Firefox adds option to remove 'List All Tabs' button after user backlash - gHacks Tech News
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Firefox now lets you remove the List All Tabs button. But is it useful? We take a closer look at the feature.

Firefox users criticized the permanent ‘List All Tabs’ button introduced in version 131.0, leading Mozilla to make it removable.

The button, designed to manage hidden tabs and prevent add-ons from hiding them, received backlash for being unnecessary alongside Firefox View.

Mozilla responded with a fix in version 131.0.3, allowing users to remove the button through toolbar customization.

  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
    7·
    2 months ago

    … who the hell are these special users that Firefox apparently pander to, and what mass of people do they constitute to make them so powerful?

    More importantly, how do I join this special club?

    • LWD@lemm.ee
      01·
      2 months ago

      It’s probably the nature of the change, too.

      1. It’s easy to add a switch to disable the button.
      2. It doesn’t cut into their bottom line.
      3. It’s damn good PR.

      Other stuff that people have been complaining about, like the massive backlash against baking in 3rd-party AI, won’t make the cut.

      Relatively benign things like tab grouping are challenging, so despite being much more popular, the easier-to-implement AI features were given a fast pass to Release versions of Firefox.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    That never bugged me too much, but I’ll at least be glad it can be disabled for people who really dislike it.

    • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
      7·
      2 months ago

      Agreed. Being able to customize all elements of the top bar is one of the great things about Firefox.
      I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be possible to remove newly added elements. Even the “Open a new tab” button can be removed, as well as the recently added “View recent browsing across windows and devices” button.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Customizability, and most importantly portable customizability, is non-existent in most modern software. Even highly configurable FOSS products like Firefox take time, effort, and above average technical skills to mirror configs between not only clients, but identical clients, and even just keeping them in sync. You shouldn’t have to log into their cloud or jump through hoops; just export a config file(s) and import it onto another machine; if versions are identical, the state of the product and its feature-set should be identical (e.g. not temp, session, or 3rd party data; though in the case of Firefox all extension configs should apply too, as they are part of its ecosystem/feature-set).

        As a consumer, I often wish that there were a requirement for ALL digital product software and services to export/import their current config, including all “user” data, to open-source compatible, lossless formats — this would be the most effective method to free consumers and businesses alike from vendor lock-in and monopolization — but as a developer I’m aware that would be a nightmare, especially for all pre-existing software.

  • Zier@fedia.io
    3·
    2 months ago

    Holy crap, Firefox actually listened to it’s users? Is Earth out of orbit or something???

    • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      kinda funny, though… the functionality has been there for awhile. just flying under the radar with a less-noticeable icon.

      • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        the problem is probably actually that it consumed additional space, instead of being kept on the new tab button’s right click menu

        • Atemu@lemmy.ml
          1·
          2 months ago

          It was there and “consumed space”. It was just a less noticeable icon before (dark grey downwards-facing chevron).

  • TimeWalker@lemmy.foxden.party
    3·
    2 months ago

    I’m just confused why this has annoyed users just NOW since the button has always existed. It was just a down-pointing chevron before it got changed to a new icon so it’s not like it suddenly popped up and took space away

    • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
      01·
      2 months ago

      I assume because Firefox has been a ‘niche’ browser for a long time (pretty much for as long as Chrome as existed?); so the users tend to be a combination of die-hard fans and neurodivergents - two groups who tend to not do well with change of any sort (even cosmetic).

  • Commodore@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 months ago

    I have never understood why these things aren’t removable by default. Especially when it’s something that some users will literally never interact with, not even a single time. Why not make everything optional? I don’t get it.

    I removed this button with userchrome.css on day 1, but … I really shouldn’t have to.

  • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    People only now notice an icon that has been there since at least Firefox 112

    Media literacy is at an all-time low!

  • psvrh@lemmy.ca
    11·
    2 months ago

    Why do we want to be able to hide tabs in the first place?

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      tab management addons is one example, like those that make tab groups. maybe there are other use cases too, but this feature is for the addons, not to be directly used by users

    • malockin@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      Some tab grouping extensions use it to hide tabs that are not in the currently displayed group.

    • Aria@lemmygrad.ml
      1·
      2 months ago

      Just brainstorming, but you can put a js cryptominer in the background, and then leave it open but hidden. Or load ads, but not actually show them to the user. Probably neither of those use-cases are allowed by addons.mozilla.org TOS, but what they don’t find, they can’t moderate.