Saving as a Single File, Features for multiple Tabs

[brian_harkness]

I was a very avid Firefox using until the decision was made that crippled the add-on framework.  In fact I continued using version 47 for that very reason until Microsoft disabled Windows 7.  It would not install on Windows 11.

There as some key add-ons that I think should always have been built-ins.  There are two reasons for this.  They are essentials for any first class browser.  A built-in is compiled and far more efficient than a plug-in.

Data Security

1. The built-in ability to save a page as one file.  The discontinued 'MAFF archiver' should always have been a built-in, and was poorly named making it hard to find.  Nobody wants a clutter of files and folders for every web page saved.  The MAFF archive also needs to be restored.  It allowed clear evidence of when and from what site a file was saved.  It was also tamper proof.  Great it you forgot where you saved it from - even better if there was a dispute.

2.  The ability to save named sessions including the current window or all windows.  Formerly the 'Session Manager' app did this.   An entirely new ability to save multiple selected windows would be better still.  This is vital for keeping work save with windows blue screens (increasingly common on Windows 11), issues caused by updates, user error ...  This was always a problem both for heavier users, or for those looking for something hard to find.

An example of why this is needed

As a disabled person with both memory and physical issues, I often need to research things that for the general populous would  be obscure.  This can require many hours, days or weeks of opening many links from search engines and working through them one by one.  Since those search engines are now plagued with advertising, and irrelevant results caused by fuzzy searching this cannot be solved by simple bookmarking.  The issue is further complicated by the searches returning results inconstant  order.  Even when search engines worked better, the simple issue of even good matches to the search criteria, not being what people look for was always a complication.  A recent example was the mechanism a motor operates to lift a footrest.  These are very hard to find.  My browser crashed within moments of finding one... I have never found it again.

Multiple Tabs

2. The ability to group tabs using a Tab group bar .. in other works a leaner version of the facilities provided by the Tab Groups Manager add-in.  This was always a built-in with Chrome and an obvious need.

3. The ability to select multiple tabs and then move or close, manipulate them as a group.  I could never understand why this was not a built-in and used the very popular 'multiple tab select' add-in for this reason.  This should work with the other facilities for handling multiple tabs.

4. The ability to change the title, colour, or icon of tabs.  A built in ability to give a useful title would make finding tabs much simpler.  Many sites add superfluous text to the start of tab titles, or site wide titles...  This could also block that awful flashing created by some sites messing with titles - an issue for those with some health issues.  Some built-in icons such as coloured circles, or email icons would be a bonus.

That's my proposal.. over to the members now...

[Jon]

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[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

About
Firefox users on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 moving to Extended Support Release
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-users-windows-7-8-and-81-moving-extended-support
Whatever the case, this parenthesis https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/keep-firefox-alive-on-win7/m-p/47514

As far as i am concerned, with Windows7 i installed Zorin OS in dual-boot.
As for my Linux discovery, at first glance, installation and use are cool.

And of course, i may make mistakes, but the most important thing, is that it works.

About

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@brian_harkness wrote:

4. The ability to change the title, colour, or icon of tabs.

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Unless I've misunderstood

Take a look at https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=3121925

[leopardtail]

Thanks for your response Agentvirtuel,

Yes it's important that it works, but in my experience it doesn't.

Firefox now crashes twice daily on windows and is frequently losing tabs on restart.  On reload, It is always producing messages claiming a problem tab only to work on page reload.  Firefox also can't seem to handle pages that make heavy use of JavaScript for DHTML these cause hangs or crashes many times daily.

By contrast version 47 ran for 7 days without interruption despite multiple plugins and hundreds of pages being loaded.

The second issue is that it 'works' with such a low level of function that it is not useful.  The inability to save a web page as a single file is one reason that everyone I know regards Firefox as useless.  There are other issues they speak of.

Firefox 47 (the last version where plugins worked) was faster, more stable and far more capable - it was a premier class browser.

We need something much more like it for firefox to be back in wide us. Many sites no longer support it.

In similar fashion Windows 7 was rock solid for the final five years of it's life.  During that entire period I did not experience a single crash, hang, or intrusion.  That didn't happen overnight - it took five years to become that stable and secure.

I completely reject the mantra that newer is more stable and secure.  Newer versions of product are never in service long enough to properly debug them.