[ale] AARG Firefox devs delete several important UI options

Wed Aug 7 22:04:52 EDT 2013

Or tell the developers to stop resetting your choices....

Pete Hardie
--------
Better Living Through Bitmaps

On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:59 PM, Sparr <sparr0 at gmail.com> wrote:

> If you find yourself changing these options more than 3 times, you should
> be automating the process by just importing an entire configuration or
> profile.
>
>
>  On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:54 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
> atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>
>>  **
>> Yes, I know that's an option.  Some of the things I mentioned can be
>> fixed that way.  Some others cannot.  The main problem is that the UI
>> controls were there and they were easy to use.  Now they're gone and it
>> takes me substantially longer to configure the same setup as before.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
>>
>> On 8/7/2013 9:31 PM, Sparr wrote:
>>
>> Firefox has always had thousands of configuration options that aren't in
>> the preferences panel. If you want to be a power user, use about:config
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:11 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
>> atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Just thought I'd pass this along.  The Firefox dev team has deleted
>>> several UI options in Firefox 23 that they think are unimportant but that I
>>> and a number of people commenting on blogs etc. think are important.  This
>>> article lists most of them:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.askvg.com/mozilla-to-remove-several-unnecessary-options-from-firefox-preferences-window
>>>
>>> Some of them impact the way I have my Firefox's set up and some of them
>>> change user defaults even after the user had intentionally modified them.
>>>  If you care about any of these, you can temporarily turn off auto updates
>>> on ff 22 (if you even still have ff 22) and look at the menus to see where
>>> things have changed.  I spent several hours last night researching how to
>>> undo what the dev team has done.  I've found alternate ways of setting or
>>> workarounds for almost all.  I'm going to have to spend more hours
>>> reconfiguring all my ff installations, pc's, logins, vm's, after they
>>> upgrade to 23.  This will take a large and annoying amount of time.  When
>>> I'm done, I should still have the system configured the way I want but will
>>> still be able to do auto updates.  As has been stated here before by
>>> others, you don't want to leave auto updates off if you can avoid it.  I
>>> hope to post detailed instructions on how to override the changes in a
>>> separate post.  Posting the details now would!
>>>   take a good bit of time.
>>>
>>> Here's what they've changed:
>>>
>>> A) Tabs on top checkbox is gone - I hate this feature.  I want the menu
>>> on top, then the address bar / nav bar, then the tabs.  Some may like it,
>>> but the point is, you need to be able to change it.  This is fixable.
>>>
>>> B) Load images automatically checkbox / exception list is gone - I and
>>> many people use this periodically when they don't want to load images, for
>>> speed or bandwidth considerations or data caps, etc.  Fixable.
>>>
>>> C) Enable javascript checkbox / advanced javascript configuration is
>>> gone.  This is something that's security related and something I set on
>>> every installation I do for myself.  What really burns me is that they've
>>> not only deleted the controls, but have altered the default settings I
>>> already had.  I keep javacript turned on here and let noscript control it
>>> on a site by site basis.  However, the advanced screen would let you
>>> disallow scripts moving or resizing windows, raising or lowering windows,
>>> or changing or replacing context menus.  I had all these features turned
>>> off and that's the way I wanted them.  Now, the dev team has changed the
>>> defaults that I HAD ALREADY SET to be the opposite in two of the three
>>> cases.  As a consequence, I have to go to every pc, vm, and login I have
>>> and use a very kludgy method that takes 5X longer to configure, and put the
>>> systems back the way I had it.  But, it's fixable.
>>>
>>> D) The dialog to override automatic cache management is supposedly gone,
>>> but I think it may still be there, at least for the moment.  I don't know
>>> if that's fixable if they remove it.  I've never used it.
>>>
>>> While I'm here (in the options / preferences, advanced, network menu)
>>> you should know that html 5 websites can potentially store many MB of data
>>> for offline use on your system.  There are a couple of dialogs in this menu
>>> to control and monitor that, as well as a checkbox to "Tell me when a
>>> website wants to store data for offline use".  I'd leave that checked.
>>>
>>> E) Options to turn off or on SSL3 or TLS1 are gone.  The entire
>>> certificate management interface is supposed to be gone, but I think it's
>>> still there.  I've never used the first options.  I occasionally have to
>>> tinker with security certificate exceptions.  I don't know if the SSL TLS
>>> things are fixable or if they need to be.
>>>
>>> F) The option to turn off the nav toolbar is gone supposedly, but it
>>> still looks like it's in the view menu.  I don't know if that's fixable if
>>> they remove it.  Many people like to eliminate tabs and the nav bar and
>>> just have a small window with information displaying in it, like weather.
>>>
>>> G) The always show the tab bar option is gone.  Conversely, is the easy
>>> option to hide it.  Logic for why people want this is the same as for the
>>> nav bar.  This is fixable.
>>>
>>> That's it for now.  I hope to be posting detailed instructions to
>>> implement the fixes, but that email will take me a while to type and I have
>>> to find time for it.  If anyone has specific questions, feel free to ask.
>>>
>>> HTH
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
>> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
>> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
>>
>> Ron Frazier
>> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
>> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>> Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
>> Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
>>
>>
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>
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