The Death of Classic Theme Restorer

[megosdog]

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/03/08/th...r-for-firefox/

Ran into this news recently and I'm wondering what you guys know of as far as ways to restore the classic Firefox theme once 57 and above comes out as Firefox seems hell bent on killing off any and all browser plugins that allow users to modify the look of the browser away from their "Australia" theme. Myself, I can't stand the default theme and I want the classic buttons, as well as some other classic interface options. But Firefox devs apparently don't. They want that old look as dead as possible, and seem to be doing all they can now to kill off these tools. So, with that said, what options are out there to resolve this issue once Firefox 57 and above comes out?

[GreyGeek]

My solution was to switch to Vivaldi. You could also try Sea Monkey, Opera Neon, Torch and several other alternatives.

[Goeroeboeroe]

There simply is no way. Classic Theme Restorer (and many, many other popular add-ons like Tab Mix Plus) change the interface of Firefox. That's not possible any more in the new system. Maybe some very small changes will still be possible, but that's all.
In the new system only changes to the website (like colours) can be made.
As it looks now, most existing add-ons will not work any more, because every add-on has to be completely rewritten.

[Rod J]

I've already abandoned Firefox because of some recent changes which I have found rather irritating (GTK incompatibility in K14.04, etc) and the prospect towards the end of the year with v57 coming out. TabMixPlus was one of my favorite add-ons in Firefox. It seems Firefox just wants to become a clone of Chrome.

I tried Vivaldi which I thought was pretty good but there were a couple of niggles I didn't like: a frequent odd delay before displaying anything of a new web page (none of my other browsers do that), and I could not get it to satisfactorily open all links in new tabs, which is my preference. I'm now using Chrome which is working very well (I use right mouse click on any link I want to open in a new foreground tab (via the "Right Click Opens Link New Tab Correct Order" add-on) and there is no delay that I've noticed).

Years ago I used to use Chrome in preference to Firefox but I did find Chrome much less stable at that time ... but in recent use Chrome has been stable as a rock.

[dequire]

The real solution for me has always been hoping that someone writes a Qt gui for Firefox that allows the underlying engine to be a KDE application that fits nicely in Plasma. I'm guessing this must be a herculean task since it's never been done before. I'm curious as to why the "Firefox w/ Plasma integration" present for those running Netrunner or Maui Linux, has not been adopted as an official KDE application yet; or why Neon has not adopted it until then. Perhaps this would be a good basis for also adding a theme that works better in Plasma? Personally, I don't mind the default Firefox look as to me it certainly looks better in Plasma than it used to when Firefox shipped with hard-linked GTK icons...*shudder*

As for tabs and tabs organization, one might try Firefox Containers:
https://testpilot.firefox.com/experiments/containers/

Containers let you create profiles in Firefox for all of your online lives. Custom labels and color-coded tabs help keep different activities — like online shopping, travel planning, or checking work email — separate. Because Containers store cookies separately, you can log into the same site with a different account in each Container, and online trackers can’t connect your browsing in one container to another. So you can keep your shopping self separate from your social self from your work self, without worrying about being followed around the Web.

I've fallen in love with this add-on and use it daily. To my knowledge Chrome nor any other browser has this functionality and I'm not willing to give it up. It just makes too much sense to have my work browser tabs isolated from my personal ones from my shopping ones to my bill-paying ones, etc. Of course I believe that Activities are gaining per-Activity instance containerization of applications. Once fully implemented, I would imaging that this would achieve the same goal.

Image already added

[megosdog]

You guys have all confirmed my feelings about Firefox that they seem to be doing their level best to destroy themselves as a usable browser, which is disappointing to me. I mean, to go and throw so many people to the curb by making their addons no longer work seems completely stupid to me. I mean, what code monkey thought that was a good idea? Seriously, and they wonder why Chrome is killing them. Um, duh. They're handing the competition a machine gun and saying, "bury me." I understand the need for progress, but I don't understand this innate need to give a gigantic F-you to every one of your users on an almost daily basis. Makes no sense to me. Oh well, I guess I'll stop updating at Firefox 56 and just remain there until someone comes up with a solution. And if not, then fine, there's lots of other viable options out there.

Who knows, maybe Brave will take over and replace Firefox. As for Chrome, it's a Google project. I utterly DO NOT trust Google in the slightest, so no, I will never use their browser, ever. Too likely to be loaded with Google powered spyware. Even if it's not, I still won't use their stuff. Now, as for the other browsers, those sound promising.

[Goeroeboeroe]

Firefox gives two reasons for changing the add-on system.
1) Compatibility with Edge and Chrome.
2) Security. But as far as I know there has never been an issue with security because of the possibility to change the interface of Firefox,. There have been some malware-like add-ons, but as far as I know that had to do with thing like injecting an iframe/JavaScript in the a site. Maybe I missed something, but I can't believe this was such a big issue they had to change their whole add-on system.
About two years ago a lot of add-ons (all add-ons?) have been rewritten, because Firefox changed something fundamentally. You can't expect developers to rewrite their add-ons two times completely, for whatever reason.
There was a lot (and I mean A LOT) of criticism from a lot of developers, with hardly any reaction from Firefox. There were even some people thinking Firefox was paid by Google to destroy itself. I don't believe that, but it gives an idea how strong the criticism was.
Personally I really don't understand why this change is made. If I want to use a clone of Chrome, I use Chrome itself.

[chimak111]

I've moved to Google Chrome. Now that much of its "chrome" is amenable to tweaking via gtk3 files and the white flash before loading dark pages is nearly solved, I don't mind using it at all.

I still keep Firefox around, more out of curiosity than hope

[GreyGeek]

I've moved to Google Chrome. Now that much of its "chrome" is amenable to tweaking via gtk3 files and the white flash before loading dark pages is nearly solved, I don't mind using it at all.

I still keep Firefox around, more out of curiosity than hope

Does Chrome still block downloading of YT videos?

[jlittle]

I, too, have been dismayed by this turn of events. I've ranted about this sort of thing before (UI people love to force users to use their new cool stuff), and these firefox changes fit the pattern.

I use firefox because I can customize the interface extensively; for me, it's an accessibility issue. My preferred browser look is far removed from the defaults in any browser, and only firefox has let me get something like what I want. I use Tab Mix plus, Littlefox, Stylish, Noia, and classic theme restorer.

Now that much of its "chrome" is amenable to tweaking via gtk3 files.

Thank you, a ray of hope. But, I also need a robust ad blocker, not the neutered version (at least as the last time I considered it) that chrome supports; Google is an advertising company after all. *

One add-on whose absence would break the deal completely for me is NoScript, particularly as the use of XSS (cross site scripting?) is rising. I've seen a post saying NoScript will be ported to WebExtensions, so that's promising.

Regards, John Little

*(I'm not anti-Google like many members of this forum; I think many of those attitudes originated in Microsoft propaganda. Google has done advertising much more like the way I want it, and I hate and bitterly resent the brainwashing the advertising industry considers "normal". I gave up on broadcast television as a student many decades ago, so I'm sensitive to much that most people just let wash over them (IMO they're deluded about that). Actually, a pet vanity I occasionally indulge in is that many young people today, especially smart ones, don't watch broadcast TV; I was way ahead of the times.)

[Rod J]

I also need a robust ad blocker, not the neutered version (at least as the last time I considered it) that chrome supports ...

One of the first add-on's I install in any browser is Adblock Plus. It seems to be blocking just as many ads here in Chrome as it does in Firefox, as far as I can tell.

One annoyance I have is web pages that have embedded postage stamp sized videos that play automatically (and use up too much of my limited bandwidth). I have not had any luck in disabling them in either Firefox or Chrome via Adblock Plus.

[Qqmike]

embedded postage stamp sized videos that play automatically

In Firefox, what about NoScript?

[Rod J]

Yes, maybe "NoScript" would block those videos. I see there is "ScriptBlock" (and other similar add-on's) available in Chrome ... I might try ScriptBlock for a while.

I'm not averse to seeing the occasional ads on pages and some pages ask you to turn off add-blocking so they can get some revenue that way ... I don't have a problem doing that if the web site is worthy.

[chimak111]

Does Chrome still block downloading of YT videos?

Maybe! But since I learned about youtube-dl, that's what I use. BTW, I use the direct version and not the one in the repos (which seems to get installed when you install mpv and which is frequently outdated).

I'm pretty sure that Google Chrome isn't as versatile as Firefox in other respects too, but I'll continue using Chrome with Firefox installed just in case

[chimak111]

...
One annoyance I have is web pages that have embedded postage stamp sized videos that play automatically (and use up too much of my limited bandwidth). I have not had any luck in disabling them in either Firefox or Chrome via Adblock Plus.

Links to illustrate the issue? Lately, I've noticed that the little previews of videos in YouTube seem to show some sort of activity when hovered over. I'm using uBlock Origin for my blocking needs.