Closed Bug 1207463 Opened 9 years ago Closed 9 years ago

[New tab page] browser.newtab.url has been removed

Categories

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Tabbed Browser
Version:
41 Branch
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1178837

People

(Reporter: fabi, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:41.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/41.0 Build ID: 20150918100310 Steps to reproduce: 1. I disabled the tiles for new tabs via about:config previously. 2. I upgraded to Firefox 41.0 Actual results: On a CTRL-T, the tiles were shown again. Expected results: Firefox should have honored existing about:config flags to honor my wish to not see tiles. Is it possible to view the decision made and by whom who decided that it was a good idea to break existing user settings hard?
Component: Untriaged → Tabbed Browser
OS: Unspecified → All
Hardware: Unspecified → All
Summary: New tab tiles are shown → New tab tiles are shown after disabling in about:config
Which pref did you change in about:config to disable tiles?
I think it's "browser.newtab.url", set to "about:blank" Instead I see now the new settings group "browser.newtabpage.*" OK I've now read up on the change why that was scrubbed - however, if people have had blank tab without the tiles, I still violated that they reappeared with the arrival of FF 41.
It's by design, the pref "browser.newtab.url" has been removed in FF41+. See bug 1118285.
Well, one commenter over there said, it will annoy a lot of the users - I am one of them. I had the clear intention to not see the tiles again - yet they re-appeared. If the old setting would have been set to about:blank - it could have had disabled the newly appearing tiles right before I got annoyed.
You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a blank page or install this add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) to restore the pref.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Blocks: 1118285
(In reply to Loic from comment #5) > You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a > blank page or install this add-on > (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) to > restore the pref. No you can not.
(In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #6) > (In reply to Loic from comment #5) > > You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a > > blank page or install this add-on > > (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) to > > restore the pref. > > No you can not. I tested and it works, just go in the options of the add-on and set the URL you desire to open with about:newtab.
(In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #6) > (In reply to Loic from comment #5) > > You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a > > blank page or install this add-on > > (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) to > > restore the pref. > > No you can not. "No" to which one? Clicking on the gear in about:newtab should show a "Show blank page" option which should clear out all of the tiles and the search input (where the only visible element is the gear). I just read the source of the add-on that Loic linked to, and it looks like it should work as advertised. Which part isn't working?
Flags: needinfo?(splewako)
(In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) - Needinfo me! from comment #8) > (In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #6) > > (In reply to Loic from comment #5) > > > You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a > > > blank page or install this add-on > > > (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) to > > > restore the pref. > > > > No you can not. > > "No" to which one? 'You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a blank page'
Flags: needinfo?(splewako)
(In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #9) > (In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) - Needinfo me! from comment #8) > > (In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #6) > > > (In reply to Loic from comment #5) > > > > You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set a > > > > blank page or install this add-on > > > > (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) to > > > > restore the pref. > > > > > > No you can not. > > > > "No" to which one? > > 'You can use the "wheel" at the top-right corner of the new tab page to set > a blank page' This is what I see when I click on the gear and choose "Show blank page": http://i.imgur.com/v2LncGR.png Is this not what you're seeing?
Flags: needinfo?(splewako)
(In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) - Needinfo me! from comment #10) > This is what I see when I click on the gear and choose "Show blank page": > > http://i.imgur.com/v2LncGR.png > > Is this not what you're seeing? I'm seeing the same. It is just not blank page, you can easily check that by comparing about:blank with about:newtab and there is no point in lying to users that changed new tab page to about:blank that it is.
Flags: needinfo?(splewako)
(In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #11) > (In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) - Needinfo me! from comment #10) > > This is what I see when I click on the gear and choose "Show blank page": > > > > http://i.imgur.com/v2LncGR.png > > > > Is this not what you're seeing? > > I'm seeing the same. It is just not blank page, you can easily check that by > comparing about:blank with about:newtab and there is no point in lying to > users that changed new tab page to about:blank that it is. I'm not sure if the comparison is failing because of the slight shade difference, or because of the gear. In either case, we're not telling users that we're changing the new tab page to "about:blank", but to a "blank page", which I think is true (with the only exception being the gear to change the settings again).
It's visually a blank page but not technically about:blank.
(In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) - Needinfo me! from comment #12) > I'm not sure if the comparison is failing because of the slight shade > difference, or because of the gear. Both and other things… like when developers decide that it needs to be switched back to "show your top sites" or whatever because there was new element added or sth. > In either case, we're not telling users that we're changing the new tab page > to "about:blank", but to a "blank page", which I think is true (with the > only exception being the gear to change the settings again). You are suggesting that and maybe you don't see other differences or choose to ignore them but it is simply not true.
(In reply to Stefan Plewako [:stef] from comment #14) Please just state which "other differences" you see in comparison to about:blank. Thank you.
"RESOLVED WONTFIX"? HA! The "blank page" option absolutely does not result in a "blank" page. - The visible gear icon means it's not blank. - The 4921 bytes of other content mean it's not blank. I've installed https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/developers to fix this bug. Is there a reason to not respect this preference, which was working just fine and was respected before? I see a previous claim that this was a problem due to hijackers setting the browser.newtab.url preference, but that's no different than hijackers setting any preferred URL (bookmark, home page, pinned sites, etc.). The problem isn't the newtab url preference, it's Firefox's design choice of burying that preference. It should be a simple item on the browser's option menu. When a user chooses to see a "blank page" on the New Tab page, they should get about:blank. The option to set and restore it should be in the browser's option menu. You can have a section called "New Tab", just as you do for the home page. LOOK: http://imgur.com/jbRHJGe Simple, consistent, respectful of the user. This way, users get the control that Mozilla claims to support and they are protected from hijackers just as they are with homepage hijackers - a simple trip to the options menu to click "use default" (or whatever they want) restores their hijacked preference. Further, the "blank page" option in the "When Firefox starts" setting refers to about:blank , but the "blank page" option in current the New Tab setting refers to "about:newtab , but with a gear and some hidden elements". This is inconsistent. "Blank page" should mean "blank page", or at the very least should mean the same thing across the browser. I suspect the true intentions for forcing this upon people involve collecting money from the "Suggested Sites" "feature".
See bug 1118285 for details.
Summary: New tab tiles are shown after disabling in about:config → [New tab page] browser.newtab.url has been removed
See my post above. The reasoning for disabling browser.newtab.url is spurious at best. A better solution is to expose the setting in the browser options, and use that setting to control the behavior New Tab as well. Further, Firefox's use of "blank page" is inconsistent, and having New Tab respect a choice of "blank" (by using about:blank or some other, actual blank page) would solve it. If you do not understand my complaint, I'd be happy to provide more pictures. If you understand my complaint but choose to ignore it, just tell me now so I can uninstall Firefox.
Resolution: WONTFIX → DUPLICATE
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