Making Firefox 10 More Like Firefox 3.6

Update: A preference was introduced in Firefox 12 for allowing tabs on bottom. I've update the add-on to account for this.

With the release of the Firefox 10 ESR and the upcoming end of life of Firefox 3.6, I am getting more and more requests to add functionality to the CCK to make Firefox 10 look more like Firefox 3.6. Rather than add those features to the CCK, I'm providing a separate add-on to satisfy that need.

The Firefox 3.6 Behaviors add-on can be customized to provide the following four behaviors to Firefox 10:

  • Display the bookmarks bar
  • Display the status bar
  • Display the menu bar (on Windows)
  • Display tabs on bottom

All of these behaviors are enabled by default when the add-on is first installed, but it honors the user's choices after that. If you would like to turn some of them on or off, unzip the XPI and modify the file firefox3.6.js. There are variables at the top that can be turned on and off. You can then use any zip program to recreate the add-on.

If there are other Firefox 3.6 behaviors you would like to see, please let me know and I will add them.

Add-ons like this and the CCK Wizard are supported by donations. If the work I do makes your life easier or helps you get your job done, you can show your support by donating for future work.

If you need more specific help, contact Kaply Consulting

22 Responses to “Making Firefox 10 More Like Firefox 3.6”

  1. James February 13, 2012 at 7:29 pm #

    For the status bar, Status4Ever is probably more what people are looking for.

    • Mike Kaply February 14, 2012 at 8:08 am #

      Yeah, that's a good one if you want the status bar looking exactly like Firefox 3.6

  2. Antoine Turmel February 14, 2012 at 8:07 am #

    It need the RSS icon in location bar too, see : https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/rss-icon-in-awesombar/

  3. Zéfling February 14, 2012 at 8:40 am #

    The bookmark panel change singe Firefox 4.

    I don't find extension to go back :
    http://ikilote.net/Galeries/Autres/Divers/Firefox_4pre_Onglets_Positions.png

  4. pd February 25, 2012 at 12:32 pm #

    Does telemetry (assuming users allow it) count and relay changes such as re-enabling the status bar and other controversial changes to the Firefox UI?

    It would be great feedback for the designers if they could see what percentage of users dislike their changes.

    • Mike Kaply February 27, 2012 at 8:30 am #

      That's a good question. I honestly don't know. I think that the Test Pilot project is how they figure these kind of things out.

      They don't tend to revert their changes though.

      • John Messmer May 14, 2012 at 7:26 pm #

        Ya, unfortunately there is a strange sort of developer arrogance about the changes they make in that they will rarely admit when they're wrong. Even when hundreds or thousands tell them so. It's sort of an elitist's attitude that they know better. I can't begin to tell you about the level of arrogance that I've encountered, it's unbelievable. The bad part is they so often make change for the sake of change instead of leaving well enough alone. I think they shsould focus on new functionality, but they seem to get off on reworking existing functionality instead.

  5. Gray Burch March 2, 2012 at 7:19 pm #

    Thank you so much for making this.

  6. Jeff Sararas March 8, 2012 at 1:47 pm #

    Thanks for posting thist! I've found an option to display tabs below, and I do see menu and bookmarks bar, so the only thing I need is status bar. Any idea why they would leave out such a crucial feature??

  7. patrickjdempsey March 13, 2012 at 12:18 am #

    Shameless self-promotion: Luddite UI is an extension I'm developing which is capable of reverting *many* of the changes made going all the way back to Firefox 2.0:
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/luddite-ui/
    It has a very elaborate options panel controlled by 4 easy-to-use Preset buttons.

  8. jg April 30, 2012 at 10:05 am #

    does any of this work in Firefox 12.0?

    • Mike Kaply April 30, 2012 at 10:22 pm #

      Yes, everything should work in FF12

      • Heidi May 9, 2012 at 9:09 am #

        I just installed firefox 12 to give it another try. I have tried both this and status4evar but none seem to keep the status bar there. It still vanishes after the page loads. Maybe I am just too picky. :p

        • Mike Kaply May 9, 2012 at 11:07 am #

          So the thing that shows page loading at the bottom on Firefox 12 (with URLs) is not the status bar anymore. The status bar is below that. I believe that status4evar allows you to configure it so that the information in that popup displays on the status bar again. It sounds like you need to right click on a blank area next to the tabs and make sure the statusbar/addon bar is displayed.

  9. Laura May 11, 2012 at 10:50 am #

    Am I to assume that all of these add-ons work on a Mac, too? 'Cause I think I'm gonna hafta take the plunge soon....
    Thanks~

    • Mike Kaply May 11, 2012 at 11:29 am #

      Yep, everything should work on Mac.

  10. rbeer July 19, 2012 at 10:58 pm #

    Hi,
    i just tried your AddOn with FF 14.0.1.
    The (most top) menu bar keeps appearing and disappearing, but what I really want, the tab-bar at the bottom, doesn't work.
    Any idea where to start looking for a solution?
    A already did a folder-diff over my profiles folder, but with no results worth mentioning.

    thx in advance

    rbeer

    • Mike Kaply July 27, 2012 at 5:39 pm #

      In Firefox 12, they made a change that broke my code. I've updated the add-on to reflect this. You can download version 0.2 from the link in the post.

      As far as your menubar problems go, I'm not able to recreate. Can you give me more detail?

  11. Devon December 13, 2012 at 11:13 pm #

    Hey, I know it's been a while since someone has commented here, but I had two questions. I just upgraded from 3.6.xx today because websites were starting to fail, to version 12. I immediatly did everything I could to make it look like good ol' 3.6.26, I've made everything look like it should except 2 things. I got the tabs on the bottom, but I cant get them to look exactly as they did, there used to be a small space between the tabs and the page (also the + button to add tabs had a smaller +) and also the back/forward, refresh, home, and X buttons are differently styled. Are there anyways to fix those things that you know of? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

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    [...] is Rebrand. Rebrand allows you to change the internal branding used in Firefox. The third is the Firefox 3.6 Behaviors add-on. It can change some of the behaviors of Firefox to be more like Firefox 3.6. Some other useful [...]

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