I recently started using firefox and was very frustrated with how large the UI was, how it autofilled entire URLs while i was trying to search something, and how it changed my system's titlebar buttons (minimize, maximize, close) to windows ones when I changed the theme from the default. I just found out about about:config and was able to solve every major issue i had with firefox literally within minutes, so why do they hide most of the settings?
it makes way more sense to just put the settings in the settings menu. also, why hide the compact density option? on a 1920x1080 display the default is about an eighth of my screen, my taskbar is only like 60% of that. having tried a couple of firefox-based browsers, i can confidently say the only thing any of them do better (aside from telemetry that can be easily turned off) is their settings. why does firefox hide most of the settings?
The only thing I can think of that could improve
about:configwould be to either have an optional column with a description for each setting, or a tooltip with a summary when you hover on top of a specific setting instead of having to search online.Just a nitpick though.
I'm aware that about config has options for everything in the browser, but it is literally just a searchable config file. I'm not saying all of it needs to be in settings, but a lot of stuff from about:config should be. About:config is not good enough for those settings for the same reasons that manually editing the config file isn't.
I mean it sounds like about:config is exactly what you're wanting though. Minimal UI with everything accessible.
That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm not wanting minimal UI for everything, I'm wanting many of the options that are in about:config (such as the ones I mentioned in the original post) to be moved to the settings to make them more accessible, since a lot of basic functionality like toggling address bar autofill is relegated to about:config where the UI and discoverability is inadequate for such basic options.