this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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Firefox

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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago (2 children)

eh it looks cool and all, but why do we need a redesign every 6 months?

shouldn't they be using those man-hours to like, solve the fingerprinting problem for example?

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not sure I'd be okay trusting designers to solve fingerprinting.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

i'd trust mozilla to pay for developers instead of yearly redesigns.

[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago (8 children)

https://arkenfox.github.io/thorin/items/02browserfingerprinting.html

you can't "solve" fingerprinting. spoofing makes you more unique. and you cannot spoof everything. looking normal helps more than trying to hide. the only real solution to it would be creating a standard to all browsers, which is what tor does, and it's why it works. same settings, same window size, same engine, etc. if you want fingerprinting resistance, use tor!

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the only real solution to it would be creating a standard to all browsers, which is what tor does

there you go. do that to firefox.

[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

this would imply not being able to resize your window for example... you cant do that to a general purpose software. you need to useba tool that fits your needs. it would be the equivalent of complaining about Debian not being an amnesiac distro. Tails exists for this...

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

this would imply not being able to resize your window for example

Or it would let you resize and report the same size as everyone else.

[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

that's spoofing, spoofing makes you stand out more...

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What do you mean? If all Firefox users report the same size, than you are one of many. That's the point. It makes you stand out less. Off course this works only if you are not the only one that sticks out and its the default.

[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (7 children)

this is one thing, do you understand how limiting it would make the browser? its not just window size, this is one example. and afaik if you spoof your window size you can break rendering of pages. again, you're comprimising everyday usage. im not saying there isn't a way at all, maybe there is, but it's not some trivial thing, ive followed arkenfox for quite a few years and they've been saying the same. the amount of time it takes to make a redesign is nothing to making an unfingerprintable browser. if that's even a thing. and remember that you cant spoof everything.

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[–] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

This is the philosophy of the Mullvad browser, which is basically as close as you can get to Tor for browsing the clear net. If anonymity is the goal, however, you don't want to use it to log into any accounts.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

since you mention it, firefox has a feature where it launches with a generic predetermined window size so you blend in. even then screen resolution can only get them so far.

i'm not calling for firefox to be tor, just that everyday software must be more private too.

[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yes, tor uses that feature to make all users look the same, if you resize a bit your tor window that's it. you can be identified. for fingerprinting to work every browser would need to look the same. this means no extensions, no difference in window size, same settings, etc. do you think that's actually feasible for an everyday browser? really?

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

i know. but each point you touched can be improved upon. my point is that browsers are too transparent to third parties, and that should be one of the priorities.

[–] foxfell@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

I think he meant amount of human hours spent on total bs like redesign and real engine improvements, nithing more.

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[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I hate everything about "modern design" ... Rounded corners, gradients, blur and transparency effects, fading in/out ... fuck that! I want my browser to look and feel like the rest of my UI.

[–] Gnergy@piefed.europe.pub 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

oddly enough all these things have repeatedly appeared, disappeared, and reappeared in my lifetime, e.g. titlebars on Windows became transparent with Vista, then stopped being so in, I think, Windows 8?

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Yes, it’s fortunately just a trend. Just like websites. At one point tiny 10px font for main text content and absurdly small navigation buttons were seen as “modern”, nowadays huge empty spaces and 30px fonts are the norm.

Or Javascript vs no Javascript, this also changes every few years.

I just hope this ugly mess will just be the annoying design fad of the year.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

well, the rest of my UI has rounded corners, transparency, and blur 🤷‍♂️

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

I’m so sorry for you 😆

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is basically what I was thinking. I customized Firefox to be less rounded with sharp edges, single color and much denser. I don't know why every application is treated like a new abstract art (off course I'm exaggerating here).

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That’s mine (resized to not have a huge screenshot file)

Custom fully custom labwc theme, customized GTK theme, modified Firefox (userChrome.css)

Thunar for reference.

Anything more and I’d feel super distracted and annoyed.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I was hoping for screenshot sharing, lol. Yours look ~~similar~~ familiar, I wouldn't be surprised if we shared in the past whenever we had this topic before.

Mine evolves from time to time. Sometimes I learn something new from new screenshots and incorporate that. One such recent "implementation" is the Bookmarks Toolbar. I created a top level directory named "Favorites" and put all quick access bookmarks in there and moved the toolbar to the same level of tabs, to save me an entire extra line of bar. My current Firefox looks like this:

I'm on KDE, the titlebar is disabled for all windows (I'm an auto tiler person). BTW I'm not sure how to get rid off the rounded corners of the window, but that is not Firefox specific.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Yours look similar familiar, I wouldn’t be surprised if we shared in the past whenever we had this topic before.

I did and I will continue doing so! 😇

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

I like some of these things, but I'd be ok with them being optional toggles. I remember seeing a Firefox fork with extensive customization options for the UI

Personally

  • rounded corners make it easier to see what is contained in what. It gives more information than just having everything meet at corners
  • gradients and blurs match the rest of my UI 😄
[–] Poutine@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago

Every time I see a blog post with a title like this from Mozilla, I have a conversation like this in my head:

Me: You're changing the tab shape again, aren't you?

Mozilla: Today, we're announcing a new— erm, yes, we're changing the tab shape...

Me: Anything else?

Mozilla: We're centering privacy settings in—

Me: So nothing new?

Mozilla: Not really...

[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Make it do less, a LOT faster, using less resources, with good extension support.

That is a good browsers only job.

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

If that were the entire truth, neither brave nor opera would be as popular as they are.

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[–] novafunc@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 month ago

Glad that compact mode will be officially supported again. Makes such as big difference on a laptop screen.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 6 points 1 month ago

oh fuck no please don't break my userchrome(desktop) and muscle memory(android)....

[–] Krafting@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

As long as Kit is used everywhere, I'm up for it

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

New compact mode is great, I might be in the minority here but I like the new design.

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Greek Stays

Glad the translators weren't laid off to cut costs /s

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I just wish the mobile app had an ability to display more than two bookmarks at a time without the need to scroll and click through menus to get to them. Desktop app has a bookmarks toolbar, the mobile equivalent sucks.

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

They probably haven't fulfilled their RAM usage quota yet

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Didn’t think they could make the tags any less clear and contrasted than they did last time, so I guess they sure showed me.

[–] moopet@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

This reads like such corporate nonsense tbh

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