I do not normally comment on software because I am generally too busy. However in this case I feel a strong need to make an exception.
The changes to the user interface in Firefox 89 are not to my liking. It strikes me that the developers have made many needless changes and that these have served to irritate existing users. Hardly surprising! For something as ubiquitous as a browser, used by millions of people day in day out, consistency just has to be the principal consideration when changes are being contemplated. I don’t know whether Firefox developers work with anything as clear as a written set of general guidelines that they can run any contemplated change against, but if they don’t, then they should. “Is this change actually needed? and “Will it impact existing users?” should be two of the questions that are always asked!
Some of the earlier respondents have given really clear and well-reasoned statements about the changes to the user interface in version 89 and if Firefox has to remain as a piece of software based firmly in the community then I feel what they have said has to be taken very seriously.
The line of tabs with no bars between them is needless change.
When you right click on an item in the “bookmarks”, the order of actions presented to the user has changed. Needless change.
The back arrow and forward arrow shown on the top left-hand corner of any page are not the same as in previous versions. There is less difference in boldness between an arrow that can be followed and an arrow that cannot be followed. Needless change.
If indeed it is true that one’s bookmarks are lost if one does a reversion to version 88 that I consider this is of near criminal negligence. My bookmarks are a profound investment in my own time. I have thousands of them, they are structured carefully and they are important to me. I feel that Firefox’s decision not to allow this is tantamount to kidnapping users and it really goes against the grain of software supposedly developed by an open community.
It would have been far better if the effort in tinkering with mainly stylistic aspects of the user interface had given way to some useful development of the bookmark facility, which in common with most browsers, Firefox does a fairly Mickey Mouse job in providing facilities. For example
- When one alternates between history and bookmarks, the previous position is not remembered.
- There could be a facility to record and optionally make visible the date that a bookmark was entered and folders of bookmarks could be sorted by date as well as alphabetically.
- The ability to search for a character string in bookmarks is useful but having found it one cannot see which folder it’s in (this is really infuriating). Means to see this would be really useful as it often needed when one is adding bookmarks.
I hope that helps,
Jon