Firefox 2.0 : will there be a war of the “close button on all tabs” ?

Firefox 2.0 has just been released and yet a flaming debate started in the Firefox users’ community.

One of the main new features of this version is the “Close button on all tabs”. Have a look below :
The element of crime

Some voices have already risen to condemn this new feature. The previous Firefox 1.5 allowed to close all tabs by clicking a single button on the right of the tab bar, which was extremely convenient to browse quickly all the opened tabs and close them, without moving the mouse.

I discovered while reading the comments on reddit about the release that like me, people don’t like the new feature : “How do I disable the following: Close tab (the X on each tab - I liked the X on the right)”.

Some even claim this feature has been copied on IE7 : “the tab close button also seems to be taken directly from IE7 which implements the same thing. I don’t like this at all, but I recall reading that the IE team put the close button on each tab based on tester feedback”. Check the comments. Everybody hates it.

Firefox is still a great Browser because it comes with tons of extensions. That’s what makes it superior to IE.

But by the way, there was already an extension for this feature : it’s called Tab X.

So was it really necessary?

5 Responses to “Firefox 2.0 : will there be a war of the “close button on all tabs” ?”

  1. Skip Says:

    So, click on the even larger ‘X” in the upper right hand corner…

  2. JFB Says:

    Yes, and I can also turn off my computer…
    We are always complaining in thi scountry. ;)

  3. Salman Ahmed Says:

    exactly! i had been using TabX for quite some time now…. so it does not really matters if they’ve included it as a default option in firefox 2…. maybe its for those people who don’t like to(or don’t know how to) install extentions…

  4. JFB Says:

    Yes probably.
    Actually there is a great article about how to customize Firefox.
    I managed to restaure the single close button on Firefox 2.0.

    Very easy, check it out :
    Type about:config in the address bar and change all settings…*

    http://www.lifehacker.com/software/firefox-2/geek-to-live-top-firefox-2-config-tweaks-209941.php

  5. Tuning Firefox? | 365questions.org Says:

    [...] 7/Display or not the close buttons on tabs Browser.tabs.closeButtons Controls how close buttons can be displayed on tabs. 0: Display a close button on the active tab only 1: (default) Display a close button on each tab 2: Don’t display any close buttons 3: Display a single close button at the end of the tab bar (My own setting !). (See this post about the close tab button). [...]

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