Posted on 06/04/2013 4:37:34 PM PDT by ShadowAce
Mozilla is gearing up for a major user interface overhaul for the open source Firefox web browser. Code-named Australis, the new UI is likely to debut as part of Firefox 25, due out in October of his year.
The Australis overhaul will be the biggest UI change since Firefox 4, which became generally available in March of 2011. After Firefox 4, Mozilla changed its release approach, from having only one or two releases in a year, to a rapid release cycle with new browsers released every six to eight weeks.
"Australis is our internal code name for a set of UI changes that is about answering the question of how do we build a browser that fits today's web user," Johnathan Nightingale, VP of Firefox Engineering at Mozilla, told Datamation.
There are multiple pieces that are part of the Australis overhaul and not all of the pieces are landing in Firefox 25.
For example, Firefox 20, which was released in April of this year, included a new Download Manager component, which is part of the Australis refresh.
The bulk of the Australis update that is set to land in Firefox 25 involves two major changes. The first is a simplification of the main UI and the other pieces are improvements to the customization interface.
"Every part of the Australis interface is tuned to get rid of distractions," Nightingale said. "Your tab titles and icons and titles are still there, it's easy to get to something if you want to get to it, but really we only need subtle hints there, so simplifying the UI just makes good sense."
From a customization perspective, Nightingale noted that to date, users have been able to customize Firefox through add-ons. With Australis, Firefox will have a more intuitive drag and drop approach for browser customization.
"It makes it easier for people to say, this is how I want to experience the web and these are the tools that I need," Nightingale said.
The customization can include options for how a first level browser menu will look, which isn't necessarily something all users will want to do. But the point is that Mozilla will now give users that choice.
Though Firefox 25 is currently targeted as the landing place for Australis, Nightingale stressed that Mozilla is listening very carefully to users about how they feel about the changes.
Mozilla now has a multi-channel approach to Firefox development that includes a stable release, beta and aurora channels as well as a bleeding edge, nightly release. The most recent Firefox release is Firefox 21, with Firefox 22 now in beta.
FWIW, I don’t care for Mozilla’s “release of the week” approach. Too much for me to keep track of.
I much prefer 2-3 releases per year.
I’m currently running FF 12 and really see no reason to update.
Yeah. I bet I quit using FF after this.
yeah sounds like a game quitter.
Look into ‘Pale Moon’ a Firefox compiled variant browser.
and there is SeaMonkey.
The problem with that is it would force them to look at design issues, instead of just throwing code-monkey/script-kiddies at it.
[/semi-sarc]
GUI overhauls never go well. I’m speaking as a Principal level Software QA engineer.
Maybe I should donate my services.
How to kill a browser: rapid release insanity.
Mozilla ruined a good brower with the rapid release idiocy. I am at FF 15. If I upgrade, I lose several add-ons that the developers quit updating because they got tired of frequently updating their add-ons to fit the rapid release.
My bank updates its tunnel security software to the latest FF, but does not make the version retroactive. Thus, it no longer works with with older (FF 15) versions.
Around FF version 11 or 12, Firefox and Adobe Flash had conflicts with each other. That created headaches — update one and the other went haywire. Those conflicts continued for several updates of both FF and Flash.
Mozilla: It wasn’t broken, but we fixed that.
Although a bane to some, I love the Add-on customization capabilities of Firefox — some extensions like Tab Utilities should really be intrinsic to the browser.
If it didn’t seize so much with Speech Recognition (the later versions anyway) I wouldn’t have any problems with it...
Thank you.
i was pretty alright with 3.6
It’s about time for Firefox to fork, with a clean, light stable version and a continued development of the bloatware everything for everybody version, new release a week line.
I’ve been using Waterfox 64 bit browser for a few months now. Seems ok but I noticed it will not let you checkout at Amazon.com. You can sign into your account but cannot complete the checkout process. Firefox Portable was what I used part time prior to Waterfox. Of course Chrome seems to be my goto browser.
I saw a previous reference to FF ESR. Does it accept add-ons, etc.?
I used to have an add-on that checked versions for other add-ons, but the developer quit updating it around FF version 16.
I don’t want to try another FF and have it mess up my current version+add-ons.
I have several different browsers, and they each have their quirks.
I use IE9 occasionally — my bank’s tunnel security software does work with it. But, I can’t download bank statements, etc., because IE9 doesn’t seem to know how to download PDF files.
It is rather frustrating to have a different browser for different occasions.
Hmm, I have been using Waterfox for probably a year with no problems. Amazon works perfectly.
The only thing I can’t do is reliably log into my work’s remote email.
Does anyone know if this will affect Mozilla “Seamonkey”...browser? We use this with NO problems at all!
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