this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Firefox

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about:config --> browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.newtabWallpapers.enabled true

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 6 months ago (4 children)

about:blank with a dark theme is the only new tab experience I will ever use.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same. Who stares at an empty tab for more than 5 seconds? If I put a wallpaper, I'll barely see it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The tab could have some other useful things... If Mozilla allowed some form of customization or extensibility. Big clock, weather, and the stuff they have right now (icons) are pretty useful too.

There's a reason UI/UX people design these things, and one day I'll figure out what it is.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I can see color being used to help encode themed tabs for the end user. Red theme for media tab groups, grey for research groups, etc. Might be cool

I mean shit, Linux people customize the absolute dick out of their computers down to fine tuning the kernel, and people are poo-pooing this?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I find it super distracting. The only reason I ever open a new tab is to search or enter a URL, so all I need is it to focus in the URL bar. Or I guess seeing open tabs on other devices, the new pinned tab thing they added solves that.

I'm okay with it existing, as long as there's an easy way to turn it all off. I use Brave for testing, and I dislike the new tab page there. My OS has a clock, and I can get OS widgets for everything else, I just want my browser to browse...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

i sometimes use the shortcuts for sites i commonly visit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why not just type the first few letters in the URL bar? For my lemmy instance, I just type "sh" and it completes. For everything else, I use Duckduckgo bangs ("!a" for Amazon, "!w" for Wikipedia, etc).

It should totally be an option, but I don't remember the last time I ever clicked on anything in the new tab page.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you've just opened a new tab, your hand is on the mouse and the page you want is one click away, why bother typing?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Um, no? I type "Ctrl+T" (or Cmd+T) to open the new tab. I honestly don't know the last time I used the mouse to open a new tab.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Right, but you asked why not type it, I was giving you a reason why. That's also why I put in the disclaimer about having your hand on the mouse.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I mean I get that and I think many people on the Fediverse agrees, but I showed my girlfriend this picture with the red panda background and she's excited about this feature (and hence Firefox) because of a red panda.

Don't underestimate or undervalue catering to non-technical people. If we want Firefox to be adopted more widely, we need those people to enjoy the experience.

[–] ripcord 2 points 6 months ago

Same, probably, but I also appreciate the option.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't hate it, but the other options in the screenshot makes it seem like they're going for parity with Edge in terms of new tab customizability. I love my Firefox but over the long history of the project I feel like they've frequently chased the wrong trends.

Personally I always use the blank new tab page, so I bet this won't even work for me. 🙁

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Same. I don't need anything on a new tab page, I just need to search in the URL bar. Maybe there'd be value if I could use the "tabs on other devices" thing as my new tab page.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

about:firefoxview#syncedtabs takes you there if you have a way to set it as new tab.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Dang, it's not a quick setting in the UI, and using an extension didn't seem to work properly.

Maybe I'll raise that as a feature request, I think others may prefer that to having the separate "view" tab (ctrl/cmd + T is pretty convenient).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I didn't know this was a thing! Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, that would be handy. Good call.

[–] Winged_Hussar 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] shneancy 2 points 6 months ago

best animals

[–] gedaliyah 7 points 6 months ago

That's why I use tabliss - plus all the other customization and config.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I use Bonjourr new tab page already

[–] tahoe 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I’m one of the devs, always nice to find users in the wild! 🔥

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This comment inspired me to try out Bonjourr. Absolutely love it so far. Keep the great work up!

[–] tahoe 2 points 6 months ago

Will do! Thank you 🙌

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

@neme They should organize the menus in one place and add more overall customization options instead. Seems they just randomly jump in different directions ignoring their core users.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yay speed improvenents?

[–] Resol 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if they'll implement stuff like this:

(Screenshot taken from the Android version of Firefox)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

They really should add the option to set custom one, especially on Android all of the currently available ones look so bad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I'm just glad they've kept all twelve themes. "Classic Firefox" is older than "Artist Voices," and the latter was discontinued a while ago on the desktop.

[–] Resol 1 points 6 months ago

This is about time I get to utter my favorite taco commercial quote:

Why not have both?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I'd rather they fix the"Firefox is already running" bug

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

does it work with animated images/videos?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't let you set custom one at the moment, only those that you can see in the picture.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

oh alright then, thanks

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Now all I want is APIs for extensions to create modular New Tab Page sections... Or would that be a major security hazard

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I have been waiting for this. Do you reckon this will put and end to Tabliss?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can’t you do that with CSS already?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you are a web developer, sure

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Or reasonably good at copy/pasting stuff and searching the web.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Grandma doesn’t want to learn what all the gibberish in “Inspect Element” does. Browsers need to be built for regular people too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The other user was talking about the user CSS thing, and you can basically just copy/paste stuff from the Internet into that file. Grandma won't do that, but your average Firefox user who likes to customize stuff can probably figure it out. No inspect element needed, just open a specific text file and paste stuff from the Internet.