It is essentially just extra maintenance of a feature in Firefox that (statistically) not many people use
As such, it's marked as "unsupported" to make clear that if any issues arise, Mozilla won't help you with those issues.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
65 points (93.3% liked)
Firefox
17815 readers
65 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Not many people use it because it is hidden away and not default.
Firefox in compact mode is about as compact as Chromium, so no issue here.
I think I have it enabled too and just forgot about it. It really should be a checkbox next to themes or something.
it used to be visible as an option in 'customize toolbar'. it was deprecated and deemed 'unsupported' way back around v89, but at least they kept it available as a 'hidden' setting.
i use it on every pc i have firefox installed on (which is, well, all of them that aren't 'terminal only').
Yeah, I remember it being there too. I really can't stand the default UI of any browser, everything is just so... big and bright. I use dark theme and compact mode where possible.
True, a lot of things are too inaccessible so that people even think they dont exist. Like the task manager or profiles.
Yup, and I use both. I only use profiles for checking stock Firefox to help support people without my setup.
Containers are also awesome and not advertised well enough, it completely replaced profiles for me.
I use an "insecure" profile (basically just RFP etc off) for Netflix and other sucky sites.
Eh, container tabs and disabliing strict checks per site seems to solve my problems.
But no
- random Netflix addons
- DRM enabled
I mean, I have my custom app desktop entry, so why not use a separate profile for that crap?
Sure, why not?
Interesting, I need to try that out.
It's hidden away behind a flag now because it hasn't been actively used for years on end.
Not the other way around.
Hm, yes but active usage doesnt mean it was not used?
I never thought of doing that and for sure didnt see that button in the bottom left.
Thats like removing profiles because nobody used them, while they are hidden away behind an about:. The solution is add a button, see if it is used and then decide.
Especially as the compact mode saves a lot of screen space and is likely no maintenance effort at all.
yes but active usage doesnt mean it was not used?
If their criteria was "at least 1 person uses it at all, sometimes" then it would not have been removed 🤔
likely no maintenance effort at all.
The maintenance comes less from the code and more from making sure that every single menu added or changed in any way continues to behave correctly in three different sizes with themes and everything.
Firefox extremely reduced theming.
And as I said, nobody knows this exists because it is not promoted well, and now even hidden.
The people who make it their business to go through Firefox looking for features to remove almost got it, but the public outcry against its complete removal seems to have deterred them for now.
I remember when compact was hidden - apparently this was a change driven by telemetry. It was possible that there's an overlap between those who use compact and those who turned off telemetry. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar also occurs with Pocket being left on too.
If compact breaks in a future update, it'll probably be removed altogether. At that point, best option would be userchrome customisation.
IIRC, this change was made ahead of the impending UI overhaul. This combined with the Windows 11 getting bigger touch-friendly UI elements understandably didn't sit well with many people.
It may break a future update...maybe 🤷♂️
In about:config look up userChrome.CompactContextMenu-Enabled and set it to true to enable the setting. When enable Compact (not supported) under Density option in Customize Toolbar panel.
Try following:
- Find the directory of your Firefox profile folder in the filesystem.
- In there, create a directory "chrome", if its not already.
- In that "chrome" directory, create a file "userChrome.css", if its not already.
- Add following code to the "userChrome.css" file:
.tabbrowser-tab {
max-height: var(--tab-min-height) !important;
}
- Restart Firefox and look if its better for you.
This. It is awesome
They should def. get rid of the start up animation . wasting my 3 microsecond is not cool
What startup animation? Mine just opens...
that might be the joke but im not sure
What compact mode do you mean?"
In about:config, you can set the flag browser.compactmode.show to true.
Then if you right-click on the toolbar and select "Customize Toolbar...", there's a dropdown "Density", which now contains an entry "Compact (not supported)".
This compact mode was part of the previous Firefox design (Photon) and was declared unsupported with the latest redesign (Acorn), presumably because one central design element of Acorn is the tall tabs, which can show text hints under the tab title, like "PLAYING" to indicate that this tab is playing audio, or "MUTE TAB" if you then hover over the favicon/speaker icon.
Oh that thing. Yeah I had set the compact mode though other ways, with the "userChrome.css" file, where I have better control with more possibilities. I was just not sure what he was referring to, as the opposing example with "Pocket" confused me. (Also tagging @boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net for the reply, so I don't need to spam for every reply. Hope that's the correct approach.)
Interesting, got the message
Search for "compact" in about:config
Then on the "edit toolbar" page, bottom left, a new "UI density" appears and you can choose it.
Because it involves maintenance work and does not necessarily generate income...?
So does almost any other feature. How is a feature generate income? I mean we could strip out almost any feature with that argument.
Well, they referenced Pocket. That is a service Mozilla operates to diversify their income.
Firefox doesn't generate income, except maybe the Pocket feature. It really shouldn't need that much maintenance, just check it before doing big UI redesigns. Most releases probably don't impact it.
Well, arguably it is broken since the last redesign. You need non-compact tabs to fit additional tab infos in there, e.g. that a tab is playing audio or using your camera.
Eh, it seems to work on mine? I have my tabs set to a specific width, so perhaps that's helping.
Hmm, for audio playing, they do then show a speaker icon in place of the favicon, if that's what you're seeing. In the non-compact tabs, it also says "PLAYING" underneath the tab title, though. And I believe, it also shows a similar text for when the microphone or camera is in use, and they don't have icons for those...