Firefox goes Chrome
Rodney 11 comments
You used to care about me. You used to care how I was feeling. You didn't even need me to tell you; you always just knew. But now, something is wrong in our relationship. And it's breaking my heart. I hope it's not too late for us.
So what the hell am I on about?
Firefox. I love it. It's the only browser that feels "just the way it should", when I am using it. But every day it's getting harder and harder to use.
I recently wrote about the severe memory leaks in Firefox 3.6 which make it essentially unusable for sustained heavy use and have tried everything I can find to alleviate the problem, however nothing has worked. In my desperation, I have begun to use Google's Chrome browser but it just isn't right. The spell check doesn't work anywhere near as well as Firefox's, for starters (in many pages it doesn't work at all). I hate the menu system and I miss all my add-ons; especially smart bookmarks and my web developer ones.
Let's not even go to what the hell Internet Explorer 8 is like.
So tonight I decided to see how far away the next major release of Firefox is, hoping it would be any day now... and I am not liking what I am seeing.
It seems the next major release of Firefox will be inspired by Google Chrome. A sleeker, newer menu system now adorns the top of the browser and the old fuddy duddy "file", "edit", "tools" system is gone.
Well call me old fashioned but I like those old style menus! I've had 15 years of getting used to them and I'm pretty partial to them, thanks very much! I am very used to "file" and "tools" and hotkeys that go somewhere. I think one of the universal complaints about Microsoft's Office 2007 is that, for quite some time after switching to it, no one can find anything in the menus. It's one of the things I hate about Google's Chrome - when I want to check a setting I don't intuitively know where to go.
As these screen shots show, the new Firefox release (still a work in progress) has very much stolen it's queues from Chrome's look and feel.
As you can see, the menu system is now much more similar to Chrome (in that it's freakin' outright missing!).
Ok, I understand why they do it. This minimalist approach is very popular now and allows developers and designers to use more of "their canvas" and provide more features, while compressing rarely used items like "connection settings" deeper into the recesses of a single menu root (which we can see in the top left, in a sort of orangish button). For many users, this is not a problem.
However for those of us who have developed a strong familiarity with the old menu system, it's a total PITA. Much like Word or Excel 2007, where I often find myself pressing old key combinations (like alt-i-b to add a page break), I fear I will be frustrated when some completely unexpected menu option pops up.
I'm sure I'm not alone.
I do understand the need to be fresh and exciting. I even enjoy it. But I also like things to not fundamentally change for no good reason. I don't see the need to continuously dumb everything down, to make it more accessible, when people who struggled with Word 2003 still struggle with Word 2007.
So for now I am leaving my mind (and heart) open to you, Firefox. I am hoping you will surprise me and make me smile, once more (and fixing that damn memory leak will be a great start). Because if you fail me now, I have nowhere else to go.
Has the memory leak gone from this version of Chrome - I mean Firefox?
I think it looks nice and will give it a try. I'll have to use the about:config hack to get my add-ons to work though.
I'm actually in favour of removing anything that steals the web page real estate. I'd add that they took that idea from Microsoft as IE7 was the first browser I can recall to hide all the standard file menus from the user and make an effort to rework the tools to maximise web page real estate (which they carried on into IE8)
That said, in IE they give you the option to permanently show the old menu system (you can temporarily reveal it by pressing the ALT key, the same goes for Windows Explorer), which I think is essential. I hope Mozilla at least give that option.
Mark
Wednesday 10th March 2010 | 08:33 AMYou're not the only one Rodney but I'm definitely not with you. We can't let familiarity with what is on many levels an inferior UI get in the way of progression.
I embraced the office 07 ribbon and almost immediately realised that the buttons i needed were actually right where I'd expect them to be, not where I'd memorised them to be.
Firefox has held off on this long enough, users are accustomed to this interface design trend now, you included.
Rodney
Wednesday 10th March 2010 | 09:10 AM...in response to this comment by Mark. I disagree the old menu system is flawed - it actually works fine. A steering wheel in a car works fine - there are better options but there is not need to change it; we're used to it.
The ribbon in 07 is something you get used to - but it sucks pant badly if you want to do something out of the ordinary and this is what drives me mad.
For example, let's say you want to add a new add-in for Excel or change your trusted Macro settings. You end up using the exact same interface to do it, but now it's buried 4 levels deep in some stupid "trust center", which you have to go to under the MS logo > Excel Options > Trust Centre >Trust Center (again) > Macro Settings > Macro settings (again).
Previously in '03 it was Tools > Macros.
That is not progress. That's stupidity.
This is why I prefer the existing menu system. It has many roots and therefore, it's never too many levels to get where you want. Single root menu systems or ribbons are fine if you want to change the font or do something common but if you're doing something more significant (and unfortunately for me I do a lot of coding for Office products for clients), it's massive pain.
Trent Greguhn
Wednesday 10th March 2010 | 09:22 AM...in response to this comment by Rodney. I agree with you Rodney. I like the roots of the old days, it's just more direct and less flashy.
It's just that everyone is trying to be slick and appeal to mainstream aesthetics now and the efficiency of some programs get lost in the translation. It's all, "Let's jump on the coattails of Apple" kind of mentality.
It's what prompted Google to have that needless fade in on their homepage now which I'm STILL not used to.
Mark
Wednesday 10th March 2010 | 05:22 PMYeah that's a pain but IMO that change came about because of security concerns not because of usability tweaks.
The menu bar used to be ubiquitous which was the main benefit, but now that's fading away so I think it's now being exposed as the generic and non-contextual system it is!
Papa
Thursday 11th March 2010 | 10:56 AMI have been using Chrome and IE for quite some time now. But I officially switched both of my browsers to Chrome and Firefox and I am enjoying Firefox quite a bit...
TVBIZ(BOB)
Friday 12th March 2010 | 06:32 PMAhh, just give me the full screen option in IE. No clutter - no problems. Don't need all of the add ons because all I won't to do is click and view. You can see that all of the newer browsers are slowly getting bigger because they want to get more fancy. Basic is better and less complicated.............
Rodney
Sunday 14th March 2010 | 09:31 PMI have come across a temporary work around to the memory leak: AFOM
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11922
This system reclaims memory from Firefox about every 5 - 10 minutes and I have now found my memory usage rarely reach 100MB any more. So in short, I have my Firefox back.
The sad thing is, this has been made by an amateur, not Mozilla. Mozilla continue to ignore the problem, it seems.
Mark
Tuesday 16th March 2010 | 11:13 AMInteresting related article from Mozilla on the menu issue:
http://blog.mozilla.com/metrics/2010/03/15/menu-item-usage-study-part-i/
BitBurn
Thursday 18th March 2010 | 11:21 AMI like Chrome but Firefox has been my default browser for a very long time and no one can take it away from me, not even your mama.
Trent Greguhn
Wednesday 10th March 2010 | 03:06 AMInspired by? That's pretty much a direct rip-off of Chrome if I'm not mistaken. I mean-- it looks EXACTLY the same. The only way I can tell it's firefox is the orange firefox button in the top left.
Looks like my transition to Chrome, though hard, was well worth the effort of getting used to how it works. If this is where all the browsers are goin' I guess we better adapt.