Hi guys,

Thanks again for your answers.

I agree that this discussion has no use if it does not reach designer or developper eyes (I thought you guys were).

It just shifted from current to future interface and I just thought it might be useful for these people to have an early feedback about these changes as it will probably impact or even irritate many.

Maybe this is not the correct media to share these comments though. TheOldFox: Where will I see when it is in the Aurora channel (and what is the Aurora channel)?

Unless this feedback is used, I will only conclude about comments about what you just told me.

It is understandable that the back/forward button and the location bar cannot be separated by having a look at the design. It might be cool to be able to separate them but I think it is only a minor irritant. It is the same for the refresh/stop button, although I find it really annoying that it is away from the back/forward button.

For me, it is also a minor irritant that the throbber that is gone and not irritant at all that the location bar that cannot be hidden.

For the rest, I don't find any reason why items would need to be locked on an customizable interface. I would expect to be able to move everything around and be able to remove the items I don't want without using add-ons on a customizable interface. This is what I liked at first glance when I first used Firefox and what made me stick to it even when other options were appearing.

There is no perfect design and, in my opinion, what gets the closest to it is to let users (or at least the ones for which it matters) be able to make the design they like with an interface.

The Aurora channel is the alpha 2 development stage that is in between the Nightly alpha 1 stage (where all new code initially lands) and the beta channel (which code will become the next release), so it is a bit more stable (code bubbles down to the next channel with a 6 week delay).

• http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/
• http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/aurora/notes/

teagish:

To see when new versions are moving to the various channels see - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases

• shows Firefox 28 (currently with the Australis interface) is moving to Aurora on December 10, 2013. (It can always be delayed and the Australis interface pushed to Firefox 29). My understanding is that another version of Firefox 28 (without the Australis interface) is available, but let's not confuse things by getting into that. OK?????

A quick summary of the changes from Firefox 25-27 and the Australis default installed interface.

• The Firefox button is gone and the Menu Bar appears at the left end of the Windows title bar. An add-on is already in place that will allow you to change that but it still needs some tweaking.
• The URL/Location bar is now one unit containing the Back/Forward button (left end), the Site Identity button (left end), the Address space (where you type an address (middle), the drop down marker, followed by the combined go/stop/reload button at the right end.
  • You currently can not break out individual items from the URL/Location bar unit in the Australis interface.
  • You can move anywhere on the Navigation Toolbar but NOT remove the URL/Location bar. You can move anywhere on the Navigation Toolbar but NOT remove the Search Bar. You can NOT hide the Navigation Toolbar where all of this and the icons below are displayed.
• The following buttons that come on the Navigation toolbar in the Australis default interface can be repositioned on the Navigation Toolbar including to the left of the URL/Location bar unit:
  • combined Bookmark this page/Display bookmarks is a single unit and can NOT be split into two buttons but is movable as a unit.
  • the Home button
  • the Download button
• The new 3-bar button is in a fixed (non-movable) postion at the left end of the Navigation toolbar.

Things to keep in mind

• Changes may still be made before it is moved to Beta or may be changed while in Beta, but major changes while in Beta are rare. Changes are quite possible in Aurora.
• It is much too early to know exactly what will be in the final Release version.
• It is much too early to know what add-ons will be developed for the Australis interface.
• Most importantly, you and all other users will get what the developers finally decide is what they want to release. You may have no choice but to use add-ons to change the interface, unless you want to switch browsers.

There is no need at this development phase for a continuation of this discussion. Let's put it on hold and see what happens. OK?????

I have no problem with moving the 3-bar button to the far left on the Navigation Toolbar, i.e. to the left of the Back button. Remember that the location bar container is a fixed item that now has a lot of buttons in it, so you can't move a button into this container.

Edit:
I always forget that the Classic Theme Restorer extension makes this possible.

• Classic Theme Restorer: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/

teagish:

Corrections to what I said above.

The first paragraph should read (changes in italics):

To see when new versions are moving to the various channels see - https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases

• shows Firefox 28 (currently with the Australis interface) is moving to Aurora during the week of December 10, 2013. (It can always be delayed and the Australis interface pushed to Firefox 29). The new Aurora is generally available on Friday of the week indicated. The date indicated on that wiki page is the date that a new version of Firefox RELEASE is available, followed by, generally, Firefox BETA on Thursday of that week, followed by Firefox Aurora on Friday of that week. Aurora and Beta are updated once or twice per week during those phases of development. My understanding is that another version of Firefox 28 (without the Australis interface) is available, but let's not confuse things by getting into that. OK?????
• The Aurora version will be available on or about 12/13/2013 for download from the following page - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-aurora.html

Second correction: I can now move the 3-bar button. That may have occurred during one of the nightly updates since I first tested with my initial download and installation of Nightly Australis 28.0a1.

teagish:

Just for your information, the add-on Classic Theme Restorer - customize Australis ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ ) has updated and there are new options:

• (See CAUTION at end of this bullet) after checking the option in the add-on on the Main tab "Movable back forward button" 2 new buttons appear on the Customize palette, one for Back/Forward button and one for the drop-marker to place next to the Back/Forward button. Both may be placed to the left or right of the URL/Location bar and the Back/Forward button on the left end of the URL/Location bar is removed. (CAUTION: Today, 12-06-2013, I encountered a problem when unchecking/turning off this feature. The Back/Foreward default button at the left end of the URL/Location bar would not return, even after restarting Firefox. I was left with no workable Back/Forward button and after much time to rectify the situation, had to uninstall Australis 28.0a1 and profile and perform a complete reinstallation of Australis, the 9 add-ons that I had previously, enter options for add-ons and set as desired, and make three unrelated changes to my prefs in about:config. I will be reporting to the developer).
• a Small Buttons option is on the Main tab of the add-on. I do not see a change in the buttons size, but it "tightens" up the top part of the display by several pixels, using less vertical space.
• there is an option on the Experimental tab of the add-on "Combined reload stop button (Fx restart needed!)" which will add an item to the Customize palette that you may drag to the Navigation Toolbar. The Stop and Reload button is removed from the left end of the URL/Location bar, only the Go button remains at the left end.

teagish:

See the CAUTION added at the end of the first bullet point in my last post above.

This kind of thing can happen with Nightly builds and/or experimental extensions like Classic Theme Restorer.

Classic Theme Restorer 1.0.3 has bee released with the following changes and new items:

[new] option to disable fog on tabs toolbar for Australis tabs (Windows)
[new] option to force white text/tab buttons for Australis tabs (Windows)
[new] enable/disable 'add-on bar' using toolbars context menu
[new] enable/disable 'extra toolbar' using toolbars context menu
[new] enable/disable 'navigation bar' using toolbars context menu
[new] toggle 'add-on bar' using 'Ctrl + /' btw. 'Cmd + /'

[removed] 'add-on bar' option from preference window
[removed] 'extra toolbar' option from preference window
[removed] 'hide nav-bar' option from preference window

[fix] WinXP: menu toolbar got broken in some cases

[change] Windows: tweaked 'tabs on top off' option
[change] preference window: changed some labels
[change] preference window: not supported options got hidden (Linux/MacOSX)
[change] redone icons+text mode to improve compatibility
[change] tweaked experimental tabs to gain more visible text