FireFox to remove "heavy" theme support?

[Elixer]

Seems to me that FF wants to be chrome.
I like it better when users are in charge of how they want things to look, not being told what it should look like.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1222546

As part of Firefox great-or-dead, we've decided to stop support for "heavyweight" themes which can do arbitrary styling and replace chrome packages.

We may simply remove that support completely, or we may extend lightweight themes with some additional features such as changing colors or icons.

This bug tracks creating a specific product plan for themes. Expected due date 1-Dec.

 

[PliotronX]

 

[lxskllr]

I heard it's because they're getting rid of xul(which will affect addons). It sucks more for Windows than GNU/Linux, where it's easier to match the system theme.

 

[Mushkins]

Dear god, the comments on that bug entry are worse than youtube comments. You'd think removing heavyweight themes was akin to sacrificing their first born.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

That's too bad for sure, but I don't really use themes so i'm not that bothered. I wonder sometimes if all of these changes are necessary, but hopefully it makes the browser faster, particularly startup time.

I do agree that they shouldn't try to copy chrome so much though!!

 

[Mushkins]

That's too bad for sure, but I don't really use themes so i'm not that bothered. I wonder sometimes if all of these changes are necessary, but hopefully it makes the browser faster, particularly startup time.

I do agree that they shouldn't try to copy chrome so much though!!

I'm not sure the "X is copying Y" accusations really hold much water honestly. Any UI designer can tell you there's not really anything new and original you can do at this point, you're just slightly changing how round corners are and moving elements around to flow more efficiently for user needs. All these applications mostly looking the same is sort of the natural progression of design for all of them, they're all ultimately aimed at the same target.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm not sure the "X is copying Y" accusations really hold much water honestly. Any UI designer can tell you there's not really anything new and original you can do at this point, you're just slightly changing how round corners are and moving elements around to flow more efficiently for user needs. All these applications mostly looking the same is sort of the natural progression of design for all of them, they're all ultimately aimed at the same target.

I don't know that I buy that. If everybody does the same thing, there doesn't have to be competition. There's already a Chrome, and Chrome powered by gecko isn't a compelling distinction. Because other people do things isn't a good reason for everyone to copy them.

 

[sweenish]

The Chrome-ification of FF has been happening for a long time, and it's a bit sad.

At least FF has it's RAM under better control than Chrome. Chrome is a bloat-fest at default settings.

 

[zokudu]

What does this actually change. What's a heavyweight vs lightweight theme? I have felt out of the loop with FF themes for a while. I just leave it default on my Windows and Mac installs.

My Gnu/Linux installs are all running Gnome 3 so I use a few of these addons, I guess the Gnome 3 addon is a "Heavy" theme?. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/collections/seleznev/gnome3/

 

[lxskllr]

Lightweight just overlays an image over the top of the browser, and may recolor the tabs. Full themes change core elements. I haven't used full themes since Windows(~2009). I hate the default Windows theming, and full themes helped darken everything. GNU/Linux has more power for changing appearance, so I don't bother.

 

[balloonshark]

It's time for someone else to make a browser based on what the user wants. It's very clear that firefox is no longer that browser.

 

[TheRyuu]

I heard it's because they're getting rid of xul(which will affect addons). It sucks more for Windows than GNU/Linux, where it's easier to match the system theme.

It sounds like they just won't have the ability to allow these kinds of customization and the "dropping" of this support is simply a byproduct of moving away from xul. I would expect them to extend support to allow for more customization from the lightweight stuff.

Well at least that seems like the most logical moves they can make.

Edit: Also I think people are overeating to this.

 

[notposting]

Edit: Also I think people are overeating to this.

They should diet.

As for FF, I will just let my browser go out of date and then hunt down the offshoot that will stay on the current track. (I use Classic Theme Restorer along with various other add-ons, and be danged if I want FireChrome. Gotta go get kids off my lawn now...)

 

[John Connor]

Was a long time Firefox user, before that it was the Mozilla browser. So I've been there from the beginning. But after their UI F-up, chromeification and ousting their CEO I ditched Firefox in favor of Pale Moon and couldn't be happier. Although, the user agent generated by Pale Moon causes some sites to not function. So I have to spoof the UA to make it look like I'm using Firefox. Pale Moon is supposed to fix this in a new release supposedly. Other than that I haven't had too much trouble. The Dev is making a new engine right now too, so it won't be Gecko-like which means I fear my add-ons won't work.

 

[bononos]

I got used to the new look and now prefer the hamburger and bookmarks icon so I stopped using the classic theme restorer extension.

 

[LordLestat]

Mozilla sadly got jealous of Chrome and they hope that copying Chrome as much as possible gives them the same market share or similar like Chrome has. But the truth is since Australis and the tons of PR disasters during the last few years has reduced their market share very much.

Using Vivaldi now, which has lots of customization features of Firefox old and Opera old, while it is Chromium based, they have created a real unique UI on top of it, and since Mozilla is killing advanced add-ons too, staying with a wanna-be-like Chrome clone is no option for me.