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Firefox 4.0 theme mockups

Robert Hallock July 28, 2009 3:56 PM ET in Tech

Firefox 3.5 was only recently brought kicking and screaming into the world, but the Mozilla foundation is already on the move with mockups of the UI for version 4.0.

The author notes that the iteration with tabs above the address bar is contentious and has its own problems including a lack of user familiarity, longer mousing distances, an absent title bar and a break with consistency.

Assuming for a moment that these are final mockups (they’re not), which would you choose?

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11 Comments:

  1. ardichoke
    King Banana Spanner
    28 Jul '09, 4:02 pm

    Interesting.... can't say I approve of dropping the menu bar though.... I hope there will be an option to restore it.

  2. Kwitko
    Sheriff of Dicktown
    28 Jul '09, 4:27 pm

    Slick. I like the minimalist look and maximum screen real estate.

  3. mertesn
    Icrontic Duke of Haxor
    28 Jul '09, 4:29 pm

    If forced to choose between the two, I'd go with the tabs in the title bar area. It leaves more space for the web page, though neither layout seems particularly bad.

  4. MachineDog
    Icrontic Technician
    28 Jul '09, 5:27 pm

    By far the familiar one. I've used a similar UI for a long time with the basic theme, glasser, and hide menubar.

  5. Gargoyle
    We can't stop here...
    28 Jul '09, 8:56 pm

    Do Not Want.

    If I want a menu bar-less existence, I'll use Chrome. Mozilla: please do not copy Chrome.

  6. chrisWhite
    Polygons
    28 Jul '09, 11:39 pm

    Oh that's hot, very, very hot. Don't like the Tab bar above it but everything else is perfect, I have such a minimalist Firefox UI anyway.

  7. yagga
    Nickelodian wreckd Camp Snoopy
    29 Jul '09, 2:31 pm

    to add to Gargoyle's statement...

    Mozilla: please do not copy IE.

  8. mirage
    Veteran Icrontian
    29 Jul '09, 3:44 pm

    I use Compact Menu addon in Firefox to remove the menu bar for practical purposes not for copying anything. Menu bar reduces the screen space.

  9. chrisWhite
    Polygons
    29 Jul '09, 7:54 pm

    Mirage nailed it.

  10. ardichoke
    King Banana Spanner
    29 Jul '09, 8:46 pm

    Nailed it for people like you perhaps... but there are people (myself included) that don't want the menu bar gone. They better have a way to restore it for people like us.

  11. mas0n
    technosexual
    29 Jul '09, 8:53 pm

    I'm guessing all you will have to do to show the menu bar is press Alt, like using the Hide Menubar extension. Considering Firefox is a browser that allows endless themes, I don't know why people even care what the default is.

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