611955 - About window should not be always-on-top

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Jesse Ruderman]

Now that the About window handles updates, I think we should stop making it always-on-top (revert bug 417733).

I tried to click away, letting it download in the background, but its always-on-topness prevented me from doing that.  I had to close the window while it was showing download progress, which felt weird.

Comment 1

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Yeah, I've hit the same behavior and agree that there isn't much need to follow the standard always on top design (even though everyone else does that).

Comment 2

[rob64rock]

(In reply to comment #0)
> Now that the About window handles updates, I think we should stop making it
> always-on-top (revert bug 417733).
> 
> I tried to click away, letting it download in the background, but its
> always-on-topness prevented me from doing that.  I had to close the window
> while it was showing download progress, which felt weird.

I agree the reason behind ( bug 417733) doesn't exist anymore... it should be reverted.

Comment 3

[Frank Freibuth]

It currently has no task-bar entry on Windows. If the change is reverted it needs one or it will easily get lost.

Comment 5

[algotechie]

The about box remains in the user's face for as long as the update is being downloaded. There's no minimize or hide button. And it pauses the downloading if it's closed. It stays on top of the browser window and obstructs the web pages. It would be great if a "minimize to tray" button is provided on the About box when it's downloading the updates.

Comment 6

[:Margaret Leibovic]

I think the solution to this would be bug 686254.

Comment 7

[teika kazura]

Please change "About" window (Help -> "about firefox") into a tab, just like about:preferences did recently. It's indispensable, since the best way to intentionally upgrade the firefox version is to open the about window.

And you can delete decades-old about:mozilla, maybe about:robot, too.

Regards.

Comment 8

[teika kazura]

Or, how about keeping "about" window (AW hereafter), but separating the updating process by handling it in a new "about:update" tab. Closing AW should not affect updating, and when an update is available, AW should point to "about:update" (cf. currently it shows a link to mozilla.com.)

Comment 10

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S4. However, the bug has 14 votes.
:mossop, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 11

[BugBot (nomail) [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The last needinfo from me was triggered in error by recent activity on the bug. I'm clearing the needinfo since this is a very old bug and I don't know if it's still relevant.