It's not implemented in beta 1, but Firefox 4 will also have tabs extend to the top of the screen when maximized. See http://bugzil.la/572480 by Alex Faaborg (Principal Designer on the Firefox UX team) for details.
OTOH, now with larger and larger monitors, how many people really browse full-screen? If you aren't full-screen, Fitts law doesn't help.
Re:Firefox 4 Beta 1 Released
by chadgeidel on Wednesday July 07, 2010 @12:45PM
(#1494647)
I never browsed full-screen because it's too "wide" but with Windows 7's new "snap" feature (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/feature...), I can now have 2 browsers comfortably side by side. Helpful tip - it won't "snap" to the inside edge of a multi-monitor setup using the mouse, but Win+<arrow key> works (that's the keyboard shortcut for "snap").
I realize that this feature has been in tiling window managers for quite some time, it's just nice to have it in Windows now.
Re:Firefox 4 Beta 1 Released
by chadgeidel on Wednesday July 07, 2010 @12:38PM
(#1494633)
I agree, and was elated to see them in Safari 4 betas. Unfortunately everyone hated them. I've searched for a way to put them back on top, but I have not found anything.
IMHO, there's a little too much "free space" on the top of Chrome's tabs, and Safari got it just right.
Re:Firefox 4 Beta 1 Released
by someone_here on Wednesday July 07, 2010 @08:38AM
(#1493974)
Frankly, I prefer them on the side: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5890/
On top of the address bar isn't the point. It's a nice touch that emphasizes the metaphor for "real" tabs, like on a paper folder, but it doesn't have the huge usability bonus of Chrome's implementation.
The important thing is that in Chrome, the tabs are on the very top pixel of the screen (in Windows or a Linux UI with no top bar). Since I browse with a hand on the mouse, this means that I can switch between tabs by chucking the pointer at the top of the screen and scrubbing left and right, instead of having to pay attention to vertical alignment.
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html