Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Firefox 4.0...

Unbelievable. Firefox release 4.0 replaces the menu bar, a tool that works incredibly well and has been ingrained in computer users' minds for 25 (25!) years with a box you must click to get a dropdown menu, from which you must choose an option to get a sideways-expanding menu, from which you must chose your final option.

Yes, the menu bar itself is an unnatural construct, and only seems intuitive to us now because of its ubiquity. But to take this proven bit of near-universal design and toss it is just mental. WTF, Firefox?! This is as annoying as when Micrsoft decided to the same with Office, with those interminable "ribbons"! The more-is-more school of software design.

I'm sticking with Firefox 3.6.8 until I absolutely have to switch.