24 June 2009

firefox vs web applications, part III

So after all the trouble my idea from the last post gave me, after seeing how Firefox could not really handle different menu/nav/status bar settings for different windows, because new windows would always get it wrong, I thought why can't we just get rid of that menu bar for all windows. Internet Explorer and Google Chrome don't have a menu bar either! Now, how other browsers look is clearly not an argument for me to change my browser, but I know that a lot of other people like to copy things and so I thought: "There must be a Firefox Add-on that gives Firefox a Google-Chrome-like skin." I've used any skins myself, but I know it's a big thing and if it can help me, let's look for it! And indeed! Even on the first page of recommended Firefox Add-Ons I found one that's named "Personal Menu" and it's prime feature is "to disable the menu bar". I installed it and it's great! It offers a few extra buttons for the nav bar (like a bookmarks and a history button) plus one button that can be entirely customized to contain just those few menu items that one personally needs.
Here's how my Firefox looks like now:
I am keeping the location box and the search box, because I use both often. I like how Firefox now manages bookmarks and history from the location bar!

For comparison, on Windows my Firefox still looks as before:

As you can see, I saved some space by getting rid of the refresh/stop/home buttons which I all control by keyboard shortcuts. Actually I also control the back/forward function by keyboard but I felt that a web browser just doesn't look like a web browser without those buttons. Also, I switched to "small buttons".
Now, I saved one line of screen real estate and I like it! On many pages I still need to do F11 (full screen) to read them well, but I think the browser has become better with much effort. That's good!

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