Firefox 4 New Add-on bar and Statusbar Discussion

[neo86]

Twice the waste of screen space ?

I meant you're splitting up the functionality of one bar into two. Based on the jborris mock up there's now both a status bar and an addon bar.

edit:

I think by twice the waste of space, he meant it occupies the same literal amount of space, but provides half the functionality of the status bar (less than half imo)

Edit:

I just tried it out, and the addon bar is actually larger than the status bar, so I'd say it's more than 2x the waste of space now

Thank you for understanding

[panocmp]

you can use css code to autohide addon bar until it reaches the desired functionality

#addon-bar:not(:hover) {margin-bottom:-21px}
#addon-bar {position:absolute}
#browser-bottombox > * {position:static}

[WonderCsabo]

I think by twice the waste of space, he meant it occupies the same literal amount of space, but provides half the functionality of the status bar (less than half imo)

No! You can put any toolbar item to addons bar. You couldnt do that with status bar.

[neo86]

I think by twice the waste of space, he meant it occupies the same literal amount of space, but provides half the functionality of the status bar (less than half imo)

No! You can put any toolbar item to addons bar. You couldnt do that with status bar.

Can you put the old status bar functionality there? Without an additional addon I don't see any way to do that.

[WonderCsabo]

There will be addons, i'm sure.

[wmarcello]

Can you put the status bar functionality there? Without an additional addon I don't see any way to do that.

But isn't that the point of Fx? Give users a good default experience that the majority can be happy with, and for those who want extra, provide it via addons. Like I mentioned before, the old status bar functionality is near useless for 95% of users out there. The 5% who enjoyed it can install an add-on to get it back.

This is why I don't use Chrome as my main browser. It has some amazing default functionality that I can't really argue with because it's good for the masses, but if there is something I want to tweak, I usually can't. That's why I stay with Fx.

[myzar74]

Oh well this makes no sense now i've lost the ability to see why a site is failing , if dns or during loading or what is slowing down like trying to fetch an add from some crappy network

Most of the major browsers have dropped this because it's useless for about 95% of people out there. I can pretty much guarantee you that an extension will be made almost immediately after Fx4 hits that will re-enable this functionality in the new add-on bar.

I know that there will be an extension, another one i'll need to restore basic functionality , btw only ie9 beta dropped it and there's alot of complaining already, chrome has the best esthetic solution and opera the one with more features

[WonderCsabo]

Anyway, the old status bar funcionalities are moved the other places on the UI.

[neo86]

Can you put the status bar functionality there? Without an additional addon I don't see any way to do that.

But isn't that the point of Fx? Give users a good default experience that the majority can be happy with, and for those who want extra, provide it via addons. Like I mentioned before, the old status bar functionality is near useless for 95% of users out there. The 5% who enjoyed it can install an add-on to get it back.

This is why I don't use Chrome as my main browser. It has some amazing default functionality that I can't really argue with because it's good for the masses, but if there is something I want to tweak, I usually can't. That's why I stay with Fx.

Where are you getting this 95% number from? Reducing functionality that's been around in every browser since at least the late 90's is not a good idea. Chrome does a very good job of hiding the status bar. That information is still there when it's needed. It just flashes by quickly when it's unnecessary.

[WonderCsabo]

As i posted before, most of the status bar funcionality is moved the other places on the UI.

[wmarcello]

Where are you getting this 95% number from? Reducing functionality that's been around in every browser since at least the late 90's is not a good idea. Chrome does a very good job of hiding the status bar. That information is still there when it's needed. It just flashes by quickly when it's unnecessary.

Obviously it's just a guess, but you can't possibly think that the majority of users out there actually paid attention to the text that flashed by in an instant with messages such as "Resolving host...", "Waiting for ad.doubleclick...", "Connecting...", etc.

That was the stuff I was estimating at 95% useless. Sure I could be wrong but I somehow doubt I'm that far off. The other status bar functionality is being moved as was already mentioned. URL link preview is being moved to the URL bar. Page load progress is also moving to the top. If you want more detailed loading messages, you can always access the "Web Console" from the "Web Developer" menu.

[WonderCsabo]

Please read this before posting about removed status bar features:

http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2010/04/29 ... rt-1-of-2/
http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2010/06/07 ... rt-2-of-2/

[neo86]

Obviously it's just a guess, but you can't possibly think that the majority of users out there actually paid attention to the text that flashed by in an instant with messages such as "Resolving host...", "Waiting for ad.doubleclick...", "Connecting...", etc.

That was the stuff I was estimating at 95% useless. Sure I could be wrong but I somehow doubt I'm that far off. The other status bar functionality is being moved as was already mentioned. URL link preview is being moved to the URL bar. Page load progress is also moving to the top. If you want more detailed loading messages, you can always access the "Web Console" from the "Web Developer" menu.

100% of users will care that this information is missing. How do I know? It's just a guess. Sure I could be wrong but I somehow doubt that. You could just not move it and people who don't care (of which there are none) still won't care, and those that do care (everyone) won't be pissed off.

[wmarcello]

Those status messages are only useful if a page is hanging up on something, and that's only for certain power users. From watching many a casual user browse, I don't think I've ever seen one of them glance down at the status bar to try and decipher what's going wrong. They just curse and either reload or close the page.

I've glanced down there before, but even if I do notice that it's hanging on something I can decipher, it's not like there's much I can do about it anyways.

[WonderCsabo]

Please Confirm

Bug 599029 - Restore Default Set doesn't remove toolbar items from Add-on bar