Disabling new Nova UI

16 days ago by Buddahriffic to c/firefox

I just updated my software on my desktop and have to say that I don't like the new extra rounded look for the tabs and menus. Searching for ways to disable the new FF UI came up with hits for Final Fantasy as well as previous UI choices that weren't very popular for Firefox. Even reducing it to just things posted in the last week didn't give the answer.

But searching for "disable nove UI firefox" made the solution pop up in the AI summary. I was skeptical whether it even existed, but it worked: open about:config (literally just type that in the address bar if you never have done this before), click past the warning (be aware that just messing with settings in here can break your FF install), then search for "browser.nova.enabled" and click the button on the right side to toggle it off. Then close any FF windows you have open and relaunch it and you should see the more rectangular UI again.

Hopefully this nova disabled mode continues to work going forward. If not I might finally move to one of the forks.

Anyways, enjoy.

plwt 6 points 16 days ago

@Buddahriffic That's not a great idea. At some point in the future, that pref is likely to be removed. Far better to change it in settings and/or install a theme you like from our add-ons site at https://addons.mozilla.org/.

#fxhelp

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Buddahriffic 4 points 16 days ago

Installing a theme was the first instinct I had but the new theme just had the same rounded buttons for the tabs. In the settings, it mentions "theme colors" so they might not control shape. Would be nice if they could.

Though if there's a setting option, I'd use that instead. But there doesn't seem to be such a setting.

Though I did find that you can disable extension and feature recommendations in the Tabs and Browsing section and there's some data collection settings in Permissions and Data that defaulted to opt in.

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palordrolap 2 points 15 days ago

"You will use the changes we provided because Firefox is our browser, not yours, and we know better than you."

This is how you sound.

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plwt 1 point 15 days ago

@palordrolap @Buddahriffic I think that's a little harsh given I gave no indication of ownership in my toot and instead was giving you a steer to a better resolution.

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palordrolap 1 point 15 days ago

The better resolution being to use the changes *they provided, because it's *Mozilla's browser, not ours, and *they know better than us.

Better?

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Kyrias 1 point 15 days ago

He never said the latter...

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Aman9das 1 point 15 days ago

@plwt @Buddahriffic i think there's the proton theme now

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muhyb 3 points 15 days ago

Finally updated Firefox.

After the update surprisingly nothing was broken, however everything was so round I had to revert that. I lazily removed every bit of roundness by adding

* {
    border-radius: 0px !important;
}

to userChrome.css. I might try adding it part by part later but probably won't since this works.

I also went to about:config and set sidebar.revamp to false so the new sidebar-header is removed and I don't have to change anything on my old css config.

Edit: By the way, my css config is like Frankenstein's monster for a long time already, been editing the same file for the last 10 years. Probably should rewrite all some time.

Later edit: Just made the radius into 3px, it's easier on the eyes now. However now I have to edit it part by part because I still don't like some roundness even if it's tiny bit.

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muhyb 3 points 16 days ago

So, tomorrow will be the day I try to fix my Firefox setup, again. I have heavily modified CSS and Sidebery vertical tabs. I hope it won't take long. Definitely not in the mood for this. -_-'

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kbal 2 points 15 days ago

Good luck! It went surprisingly well for me, still a happy CustomCSSForFX user despite it not getting updates any more. All I noticed was rounder corners on toolbar buttons (I don't care), and one or two extra pixels of wasted vertical space beneath the url bar. The tabs and everything else seem unaffected.

It's tempting to imagine that this might mean Mozilla have started to care about those of us with custom CSS when they do UI redesigns, and done it in a less disruptive way. Or maybe I was just lucky this time.

Edit: Somehow in my initial test of the new version I failed to notice that the autocomplete results in the urlbar were messed up pretty badly. The css I had to reduce the font size and hide all the other bullshit that would be in there was still working but the formatting was bad. For one thing there was a ridiculous amount of space between each item. Only took me half an hour of fiddling with css to get it back to reasonable. Not too bad but I guess it's still a hard life being a Firefox (or Librewolf) user if you don't enjoy css hacking. I mention it to avoid anyone seeing this in future thinking that it means CustomCSSForFX is still trouble-free despite being discontinued. It's not, as of this latest version for my config. It used to be the easiest and best way to give Firefox a truly customizable UI.

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muhyb 2 points 15 days ago

Thanks! It went well for me too. They brought back compact density option by the way, we don't have to go to about:config for it anymore.

Well, the last two UI changes were a disaster for me so I was expecting something bad honestly. This one wasn't a headache. It was just... too round. :)

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some_guy 2 points 16 days ago

Thanks! I had disabled auto-updates on my own computer but forgot to do so on my work computer. It got forced upon me this afternoon and now I feel much better.

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