I’m kind of afraid to try launching Firefox now. A big, burly hairy forearm is going to pop out of my screen, grab me by the neck and force me to hit the “upgrade now?” button.
But… but… what if I want to wait… :: pummel, pummel, pummel:: Okay, okay, I’ll upgrade and enjoy the wonderful new features!
So far, I like it. I don’t mind the “close tab” crosses – they make things a little easier (I don’t use mouse gestures). So, less than 24 hours into the upgrade, it gets good marks from me.
I have a strange problem with Tabs. It’s to do with pages which are opened from a link. When I close this page by clicking on the red cross it is replaced by a blank page which cannot be closed by clicking on the red cross. The only way to close it is by the “alt + f4” route. I don’t have the same problem with “ordinary” pages. Any ideas?
My interface looked significantly different from what you described, so I figured that Tabbrowser Extensions might actually be the problem. I uninstalled it, restarted Firefox, and the interface now looked as you describe. However, I did select the radio button next to “new pages should be opened in a new tab” and it’s still not doing it. If I go to Fark, for example, and click one of the headline links, it opens it in a new window every time. Does anyone have any advice? This is really starting to get on my nerves.
No problems with new links in tabs here. Mouse gestures to close tabs is a little cumbersome anyway; it’s right-click plus two perpendicular mouse movements. Much easier to just move the mouse up and click the X – unless you’re in a resolution so high that this requires cab fare.
Personally I like the new Firefox. The movement of the close tab buttons will take a wee bit of getting used to but it’s much more sensible than the previous method, which I never liked to begin with. The spell checker is a very nice addition, too. The dictionary doesn’t seem to have a huge vocabulary, though. It doesn’t even know what a trebuchet is. For shame!
Try restarting the browser again, i guess.
I just went to Fark to try it, and the links opened in new tabs without a problem.
Yeah, not only did I restart the browser several times, but I even tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling it. Still no dice. I did find a newsgroup message describing the same problem, and there was a response indicating that this is a bug and that links with “target=blank” will behave properly and open in new tabs, but links that use Javascript to open new windows will just open in new windows, regardless of your Firefox setting. The person in the newsgroup said that when the Tab Mix extension is updated in a week or so here, it should fix this.
However, this does not explain why I am having the problem and mhendo is not. Grr.
That happened to me; change the setting to ‘open in a new tab’, click OK (or apply, or whatever it is), then open the dialog and change it back to ‘open in a new window’. That fixed it for me.
Oops… Strike that. Reverse it.
For me, it was opening in a new tab even though I wanted a new window (I don’t do tabbed browsing); change it to the opposite setting and back, and you should be good.
Tried that. Still not working. Thanks, though. I’m starting to wonder if my personal machine just has some hidden setting enabled, or some extension conflict, or an infestation of underpants gnomes, or something.
I’ll wait a little while. Is the FireSomething extension compatible with it? I like running:
Mozilla Thunderpigeon
Mozilla Supertiger
Mozilla Hyperfly
Mozilla Powercanary
MsWhatsit:
I’ve never relied on Firefox’s default tab settings but, rather, used the excellent extension Tab Mix Plus. It hasn’t yet been updated for Ver. 2.0 but its homepage includes a link to a beta version which works fine for me.
This extension makes configuring tab behaviour a snap, and comes in very handy for removing those pesky 'x’s from each tab and replacing the missing close button.
Overall, my upgrade to 2.0 has been virtually seamless. Only a few of my extensions were incompatible and, of those, all but one were rendered obsolete by the new version. As for the last, I did a little hunting and found an even better extension as a replacement.
This doesn’t feel like a new .0 version but instead like another incremental update. That suits me just fine.
For the close buttons, you can also (see here) go to about:config and change Browser.tabs.closeButtons.
The values are:
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 (Firefox 1.x behavior)
I’ve been running 2.0 since RC1, and it seems to be faster and use less RAM than 1.5 (though I wish the session restore function worked after just shutting it down normally, instead of only after a crash).
I think I prefer Spellbound to the inbuilt spell checker of 2.0. Seems more user-friendly to me.
Go to Tools > Options > Main
Under the Startup area there’s a heading called When Firefox Starts
From the dropdown menu, select: Show my windows and tabs from last time.
Thank you for posting this! I was totally bummed when I installed 2.0 and was told that Tab Mix Plus wasn’t compatible. However, now the beta’s working fine for me, too. 
God bless America. Not only is this thing the best thing since sliced bread, but it also solved my #$&*# “open in new tab” problem. Thank you!
My color tabs are gone!
“Not compatible with FF 2.0” is the message on the add-ons page. Let’s hope they soon make it compatible.
Most people who write extensions usually update them pretty quickly upon a new release.
Virtually all of the extensions i use have already been updated; the main one i’m waiting for now is the “Copy plain text” extension.