After upgrading to FF47 on FreeBSD, there are problems with the scroll bars and the tab bar. This problem persists in Firefox through 55.0.1
After Firefox 46, the usability has tanked. The scroll bars are narrow and difficult to get a hold of. The up and down arrows at the top and bottom (or right and left) of the scroll bars that allow you to scroll one line at a time no longer exist, and clicking above the location indicator in the scroll bar moves you up to that point, rather than up one screen at a time.
This becomes even more problematic when trying to find items in a long select box that can't all be seen at once, or when scrolling within a text area, frame, or iframe, where there may be limited space compared to the volume of text. This really is a major usability issue.
I submitted this question at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1129619?utm_campaign=questions-reply&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification previously, but got an answer which, while probably factual, was absolutely not helpful or useful. I use the Firefox theme that comes with Firefox. It seems that the new default theme is designed to make sure the browser isn't usable. Is that the intent? Should I be looking for another browser?
All Replies (9)
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/update-firefox-latest-version?cache=no Did you update Firefox to the latest version 55.0.3
Is there something in 55.0.3 that changes from 55.0.1 but was not changed between 47 and 55.0.1 that would address this issue?
Hi !
See this bug report pertaining to broken scrollbars on your OS (FreeBSD) :
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1260067
Is (still) being worked on ......
Modified by Happy112
Make sure you use a GTK 3 compatible theme in your Linux distribution. You can try different themes to see if that makes a difference.
weif said
After Firefox 46, the usability has tanked. The scroll bars are narrow and difficult to get a hold of. The up and down arrows at the top and bottom (or right and left) of the scroll bars that allow you to scroll one line at a time no longer exist, and clicking above the location indicator in the scroll bar moves you up to that point, rather than up one screen at a time. I submitted this question at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1129619 previously, but got an answer which, while probably factual, was absolutely not helpful or useful. I use the Firefox theme that comes with Firefox. It seems that the new default theme is designed to make sure the browser isn't usable. Is that the intent? Should I be looking for another browser?
On Linux if one is missing the scrollbar arrows then that is usually because of using a GTK2 theme on system instead of a GTK3 theme. I explained this changes for Firefox 46.0 and later in that post you linked to.
This is not because the default Firefox UI was made to make Firefox more unusable.
I still make use of a black GTK2 theme that I have modified a bit myself in colours on my system with Xfce as I like the theme over what I could find for GTK3 themes. It does make Firefox 46.0 and newer look unthemed and missing the scroll bar arrows but is still usable.
hmm maybe I need to look at places like https://www.gnome-look.org/browse/cat/135/ord/latest/ again for something that looks decent.
James said
On Linux if one is missing the scrollbar arrows then that is usually because of using a GTK2 theme on system instead of a GTK3 theme. I explained this changes for Firefox 46.0 and later in that post you linked to. This is not because the default Firefox UI was made to make Firefox more unusable.
James, while you did state this in your response in the other thread, it's a very far cry from explaining it. I am using Firefox's default theme. Shouldn't the default theme be at least marginally usable? If the default theme is not going to be usable, shouldn't there be a warning in the release notes that the browser really can no longer be used with web sites that have select boxes or multi-select boxes in forms, or that have pages longer than twice the current window height?
cor-el said
Make sure you use a GTK 3 compatible theme in your Linux distribution. You can try different themes to see if that makes a difference.
By "theme" in this context, do you mean the window manager?
No. What I mean is the theme you use in your windows manager. Firefox on Linux uses a window theme and an icon theme and these need to be GTK 3+ compatible.
- GNOME: System -> Look and Feel -> Appearance -> Theme
cor-el said
No. What I mean is the theme you use in your windows manager. Firefox on Linux uses a window theme and an icon theme and these need to be GTK 3+ compatible.
- GNOME: System -> Look and Feel -> Appearance -> Theme
I Would guess, then, that I am using the default or standard theme. Shouldn't that work if everything is up to date?
I don't have a Gnome menu or a System menu. There is a system tools menu, but it only contains "top" (which opens a local terminal and runs top).