I’d agree that it’s overblown and I suspect this reaction comes from users not understanding the complex legal framework Mozilla operates in globally and regionally, and Mozilla doing what it does best, miscommunication.

IANAL but my interpretation of the situation is that in certain jurisdictions, California for example (where Mozilla is headquartered and where they have a legally binding contract in place with Google), they are and always have been “selling” your data from a LEGAL standpoint. It is a difference between how we users define selling (a literal exchange of data for money) versus how the law defines selling which can be much more broad and include things we wouldn’t define as selling.

As far as the law is concerned, again, in some but not all jurisdictions, a) all data has monetary value to tech companies, and b) with Mozilla & Google in particular there is a monetary exchange (ie. a contract worth millions of dollars) for Google Search being integrated into Firefox as the default.

Therefore, as far as the law is concerned, when you type into the Awesomebar or search box in Firefox, Firefox sends (sells) the data you entered (your data) to Google (because of course it does, that’s how the internet works) and this is a “sale of your data” under the legal definition. This is just one example from one jurisdiction Mozilla operates within, albeit a majorly influential and litigious jurisdiction.

My understanding is they had to make that their terms of use because if they didn’t they’d be liable to get sued into oblivion in jurisdictions where using a web browser to browse the internet constituted a legal sale.

Does this open the door to abuse and the literal sale of our data in the future, absolutely. But it’s on us to trust but verify, and do what we, the community, do best and hold Mozilla to account when they inevitably screw up.

Anyway, this was a much longer comment than I intended to write, but that’s my take as a someone who has not just used Mozilla products for decades but also contributed labour as well.

Oh, you mean you were waiting for tab groups. Sorry, without enough context I thought you were telling one of those bullshit reasons people use against Firefox. Well then, see you with Librewolf soon.

Ah, so now I have 7 workspaces that don’t survive reboots! Wonderful.

Bookmarks would be easier at this point.

Ahh makes sense, thank you!

Go to Settings > Design, and then under Tab Bar Style select “Vertical Tab Bar (experimental)”. I recommend checking the “Collapse Vertical Tab Bar” checkbox, too. That way, the tab bar collapses into icons when your cursor isn’t over it, taking up less window space.

I’m going to stick it out for maybe a couple months (past this first ~month period) just to see if maybe they are superior somehow

There is a keyboard shortcut. It’s CTRL+ALT+Z for me. Unless you mean something else?

As for the “reveal on hover”, iirc there was a dismissable message that said it is coming soon.

If I can share my opinion, they are more than big enough if you toggle the checkbox “optimize for touch screen”. I would have to try Arc or Zen again to understand what you mean.

The only complaint I have is that I need to hover (or expand) to see the title. It becomes annoying when I’m reading documentation and I end up with multiple tabs with the same icon.

EDIT: I can’t seem to find the “optimize for touch screen” checkbox anymore, but I’m sure there is something like that somewhere because I enabled it on one of my devices which has a touch screen.

The chrome tab groups were what I missed the most when I switched, so I’m happy with the change. It’s a little jankier feeling as in chrome it’s harder to drag a tab out of the group, while in Firefox if you move a tab to the end it’s hard to get it to stay in the group.

It would also be nice if any of it was themeable, but themeability in Firefox is a whole other problem.