[ale] AARG Firefox devs delete several important UI options

Wed Aug 7 21:59:59 EDT 2013

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
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>
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