346128 - Tabbed Browsing Prefs need Simplification

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(Camino Graveyard :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

If I set up Camino for the first time with no existing profile, as a tabbed browsing user I need to change an awful lot of defaults to make the browser more usable in this way:

1. I need to set Command Click to open a new tab
2. I need to set Link from other applications open in a new tab (btw it should be Links from other applications, not Link (singular)
3. Single Window Mode

Personally, I don't see much difference between the last two anyway, since a lot of us are using web apps for things like mail, IM, etc ;-) and the distinction feels a little arbitrary. But I can understand if they are kept distinct. 

Firefox 2 makes tabbed mode the default, however Firefox 2 also has a single preference - windows vs. tabs - that controls all of these things, so that changing behavior is a single setting switch - i.e. "tabbed browser user" or "not tabbed browser user"... I think having some kind of binary switch like that would aid configuration if tabbed browsing is _not_ the default.

Comment 1

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

> 2. I need to set Link from other applications open in a new tab (btw it should
> be Links from other applications, not Link (singular)

It's correct as the pref as written (and in parallel structure with cmd-click), but awkward.  It's been fixed for some time, though; please check a recent nightly ;)

Comment 2

[froodian (Ian Leue)]

Personally, I think adding UI for a binary tabbed browsing/non-tabbed browsing switch would only further confuse the UI.  I agree that what we have isn't ideal, but I can't envision anything that wouldn't either a) lessen pref control in the UI or b) clutter the UI.

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I agree with Ian. Pushing users to about:config to have the same degree of control they currently have is a pretty big drawback for the minor simplification we'd derive from a Safari-like tabbed browsing preference.

Pink should probably have the final say, though.

Comment 4

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

OK, then you should make tabbed browsing the default ;-) 

I used to be against tabbed browsing as the default mode, because I thought it would confuse people, but then I watched people not get confused by it. 

Basically: I am not (anymore at least!) arguing against additional controls, just saying that if it's not the default, it should be trivial to turn on with a single gesture, otherwise it should be the default ;-) 

Comment 5

[froodian (Ian Leue)]

I was thinking about this (turning tabbed browsing on by default) recently, and I'm for it.  My father (to name the average novice user) can't understand tabbed browsing, but he also doesn't know to command-click or how to invoke contextual menus.  That is, anybody who would truly be confused by tabbed browsing would never run into it, as long as we leave "Always show tab bar" and SWM off by default.

Comment 6

[froodian (Ian Leue)]

This got done by bug 352265, just in a slightly different guise–I'm pretty confident that they're safely simple now.  Closing WFM.