They're just BOXES, dammit !

[smallhagrid]

This posting is motivated by another I saw about the Firefox UI soon changing radically.

I am sure to wander in a few different directions in my tirade here - but at it's heart that is what it is about.

Seriously. I am really not kidding here. I know this may be hard to follow=> my apologies for that.

OK, here I go now:

My monitor is a box-shaped thing; TVs are also box-shaped; where I live the walls are box-shaped too.

So - this square screen that I'm using right now is not very big, and from what I can tell squarish things fit best on a square screen, usually, right ??

(With me so far here ?!?)

So here's another thing=> we have bodies that are usually NOT square (at least most of us ??), and most of nature also avoids squareness too...so we tend to REALLY LIKE rounded stuff - OK, I get that, no trouble here, it makes perfect sense.

BUT:

Until the day when my screen is either like 6 x 9 FEET square and is a thing that is like part of the wall, OR until it is big like that and also round=> I expect for stuff inside programs to be kind of SQUARISH and that's OK with me. It's just plain sensible & normal, I think.

SO WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH FOLKS MAKING ALL THIS KRAPPY LOBOTOMIZED ROUNDED STUFF IN PROGRAMS LATELY ?!?

BIG, rounded folder tabs, 'pearls' instead of menus, 'ribbons', and all sorts of other visual (non-verbal) stuff that just numbs the brain.

OK, so I'm an old fart who really does PREFER the plain, boring, un-stimulating classic windows style.

(It's squarish and that's as it should be.)

So what will I do with the latest Firefox V 258.3456789 ?!?

I will give it the 3 for 4 theme when that is possible - to make it plain and squarish, and install add-ons that add functionality while keeping it as boring as possible to look at.

It's like this IMO:
I don't want my browser to compete for my attention - it's just a thing used for showing other stuff.

And=>

It's the same IMO regarding the OS that I use; I want it to shaddup and leave me alone - to just put what I need on the screen and otherwise stay the hell out of my face and out of my way, OK ?!?!?

All this fancy, cutesy, cartoony, brainless stuff just makes me want to puke.

And finally - yes - I'll keep my ancient, plain browser until such time as it ceases to work at all anymore.

Sure, I've got Firefox 20-whatever, but do I use it everyday ??

Hell no.

[rudrax]

Don't worry, there are some folks who will make addons to look firefox like a burning hell :dance:

Edited July 31, 2013 by rudrax

[DKT27]

If you like boxes, then you will love Windows 8 Metro. ;)

In addition to that, improvement and change is the part of moving forward, accepting it personally or not, depends on you, however, you can't expect and force others to not change things, in order to improve themselves.

That all aside, I suggest you try SeaMonkey. It's Firefox and Thunderbird 2 in 1 (both latest versions). The reason I recommend it to you is that so far, it hasn't changed it's UI as much as Firefox has, and it continues to give the old Firefox feeling.

[smallhagrid]

Hi DKT27, and thanks.

Actually, metro is exactly the opposite of my preferences and that is OK as I've no need for it.

Change-wise, I merely express my opinion and whatever way the rest of the world goes is how it goes.

There are enough oddballs like myself that there is always newer, updated versions of old-fashioned stuff to be found.

Seamonkey is a bit more extensive than my browsing/emailing habits can use easily.

I use separate portables, have more than one instance of Thunderbird, and re-start my browser by itself, as needed.

I can look to see if it comes in a portable with options to obscure the non-browser parts though, thanks.

The world is currently going crazy getting into touchscreen-centered handheld devices and it is inevitable.

This change will slowly also bring to light that the desktop form factor is still quite useful for many activities.

During the change desktop-centered stuff will die off for a while (and already has, somewhat).

-BUT-

Neither the desktop PC concept nor the old-fashioned classic windows style are going away anytime soon.

This all suits me just fine.

I just like to poke at the cartoony stuff now and then, for fun.

Addendum:

I grabbed Seamonkey Portable and it is indeed very nice.

Has extra features that I will not use, and may not be OK with some of my preferred add-ons, but I'll mess with it for a while and see how that pans out.

It's browser UI is almost perfect for my tastes exactly as it comes.

Seems like the other functions could just be ignored for my purposes if I decide to use it instead of Firefox.

It's keeping of the original Firefox look & feel is really quite wonderful !!!

Thanks Very Much for the recommendation DKT27.

I haven't used a variation of this since the old days of Netscape Suite.

It may present a very welcome alternative going forward for my browser needs.

(Definitely WAY more to my liking than Firefox V863 - which should actually be V4.863 in all honesty.)

((Yes - I make up silly numbers for their versions - just like they have been doing !!!))

Edited July 31, 2013 by smallhagrid

[DKT27]

I know you don't like Metro. :P Was just joking. :)

I personally love changes Firefox has introduced and from the looks of it, I'm waiting for the Australis theme from about a year now. However, if I wouldn't have liked such changes, I would have used SeaMonkey. Also, incase you like Personas, they look the best in SeaMonkey.

As for touch screen, well, I love my Android phone, but I prefer no touchscreen on my PC.

[smallhagrid]

Looks like you and I were adding to this thread at the same time DKT27 !!!

(Hopefully you will see my addendum, above.)

Your humour is appreciated, and touch screens are a great idea - but for one who has visual and motor impairments at the same time they are a bit too challenging.

That is partially why I stick with the old, plain types of things when it comes to GUI/UI choices; when they get too busy and graphic I literally cannot cope with them at all in any useful manner.

I do think Android is a great idea whose time has come, and maybe one day if I ever have more than grocery money I can wrangle a device with a big enough screen so I can see & use it easily...but it won't be anytime real soon for me.

(It does delight me that a variation of Linux backed by Google is giving M$ & windows a run for it's money too.)

Best Wishes !!!

[DKT27]

I see. Really nice you hear that you liked it. :D

Thing is, I had myself listed SeaMoney on frontpage, and inspite of it having huge potential, so far, only small amount of users have considered trying it, let alone using it, so have been a little disappointed, as I expected more usage. However, hearing it's praise from you calms my disappointment. :)

I'm fine with people preferring old UI, but I'm not fine if people use old backend things. Hence, I recommend XP users to upgrade or switch to Linux, and Firefox users to use extended support release or switch to SeaMonkey.

As for Android, it's great, far more open and free than Windows. Personally, I don't have that much money to get an expensive phone, but exploring Android in a mid-ranged one feels great too.

[SyafaTahvBroentoeng]

pale moon would maintain nowaday GUI of gecko engine, at least until firefox close all the door to the old GUI

[smallhagrid]

Thanks for this reminder:

pale moon would maintain nowaday GUI of gecko engine, at least until firefox close all the door to the old GUI

I tried it long ago, and it was very crashy, and had forgotten about it by now...

DKT27, I really did put some serious time & effort into getting Seamonkey usable - and I must sadly say it is a failure for me after all that.

There are some very serious reasons for this, for me.

One problem with most browsers in general is how they gulp loads of RAM - Firefox is stable enough despite this, and still I must restart my Firefox several times daily - BUT:

Seamonkey gobbles up RAM >2x what Firefox does, and just needs more and more the longer it is open.

Apparently this is a well-known problem that has yet to be fixed.

Add-ons for Seamonkey are just a total nightmare too - fussy beyond belief, requiring special versions and adaptations - I could make a career just trying to find add-ons that actually work.

This headache alone may be enough to repel potential users away from it.

Personally, a huge turn-off for me is that it has been openly said that there will NEVER be any version of Tab Mix Plus for Seamonkey, nor is there anything in another add-on which even comes close to how great TMP is.

Without TMP, Mozilla browsers might as well be...Chrome...yuck - no thanks - this is just not for me.

NOW....

Back to Palemoon.

The good:

- Both it's current version and the discontinued 3.x version have portables - YAY !!!!!!

- It opens/closes lightning fast.

- Memory footprint is WAY lower than regular Firefox, and WAY, WAY, WAY smaller than Seamonkey.

- It seems to accept normal Firefox add-ons without any problems, and TMP went right in - YAY TWICE !!!!

- I installed several add-ons and a theme thus far with no trouble whatsoever.

I need to get deeper into it - but the bottom line for me is that it seems that the crashiness is gone, and that this is the tweaker's browser of choice, so=>

Looks like I've found my browser of choice, moving forward.

Edited August 17, 2013 by smallhagrid