Batu69 Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 After making it clear that full theme support will be discontinued in Firefox, Mozilla announced that it will remove another feature from the browser.Tab Groups, formerly known as Panorama, allow the creation of groups of tabs that the user can switch between to limit the number of open tabs in the browser at the same time.The feature was initially offered as an add-on before it was integrated in Firefox 4 as a native feature.Used for research among other things, the feature is used by 0,01 percent of all users of the browser according to metrics that Mozilla published recently.Tab Groups, just like full themes, have been moved to the backseat in Firefox a long time ago and it is likely that the lack of promotion is one reason why the feature is not used by many users of the browser.It is interesting to note that Mozilla announced the removal of Tab Groups back in 2013 but did not act on it in the following two years.Reasons for removing the feature are low-use but also the "(very) high costs in terms of maintenance".So what is Mozilla's plan?The removal is not trivial considering that Mozilla needs to make sure that users don't lose any of their tabs open in groups that are not active.The current plan is to copy sites of groups that are not active to the bookmarks, but Mozilla looks into other options such as restoring all background groups to separate windows.Firefox users will be warned that Panorama is going away when Firefox 44 is released early next year, and the feature will be removed in Firefox 45. Nightly users get the warning message already when they open Tab Groups with the Ctrl-Shift-E shortcut.The main reason why it is removed in Firefox 45 is that the version is the new base for Firefox ESR.The organization recommends several alternatives such as using bookmarks in the sidebar, using Pocket, or relying on one of the available add-ons for the Firefox browser (without mentioning one).There does not seem to be an add-on available for Firefox currently that replicates the functionality however. You do get some add-ons that enable you to save open tabs though.Closing WordsMozilla warns users of the browser in advance when it comes to the removal of features. That's definitely the better approach than removing features without any form of warning.The organization should consider however that feature removals are perceived in a negative way by the majority of users even by those who are not using these features. (via Sören Hentzschel)News source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emerglines Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Okay remove Firefox then that should be easy than torturing this browser! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonbonboi Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Good I even don't know its existence -_- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonbonboi Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Okay remove Firefox then that should be easy than torturing this browser!torturing before killing :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbond Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 but then they added all that developer stuff 99% of the users never will use... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CODYQX4 Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 but then they added all that developer stuff 99% of the users never will use...... and sponsored tabs, and telemetry, and they are gutting out every feature that makes them different from Chrome.If they can't do anything Chrome can't, then Firefox becomes inferior in every single way. If you want to use a browser you can't customize to the deepest core, Chrome is a much better browser than Firefox.Firefox will die rapidly and Chrome will consume their marketshare. Firefox doesn't have much that I can't do on Chrome, even if some addons aren't as effective. That is the ONE thing Firefox holds over Chrome to me, and that will be gone so Firefox becomes old, junk code that has been redone way too many times and still carries all that baggage for no benefit at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessicaLeigh Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Chrome is useless TO ME, ever since they dropped NPAPI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy W Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Fully agree with @emerglines and other comments.When Mozilla is "finished" making all the changes that siut them Firefox will no more be the browser we came to love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bausch Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Never heard of Panorama before let alone use it, but I like the way they are warning those who use it.The reason I prefer Firefox over Chrome is that it is customizable, with all the plugins available.If I could make Chrome behave the way my FF profile does, only then it may become my main browser, til then, its Firefox for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Personally, I found no practical use for the Tab Group feature — therefore, this decision by Mozilla does not hurt me (trust thoughthat those who are affected will find a way out.) ^_^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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