# Upgrade to Firefox 2? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2007, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943 "2007-07-08T05:14:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/21 "2007-07-08T18:01:43Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9] Wow, I thought I was the only one. šŸ˜› I say that Iā€™ve had tabbed browsing since about 1992ā€¦ itā€™s called the taskbar. šŸ˜‰ [/QUOTE] Unless you were working in a User Interface laboratory at the time, I doubt that you were using a taskbar in 1992. Windows 95 was the first mass-market product to use it. But I agree with your basic point that tabs are functionally the same as taskbar buttons. People miss the point about tabbed browsing, though, even the evangelists. Itā€™s not actually about the tabs. Itā€™s about being able to load other pages in the background, with a single click, while you continue to read the current page. Tabbed browsers introduced this innovation, and it has wrongly been associated with the tabs ever since. Current versions of the popular browsers do allow you to background-load pages in new windows, no tabs required. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/22 "2007-07-08T20:58:08Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Now to work out how to re-enable shrink-to-fit tabsā€¦ [/QUOTE] Put **about:config** in your address bar. When the config screen opens, scroll down to **browser.tabs.tabMinWidth**. Double-click on the entry, and when the dialog box pops up, change the number to a very small number, e.g. 1. This sets the minimum tab width to 1 pixel, meaning they will shrink to fit in your window rather than overflowing. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/23 "2007-07-08T21:03:22Z")
How many of you people are Mac users? I made a thread asking a similar question: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=426190&highlight=firefox](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=426190&highlight=firefox) I still havenā€™t switched yet. My main concern is the looks and interface. Iā€™ve gotten used to Firefox 1.5 on a Mac and I wonder how 2 compares. Also, FF is good with RAM but it tends to use up 50% of my G4ā€™s processing power. I was wondering whether te new one is better or worse in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/24 "2007-07-08T21:04:20Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Unless you were working in a User Interface laboratory at the time, I doubt that you were using a taskbar in 1992. Windows 95 was the first mass-market product to use it. [/QUOTE] Well, depending on how you define taskbar, he could have been using Mac OS System 7. But was there a usable browser for OS 7 back then? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/25 "2007-07-09T00:31:17Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] Even though Iā€™ve told FF2 that I want it to open links in new windows, it opens my links in new tabs, and I hate tabs. Yes, I know that Iā€™m a neandertal about this, but I prefer to have windows instead of tabs. [/QUOTE] _Ook._ I hate tabs too, and prefer new windows, instead. So maybe Firefox 2 isnā€™t for me. ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/26 "2007-07-09T02:36:29Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] Well, depending on how you define taskbar, he could have been using Mac OS System 7. But was there a usable browser for OS 7 back then? [/QUOTE] Nah. Iā€™ve been on the computer since 92. Heā€™s right, taskbar only since Win95. **Usram or Mhendo** , is there a listing somewhere for all those about:config entries? What each does, and options? ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/27 "2007-07-09T02:42:43Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] _Ook._ I hate tabs too, and prefer new windows, instead. So maybe Firefox 2 isnā€™t for me. [/QUOTE] I just downloaded 2.0 this afternoon. There is an option to open in new window instead of tabs. I clicked it but it still didnā€™t work. I did the about:config thing. Scroll down, double-click browser.link.open\_newwindow , put a ā€œ2ā€ in instead of the ā€œ3ā€ that was there. No more nasty tabs. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/28 "2007-07-09T03:41:27Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] A little tip - if you hate the fact that theyā€™ve move the Close Tab button to the tab itself, you can go back to the way it was in 1.x by going to about:config and setting browser.tabs.closeButtons to 3. [/QUOTE] Thank you! I kept closing the wrong tab, or closing a tab in error. But I also found History - Recently Closed Tabs, which was helpful, especially when you could reopen the tab and keep the ā€œbackā€ history. (I.e. go back to search results on ā€œnew postsā€ instead of having to rerun the new posts search.) ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/29 "2007-07-09T03:43:51Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9] **Usram or Mhendo** , is there a listing somewhere for all those about:config entries? What each does, and options? [/QUOTE] [Check this out](http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries) ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/30 "2007-07-09T03:54:54Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] [Check this out](http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries) [/QUOTE] You seem to have an extra \\ in your link, but thanks! šŸ˜ƒ I do loves me some cheat codes and such. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/31 "2007-07-09T04:11:10Z")
Thatā€™s odd. I tried to fix the link in a new post, but when i previewed, it automatically added the \'s. Letā€™s try this: [http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config\_entries](http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries) ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/32 "2007-07-09T04:24:11Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] Thatā€™s odd. I tried to fix the link in a new post, but when i previewed, it automatically added the \'s. Letā€™s try this: > **[About:config entries - MozillaZine Knowledge Base](http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries)** [/QUOTE] Yeah, was odd. When I quoted it, it was right. When you mouseover it, it has the extra characters. Anyways, thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/33 "2007-07-09T05:03:42Z")
My wifeā€™s computer asked about the upgrade and I told her I had no idea if she should or not, since I havenā€™t done it yet. She asked me about what Iā€™d heard, and I said nothing. Apparently, I lied. Iā€™ve had the upgrade and completely forgotten about it. No problems whatsoever with my computer. I have an HP laptop with Vista: Firefox and Thunderbird are working wonderfully, and I didnā€™t have to do much of anything. Who knew? Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/34 "2007-07-09T08:28:15Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] Well, depending on how you define taskbar, he could have been using Mac OS System 7. But was there a usable browser for OS 7 back then? [/QUOTE] I canā€™t see anything [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Macintosh_System_7.5.3_screenshot.png) that looks like a taskbar. That thing in the corner I think is called the Launcher, and would appear to be more like Windowsā€™ QuickLaunch buttons. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/35 "2007-07-09T09:11:26Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] Well, depending on how you define taskbar, he could have been using Mac OS System 7. But was there a usable browser for OS 7 back then? [/QUOTE] Or using [RISC-OS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC_OS), the OS that introduced the taskbar concept. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/36 "2007-07-09T11:31:02Z")
[QUOTE=if6was9] I just downloaded 2.0 this afternoon. There is an option to open in new window instead of tabs. I clicked it but it still didnā€™t work. I did the about:config thing. Scroll down, double-click browser.link.open\_newwindow , put a ā€œ2ā€ in instead of the ā€œ3ā€ that was there. No more nasty tabs. šŸ˜ƒ [/QUOTE] Thank you very much! I just did this, and it works. Iā€™m much happier now. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943/37 "2007-07-09T17:53:32Z")
Thanks very much to those who posted the about:config tweaks for the close tab button and autosizing tabs. These were my chief complaints! Love the restore after a crash (which I missed from Opera) and Undo Close Tab. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-to-firefox-2/410943.md?page=1)