Batu69 Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Mozilla announced yesterday that it plans to remove heavyweight theme support from Firefox as part of the organization's great or dead initiative.Heavyweight themes, sometimes also called full themes or complete themes, can modify all elements of the web browser opposed to so-called lightweight themes which modify basic elements such as the header bar only.Mozilla launched support for lightweight themes back in 2010 and has been pushing them to the forefront ever since.Benjamin Smedberg, Sr. Engineering Manager at Mozilla, stated in the bug report that heavyweight themes can do "arbitrary styling and replace chrome packages" but did not list reasons for Mozilla's decision on the bug tracking site.One likely reason for the change is Mozilla's plan to move away from giving extensions -- and themes -- full control over the browser. Another that complete themes are not overly popular. Only three complete themes have more than 100,000 users each.This can be explained easily by neglecting full themes as they are hard to find on Mozilla's website and because Mozilla put the focus on lightweight themes ever since support was added for them to Firefox.A deadline has not been announced yet, only that Mozilla plans to have a "specific product plan for themes" ready by December 1.It is possible that full themes will be removed entirely, or that some features, such as changing icons and colors, find their way into lightweight themes.Closing WordsThe removal of full theme support in Firefox is another blow to the browser's customization options. It moves Firefox even closer to Google Chrome in terms of what users can and cannot do with the browser, and will surely irritate all users who run full themes right now in it.Those users are left with only a handful of options: forget about the theme and install a light theme or no theme in Firefox, stop upgrading Firefox to keep support for the theme, or switch to another browser.Third-party browsers based on Firefox such as Pale Moon will -- likely -- continue supporting themes.The move may look good on paper, considering that it affects only a tiny fraction of Firefox users who have installed full themes but it is another blow against the browser's massive customization framework.It is disheartening to see customization options removed left and right as it is one of Firefox's few features that Chrome and the majority of browsers out there cannot compete with.News source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPECTRUM Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 they don't want users that make Firefox to looks like others browers, thats all xD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 they don't want users that make Firefox to looks like others browers, thats all xDEven Google chrome you can switch themes the way Firefox is headed they may as well become closed source like Google Chrome. I have no idea why some open source Linux Distos keep Firefox as there default browser and O/S you can fully customize without patching with a browser you cant ? Firefox is no longer really open source in my book and no longer about freedom . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HX1 Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Firefox reminds me of a part of Linux.. It is created by people who use Linux... If you look at the design you can see the queues all over the design. IMO.. if they are going to do this AT THE VERY LEAST.. they should compile the browser to either access and use the GUI of its native system.. or differently with a skin that will look good on each... I honestly think that using the systems GUI would be best and it will take advantage of themes that are system wide. This means arrows... icons.. AND have the ability to be skinned like Apps for Windows 10 depending on if you have chosen dark or light themes. They should do this for Mac OSX, Linux... and Windows.. at the very minimum.. it would be nice to have other options available but like I said.. at the very least... they should go that way... I sort of get why they want to slim it down all the way around...operationally and in size... and protect it from the issues that come from using a theme in some cases.. but it needs to not stand out so much.. its hard for someone who is proud of what they have done when building it to look at it and see it.. but its there for users... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy W Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Fully agree with @steven36 and SPECTRUM and HX1.Mozilla is going to lose many users of their browser if they carry on the way they are.Soon you will have no choices of how to make any changes in the way you want to view the browser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Firefox reminds me of a part of Linux.. It is created by people who use Linux... If you look at the design you can see the queues all over the design.Not all people on Linux likes Firefox designGNU IceCat, formerly known as GNU IceWeasel, is a free software rebranding of the Mozilla Firefox web browser distributed by the GNU Project. It is compatible with Linux, Windows, Android and OS X.The GNU Project attempts to keep IceCat in synchronization with upstream development of Firefox while removing all trademarked artwork. It also maintains a large list of free software plugins. In addition, it features a few security features not found in the mainline Firefox browser.This fork of Firefox is way older than Palemoon evenIn August 2005, the Gnuzilla project adopted the GNU IceWeasel name for a rebranded distribution of Firefox that made no references to nonfree plugins.[10] The first Gnuzilla IceWeasel release was based on the 1.5.0.4 version of Firefox. There was no release based on Firefox 1.5.0.5 or 1.5.0.6.The term "ice weasel" appeared earlier in a line which Matt Groening fictionally attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche: "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."Debian was originally given permission to use the trademarks, and adopted the Firefox name. However, because the artwork in Firefox used to have a proprietary copyright license that was not compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines, the substituted logo had to remain] In 2006, Mozilla withdrew their permission for Debian to use the Firefox name due to significant changes to the browser that Mozilla deemed outside the boundaries of its policy, changes which Debian felt were important enough to keep, and Iceweasel was revived in its place.On 23 September 2007, one of the developers announced that the name would be changed to GNU IceCat from Iceweasel in the next release. This was to avoid confusion with Debian's separately maintained, unrelated rebranding of Firefox.The name change took place as planned and IceCat is the current name.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCatIts something for me to maybe look at if other forks follows in Firefox footsteps of self destruction . One thing is for sure there no lack of choice of browsers on Linux the only ones they don't have are IE and EDGE witch i don't even use on windows . :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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