Firefox 29 Beta Arrives With UI Overhaul And CSS3 Variables

An anonymous reader writes "Following the release of Firefox 28 just two days ago, Mozilla today updated its Firefox Beta channel to version 29 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. This is a massive release: Firefox Sync has been revamped and is now powered by Firefox Accounts, there's a new customization mode, and the major user interface overhaul Australis has finally arrived. Release notes are here: Desktop and Android." Of interest to developers: Firefox 29 will feature the first implementation of CSS3 variables. Yes, variables for CSS (15 years later).

use this extension when you cannot stand australis

[Anonymous Coward]

Classic Theme Restorer will restore your sanity
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/

If we wanted an ugly version of Chrome, we'd use Chrome!

Also recommended - Status-4-Evar extension (you need the dev version for FF 29)

Re:been using accounts in aurora for a month alrea

[Anonymous Coward]

Nicely said but there is no need for trust.

Firefox Sync is end-to-end encrypted so Mozilla does not see your bookmarks.

Re:CSS sucks

[ArcadeMan]

I guess the top parent never learned anything about content vs presentation.

Hint: tables are to be used for tabular data. If you'd write your data inside an Excel sheet, use a table. Otherwise, don't.

Re:CSS variables?

[roca]

CSS Variables are actually better described as CSS Custom Properties. They aren't just SASS-style global macros, they're far more powerful. Different elements can have different values for the same custom property, and custom property values set on an element are inherited by its descendants, respecting dynamic DOM changes etc. Custom property values can be set dynamically by scripts and those changes are of course automatically inherited.

Re:been using accounts in aurora for a month alrea

[Z-Ramm]

It sounds like you CAN host your own Firefox Sync server.

"As with the previous version of Firefox sync, users still have the option to take their data with them and host their own sync service using the open source server-side software."

https://github.com/mozilla/fxa... [github.com]

Fx was successful for a reason.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been a Fx user since it was Phoenix and it's astonishing to me how incompetent the changes have been. They take out features that are actually quite useful, like the ability to have smart bookmarks and AFAIK, that is only available via an extension. They changed the versioning system so that most plugins wouldn't work when they made a minor update to the browser software because Google does it.

The browser used to be good, but rather than improving what was working, they've decided they need to radically change it regularly with no particular rhyme or reason. Fx is something I used to use because it was the best, now I use it because it's the least bad option out there. If I wanted to use Chrome, I'd use Chrome.

Has it perhaps occurred to you that Google tends to suck as well? If it isn't cool then they stop working on it, it took them years of development of their calendar program and as far as I know it's still missing the ability to have recurring tasks. Something which pretty much every other option provides. No particular justification or reason, but because it wasn't cool or sexy nobody could be arsed to do it.

Firefox has a similar problem. They used to have a good product, but they're so fixated on Chrome's success that they're more interested in replicating the broken Chrome experience then improving what they were doing well.

Re:Firefox accounts?

[BZ]

You need an account if you want to use Mozilla's sync service.

If you don't want to use sync, or if you want to run your own sync server instead of using Mozilla's, then you don't need an account.

Re:New UI?

[the_other_chewey]

Yeah with security holes and no updates I wont trust it.

What are you talking about?

The last SeaMonkey release, SeaMonkey 2.25, came out two days ago.
Its Gecko is identical to the one in Firefox 28.