The new Firefox design is here(blog.mozilla.org) |
The new Firefox design is here(blog.mozilla.org) |
I am still having to use an extension (Sidebery) because Firefox failed to implement vertical tabs half as good. On my MBP, I have two rows of small panel icons to switch between 2 rows of 8 different categories of tabs (16 panels). Below that, I have 3 rows of pinned tabs on each panel (24 pinned tabs). Below that, I can see 24 open tabs without scrolling. That's 48 visible tabs per panel and with a single panel click, I can see a different set of 48 tabs. That makes a total of 768 tabs accessible via a single click. Now that is an amazing UI/UX - not some designer pill shaped tabs (that Safari has had for years).
Mozilla: why in the hell do I need to trust some extension builder to give me an amazing UI/UX? Instead of copying Apple's bad decisions - innovate!
p.s. I don't get why in the hell anyone who has more than 10 tabs open at once isn't using vertical tabs? Especially when most monitors have more horizontal pixels than vertical.
I wouldn’t really expect base experience to match what it offers, so as long as Firefox doesn’t break extensions for power users, I am more than happy to see them experimenting with stuff that could help to win back some of the audience.
You mean, as long as they don't break them any more than they did a few years back? Yes, I'm still salty about that loss.
But to your point, I agree with you. The native Firefox UI hasn't been one I loved for many years, and isn't getting any better. But I am still able to (mostly) massage it into something I'm OK with. As long as I can do that, then I'm fine with them doing whatever they need to do with the default look-and-feel.
Because Mozilla is basically owned by Google, neither of them care about you or your UX, and Ladybird isn't ready yet.
Update: for those unhappy with the changes, you can roll them back for now:
about:config -> browser.nova.enabled -> false/disable gradient
/ 1. Remove the toolbar/tab bar gradient completely /
:root:not([theme-image-in-toolbox]) body,
:root[theme-image-in-toolbox] #navigator-toolbox {
background-image: none !important;
/ 2. Strip Nova purple accent color/focus outlines from the URL & search bar */
:root {
--toolbar-field-focus-background-color: var(--toolbar-field-background-color) !important;
.urlbar-input-container, #searchbar {
--toolbar-field-border-color-focus: var(--toolbar-field-border-color) !important;
box-shadow: none !important;
}Improve Adblock capabilities, better tab and session management, improve sync, improve site css and js management, built in dark-mode.
Hell, just look at the list of most used extensions, it’s a great place to start understanding what users want.
Who says they don't? They've pushed 23 new releases since 2025 with thousands of updates that include exactly the bug fixes, performance improvements and security fixes you're talking baout. This latest release, v157, includes the built in dark mode you're asking about (I just saw it on the popup on first launch when installing this new version) and the release notes describe improvements to tabs. v156 included huge performance improvements and they're regularly pushing tons of CSS updates across practically all of the releases.
I don't understand why people claim these things aren't happening when they're regularly documented on their release notes page.
It has built-in dark mode, check out the Themes in your settings.
In fact, I propose that all computer User Interface design proceeds as:
D(s) = (1 / (c * s + 1)) * (A(s) + N(s))
More seriously, it's nice to see this UI finally copied by a major browser, but sad that there's still no real replacement for Arc.
With memory prices increasing, many people unable to afford new machines, and web browsers being one of those things that can potentially take a lot of system resources, I wish the Firefox team would prioritize CPU and memory performance of the core engine for users with lots of tabs.
I have stuff like 'Auto tab discard' installed but it seems to break other things, like 'Close Duplicate Tabs'.
Besides the fake macOS window controls for some renderings, I don’t see how one would close, minimize, or zoom windows with this new design.
99% of users don't need to generate virtual card numbers on the fly, so won't be a high priority item.
The whiplash from seeing that selectable on my screen to seeing someone claim it's not there in the same 60 seconds is really something.
So they are practically speaking the only game in town (Brave being the exception on Chrome as they are keeping support for UBlock Origin)
Firefox Nightly on Android also allows desktop extensions to be used.
It means that both tabs get maximized and minimized at the same time, and the two tabs are always side by side. Which means if I need to jump to another task, like answering a message or joining a video call, I can get back to my work faster. It’s a small thing that helps with context switching.
I do it when I consider both side of the Split View one unified context I am working on. I do it not only with browser tabs, but sometimes terminal tabs. I most commonly do it with IDE tabs.
It makes a lot of sense if one uses subject-based browser windows (e.g. 1 window == 1 subject); it keeps all tab organization within the browser and makes it easy to minimize it, move it to different screens/desktops, save/restore it, etc consistently with less overhead (no secondary organization system [such as that of the window manager] involved).
This becomes even more valuable for cross-platform users who sync and can’t rely on their favorite uberleet-haxor-wm package being available everywhere.
- The split view is a special looking tab you can come too easily. - You can have several split views in the same window. - Selecting what tab you want in the split view is much cleaner than tearing off tabs into windows. - No conceptual switch between "tab" and "window".
Practically, it's most useful when I have two references for the same thing I want to move together as I work on that thing. E.g. Jira + Functional Spec as I do things related to them.
For a non technical user it is much easier to right click a link (for example a reference in a news article) and choose Split View than arrange two windows (which may involve 2 different monitors).
For a Teams/Zoom screen where you are sharing only one app rather than whole desktop, again split may help.
Also good for mental switching, as you can open a link to the side and either promote to it's own tab/close and carry on with same page rather than have it open separately and break the flow
It's just another tool.
Mozilla have been terrible at marketing and strategy and innovating technically from a end user experience perspective. With the amount of guaranteed money from the Google deal they had annually, they should have done so much more.
/* Hide Kit mascot illustrations from menus, dialogs, and in-app alerts */
.mascot-icon,
.panel-header-mascot,
[mascot="kit"],
.onboarding-mascot-container {
display: none !important;
}Building a whole user interface to declare the setting of that preference per-site seems like a pretty high cost for something that won't be used by very many people. Most people just want the site to match their current preference. Instead, websites usually provide a way to override the setting which is stored as a cookie or whatever. I think overriding that value belongs in an extension, not as a core browser feature.
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/A...