[remirk]

> 1. Firefox needs to stop with the UI changes.

For regular users, having software look great can be quite important. Especially when there is strong competition.

Firefox doesn't even make that many changes that breaks the workflow of regular users. From memory, the last time seems when the hamburger dropdown 'Applications Menu' was introduced. Normally UI-changes in Firefox are more non-breaking.

[Grumbledour]

Just a few months ago they renamed and moved around items in the context menu (view image and undo closed tab) and even crippled the functionality of the first one for no reason. I personally have not yet recovered from that change and search for these items every time I need them. Those are just the two I noticed because I use them regularly, I am sure there was more.

And the non breaking changes seem just as annoying, when elements move around or change their appearance, need more/less space etc. The thing is, the browser has been looking nice for years. There is just no need for constant redesigns that change things just for the sake of change.

[remirk]

I see that as a minor UI change. The context menu is still there. Renaming and reordering stuff happens all the time in software.

[crtasm]

The replacement for View Image changes functionality, not just UI.

The keyboard shortcut for Copy Link Location changed, something I use countless times each day (plus I can't forget the old shortcut while Firefox ESR still has the old menu).

[creshal]

> For regular users, having software look great can be quite important.

How many of Firefox's UI changes really impacted this, though? There was the big move away from menu bars and to a more minimalist UI, OK, great. But all the other changes since just reshuffled things that have no net impact, other than forcing users to re-train their workflows.

Though the bigger problem is all the other crap that doesn't relate to either the UI or browsing experience. Pocket, Hello, VPN, intrusive and forced extension-based advertisements, "Studies", anti-LGBT marketing, a failed mobile OS (justified, it was just awful), some vague IoT experiments nobody knew what the point of was, …

Mozilla has half a billion dollars in annual revenue, yet somehow most of it doesn't go to either Firefox nor Thunderbird. XULRunner could've been Electron 10 years before Electron, but Mozilla didn't even care.

[arkitaip]

Those additional services are important to diversify their revenue streams AND they offer people basic solutions from a reliable provider like Mozilla. If anything, they should expand to offering more digital services under the umbrella of Firefox.

[creshal]

The steadily dropping user count indicates otherwise.

They might be useful if Mozilla wasn't cannibalizing itself and stretched so thin that neither these services nor Mozilla's actual products were competitive, but as it stands, Mozilla is just digging its hole deeper with every side project.

[AshamedCaptain]

> XULRunner could've been Electron 10 years before Electron, but Mozilla didn't even care.

I dislike Mozilla a lot, but here I disagree. Electron is not necessarily a good thing.

[shultays]

They overhauled their mobile version quite recently, dropping support for most extension. And they did a similar thing a while ago for desktop version

There are probably good reasons for such changes but users it is "hey, the thing I did yesterday is no longer working". But then we also have more questionable decisions like removal of "view image", which was doing everything and more of its replacement "open image in new tab"

[qwerty456127]

Firefox always looked great and I never noticed any reason (or any significance) in any UI change they would make. IMHO the only good change was the most recent when they switched to more native-looking tab handles.

[Gauge_Irrahphe]

>For regular users, having software look great can be quite important.

I don't think that many people care.