To the staff and owners of Cyber Tech Help. You have a great site and a wonderful staff who helped me with a problem and did so quickly and professionally. I want to thank you for your efforts and think you are doing a wonderful job. Thank you, thank you, thank you - Carolina 
Computing News | Mozilla plans major Firefox interface overhaul
Posted by: Tweaker
Date added: 09:42 Thursday, 5th November 2009 GMT
Source: Computer World News
Mozilla plans to overhaul the look and feel of Firefox for Windows, a redesign that will resemble Google's Chrome in several key elements, according to screenshots and discussions on the open-source developer's Web site.
The visual refresh for Windows Vista and Windows 7 will likely take place in two stages. Part of the redesign will land in Firefox 3.7, a minor update now slated to ship in the first half of 2010, while the remaining pieces will wait for Firefox 4.0, a major revision tentatively set for release late next year.
Noting that Firefox's current Windows interface feels "dated and behind," Mozilla wants to spiff up Firefox 3.7 by embracing the "glass" style Microsoft debuted in Vista, moving to a more neutral color palette, hiding the menu bar, trimming the menu to just two items -- "Page" and "Tools" -- and combining "Stop" and "Reload" into one general-purpose button.
The decision to hide the menu bar, which Mozilla initially said would be replaced by a "ribbon"-style design similar to the often-derided look of Microsoft's Office 2007, raised a ruckus in September when users expressed their displeasure. Mozilla later clarified its planning documents, and denied it would "ribbonize" Firefox.
Firefox 4.0 will continue the interface changes. Current ideas for that 2010 release include giving users the option of moving the browser's tabs to the top of the application's display, a so-called "tab-on-top" look that other browsers, notably Chrome, have adopted.
Other possible interface changes in Firefox 4.0 would combine the browser's address and search bars -- another visual element within Chrome -- and remove the status bar at the bottom of the display.
The Firefox interface design plans have been spelled out in a long entry on Mozilla's wiki.
Tools: Post a comment | Link to this news item | Send to a friend | Submit News
Error: You are not logged in.
In order to leave comments to news articles you must be a Cyber Tech Help Member.
Registration is completely free! 
Register to become a member
Along with access to leave comments to news articles you will be able to ask any computing questions you might have on the Cyber Tech Help Forums.
