User:Operations

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Firefox is by far one of the best browsers available but for many people it's still a hard browser to accept. Sadly Firefox still needs a lot of work and I'm not just talking about the god-awful startup load times. Honestly though there are a lot of extensions that fix about every complaint I have, except one. That one problem would be that Firefox doesn't install onto my computer this way. Sure it's up to every user to figure out how they want their browser but I think we need to move beyond that thinking.

There is a delicate matter of when to integrate a feature and when to leave things up to third-party extension developers. Apple is the perfect example of a company that screws over innovative third-party developers by ripping off their ideas, for example Watson and Sherlock. I suggest not supporting this one-way exchange of ideas and innovation. Instead, I advise the careful consideration of the perceived problems listed below. If a feature can increase user adoption of Firefox as a default browser then it should be strongly considered for integration. Then if and when possible the original developers of the integrated features should be given credit. The way the Firefox Campus Edition was developed is something I've considered very commendable. The bundling of extensions with the browser in that case seemed appropriate. However for the general public, it may be more appropriate to tightly integrate fixes to the problems listed below into the actual core Firefox framework.

CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES:
- Firefox Campus Edition

DEFAULT INTERFACE PROBLEMS: [ more ideas can be found here ]
  BUTTONS:
   - New Tab button
        [ isn't a default but should be the first button on the toolbar ]
   - Back and Forward buttons
        [ could be integrated into one button, like how Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is ]
   - Stop and Refresh buttons
        [ could be integrated into one button, like how Apple's Safari browser is ]
   - Home button
        [ is a default that nobody probably uses ]
   - Go button
        [ if I take the time to type a URL then I'll likely use the "Enter/Return" key, how often does anyone use the mouse to enter a URL? ]

  WINDOWS:
   - Preferences, Add-ons, and Downloads
        [ each opens a new window instead of using the tabbed browser interface, Downloads in Tab is an example of how it should be otherwise load these things in the sidebar ]
   - New windows
        [ new windows should only be used/allowed for separate Firefox profiles, Tab Groups should supplant the necessity for windows ]

  MENUS:
   - Menus
        [ on the Mac OS version of Firefox there are too many menus, I've yet to find an acceptable fix since Menu Editor made things even worse ]
   - Send Link option
        [ what is this? it never works, especially since I use Gmail ]

  TABS:
   - Tab sizing
        [ most websites only need an icon-sized tab like FaviconizeTab ]
   - Floating tabs
        [ it should be possible to float a tab, like picture-in-picture only for your browser ]

  ICONS:
   - Tab icons
        [ inactive tab icons dim, I'd rather they didn't ]
   - Bookmark icons
        [ icons disrupt the flow and consistency of menus, they look good on toolbars not menus ]
   - Menu icons
        [ icons disrupt the flow and consistency of menus, they look good on toolbars not menus ]
   - Loading statusbar and toolbar icon
        [ each tab in Firefox shows the loading status, is it necessary to display this information anywhere else? Fission is the way it should be implemented if at all ]

  LOCATION BAR:
   - Combine search
        [ why would anyone want an error page in response to forgetting .com? I say make this the search bar ]
   - Paste options
        [ add a paste-and-go option to the contextual menu, like how Maxthon's location bar is ]

  OTHER:
   - Download manager
        [ integrate torrent / Metalinker support ]
   - OpenID integration
        [ VeriSign's OpenID SeatBelt extension is really buggy but the idea is great ]
   - Pop-up blocking notifications
        [ it may just be me but the exclamation marks in the status-bar should probably be set as default, instead of the annoying bar that appears at the top of the screen ]

TWEAKS:
- Force link that open new window to open in new tab
        [ set option to 0 not 2, works best when you disable the Javascript window resizing option ]
- Turn off Firefox Go Button
- Fastback
- Google Search from the Address Bar
- Disable Bookmark Icons and Favicons
        [ careful with this, only disable the bookmark icons not the Tab icons ]

EXTENSIONS:
- Docufarm
- Downloads in Tab
- DownThemAll
        [ resume/stop downloads, Metalinker support, could be better integrated ]
- FaviconizeTab
        [ the only sane way to browse the internet ]
- Fission
- Flash Block
- Greasemonkey
        - gDate2Cal 0.1
        - Gmail Conversation Preview
        - Gmail Spam-count Hide
        - Hide Invites to Gmail
        - HTTP-to-HTTPS redirector
- IE Tab
- Linkification
- Options menu
        [ quick and easy access to extension settings ]
- Organize Status Bar
- Save Session
        [ quick and easy way to abort browser, like when you need to restart your computer ]
- Screengrab!
- Stop-or-Reload Button
- Tab Groups
        [ this should replace any need for new windows, but currently causes problems with Greasemonkey ]
- Tab to Window
- Undo Closed Tabs Button
- Unified Back-/Forward Button
        [ doesn't always work well with certain Firefox themes ]
- Update Notifier
        [ way more reliable than the integrated Firefox options ]
- VeriSign's OpenID SeatBelt

MY TOOLBAR:
Image converted using: Seashore
Browser theme: iFox Graphite 2.4.2

[ from left to right: New Tab, Undo Closed Tabs, Separator, Back-Forward, Separator, Stop-or-Reload Button, Location, Options menu, DownThemAll, Save Session, Update Notifier ]

DISCLAIMER: I'm not encouraging the use of Adblock, that's just my personal preference. Also, the Back-Forward buttons on my browser are not Unified. They only look that way because of the iFox theme I'm using. The actual Unified Back-/Forward Button extension has problems with certain Firefox themes.

--Operations 11:30, 28 October 2007 (PDT)