They already have this and it can be disabled. Why not use it for three seconds?
Because every now and again, it’s a new three seconds. First it was the password manager. Then Sync. Then Monitor. Then AI chatbot.Before all of that it was a bunch of other things. Then it was the side tabs. _You gotta check them out!* Now it’s this.
For me as well, I need to use the firefox profile creator website to get rid of all these things. It takes a good few minutes to configure. But for someone who may not know about the website? At least half an hour to thoroughly go through Preferences, and most things aren’t even there!
Dynamic colors are cute and fun.
Sure!
Until you try putting them on an old laptop. Because why would anyone be using an old laptop in 20252026? And then, how dare they expect to be able to browse the web? (Because static sites to download useful stuff apparently don’t exist, nor do people who’d like to do that which don’t know about curl).
This isn’t just a Firefox problem, it’s a global one. Instead of functionality, what’s preferred is aesthetics. Instead of accessiblity, how accessible able people feel it is. Instead of performance, bloat.
Most of these things could be optional, Firefox Approved First-party add-ons or integrations, but this isn’t the route this timeline has taken.
my god you’re right, they’ve sold out to Big Sidebar. the problem with their Sync is that it has no self-hostable e2ee option and you need to use Firefox servers that use Google stuff. comparing apples and rotten oranges most of this is silly
Yeah, because for Windows, when you accidentally hover over the weather widget for 0.5 ms longer than some programmer decided will force you to connect to MSN.
Mozilla is clearly immune to analytics and took a hard stance that didn’t and will never change, so pardon me for entertaining your thought.
And there’s just no way the Sync icon becomes an auto-opening popup (possibly in the Sidebar), because the designers won’t come up with the brilliant idea.
Hey, how can we make the numbers seem like more people are using MSN (or Sync)?
Just open it whenever an unlucky soul hovers over it accidentally. They have 50ms to run across it if they really don’t want to use it!
Wow, what a great idea!
This talk at M$ can never happen at Mozilla, from what we’ve seen in the past 5+ years.
Given with Mozilla’s recent track record, it just might.
This isn’t ideologcal creep that can be forestalled by purism and hatred of sidebars 😭 the corporate side of Mozilla with push that stuff whether or not you complain about the occasional good thing they do. Please get a grip
One of the most irritating things about their management is these delays, the worst of which can be seen with Thunderbird/Betterbird situation. Community has been waiting years for shit that was already fixes to be added & they won’t add QA testers
I know it’s not the designers’ fault (at least not completely).
They’re part of the problem - mostly a symptom. The only real sin they’ve done is tried to keep their job - which I can’t really blame them for. But it is a shame it harms users as a consequence.
But I see no problem in bashing bad design, because if no one does, Corporate is gonna continue doing what they do. People need to speak about their wishes. Sure, most won’t be heeded, but what other way do you suggest for me (and most others in the thread) to do? Like this we at least have our little echo chamber to shit in.
It’s not about the sidebar, but what it represents. It’s a symptom of a larger problem - one you’ve correctly identified, yet do nothing about. I’m at least being a brat about it. Maybe if enough people complain, someone “in power” might get an idea as well.
I would argue this kind of blanket condemnation of Mozilla Doing Anything could be used by the Google opps in the org to justify adding more “premium features” that make money (but really don’t) instead of improving the goddamned browser and convince them we are not worth considering anyways, which WILL kill the browser. The default launcher on one of my ereaders has a fucking dead Pocket button and you think I’m not pissed off at this lol
Look, it’s not that I bash Mozilla because they did “something”. It’s because of what that something is. If it were a useful change, I’d welcome it.
For example, I used to use chrome some 5+ years ago. Before that, I was on Firefox. What exactly made me switch back and forth exactly I don’t remember, but I know that now I plan on continuing to use Firefox, because it is the sensible choice as far as user rights go. Before, I wasn’t concerned with that as much, but I should’ve been.
In any case, I don’t like the way Firefox does History. I’d be happy to see them copy Chrome in that regard. An entire webpage and not a sidebar, with groups, nicely laid out, etc.
Bookmarks could also be way better. Bookmarks are even jankier. If they were to copy any sensible file manager (including but not limited to Windows Explorer pre-Windows 11), I’d be happy.
Both of these would be big projects for designers and developers alike. Both of these would make a meaningful positive impact on Firefox. Making another redesign, changing the exact same things just for the sake of doing things the same way (but just a bit differently) isn’t meaningful.
I love the new on-device translation option. Sure, I’ve had a lot of laughs when it failed (and it did so spectacularily). Yet by now, it’s a polished feature, and I don’t rememberthem getting too bashed for the little hiccups they did have while it was still being polished.
I support (the idea of) Mozilla. I just don’t the leadership, and the decisions. I feel both are terribly misguided.
The way Mozilla does stuff, I feel it’s more of a “wrong clock twice right” type of situation with them than them striking off every once in a while. For every good and meaningful change, I can bet there were at least 5 bad (if not terrible) ones. But I didn’t make an analysis so the numbers are surely wrong.
That being said, I feel this is something people often forget:
When you complain, it’s an act of love. Okay, not always, but bear with me for a bit. If you support a cause (say, a free, open and independent browser), you’re gonna be sad to see it fail. And when you do, you’re gonna wanr to do something about it. Unfortunately for some, that something is only to complain. They know no true way of making meaningful change, so they shout the issues hoping someone takes care of them in their stead: not because you want it to fail, but because you don’t. You’ll shout from the top of your lungs why what you feel is wrong is wrong, and suggest what you thing should be done to make it right.
And that’s what I am. Someone who doesn’t know what else to do.
Now, as I don’t know anyone at Mozilla and as my few feature requests and bug reports seemingly went unnoticed (emphasis on “seemingly”), I’ve come to the conclusion that my time is better spent in discussions with fellow users.
These discussions just might be read by someone who could trigger a change. But that’s only part of the equation.
Speaking up myself, I also hope to push others into taking similar action themselves. If enough people parrot it, someone’s bound to hear it.
It’s about building not community per se, but expectations. If we don’t have high expectations, stagnation soon follows. And from stagnation, rolling downhill. It’s a reality of human society itself. If you don’t have a clear vision, your company will fail. That’s what’s taught at an MBA. But turn your viewpoint just a bit - if we, users, set expectation, we can guide the decisionmakers. And they should also be aware of us (what with a bunch of them doing an MBA) and proactively do surveys, UI experiments, etc. but that takes money and time. Which Mozilla, what with wasting resources on yet another redesign clearly has. I just feel that these resources can (and threfore, should) be used (admittedly, a lot) more effectively than they currently are.
And this makes me genuinely sad. And I genuinely want Mozilla to stop making (what I, and a bunch of their other users feel are) bad decisions. Because I (or we) like Firefox.
I want Manifest v2 to stay. I like uBlock Origin. I support open-source. And I’d be extremely sad to see Firefox leave that equation (among other things). As do many others, for many other things.
And I feel this is what Mozilla should strive to do. Not just “yet another (bad) redesign.”
And after a while, you fall into the trap of cynicism (like me). It becomes personal, and you take harder and harder bashes at the percieved “evildoers”. Because, people can and do do evil with good intentions. And it’s sad to see it happen.
There’s also the dimension of strawmanning people in hopes of making them see the strawman and avoid it - so, the point isn’t to make them look bad to others, but to themselves. Paint them as the big bad villain, so they loudly exclaim they’ll say they’re nothing like the villain.
You can. For now.
Because every now and again, it’s a new three seconds. First it was the password manager. Then Sync. Then Monitor. Then AI chatbot.Before all of that it was a bunch of other things. Then it was the side tabs. _You gotta check them out!* Now it’s this.
For me as well, I need to use the firefox profile creator website to get rid of all these things. It takes a good few minutes to configure. But for someone who may not know about the website? At least half an hour to thoroughly go through Preferences, and most things aren’t even there!
Sure!
Until you try putting them on an old laptop. Because why would anyone be using an old laptop in
20252026? And then, how dare they expect to be able to browse the web? (Because static sites to download useful stuff apparently don’t exist, nor do people who’d like to do that which don’t know about curl).This isn’t just a Firefox problem, it’s a global one. Instead of functionality, what’s preferred is aesthetics. Instead of accessiblity, how accessible able people feel it is. Instead of performance, bloat.
Most of these things could be optional, Firefox Approved First-party add-ons or integrations, but this isn’t the route this timeline has taken.
my god you’re right, they’ve sold out to Big Sidebar. the problem with their Sync is that it has no self-hostable e2ee option and you need to use Firefox servers that use Google stuff. comparing apples and rotten oranges most of this is silly
Yeah, because for Windows, when you accidentally hover over the weather widget for 0.5 ms longer than some programmer decided will force you to connect to MSN.
Mozilla is clearly immune to analytics and took a hard stance that didn’t and will never change, so pardon me for entertaining your thought.
And there’s just no way the Sync icon becomes an auto-opening popup (possibly in the Sidebar), because the designers won’t come up with the brilliant idea.
This talk at M$ can never happen at Mozilla, from what we’ve seen in the past 5+ years.
Given with Mozilla’s recent track record, it just might.
This isn’t ideologcal creep that can be forestalled by purism and hatred of sidebars 😭 the corporate side of Mozilla with push that stuff whether or not you complain about the occasional good thing they do. Please get a grip
One of the most irritating things about their management is these delays, the worst of which can be seen with Thunderbird/Betterbird situation. Community has been waiting years for shit that was already fixes to be added & they won’t add QA testers
I know it’s not the designers’ fault (at least not completely).
They’re part of the problem - mostly a symptom. The only real sin they’ve done is tried to keep their job - which I can’t really blame them for. But it is a shame it harms users as a consequence.
But I see no problem in bashing bad design, because if no one does, Corporate is gonna continue doing what they do. People need to speak about their wishes. Sure, most won’t be heeded, but what other way do you suggest for me (and most others in the thread) to do? Like this we at least have our little echo chamber to shit in.
It’s not about the sidebar, but what it represents. It’s a symptom of a larger problem - one you’ve correctly identified, yet do nothing about. I’m at least being a brat about it. Maybe if enough people complain, someone “in power” might get an idea as well.
I would argue this kind of blanket condemnation of Mozilla Doing Anything could be used by the Google opps in the org to justify adding more “premium features” that make money (but really don’t) instead of improving the goddamned browser and convince them we are not worth considering anyways, which WILL kill the browser. The default launcher on one of my ereaders has a fucking dead Pocket button and you think I’m not pissed off at this lol
Look, it’s not that I bash Mozilla because they did “something”. It’s because of what that something is. If it were a useful change, I’d welcome it.
For example, I used to use chrome some 5+ years ago. Before that, I was on Firefox. What exactly made me switch back and forth exactly I don’t remember, but I know that now I plan on continuing to use Firefox, because it is the sensible choice as far as user rights go. Before, I wasn’t concerned with that as much, but I should’ve been.
In any case, I don’t like the way Firefox does History. I’d be happy to see them copy Chrome in that regard. An entire webpage and not a sidebar, with groups, nicely laid out, etc.
Bookmarks could also be way better. Bookmarks are even jankier. If they were to copy any sensible file manager (including but not limited to Windows Explorer pre-Windows 11), I’d be happy.
Both of these would be big projects for designers and developers alike. Both of these would make a meaningful positive impact on Firefox. Making another redesign, changing the exact same things just for the sake of doing things the same way (but just a bit differently) isn’t meaningful.
I love the new on-device translation option. Sure, I’ve had a lot of laughs when it failed (and it did so spectacularily). Yet by now, it’s a polished feature, and I don’t rememberthem getting too bashed for the little hiccups they did have while it was still being polished.
I support (the idea of) Mozilla. I just don’t the leadership, and the decisions. I feel both are terribly misguided.
The way Mozilla does stuff, I feel it’s more of a “wrong clock twice right” type of situation with them than them striking off every once in a while. For every good and meaningful change, I can bet there were at least 5 bad (if not terrible) ones. But I didn’t make an analysis so the numbers are surely wrong.
That being said, I feel this is something people often forget:
When you complain, it’s an act of love. Okay, not always, but bear with me for a bit. If you support a cause (say, a free, open and independent browser), you’re gonna be sad to see it fail. And when you do, you’re gonna wanr to do something about it. Unfortunately for some, that something is only to complain. They know no true way of making meaningful change, so they shout the issues hoping someone takes care of them in their stead: not because you want it to fail, but because you don’t. You’ll shout from the top of your lungs why what you feel is wrong is wrong, and suggest what you thing should be done to make it right.
And that’s what I am. Someone who doesn’t know what else to do.
Now, as I don’t know anyone at Mozilla and as my few feature requests and bug reports seemingly went unnoticed (emphasis on “seemingly”), I’ve come to the conclusion that my time is better spent in discussions with fellow users.
These discussions just might be read by someone who could trigger a change. But that’s only part of the equation.
Speaking up myself, I also hope to push others into taking similar action themselves. If enough people parrot it, someone’s bound to hear it.
It’s about building not community per se, but expectations. If we don’t have high expectations, stagnation soon follows. And from stagnation, rolling downhill. It’s a reality of human society itself. If you don’t have a clear vision, your company will fail. That’s what’s taught at an MBA. But turn your viewpoint just a bit - if we, users, set expectation, we can guide the decisionmakers. And they should also be aware of us (what with a bunch of them doing an MBA) and proactively do surveys, UI experiments, etc. but that takes money and time. Which Mozilla, what with wasting resources on yet another redesign clearly has. I just feel that these resources can (and threfore, should) be used (admittedly, a lot) more effectively than they currently are.
And this makes me genuinely sad. And I genuinely want Mozilla to stop making (what I, and a bunch of their other users feel are) bad decisions. Because I (or we) like Firefox.
I want Manifest v2 to stay. I like uBlock Origin. I support open-source. And I’d be extremely sad to see Firefox leave that equation (among other things). As do many others, for many other things.
And I feel this is what Mozilla should strive to do. Not just “yet another (bad) redesign.”
And after a while, you fall into the trap of cynicism (like me). It becomes personal, and you take harder and harder bashes at the percieved “evildoers”. Because, people can and do do evil with good intentions. And it’s sad to see it happen.
There’s also the dimension of strawmanning people in hopes of making them see the strawman and avoid it - so, the point isn’t to make them look bad to others, but to themselves. Paint them as the big bad villain, so they loudly exclaim they’ll say they’re nothing like the villain.