cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Gecko
Strollin' around
Status: Exploring more

From the previous post on Crowdicity:

I would like to see vertical tabs baked in. MS Edge now has it out of the box!

I currently use addons for this - but there's no way to disable the top tab bar, which duplicates the tabs and takes up space.

Vertical tabs (with top bar disabled) would free up more space for web content, which is (usually) vertical. Most screens are widescreen (RIP ThinkPad 4:3 ratios), so the less browser UI at the top/bottom, the more content we can view.

vertical-tabs-edge

The original post received 154 votes and as such was the 3rd highest voted post in the "General" category.

236 Comments
firefly_katamar
Strollin' around

This is one of the major features that's preventing me from switching back to Firefox 😞 

Allo1
Strollin' around

There are extensions like Tree Style Tabs, but then you have to mess with chrome.css to remove the no longer needed horizontal tab bar. This is clunky. Vertical tabs should be implemented natively. There should be a switch in the settings.

Bix
Strollin' around

Brave browser has now also added support for vertical tabs.collapsed.jpgexpanded.jpg

job
Strollin' around

I've read through all of 11 pages of comments and I can't see any convincing argument for why the vertical tabs themselves should be done natively instead of being relegated to an extension. Remember, extensions are one of Firefox's strengths. The reason why Chromium-based browsers like Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi are doing it natively is because IIUC extensions there are way more limited in what they can do in customizing the browser's appearance.

Now people are saying that the current workarounds to hide the tab bar (which is indeed necessary to have properly working vertical tabs because the native horizontal tabs are just a waste of space at this point) are clunky. I very much agree. I think Mozilla should provide an option to hide the tab bar via the right-click context menu on any of the toolbars (or the Customize Toolbar page). Hiding the tab bar alone can be useful outside of vertical tabs; I can imagine it being used by say kiosks where making the visitor use multiple tabs is not wanted, but still needs the navigation buttons and bookmarks toolbar to be visible (so full screen is not an option). By having this as an option regardless of extensions, this will solve the issue of disabling the horizontal tab bar not having a user-friendly method of doing it while simultaneously keeping the browser core lean by having an extension like TST do the job of vertical tabs.

The closest convincing argument I could find for doing vertical tabs natively is an enterprise policy blocking the installation of add-ons, but come on, can't you just talk to your IT about it? If everything is just going to be justified by "but my enterprise IT doesn't allow me to install add-ons" Firefox is just going to be bloated with features most people wouldn't need.

look997
Strollin' around

@jobWebExtensions cannot disable the top tab bar.
For the Vertical Tab Bar to make sense, you need to disable and hide the horizontal tab bar. This is essential.
WebExtensions can't do that.

Make a generic API to disable the tab bar? Does that make sense? Mozilla will do it?

job
Strollin' around

For the Vertical Tab Bar to make sense, you need to disable and hide the horizontal tab bar. This is essential.

@look997Yes, that's why it should be made an option on its own, independent of vertical tabs because it can also be useful outside of it. That way vertical tabs can stay as an extension (this stuff takes more maintenance cost than simply giving the option of hiding the horizontal tab bar, you know), but the horizontal tab bar can now be hidden. Please read my comment again 😄

look997
Strollin' around

@jobIf Mozilla wanted the option to manually disable the tab bar, it wouldn't have removed it a good few years ago. Remember those days? Mozilla wanted to limit Firefox's configuration options. It would rather add built-in features than give the option to configure manually, or than give configuration through extensions.

TheRealBev
New member
TST had some deficiencies.  So does the 'Tree Tabs' which I use instead. 
  At one point TST was much better than it is now, but some change to FF 
made me switch.

It may be noted that old versions of FF and TB had many more 
personalization options than the current versions -- native, extension 
and .css.  Given that useful functions have been removed, I see no 
reason that useful functions -- or at least their capability -- should 
NOT be added.

I know people who have no idea about customization -- they just start it 
up and feed in a URL.  You can probably guess what I think of such people.

> The closest convincing argument I could find for doing vertical tabs 
> natively is an enterprise policy blocking the installation of add-ons, 
> but come on, can't you just talk to your IT about it? If everything is 
> just going to be justified by "but my enterprise IT doesn't allow me to 
> install add-ons" Firefox is just going to be bloated with features most 
> people wouldn't need.
Over the decades Firefox (and Thunderbird too) has implemented 
"improvements" that eliminated the use of many extensions that I loved 
and crippled many of the others.  Tab Mix Plus was perfect.  The guy 
made some changes so that it could still be used, but since nobody was 
willing to pay him to do a complete conversion he just dropped the 
project.  NONE of the replacements work as well.

No idea what the philosophy behind such 'improvements' is, but I have 
gained NOTHING since Firefox 57 (or so -- whenever the big change 
occurred), and I finally stopped updating at FF82.  Biggest problem is 
the inability to change the typeface in the toolbars and menus -- 
they're small and light and a bitch to read.  Surely the ability to 
NATIVELY change the text of the program itself (formerly dealt with via 
the .css file) should be a basic function.  Now it's not even possible.

I loved Netscape.  I could make it look and work the way I wanted it 
to look and work. Over the decades FF and TB have become LESS 
configurable.  I also run the nightly version with minimal 
personalization just so I know what's happening -- I'm not a COMPLETE 
luddite.

Configurability is a big plus, and the main reason I'm unwilling to 
change to one of the newer browsers;  it seems counterproductive for 
Mozilla to cripple their one big advantage.

 
0x4C3DD
Strollin' around

the ARC browser - demonstrating sidebar and split screen tabsthe ARC browser - demonstrating sidebar and split screen tabs

#ARC Browser did it right. Unfortunately, Windows devices still now doesn't have support, and it's Chromium based.
But, Vertical Tabs & Split-screen tabs, is literally the need of the hour.

 

avijayr
Strollin' around

Is this even being considered for implementation?

I have been with FF (and use nightlies as my daily driver for the past few years - even earlier when they were called alphas, etc)

I'm surprised that Mozilla is keeping silent on this much-requested feature! Using extensions for something this basic/native should not be the case.