OOTL: I'm confused. What is this? I've been using Firefox for years and I have no idea what this button is/was or why people would be annoyed by it.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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Why do we want to be able to hide tabs in the first place?
tab management addons is one example, like those that make tab groups. maybe there are other use cases too, but this feature is for the addons, not to be directly used by users
Holy crap, Firefox actually listened to it's users? Is Earth out of orbit or something???
kinda funny, though.. the functionality has been there for awhile. just flying under the radar with a less-noticeable icon.
the problem is probably actually that it consumed additional space, instead of being kept on the new tab button's right click menu
Sometimes I feel like Firefox wants to be very visible while you're using it so that you know you're using Firefox. A great browser should disappear into the background most of the time.
I have no problem with highlighting a new feature by default, but making it impossible to remove doesn't win you any favors. I feel like there are a lot of tab management things that Firefox is very proud of and wants people to use that are just not that useful. Especially when they haven't finished implementing vertical tabs yet, which has been a requested feature for a decade.
Don't get me wrong, I love Firefox, and I think it's a great browser, but these little bad PR missteps make it really frustrating.
That never bugged me too much, but I'll at least be glad it can be disabled for people who really dislike it.
Agreed. Being able to customize all elements of the top bar is one of the great things about Firefox.
I don't see a reason why it shouldn't be possible to remove newly added elements. Even the "Open a new tab" button can be removed, as well as the recently added "View recent browsing across windows and devices" button.
Customizability, and most importantly portable customizability, is non-existent in most modern software. Even highly configurable FOSS products like Firefox take time, effort, and above average technical skills to mirror configs between not only clients, but identical clients, and even just keeping them in sync. You shouldn't have to log into their cloud or jump through hoops; just export a config file(s) and import it onto another machine; if versions are identical, the state of the product and its feature-set should be identical (e.g. not temp, session, or 3rd party data; though in the case of Firefox all extension configs should apply too, as they are part of its ecosystem/feature-set).
As a consumer, I often wish that there were a requirement for ALL digital product software and services to export/import their current config, including all "user" data, to open-source compatible, lossless formats — this would be the most effective method to free consumers and businesses alike from vendor lock-in and monopolization — but as a developer I'm aware that would be a nightmare, especially for all pre-existing software.
Literally just obsoleted my 2 week old CSS hack haha. Another useless GitHub project on my account. https://github.com/barelyelectric/firefox-csshacks
Hey, the best way to learn / practice is to build tools for yourself. Just think of it as Mozilla gave you a useful coding challenge before they came to their senses.
Nice, that always bugged me.
Hmm, I love that button and use it all the time I don't care what the icon is
It's the only thing left after I've reduced my tab bar to a row of favicons.
Now about that extensions button...
ugh, finally