10, 2014 at 10:46 pm
        Reply

        Perhaps you’d be happiest if some graffitopile painted a Starsky & Hutch stripe on your Vette — presuming of course that you have one. (We know it’s a new Escalade, but you get my drift. I solved the ‘Look & Feel’ dilemma by ‘upgrading’ to FF28 and setting FF only to notify me of upgrades, not install them automagically. I already have AV, Malwarebytes and all manner of spyware killers so FF’s ‘Safety’ argument can be damned. F*ck Australis . . . . AND FF29.

      2. MarDark said on April 28, 2014 at 5:28 pm
        Reply

        From my point of view you can use firefox 2 or 3 or netscape or IE or any old idiotic bullshit. If you are retarded and can’t adopt you are free to do whatever you want. Just be retarded in your own house and don’t let everyone know.

    2. Appster said on April 28, 2014 at 3:40 pm
      Reply

      You are pretty funny! You term Australis an “improvement”, I term it an insult to all users Firefox has gained because of its former qualities.
      Innovations are not always good, neither in the technology sector nor in any other business sector. Furthermore, your statement implying that Firefox’ functionality remained the same is clearly incorrect.
      The Add-On-Bar is replaced by NOTHING.
      The Small-Button-Mode is replaced by NOTHING.
      The Additional Toolbars are replaced by NOTHING.
      Moreover Mozilla decided to remove Tabs-on-Bottom Mode, the option to separate the Reload- from the Stop-Button is gone, the option to separate the Back- and Forward-Button from the Adress-Bar is unfortunately gone, too.
      I do not think you need more examples.
      As I have already mentioned, Australis is an interface created for Smartphone-kiddies and idiots. It would be somehow acceptable to me if Mozilla was capable enough to give me my options back. I am a poweruser and I do not belong to the Smartphone-kiddies not being interested in productivity.
      PS: Persons like you really get on my nerves because of their naivety and lack of information. It is also acceptable to me to see you being treated like a child by Mozilla, but please stop spreading totally false informations. Thank you very much.

      1. Appster said on April 28, 2014 at 10:09 pm
        Reply

        I have an iMac (27 inches), so I certainly have more screen space than you regardless, even with 10 Add-On-Bars.
        But I need only one Add-On-Bar in which I can place my Add-Ons. I would be happy if Mozilla was generously allowing me to set one, as it was possible within Firefox at any time.
        Sorry, but I am really fed up with smart alecks like you trying to explain me what a customizable browser is. I have customized my Firefox more than you would ever be capable of in my place, I have 60+ Add-Ons installed which I all use, and valued 10 of them are just there because Mozilla in its infinite wisdom decided to remove a feature again.
        Add-Ons were invented to increase the abilities of Firefox, not to replace features Mozilla in its idiotism decided to remove. That is the only sense of Add-Ons.
        As I said, it is acceptable to me if Mozilla decides to make kiddies (so to speak persons like you) happy in their default configuration of Firefox. This is not what drives me crazy really. My problem is that they prevent us power users from reactivating our customizations.
        If you think everything new is automatically good, than you are definitely barking on the wrong tree. The most innovations in recent history were trying to catch up even the last idiot using the programm, but essentially they were redundant and useless.
        Moreover I am glad to read you were finally realizing that your first statement was completely wrong, at least you are not trying to counter me, would be hopeless anyways. What did you learn from this? Inform yourself before writing nonsense!
        PS: Maybe you should also improve your behavior, words like “retarded” are just as stupid as redundant.

      2. MarDark said on April 28, 2014 at 5:07 pm
        Reply

        You are a power user? :))) You want 10 addon bars so you can browse in half of the screen? :)) Super power user. Let me explain the concept of a customizable browser. You can customize it as you like by adding all kinds of addons. Come one power user, I think you can understand something as easy as this. Can you? Don’t get angry :)))

    3. Martin Brinkmann said on April 28, 2014 at 9:32 am
      Reply

      I think your explanation is a bit too easy. I don’t mind change, but if features are removed from the browser, then you certainly should speak up, especially if you have used those features actively.

      1. Michelle said on December 18, 2014 at 7:50 pm
        Reply

        My old addons don’t work with the new ffx secondly why would I want to get more addons to make something work that worked just fine before, thirdly if I want to see more of my screen I would just change what bars I use. The new ffx sucks period, if I wanted all that garbage I would just chrome which I avoid just like internet explorer.

      2. MarDark said on April 28, 2014 at 4:42 pm
        Reply

        The purpose of the new interface is make the browsing experience better and the best way to do that is to remove all unnecessary bars and extra stuff that decrease the view of the page. When you browse you prefer to see more of the page or more bars and widgets on your screen. The addon bar can be easily brought back by means of an addon. That is the beauty of a customizable browser, unlike the competitors.

      3. MarDark said on April 28, 2014 at 11:24 am
        Reply

        Features are moved and rearranged. They remain the same.

      4. Martin Brinkmann said on April 28, 2014 at 11:43 am
        Reply

        So, the removal of the add-on bar is replaced by which feature exactly?

  36. Mats Svensson said on April 28, 2014 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    One of the most important things they have copied from Google…
    Whenever they “improve” something, the first thing asked from the users is:
    “HOW DO I TURN THIS ?&%¤# OFF???”

  37. firefoxlover said on April 28, 2014 at 12:20 am
    Reply

    I was always quite happy with Firefox since version 1.0. (abt 10 years) Now I’m definitely NOT looking forward to Australis. Since I have Pale Moon browser now for a few years as a backup of Fx, I will reverse to make PM as the default browser. NOT a happy camper at all! In their infinite wisdom they will turn a lot of Firefox users away once Australis is released. MozillaZine forums, be prepared for the onslaught!

  38. PhoneyVirus said on April 27, 2014 at 10:40 pm
    Reply

    Really disappointing, once again my PC, by that I mean computer not stupid ass Tables and Smart Phone’s has to deal with such change’s. Thank God that dream of owning a little computer repair shop is over, why because it all about Laptops, Smart Phones, Tables and Consoles. Witch by the way never inspired me to get this far in the computer world, don’t get wrong their only good for one thing and that’s absolutely noting.

    Add-on bar was created for, you guest it extensions now they’re ripping out. Why would Firefox even create it if their intention was to kill it off, and put it back were it came from. Plus they need to update their bookmark search because it’s crap.

    Thanks for the little Tutorial Martin

    PhoneyVirus

  39. MozillaTards said on April 27, 2014 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    mozillatards … they should sack those morons in the design team.. they have done absolutely fuck all to improve firefox in years!!!!!!!!!!!

    useless fucks…. I get better improvements from third party addon developers.. would think these shittheads would start adding actual browser improvements not following shitty looking garbage chrome and social media spyware shite into the browser.

    even chrome gets decent improvements.. like icon in a tab to indicate which tab has sound coming from it… there is an ACTUAL FKING IMPROVEMENT U GOD DAMN FKING MORONS COULD IMPLEMENT.

    ITS NOT LIKE IT HASN’T BEEN SUGGESTED YEARS AGO! but no just pathetic excuses as to why they can’t do it.

    fuking mozilla =morons

    upgraded family firefox to this pile of shit update.. there first respones were.. where is the menu bar!!! and then why the fuck is the menu in a tiny icon on the right side of the screen with a bunch of fking oversized icons inside of it.

    good job fking morons

    1. StreamLine said on May 18, 2014 at 5:20 pm
      Reply

      +1.000.000.000
      Mozilla “designers” have completly fucked up their FF. Gona make some exploration to change for a better browser.

    2. MJ said on April 30, 2014 at 11:24 pm
      Reply

      +1111111

    3. Wally said on April 28, 2014 at 2:01 am
      Reply

      +1
      I couldn’t have said it better myself!

      Let’s hope Markus will keep Palemoon pre-Australis.

  40. Yann said on April 27, 2014 at 5:10 pm
    Reply

    So the new interface resembles Chrome, again like what Opera did?
    And according to this article, it is no longer as customizable as the previous versions of FF?
    This is really weird. I think I’m gonna stick with the good old opera 12.00 which i am still using.

  41. McCoy Pauley said on April 27, 2014 at 4:14 pm
    Reply

    Australis is DEATH!

    I will NEVER use this piece of crap that looks like it was designed by a third-grader.

    Been with FF since the beginning. Gone forever now. Bye.

  42. yoav said on April 27, 2014 at 12:49 pm
    Reply

    I’m already using PaleMoon for work (love it) and I’ll try Cyberfox for personal use. FF is dead to me …

  43. Tony Cranbone said on April 27, 2014 at 8:39 am
    Reply

    I love Australis. I don’t know why all the negativity. It’s like people complain all the time whenever there is a positive change. You can’t stay with the old look forever. Everything in life changes. We don’t stay in puberty forever.

    1. mario said on May 19, 2014 at 7:50 pm
      Reply

      “We don’t stay in puberty forever.”
      In comparison, Australis is not synonymous with adulthood.

    2. Mark G said on May 7, 2014 at 12:36 pm
      Reply

      >Everything in life changes. We don’t stay in puberty forever.

      LOL! Right! But tell me when we grow do we lose our leg, eyes, hand? This is what mozilla did with the browser. Removed customization that people loved.

    3. Appster said on April 27, 2014 at 10:42 am
      Reply

      Australis is not good at all, that is the problem. Mozilla decided to remove the Add-On-Bar, Tabs-on-Bottom-Mode, Small Icons and many other things without any true replacement. Furthermore there are a lot of buttons in Australis which can not be moved to places where I (and not Mozilla) want them.
      What is the advantage in the end? The only innovation I appreciate is the new customizable menu, which is also the only thing that can be called a “good idea” really.
      What is the point with the new tabs? Actually they are just eyecandy without any sense.
      I am a Firefox-poweruser, I created my own interface a long time ago. And now Mozilla is coming, throwing everything around, just so that even the last idiot can handle the browser well!?!?!? Would you be happy in my place?
      Australis is not a progress, far more of a retrogression made for half-wits being afraid of options and customizability.

  44. Lee Doan said on April 27, 2014 at 3:16 am
    Reply

    I switched from Firefox to Cyberfox. I found Cyberfox a bit quicker. And I can customize it to look like the the old Firefox.

  45. Rodalpho said on April 26, 2014 at 11:56 pm
    Reply

    I prefer to run as few addons as possible, but Australis just wasted too much space, so I had to do something.

    I prefer the Chrome UI design to the old Firefox one, so I switched to the FXChrome theme instead.

  46. David said on April 26, 2014 at 8:33 pm
    Reply

    I have a few gripes with Australis. The first is that the menu is on the wrong side compared to every other piece of software I use. That makes it a special case, and that’s bad. The second is that the tabs aren’t clearly defined which – if you read the blog – was a deliberate change to improve the look of ‘lightweight themes’ (aka toolbar wallpaper – yes that’s a thing now, and a priority).

    I can’t say I like the Firefox 4 design any better, and Australis is obviously superior. But I don’t use either. I use my own layout with my own style, menu and behavior scheme that I put many hours into. It’s all shared online somewhere and it’s an excellent user experience.

  47. Niks said on April 26, 2014 at 7:35 pm
    Reply

    If this addon can restore old UI then it means old UI elements are still in the Firefox exe package . Doesn’t this create bloat ?

    1. Luis Anton Imperial said on May 5, 2014 at 9:31 am
      Reply

      Wrong. The old Default theme is not in Firefox 29 and newer versions.

  48. 桜 said on April 26, 2014 at 6:21 pm
    Reply

    Thank you for the excellent information.
    Incidentally, is your orginal link for the ‘Australis Slimmr’ extension wrong?
    The correct link is:-
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/australis-slimmr/?src=search
    You may have already fixed it by the time you read this.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 6:25 pm
      Reply

      You are right, corrected. Thanks!

  49. Anonymous said on April 26, 2014 at 5:50 pm
    Reply

    Why can’t we just have a right click full page context menu page for all options, inplace of the hamberger button?
    Make it like the old igoogle set-up so that we could set it up like we want. If you want to keep the context menu, just
    put a delay on the right-click so that it shows up after the context menu.

  50. Undine said on April 26, 2014 at 4:36 pm
    Reply

    I have not read anything about the Bookmarks Bar. What will happen to it?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 4:39 pm
      Reply

      No change made to it, at least none that I’m aware of.

  51. mtbink.com said on April 26, 2014 at 4:15 pm
    Reply

    HAMAGAD! HAMAGAD! HAMAGAD! The addon bar gone? How am I suppose to accomodate this –> http://i.imgur.com/7VnPS2p.png

    I will try to use your suggestions to restore addon bar when Mozilla Firefox 29 arrived.

    1. James W. said on May 2, 2014 at 1:35 am
      Reply

      You could try putting them on the right of the bookmarks bar like I do. Combine with the Roomy Bookmarks add-on and you should have plenty of space, unless you have a ton of bookmarks in your bookmarks bar.

      1. Timcurry said on May 10, 2014 at 9:45 pm
        Reply

        I have 9 showing, 14 in the drop down and the second level of dropdown provides access to all of the bookmarks folder I have at all.. That is to say, I use that space in my browser very intensively. Now, if you consider your comment, you mention we could do it like you. And I think this is really wonderful that you are wiling to show us how you have coped with the changes.

        But, as ‘good enough’ should never be business practices, when considering FF business practices we realize what the true intent of the comment is. It’s not about how it could work, if you do it one way. It’s about Mozilla programming being rooted in customize-ability. If you really look at what you said: “You could try putting them on the right of the bookmarks bar like I do.”

        This inherently, by the very virtue of having to do it this way in order to achieve the effect is no longer customizable. It is true, you can get back to something similar. But that does not mean FF should have come out with these new developments. And if we try to solve the issues of displeasure, no amount of good enough will make that displeasure anything other than sucky! Sorry if I seem like I am attacking you! As that is not my intention… I even think your contribution is helpful. I just hate when someone is doing something right(you offering your effective help to someone who needs it) when that “right” also has the unfortunate consequence of covering up the real problems(firefox’s mentality when developing the new programming!)

        Thanks for listening!

    2. Trebuchette said on April 27, 2014 at 12:01 am
      Reply

      I think most devs are prepared for this. (I use QuickJava too… it’s da bomb!) But some aren’t.

    3. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 4:25 pm
      Reply

      Well, those icons are all displayed in the main Firefox toolbar now when Australis comes along ;)

  52. Ron said on April 26, 2014 at 3:47 pm
    Reply

    Isn’t that what Microsoft tried to do with Windows 8? We’ll see if it works any better for Mozilla.

  53. Kano said on April 26, 2014 at 3:47 pm
    Reply

    If i would want to use a chrome styled browser i already would use Opera! Adapting to changes is good and fine – when they are reasonable!

    But changing to a minimalistic browser and throwing customization out just to try to be able to compete with Google Chrome is no good idea. Mozilla should not constantly try to measure their own browser with Google Chrome. Chrome is the most used browser in the world, and even if Mozilla switches to a Chrome similar system they will not beat Google. Mozilla should instead embrace the fact that they are in a position to say that they are the “geeks and power user browser” and they should be happy that that there are many many people which love customization. But it sadly seems this is not enough for them.

    Time to switch to Maxthon in my case. Offers an add-on bar, feed reader, internal skinning function, internal ads-blocking, tabs at bottom, full status bar, video copy function….

    Very sad that these days only eastern browser companies do value power users. But Firefox.. No power user browser anymore. Just another generic chrome similar waste of time!

    1. Fred said on May 4, 2014 at 9:54 am
      Reply
      1. fixitmanarizona said on June 13, 2014 at 12:42 am
        Reply

        It’s Chrome. Don’t try to fool me. There’s already a secure version of the Chromium based browsers called Iron. TYVM.

  54. beachbouy said on April 26, 2014 at 2:27 pm
    Reply

    Seems like the Australis changes to FF are meant to bring the deskptop version and the mobile version a little closer together in look and feel. Makes sense to me. We’ve adapted to many changes in the technology we use, especially the software. No doubt, we’ll adapt just fine to the changes Australis will bring. We may even learn to appreciated them.

    1. George Melendez said on June 11, 2014 at 7:17 am
      Reply

      “Desktop and mobile version a little closer together in look and feel” ……. are you joking or what ??? I have adopted to the Australis GUI changes and maybe not quite satisfied but I’m good at that but for a mobile device, not at all. You have mobile devices with screens so small that you can barely put your thumbs on the screen much less with a browser like Firefox or any other browser as a matter of fact. Who in his senses would want the same Firefox Australis GUI on a mobile device with a screen so freaking small??? Please, if any of you fellas knows of someone or should I say, anyone, who “enjoys” this crazy Australis on his mobile device lets us all know. I personally will send him a “medal” for being the biggest “nincompoop” and also for having the smallest thumbs on the planet….. Mozilla has really screwed it all up this time… out of the park…….. What are these people smoking ????

    2. Wez said on June 11, 2014 at 6:23 am
      Reply

      Doesn’t make sense to me at all!

      One is on a MOBILE – small screen, tiny keyboard prone to typos, no mouse/touchpad, no left/right click.

      One is on a DESKTOP – big screen, keyboard, mouse/touchpad, left/right click

      Why would I want the SAME program on both? They have completely different capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. Only a moron would try and fit a round peg into a square hole and vice-versa. Which kind of sums up Mozilla current generation of UX designers and tester’s attitudes.

      1. fixitmanarizona said on June 13, 2014 at 12:32 am
        Reply

        Yep, like trying to use a Honda Fit, or a SmartCar, to pull an 18-wheel trailer!
        Or, more aptly, like trying to park a Kenworth in an economy car parking space.
        But what about SUV’s you ask? They’re right in the middle? I hate SUV’s. They’re too big for an economy car, and they don’t work like trucks.
        Ah, well.

    3. MikeP said on May 4, 2014 at 6:31 pm
      Reply

      It doesn’t make any sense to me though, and to none of my colleagues/friends who mostly use FF.

      The GUI for a mobile device has to be designed for ease of use on a small screen space, particularly for ‘smartphones’ but maybe not quite so critical on the larger screens of some tablets. For a non-touch screeened desktop you need something else that works in that environment. No businesses I know are yet using or wanting any touch screen technology and none are using Windows 8 or 8.1 style user interfaces, they ALL work with and want the traditional desktop and all the options that go with that.

      Australis is, in my view, a show stopper that has shot Mozilla in the foot. Many of us have already loaded Classic Theme Restorer as we need the security updates but not the GUI changes.

      Please keep the dev of this add-on going for as long as possible.

      1. Wez said on June 11, 2014 at 6:29 am
        Reply

        Agreed MikeP

      2. Timcurry said on May 10, 2014 at 9:31 pm
        Reply

        I completely agree with mike about not wanting to fall out of the important loop of security etc, but why force any other change?? Why not make every non-UI-experience-affecting-update different than important security etc updates?(sorry if I just don’t understand how that works digitally and if such a request is then unreasonable… I hate to sugest non sense!

        I will defintely second the request, for whomever it is, to keep the ad-on Classic restore going as long as possible! Or, do something windows should do: come out with windows 8-1+1.. LOL… ;)

  55. A.S.R. said on April 26, 2014 at 1:08 pm
    Reply

    What if I want to keep Firefox 28? What are my risks? I feel fine with it and don’t want to change!

    1. Trebuchette said on April 26, 2014 at 10:23 pm
      Reply

      Advised or not, can we AVOID the auto-install? I found this add-on but I don’t know if it’ll work to stop the deployment :(

      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-auto-update/

      1. vlax said on April 29, 2014 at 7:38 pm
        Reply

        Just to be sure :

        // turn off application updates:
        user_pref(“app.update.enabled”, false);

        in user.js (http://kb.mozillazine.org/User.js_file)

      2. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 11:02 pm
        Reply

        Well you do not really need an add-on for that. Just go to Options > Advanced > Update and disable updates there.

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 2:25 pm
      Reply

      This is not advised, as you won’t receive any security updates that are released for newer versions of Firefox. You can either switch to Firefox ESR for the time being as it won’t be updated to Australis when version 29 comes along, or to a third-party fork of Firefox instead.

      1. Wez said on June 11, 2014 at 6:29 am
        Reply

        One wonders why one has to update a complete piece of software to fix one bug. I thought that kind of thing was over by the 2002. I know that FF developers keep telling us that we ‘must keep up to date else we’ll be insecure’, but one asks why I have to get all their shitty ‘design’ ‘upgrades’ with the ‘security fixes’!

        Why can’t they just patch the latest Firefox instead of you being forced to upgrade to some new colour scheme or different menu layouts etc? I have failed to come up with a reason, and I’ve considered this quite a bit. The only reason I can think of is lazy developers who can’t be arsed fixing their previous bugs, so instead start afresh.

        Can anybody give me a good reason why Firefox can’t just be patched – or is the code so bad that it doesn’t allow for patching? (p.s. I’m a programmer with 35+ yrs of experience, so trying to feed me BS will not impress me)

      2. jimbo said on April 26, 2014 at 3:36 pm
        Reply

        your views Martin on Pale Moon please ? … best of both worlds ? adopt new developments but hang on to some traditional ? I have it installed and mirrors Ffx at the moment.

      3. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 3:53 pm
        Reply

        I think it is an excellent alternative, especially if you dislike Australis. I’m fine using add-ons such as Classic Theme Restorer for now but if things don’t work anymore in the future, would not mind switching to Pale Moon as well.

  56. Karl Gephart said on April 26, 2014 at 1:08 pm
    Reply

    Great recap, Martin. One thing Australis made me realize in beta is that I was changing/customizing some of the old Firefox features anyway. I was rounding my tabs with userChrome.css. I never used the add-on bar because of the vertical real estate taken up. I haven’t missed the Firefox button (using the moveable button and personal menu addons). To me, one-click access with the roomy AIO Sidebar is better than two using the Firefox button dropdown (yes, I don’t mind giving up a narrow strip of horizontal real estate with AIO). And the risks of devs with compatible reversal features could likely become too great over time. This is despite the fact that I use a lot of addons – but most of the addons I use have competitors with similar features that I could go with. In the end, of course, it’s just a matter of personal taste. :)

  57. dwarf_t0ssn said on April 26, 2014 at 1:05 pm
    Reply

    Never knew that the button was called the “hamburger” button. Makes sense.

    1. Wez said on June 11, 2014 at 6:16 am
      Reply

      It’s not! I was one of the first person to use those three bars as a menu trigger in an application (2006) and until today (2014) I’ve never seen them called a ‘hamburger’ button, anywhere but this page. (not saying it hasn’t been picked up by others – but it’s defintely NOT the general name for it). So, you get to choose whether to make it popular, by using it…or not :-)

      1. fixitmanarizona said on June 13, 2014 at 12:29 am
        Reply

        It’s… BACON. Someone got confused.

  58. jimbo said on April 26, 2014 at 11:28 am
    Reply

    I am adaptable to change … but the one thing that really bugs me is the wasted space top of screen.
    Does CTR allow tabs to touch the edge of screen top ?

    1. Mark said on June 19, 2014 at 10:12 am
      Reply

      There is an old add-on called ‘Tabs Always in Titlebar’ that used to work well for this problem, but it hasn’t been updated in a while so I stopped using it.

    2. Teiji said on April 26, 2014 at 4:28 pm
      Reply

      I think you only see the space if your window is not maximize. If you maximize the window, the tab should touch the edge of the screen (at least for Firefox 28).

    3. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 11:34 am
      Reply

      No. The highest you get is when you disable the Firefox button, but there is still a gap between the top of tab units and the edge of the screen.

  59. Appster said on April 26, 2014 at 11:03 am
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    Australis is a real catastrophe to Firefox… What was Mozilla thinking when they took the Add-On-Bar and the Tabs-on-Bottom-mode away? I use them both and currently I have no plans to change that.
    Eighty percent of the Beta- and Pre-Beta-Users were hating Australis, but the stubborn Mozilla-devs still think they can force all fans of Firefox to use the new interface.
    Classic Theme Restorer is the reaction and keeps Firefox usable. Many persons (including me) recognize Australis as the ugly Chrome-clone it really is without any doubt. They will not regain any market share back from Chrome by copying it and throwing their biggest advantage (the customizability) away. This plan will not be crowned with success!

    1. Lee Doan said on December 19, 2014 at 3:46 am
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      It seems to me that the Firefox people are trying to make Firefox look like Google Chrome.
      If I wanted that I would just install Chrome. I like the look of the old Firefox. To get that look I now use Cyberfox as my default browser. Pale Moon is also good for that, but I found Cyberfox a bit snappier.

    2. Timcurry said on May 10, 2014 at 9:23 pm
      Reply

      Thank god I found your comments! I was beginning to think I was the only odd one out!

      What is wrong with Google and Microsoft these days? Apple! People who used apple brought about this notion that Microsoft platforms and organizations were just as difficult for them as apple platforms were for MS users. Which dictated two versions of the same process, we call them Operating Systems.

      So now, you have Google and Microsoft realizing the market potential of this ability to have users go with their proprietary devices and have created their own NEW version of OS’. You ask what new version of windows is not anything like the older version? Windows 8. You don’t even have control to the BIOS anymore… Now, with Google coming out with their new OS that is based in Cloud storage, this just seems to be the mode of the market right now. Firefox, the one that came about because everyone else wouldn’t change what sucked about their products, found a nice cozy, never under-appreciated niche in whatever demographic includes my home! I just couldn’t believe the user friendliness.. So much so, I didn’t even try chrome. I just stuck with Firefox.. Come to find out, when I can’t seem to make the new developments of Frirefox work for me, I find out it: is intentionally modeled after chrome.

      My brain does a quick stop and WTF did they say??!

      I thought the idea was to be better. If you model after something that has pitfalls for the user, how could you really imagine your ability to not have the same pitfalls users don’t like about those systems if you are trying your best to be the other systems?? It simply seems counter-intuitive.. If you want to be better at something, you don’t model yourself by what is not better.. No one ever says, if you want to do better than me, do exactly what I do… BECAUSE THAT JUST PLAIN MAKES NO SENSE!

      But effectively, that is what is being done here. Making Firefox like anything other than more depthful version of the original Firefox is clearly something else. It’s something else the way windows 8 is not a windows operating system, clearly it is effectively, and thus should be effectively called, something else!

      Thanks for listening to my rave.. I just hate the way the businesses that young people endorsed about 15 years ago are all turning to the same corrupt disgusting practices the business tycoons and monopolies of the 50’s-90’s. Like young people once were fed up with corruption… I wonder what we call turning Firefox into chrome. Would it be corruption? I mean, is it really all about gaining the money from the chrome demographic?

      Business practices based on making more money(acquiring the chrome demographic) are what young people wanted to do away with. And the internet companies, they were the leaders in that effect, getting rid of poor and unfair business practices. That was almost their bread and butter. They made money simply because they had fair practices and the others apparent did not…

      What is happening to all of those large corporations now? They are realizing the amount of money they did not capitalize on over the last 15 years from good practices was too much to be without. And, just like the banking, oil, and gardening/fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide, and pharmaceuticals industries, they are making market strides to get their share of unfair profits!

    3. M said on May 4, 2014 at 9:44 pm
      Reply

      @Appster:
      “Many persons (including me) recognize Australis as the ugly Chrome-clone it really is without any doubt.”
      About the same thing happened to Opera in the beginning of 2013. Opera stopped developing its own engine and now has a stupid Chrome-like clone (its even condescendingly called Chropera by its opponents), with almost _all_ options which were available in Opera 12.16 (the last good Opera) GONE.
      So I _envy_ the Firefox users when this thing with Firefox29 happened; for they at least HAVE a classic plugin and open source (so, a fork is possible). Not so with Opera: they just abandoned their engine and much more importantly: they abandonded their ‘old’ userbase, by getting rid of almost all possibilities which Opera 12 had. The Opera bosses wanted more market share on the desktop, and for some extremely poor reason they decided to start all over from scratch.
      Internet Explorer was _already_ a thing to avoid at all times (Microsoft really bugged it with thousands of vulnerabilities).
      So what’s left? Chrome, FF, Safari and Opera. Where Chrome, FF and Opera all are beginning to look a lot like each other, there’s really only Chrome and Safari left.
      [sarcasm]Good for the browser biodiversity![/sarcasm]

  60. Andy Gardiner said on April 26, 2014 at 9:52 am
    Reply

    You mean TUESDAY 29th, not THURSDAY 29th… :)

    1. Joe said on April 26, 2014 at 7:05 pm
      Reply

      I tried installing the Classic Theme Restorer, and it wouldn’t let me, so I clicked on install it anyway, and I still couldn’t do it because it says FF 28 is not compatible….go figure…

      1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 8:12 pm
        Reply

        Well it only makes sense if you have Fx 29 or newer installed, so that is the reason why it is not compatible with older versions.

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on April 26, 2014 at 11:50 am
      Reply

      Andy right, corrected it. Thanks!

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