The new Firefox design is here

timpera 91 points 138 comments September 29, 2026
blog.mozilla.org · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (20 comments)

MoraliaApp

“Warm, but still precise” is an interesting goal. I wonder how much users actually feel that difference, though.

thetallgeek

I want the page headings to look like tabs, not pills. You don't have to be different for the sake of it

prodmod

Is their overview video doing it for literally anyone at all? I would love to not be infantilized.

palmotea

Let me guess: even more whitespace, hiding stuff for a "clean" look like a baby toy.

xoac

the ui fix still works, nice https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix

drcongo

Remarkably few images of design on this page about design. No I'm not going to watch a video.

gray_-_wolf

Out of curiosity, if you use the split view, why? I never understood what it can do that my window manager cannot, but maybe I am overlooking something?

richwater

Firefox needs to start adding actual embedded functionality improvements rather than constantly tweaking the UX. Chrome's integration with Googgle Pay for example (which lets you generate virtual card numbers on the fly) is what allowed Capital One to replace their browser agnostic extension. Now I cannot use Capital One virtual card number generator in my checkout workflow if I don't move to Chrome.

hattar

I wish Firefox would stop rolling out redesigns, color themes, and other visual tweaks every couple years and instead focus on features and bugs. Improve Adblock capabilities, better tab and session management, improve sync, improve site css and js management, built in dark-mode. Hell, just look at the list of most used extensions, it’s a great place to start understanding what users want.

tosti

Lots of pooh pooh, lots of blah blah, almost nothing on show.

formerffuser

FF has been my primary browser for 20 years. But in the past 6 months it spawns so many FF processes from a single web page with advertising like yahoo - 60 FF processes or more - that it's unusable. The X button to stop it doesn't work, and going to another website can take upwards of 10 seconds. I am looking for an another browser.

leawi

Hey! That's essentially Zen browser's UI?

hackerbrother

I think Firefox is doing a good job overall.

timpera

I just updated. I think it looks great overall, but there is way too much lost space on the horizontal tabs.

clumsysmurf

I gave it a few minutes of trial and then disabled it. With memory prices increasing, many people unable to afford new machines, and web browsers being one of those things that can potentially take a lot of system resources, I wish the Firefox team would prioritize CPU and memory performance of the core engine for users with lots of tabs. I have stuff like 'Auto tab discard' installed but it seems to break other things, like 'Close Duplicate Tabs'.

n4bz0r

The UI was tidy and nearly perfect, now it's all over the place: weird paddings, different border radiuses even within a single element, clashing background colors, and boy, do I love rainbow gradients everywhere. Update: for those unhappy with the changes, you can roll them back for now: about:config -> browser.nova.enabled -> false

anonthrownaway

OMFG! Look at the massive amount of space between the stupid pill shaped tabs - this is the exact opposite of what I want as a tab hoarder! If I wanted to use a shitty safari UI that sacrifices usability for cutesy looks, I would use Safari. I am still having to use an extension (Sidebery) because Firefox failed to implement vertical tabs half as good. On my MBP, I have two rows of small panel icons to switch between 2 rows of 8 different categories of tabs (16 panels). Below that, I have 3 rows of pinned tabs on each panel (24 pinned tabs). Below that, I can see 24 open tabs without scrolling. That's 48 visible tabs per panel and with a single panel click, I can see a different set of 48 tabs. That makes a total of 768 tabs accessible via a single click. [edit] I should add that I can see 32 characters of the tab title so it is easy to know at a glance what the tab is about. [/edit] Now that is an amazing UI/UX - not some designer pill shaped tabs (that Safari has had for years). Mozilla: why in the hell do I need to trust some extension builder to give me an amazing UI/UX? Instead of copying Apple's bad decisions - innovate! p.s. I don't get why in the hell anyone who has more than 10 tabs open at once isn't using vertical tabs? Especially when most monitors have more horizontal pixels than vertical.

EvanAnderson

I keep trying to switch from Chrome to Firefox. I had been trying pretty hard this last time but now this... >sigh< Change for change's sake is so damn tiring.

throwawayAAUGGH

This is horrible. I still can't find out how to disable the new border radius. The compact option kind of saves it but this is absolutely horrible. Are they forcing this? You have got to be kidding me. Why force a change like this instead of adding this as an additional UI customization feature? Why is this happening? Is this making them money or is this to cater to the ego of some product manager? The "Ash" theme saves the theme for me. The sidebar is easily disabled by clicking the settings icon on the bottom of the sidebar and selecting the easily spottable option. I cannot find how to disable this border radius. "about:config -> browser.nova.enabled -> false" only slightly fixes it, does not disable it. I can't believe they're forcing these pills. What a fucking hostile, brazen change. Yeah, fuck you too Mozilla. Looks like I can't do anything about it! You punked me!

chriswarbo

I struggle to use UIs like in the image shown under "Compact Mode". I can't tell what is/isn't clickable, since there are no bevels or other visual indicators (maybe something changes on mouse-over? but that's too late to indicate that I should try mousing-over!) Thankfully user-chrome still seems to work, so these things can be overridden (and LLMs make those overrides easier to write & maintain).

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