How to undo Proton UI in Firefox 91 and onwards | Hacker News Reader

How to undo Proton UI in Firefox 91 and onwards

dedoimedo.com

24 pointsURfejk10 comments

I've about had it with Mozilla lately. So many questionable decisions and heavy-handed changes, all in the name of what?

I absentmindedly restarted to update Firefox and my proton-UI workaround from 90 no longer works at all. They left the about:config setting in place, for some reason. I'm spending time trying to revert things in usercss, but that is something I don't normally mess with and it is a tremendous pain.

I honestly might just download 88.01 and permanently disable the update check.

I really don't get it. Why do they keep fighting their user base?

Pretty much every single firefox user i know hates proton, every single update feels very hostile to 'power' users. Its also terrible for people with bad eyesight (No tab separators, bad contrast).

Its is impossible that Mozilla is not aware of how hated proton is overall. I really don't want to use anything chromium based, but at this point they are almost forcing me.

I don't mind Proton..

Which is great, but why not at least maintain the about:config flag that turns it off?

Maybe if Mozilla spend some of that google cash on making the browser better instead of lining the pockets of the execs and pushing for social issues they could at least retain some semblance of a user base.

I learned to just accept changes to Firefox instead of trying to fight every change. I hated the Proton UI when it came out. Then I used Firefox for a couple hours and I realized it's mostly good.

Mozilla is struggling as a company since Chrome has dominated the browser market.

People deride them for every change, but I think the leadership at Mozilla isn't incompetent. They know they won't magically become more relevant if the browser stays stagnant.

The things they have done are trying to make Firefox appeal to a wider audience. Without more users, Firefox can't flourish.

The opinionated techy portion of people who still use Firefox might hate it, but that isn't a big enough group of people to compete, so Mozilla can't just be happy with that.

I doubt Firefox can put up a fight against Chrome in the long run, anyways. Most of my coworkers don't care. I'd still rather see Mozilla try than do nothing.

Have this strategy ever worked? Doesn't the "wider audience" of not "opinionated techy" people usually end up following those who are more passionate about the thing? I recommend Firefox for every pc/mobile device of the people who rely on me when they need help with their expensive trinkets. You can afford to forget your base audience only when you have already won the market.

The problem is that the opinionated techies are the last market share they have and will probably ever conquer again. Firefox has become irrelevant even in tech circles, I don't think the strategy is any good.

I have been using Lepton with great joy: https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix

Pulling it from github is a shell script in Linux or a powershell script in Windows; manual installation is a long-winded pain in the backside.

On macOS you can list profile directories with: ls ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles

Also useful: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compact-mode-workaround...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com