Enquiring mind(s) want(s) to know...

[Bluenose]

I  had a similar issue when I recently replaced my PC. The solution is to use the sync function in Firefox. This allows you to save and recover all your settings, bookmarks etc.  It also allows you to sync these beteen different devices, so I now have the same on my notebook as my main PC.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I  had a similar issue when I recently replaced my PC. The solution is to use the sync function in Firefox. This allows you to save and recover all your settings, bookmarks etc.  It also allows you to sync these beteen different devices, so I now have the same on my notebook as my main PC.

This would require you to update to the latest version... something I have not done.  I hates the latest version's user interface so much, when the inevatible happens and I'm forced to update?  It will be "Goodbye FireFox, it's been a nice 12 year run, but you are done" and "Hello, Chrome!"

I already have chrome, and it's UI is okay-- superior to the latest "gesture-ruined" FF.... I'm still on FF 3.6.28, the last known "old school" flavor AFAIK.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

You don't have to use the new interface if you don't want to, just set the menu toolbar visible and it looks the same as the older versions. Personally I like the new interface, it saves vertical space (same pinning the tabs horizontally).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

You don't have to use the new interface if you don't want to, just set the menu toolbar visible and it looks the same as the older versions. Personally I like the new interface, it saves vertical space (same pinning the tabs horizontally).

Then they changed it drastically from when I first tried it out over on my laptoppy-- about a year ago? Or so.

Perhaps I should give it a re-go-- but the frustration factor of not having my usual buttons, menus, etc, sent me through the roof-- I do not need to re-invent the wheel.... I like the old wheel just like it was, square-spokes and all thankyouverymuch....

[Bluenose]

You don't have to use the new interface if you don't want to, just set the menu toolbar visible and it looks the same as the older versions. Personally I like the new interface, it saves vertical space (same pinning the tabs horizontally).

Yes, I like it too.  The biggest issue for me was the new behaviour of the back button.  Once I realised all I had to do was to right-click on the back button to see my recent history, I was happay as a pig in shyte.  

[Griffin NoName]

You don't have to use the new interface if you don't want to, just set the menu toolbar visible and it looks the same as the older versions. Personally I like the new interface, it saves vertical space (same pinning the tabs horizontally).

Yes, I like it too.  The biggest issue for me was the new behaviour of the back button.  Once I realised all I had to do was to right-click on the back button to see my recent history, I was happay as a pig in shyte.  

LoL you've solved my issue with IE9.

[Aggie]

Oh yes, that's how you do it. I knew that was possible, but forgot how.  The back-button drop-down menu was much more obvious.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

.... argh... why do these idiots feel the need to "improve" things, when the current methods are more than sufficient?

It's not as if we were doing rocket science, where optimizing the user interface would actually save the astronaut's lives...


... meh.

[Aggie]

The same reason that supermarket and shopping centre layouts have gotten much more confusing and illogical (on purpose) over the last few decades....  if you're bewildered as &#(%, you're statistically more likely to buy more $#!^.  How this directly relates to browsers, I'm not sure, especially with relation to FF (Chrome is much more clear-cut in terms of Google's lust for dominance, as it ties in neatly to other Google services).

Also, the younger generations of users are much more geared to constant change and have shorter attention spans than us old farts - there may actually be a competitive advantage to constant visible updates.

P'raps there should be an open-source project to continuously improve the security and efficiency of a browser, but keep the user interface constant (with maybe a few minor graphics improvements) over time.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

UI design is an art and it's very hard to have all your users happy about it. The main drivers are efficiency, ease of use (ie intuitive) and user requests. Currently in browsers there is a desire to save vertical space in the interface as most monitors are widescreen and everybody and their aunt have a toolbar to push, so trying to maximize the real state for the content is one of the drivers. Others are how quickly can you perform a particular task, and what are the most common tasks you want to perform so that those are forefront and the others require more clicks. Lastly there is resistance to change as with any other thing, the fact that an interface is more efficient and quicker doesn't mean that it will be adopted if the users refuse to embrace the new paradigm. An older example of this is the QWERTY vs DVORAK keyboards in which the 2nd is more efficient but common use of the first makes a change almost impossible. Bob hates the new FF interface, I personally hate the MS ribbon on their later office suites, and so on.

IOW, I wouldn't be so quick to judge the decision of the designers.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Zono: re M$ ribbon... I skipped that entirely.  The last M$ office suite I used was 2000, which I abandoned in roughly 2004.  I use Open Office now, and have been since abandoning M$.

As for the QWERTY vs DVORAK issue?  It seems the tests were not scientific, and there is no actual proof that DVORAK is more efficient than QWERTY for the average typist, or so I've read.

Intuitively, the DVORAK ought to be better, but is it really? 

I considered switching several times, but the need to be able to use any kb anywhere has always stayed my hand.... oh well.   Some day?  We'll just think at the machine, instead of clumsy fingerboarding...

[Griffin NoName]

  Some day?  We'll just think at the machine, instead of clumsy fingerboarding...

They already have this for some disabled.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110418152334.htm

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

  Some day?  We'll just think at the machine, instead of clumsy fingerboarding...

They already have this for some disabled.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110418152334.htm

Yes... I know... and I wasn't kidding.

[Griffin NoName]

Actually the XXX is loidjt20.default and contains almost 1GB. In the cache folder below there is a huge number of folders and subfolders coded in hexadecimal (single character 1 to F on the upper folders and 2 characters 1 to F on the subfolders).
The folders were indeed hidden.

That's it-- that's your cache, including the cookies, as far as I know.   I've used this save and recovery to restore/move FF from one OS re-install to the next, quite successfully in the past.

IE has an export cookies functiion.  

^^ Zono. Totally agree. Actually when I designed and programmed interfaces for clients they would always find ways of using them which I never envisaged. So necessity to build in some protective featuers to stop total misuse of an interface also may dictate some features (even though one does not exactly know what one is stopping happening )

[Roland Deschain]

Actually when I designed and programmed interfaces for clients they would always find ways of using them which I never envisaged. So necessity to build in some protective featuers to stop total misuse of an interface also may dictate some features (even though one does not exactly know what one is stopping happening )

I'm not sure if you have any idea how widespread this issue is. Expand this into a piece of software as complex as a computer game or operating system, and you'll find the number of bugs rising exponentially, especially when you factor in programmer/coder error. It's so much fun breaking software, and once you get the knack of it, it's a piece of cake. I once single-handedly managed to crash an Apple iMac (or one of those Apple ones) three times in one week. It was a record in the office.