this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
235 points (99.2% liked)
Firefox
18063 readers
73 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That never bugged me too much, but I'll at least be glad it can be disabled for people who really dislike it.
Agreed. Being able to customize all elements of the top bar is one of the great things about Firefox.
I don't see a reason why it shouldn't be possible to remove newly added elements. Even the "Open a new tab" button can be removed, as well as the recently added "View recent browsing across windows and devices" button.
Customizability, and most importantly portable customizability, is non-existent in most modern software. Even highly configurable FOSS products like Firefox take time, effort, and above average technical skills to mirror configs between not only clients, but identical clients, and even just keeping them in sync. You shouldn't have to log into their cloud or jump through hoops; just export a config file(s) and import it onto another machine; if versions are identical, the state of the product and its feature-set should be identical (e.g. not temp, session, or 3rd party data; though in the case of Firefox all extension configs should apply too, as they are part of its ecosystem/feature-set).
As a consumer, I often wish that there were a requirement for ALL digital product software and services to export/import their current config, including all "user" data, to open-source compatible, lossless formats — this would be the most effective method to free consumers and businesses alike from vendor lock-in and monopolization — but as a developer I'm aware that would be a nightmare, especially for all pre-existing software.