this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Firefox

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Specifically, when you open a reasonable number of tabs in any browser, the tabs look like this. However, as my friend has just imported all of his tabs and bookmarks over from Chrome to Firefox, he has an immense number of tabs open right now; in Chrome, he can see all the tabs at once with its UI. On Firefox, however, it keeps things actually legible by not squashing the tabs so obscenely.

"Okay, so I need some help. I've noticed Firefox doesn't show all tabs like Chrome does. Instead it shows a few, and makes me press a button to see more. Please, tell me there's a way to fix that."

I pointed out that this was an accessibility thing (being able to actually see and read the tabs is a useful feature) and they said it was "not good enough". Further explanation of basic things such as using their scroll wheel to scroll through their tabs, or double/triple clicking on the left/right arrows to jump by page or start/end, or using the Ctrl+# shortcuts, are all tools at their arsenal, but that also was not good enough. Personally I'm a 1,000-2,000 tabs kinda person and manage just fine with those instead of having each tab be literally a pixel wide, so I've never looked for an addon to crush all the tabs together like Chrome does, and my attempts at searching the extensions and themes has come up with nothing.

Is there something like this in the about:config page perhaps, or a convenient theme/extension/addon/plugin/etc that my friend can install to feel comfy using Firefox again?

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[–] whosdadog 5 points 1 year ago

You have between 1,000-2,000 tabs open?

[–] IthronMorn 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Huh, this post gave me the idea of being able to save "sessions" in browsers. Like tabs open for "work" and "research" and maybe "wedding planning" or something of the sorts.

[–] sneakyninjapants 1 points 1 year ago

Are you thinking something akin to Tab Session Manger?

[–] Lepsea 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Try tree style tab extension of Firefox, it may not look like how chrome do their UI but in my opinion it easier to navigate

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've narrowed my tabs with userchrome.css so that they look like this. I think you could make the min-width even smaller so that the scrolling never happens, but then the tab icons won't be visible.

Can't bother debugging my userchrome right now to give a reproducible example but I think this is the relevant part:

.tabbrowser-tab[fadein]:not([pinned]) {
	min-width: 30px !important;
	padding-inline: 0 !important; /* not sure why I added this */
}

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The comment in the code made this for me 🤣😂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m sure there’s something out there, but I don’t know what it is. I would encourage your friend to try it out as is. If they try to make Firefox look and feel like Chrome then they will inevitably just want Chrome back. Instead, if they try out things from the Firefox way of doing it they will actually see if they like it for what it truly is. At least, I’ve found the most success with browsers that way, let them shine for what they are and see which I like. Change is always hard, especially in something you use for hours on end every day, but maybe with your encouragement they will be open to it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Unfortunately this friend is extremely autistic and is having a full-blown panic meltdown due to "they can't see all their tabs without clicking a button". I've been encouraging them for several years to slowly migrate to firefox as they've been suffering crippling performance issues and memory leaks with chrome, but instead of heeding my advice (to slowly acclimate themselves to differences like this) they just found a tutorial to import everything at once and now they're overwhelmed with all the differences happening at once and panicking.

I found the browser.tabs.tabMinWidth setting in about:config and suggested they set that to 0 but it's only a compromise at best and I doubt they will end up sticking with firefox at this rate to be honest.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For someone like this, it probably makes sense to just throw some more CPU/RAM at it. You have to want to make a change like this to some degree.

[–] Dups 1 points 1 year ago

I've been learning that it's not worth fighting to keep your loved ones in the best possible tech ecosystem. I've tried for a long time but they do seem to need to want to learn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They're using my previous PC which I sent to them as a gift when building my current PC. It's got decent specs and 16GB ram but they are the sort to have anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred Chrome tabs open across a handful of windows plus BlueStacks (an Android VM/emulator tool) open with a few instances of mobile gacha games plus whatever actual PC game he's playing. The other day his computer "couldn't open youtube" so after some troubleshooting it turned out he'd filled up his entire ram (16GB) and his entire swapdisk (set to 32GB on the main C: drive, which was an SSD) but it overflowed and continued going until the C drive itself was full, somewhere around like 75GB of ram being used because he left everything running for over 9 days without ever closing anything.

So long as they continue to insist on using Chrome and leaving half a dozen emulators/virtual machines spun up 24/7 while also leaving things like final fantasy running "in the background", no amount of tossing more CPU/RAM at the problem will fix it; Chrome itself shouldn't be using up 50+GB of ram but it's Chrome, so it has memory leaks every other day, and he's fixing the crux of the issue by ditching Chrome (also has had some security issues recently and we JUST did a malware cleanup this week as well due to a Chrome issue so just another reason he's trying to ditch it in favor of Firefox)

I really do appreciate the input though. It can be frustrating (as an autism myself) to ask "Hey how do I do A" and everyone responds with "don't do A, do B or C instead" but I have to do A for a very specific set of reasons. Even still, it's nice to see that everyone is at least pitching in with extra info and advice, just in case.

[–] transientpunk 1 points 1 year ago

It sounds like you should let your friend do their own thing. Don't make their inability to cope with change your problem.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Another user already commented it, but they should look at the tree-style tabs addon. They still won't be able to see everything no matter what, but depending on screen size it might be able to fit more, and choose what is visible or not. I just started using it and it does take a bit to learn how to use effectively but seems overall better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for this! I'll toss the info their way and see what they say. As far as I understand from trying to troubleshoot and discuss with them, the really only viable solution is to have all of their tabs visible at once "just like Chrome", so I don't know if the tree-style tabs plugins will fit their needs, but it can't hurt to suggest it.

I really do appreciate the input; It can be frustrating (as an autism myself) to ask "Hey how do I do A" and everyone responds with "don't do A, do B or C instead" but I have to do A for a very specific set of reasons. Even still, it's nice to see that everyone is at least pitching in with extra info and advice, just in case.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are the tab grouping addons not useful, there's so many. I personally don't use them since I'm more of a 0 inbox and under 10 tab kinda person. I'd rather have 3 browsers open for different workflows.

I find it hard to navigate without being able to see the favicon and page name on the tab but if I had many, some sort of auto grouping extension might be immensely helpful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for this! I'll toss the info their way and see what they say. As far as I understand from trying to troubleshoot and discuss with them, the really only viable solution is to have all of their tabs visible at once "just like Chrome", so I don't know if the tree-style tabs plugins will fit their needs, but it can't hurt to suggest it.

I really do appreciate the input; It can be frustrating (as an autism myself) to ask "Hey how do I do A" and everyone responds with "don't do A, do B or C instead" but I have to do A for a very specific set of reasons. Even still, it's nice to see that everyone is at least pitching in with extra info and advice, just in case.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When I was first making the switch, MaterialFox was a godsend. It essentially made Firefox look identical (even better in some regards) to Chrome, including the tab treatment that your friend prefers. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's being actively maintained anymore - you can have your friend give this fork a try, but even that one looks like it was last updated 8 months ago.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Mega thank you!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What about Tabtree. It organises the trans on the left side in a tree structure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for this! I'll toss the info their way and see what they say. As far as I understand from trying to troubleshoot and discuss with them, the really only viable solution is to have all of their tabs visible at once "just like Chrome", so I don't know if the tree-style tabs plugins will fit their needs, but it can't hurt to suggest it.

I really do appreciate the input; It can be frustrating (as an autism myself) to ask "Hey how do I do A" and everyone responds with "don't do A, do B or C instead" but I have to do A for a very specific set of reasons. Even still, it's nice to see that everyone is at least pitching in with extra info and advice, just in case.