... Firefox can be made to look just like it.
Let’s face it, we’re all shallower than we like to admit when it comes to our web browsing experience. The web itself is mostly words and pictures painted across a million miles of surface gloss. Of anyone who tried the beta of Google’s Chrome browser, I bet you all initially rushed to install it because of the concept of each tab running in an isolated sandbox, and the prospect of V8, the powerful new JavaScript engine... but what really wowed you about Chrome when it revved onto your screen? Yep, its cool streamlined appearance. Don’t know about you, but that more than anything tempted me to switch from Firefox and make Google’s stealthy new beast my main browser.
The isolated processes stuff sounds important, but it solves a problem I didn’t know I had (aside from Firefox eating up resources and needing the occasional restart). And the other touted big advantage of Chrome, its faster JavaScript engine, may already have been left in the dust by Firefox's in-the-pipeline TraceMonkey engine. So for all the hype and excitement (which has admittedly died down considerably now) around Google’s new browser, what’s the main attraction of Chrome? Its looks.
Chrome provides a minimalist web browsing experience overall. Its developers have followed the Occam’s Razor/‘less is more’ design philosophy, perhaps taking the ideal a little too far, cutting out a few too many features. Unfortunately, this means no browser plug-ins... which means no Adblock, no GreaseMonkey, no FoxClocks... you get the idea. All that's left is a pretty face.
So, if Firefox has the thriving ecosystem of add-ins and add-in developers, but Chrome has the looks... easy, make Firefox look just like Chrome!
A quick search for make firefox look like chrome reveals that some hard-working beavers have already been at it: in particular check out Chromifox, a theme which easily gets you 90% of the way there. This experimental hack, which works with Chromifox and another add-in called Stylish, moves the tab bar to the top of the window.
The one downside to the tab bar hack is that it breaks Firefox’s F11/full-screen mode – moving the mouse to the top of the window no longer brings down the address bar or tabs. But I can live with that, and hey, it’s an experimental hack.
All these add-ins were installed and running in about a minute... which makes me wonder about Chrome’s future. If its main “selling” point is so easily replicated, before 1.0 is even released, how much of a splash in the web browser world is it really going to make?
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