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Mozilla makes another decision against usability
Posted by BostonPeng on 18 April 2008
Firefox 3 seems to be about changing usability, and not always for the better. First we had text zoom made secondary and zoom levels being remembered according to the site, not the tab, and now a button that has always been present in the Download Manager is removed, and the bug asking for it to be returned has ben marked WONTFIX.
You’d think it’s a simple thing. On the Download Manager, that window that shows all the files you’ve downloaded, used to have a button to clear the list. Whether you hardly download at all or download many files a day it was way to open the Download Manager and click a single button to clear the list. But with Firefox 3 they took the button off, hiding the command to clear the list in the context menu that pops up when you right click a download.
Bug #400495 Add “Clear List” button to download manager was filed back in October by someone who simply wanted this one button returned to the now very spartan Download Manager. But yesterday afternoon the status was changed from ASSIGNED to RESOLVED with a resolution of WONTFIX. Comment #37 by Shawn Wilsher gave the bad news
We won’t be doing this for Firefox 3. We may revisit it in the future, and that decision will be based partially on the popularity of the add-on mentioned in comment 36.
Once again Mozilla’s devs have not only taken away usability, hiding a long familiar command in a way that will prompt unknown posts from users asking what the hell happened to it, but thumbs their noses at us with a WONTFIX, making us use an extension to return a behavior that had been in Firefox since the 1.x days. The bug has been reopened without the WONTFIX resolution as of comment #78, but I have no confidence that it will actually be fixed in the way people are asking, just like the text zoom bug got fixed in a way that still didn’t return the expected behavior. Yes, we got text zoom back, but having per-tab zoom setting has gone the way of the dodo until someone writes a new extension to do it.
I don’t know who the hell Mozilla devs are listening to, but they don’t seem to be listening to their users. The end result is that several of us are saying we now need to look at other browsers because of all of the changes being brought in Firefox 3. We’re being called crazy (in a good way) by some and treated like we’re idiots for not enjoying the new flavor of Firefox koolaid by others. Firefox 2 has set a high bar to be cleared by another browser, but when I find a browser that comes close I’ll let you all know what I find.
Needless to say, this Firefox user is not at all at all happy anymore with his favorite web browser.
UPDATED 12:50 PM EDT 19 April: According to comment 138 on Bug 400495, posted by Robert Sayre,
“Clear All” is the back button of the download manager.
Woo hoo! I’m not at my comp so it’s gonna take me a little time to confirm this for everyone, but I expect to have more good news for you on Monday. Son of a gun, those guys at Mozilla are actually giving me reasons to use Firefox 3 this late in the game after all. They have some more work to so. Firefox 3 still has a way to go before I’ll say they sold me on it.
UPDATED 10:20am EDT 21 April: I misread Robert’s comment. I thought he was saying the button is back, which is most certainly isn’t. I guess I’m sticking with Firefox 2 until I find a browser I like better.
Fx3 said
Brendan Eich, Chief Technology Officer of Mozilla reopened Bug 400495.
Peng said
I hadn’t realized that’s who had reopened it. Unfortunately it still doesn’t mean that the bug will be squashed before Fx3 is released. That seems to be the recurring theme in FX3 bugs, too. They get closed, reopened, but essentially they’re still WONTFIX before Fx3’s release date. So much for Fx3 not shipping untill it’s ready.
Fx3 said
Clear List button is back on the Download Manager on the latest bleeding edge nightly Minefield build. You’re being too hasty again. See, sometimes Mozilla do listen.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3842/downloadml4.png
Peng said
I’m not at my comp every day (due to circumstances beyond my control), but when I grabbed the latest Linux nightly on Monday it was still missing, or at least these eyes didn’t see it.
I actually try not to be hasty, but I can only let others know what I see with my own eyes. And I simply don’t see it.
In all honesty I’m having too many issues with Firefox 3 at this point, from Mozilla’s many changes to how Firefox has simply worked for too many releases, to Ubuntu Hardy coming out with a Firefox 3 RC that isn’t even officially released yet. I may not be in the majority, but if I’m having issues I know I must not be the only one. Since so few testers actually speak up I feel I have to in order to make sure our concerns get heard.
Fx3 said
That’s good, someone needs to kick some sense into Mozilla’s staff regularly, some of their most bone headed decisions didn’t make any sense, but the Clear List button is now added and everyone can rest easy on this issue now.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m on the users’ side. I’m still rather annoyed by some of the stuff they did back during Firefox 1.0, 1.5 development as well as the crap they released called Firefox 2 which is horrible due to the memory leaks.
Peng said
Now it seems all that’s needed is an icon on that button, according to comments on the bug.
It also looks like Abominations.Mozilla.org is getting updated in the near future to fix some of the boneheaded decisions made there.
Now if we could only do a little more about the damed text zoom since most users aren’t going to be able to get at the older, pre-10.0 Zoomer. Although I’m still unable to give an unrestricted thumbs up on Firefox 3. Perhaps that will change before it’s June release, although I’m holding out zarro hope on that one.
I’m checking out Epiphany, but I didn’t realize that I had customized my Firefox to a fare-the-well and I’m not thrilled with my options in Epiphany.