> why in the hell do I need to trust some extension builder to give me an amazing UI/UX?

Because you're a "long tail case" tab user? Your case might be the poster boy for an active extension ecosystem that caters to niche needs.

Sideberry is GOAT, nothing can beat its flexibility.

I wouldn’t really expect base experience to match what it offers, so as long as Firefox doesn’t break extensions for power users, I am more than happy to see them experimenting with stuff that could help to win back some of the audience.

{Adding to my above discussion} I installed the update on another macbook that's not my daily driver and browser.nova.enabled defaulted to false. Maybe because I have Sidebery? I switched to true and it didn't mess anything up, just added some strange minimal rounding to things. Whew. Keeping it off, but relieved that I can update the SW...

> Mozilla: why in the hell do I need to trust some extension builder to give me an amazing UI/UX?

Because Mozilla is basically owned by Google, neither of them care about you or your UX, and Ladybird isn't ready yet.

I'm glad we can roll it back, but wonder how long that will be the case.

I cannot find a setting to disable the gradient. It's very annoying indeed.

It's not different, it's just what Apple is doing (Safari uses pills).

In fact, I propose that all computer User Interface design proceeds as:

    D(s) = (1 / (c * s + 1)) * (A(s) + N(s))

Can you provide an example? I don't think I've ever encountered this, I'd be curious to see what it's like.

Firefox would probably be interested in a report if you have an example of it: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/report-breakage-due-blo...

I do it sometimes for highly related work (referencing on tab against the other) that will be a longer running task (30+ minutes).

It means that both tabs get maximized and minimized at the same time, and the two tabs are always side by side. Which means if I need to jump to another task, like answering a message or joining a video call, I can get back to my work faster. It’s a small thing that helps with context switching.

I do it when I consider both side of the Split View one unified context I am working on. I do it not only with browser tabs, but sometimes terminal tabs. I most commonly do it with IDE tabs.

Sometimes is just nice to have a tab related to an activity, which might involve having two web sites open

I don’t use split view much, but I can understand the appeal.

It makes a lot of sense if one uses subject-based browser windows (e.g. 1 window == 1 subject); it keeps all tab organization within the browser and makes it easy to minimize it, move it to different screens/desktops, save/restore it, etc consistently with less overhead (no secondary organization system [such as that of the window manager] involved).

This becomes even more valuable for cross-platform users who sync and can’t rely on their favorite uberleet-haxor-wm package being available everywhere.

The big selling point is that everything stays in the same window.

- The split view is a special looking tab you can come too easily. - You can have several split views in the same window. - Selecting what tab you want in the split view is much cleaner than tearing off tabs into windows. - No conceptual switch between "tab" and "window".

I suppose that depends what your window manager is and how it's configured? Most don't have an easy way to lock two windows together as they are moved as one though - especially on corporate devices.

Practically, it's most useful when I have two references for the same thing I want to move together as I work on that thing. E.g. Jira + Functional Spec as I do things related to them.

I think the key here is that split view makes one tab show two sites. So when you switch the tab, you switch both views at the same time. You can't achieve this with a window manager, unless you already (instead of tabs) used only windows that your window manager rendered as tabs, and then comes also with this feature. Does any?

Every 15 years, MDI gets re-discovered and then deprecated.

I use a tiling wm, but the split view is more compact because it doesnt have two (vertical) tab bars. Useful on a cramped laptop, less so on a large screen

Well, for one I use it to watch two videos at the same time.

Convenience.

For a non technical user it is much easier to right click a link (for example a reference in a news article) and choose Split View than arrange two windows (which may involve 2 different monitors).

For a Teams/Zoom screen where you are sharing only one app rather than whole desktop, again split may help.

Also good for mental switching, as you can open a link to the side and either promote to it's own tab/close and carry on with same page rather than have it open separately and break the flow

It's just another tool.

[dead]

iOS, macOS, android and GNOME have massively increased corner radiuses over the last couple of years, so it must be good, right?

If you find a solution to this, please come back and post.

Grabbin' Pills.

>and instead focus on features and bugs

Who says they don't? They've pushed 23 new releases since 2025 with thousands of updates that include exactly the bug fixes, performance improvements and security fixes you're talking baout. This latest release, v157, includes the built in dark mode you're asking about (I just saw it on the popup on first launch when installing this new version) and the release notes describe improvements to tabs. v156 included huge performance improvements and they're regularly pushing tons of CSS updates across practically all of the releases.

I don't understand why people claim these things aren't happening when they're regularly documented on their release notes page.

They should also improve the bookmarks and history UI, it's unusable. They redesigned the history sidebar now and it takes a lot longer to show up...

A lot of what you are asking for is already there.

> built in dark-mode

It has built-in dark mode, check out the Themes in your settings.

they can't focus on adblock because most of their money comes from google

Try out the Compact UI mode (Settings -> Appearance -> Window Density), which I didn't know about until I read this blog post. Tightens things up nicely.

As a long time Zen user should I give this redesign a try?

"We have Arc Browser at home".

More seriously, it's nice to see this UI finally copied by a major browser, but sad that there's still no real replacement for Arc.

Which in turn is essentially the Arc browser's UI

Except Zen’s is more consistent and in my opinion, cleaner looking.

Ooof, it's definitely not just you. I definitely root for Mozilla to succeed and think they're critical in the grand scheme of the browser wars, but that video is rough. It's practically Cocomelon.

They're trying to regain mass market appeal because the only people using it now are diehard nerds, the video isn't for you

I still have hilarious memories of "aerodynamic tabs" in that era of Firefox design docs.

True

I disagree. When done right, tab management can make or break the browser. Extensions can't do all the things a native UI can. See Arc for example. Aside from amazing tab management story that made it hugely popular, it was a pretty uninspiring Chrome clone overall.

I'm currently using Zen since it's the closest thing to Arc with full MV2 support. If native Firefox with the new UI can do what Arc/Zen can do, I'll switch to it probably.

so sad you have to use the surveillance enabled chrome browser now, I feel so sorry for you

768 tabs open. Total suspender works great.

Seriously, are you proud of the new look? SHOW IT TO ME. Even the video was mostly themed mock-ups that didn't show what the actual design looks like. Just post a screenshot of the whole browser.

There are remarkably few examples in the video as well

Most of them are creative renderings too, not actual screenshots.

Besides the fake macOS window controls for some renderings, I don’t see how one would close, minimize, or zoom windows with this new design.

> or the popups if you linger for more than a moment on the tab pill

You can turn that off in the settings if you like. Settings -> Tabs and browsing -> Disable "Show an image preview you when you hover on a tab".

That's an edge case is it not?

99% of users don't need to generate virtual card numbers on the fly, so won't be a high priority item.