Firefox 157 and the interface I dont want

Firefox 157 arrived a few days ago, and with it came Nova.

I actually tried Nova quite a while ago, when it was still being tested in Firefox Nightly. I was curious. Maybe I would get used to it. Maybe there would be something in it that I would end up liking.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of empty space. Mozilla calls it Compact Mode, but honestly, when I compare it with the Firefox interfaces I remember from before, it doesn’t feel particularly compact to me.

And then there are the gradients.

So I kind of don’t like it much.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just getting old.

I don’t really like my browser trying to be extra colourful.

I like the browser to sit quietly around the webpage. Almost disappear. The webpage is the thing I came here to see, not the browser itself.

Nova feels more present.

More rounded, more colourful, more noticeable. Like a neon billboard.

And I don’t really want that.

But there is one thing I absolutely love about Firefox 157.

You can turn Nova off.

For now, at least.

There is an about:config preference called browser.nova.enabled. Set it to false and suddenly I’m back in the interface I actually like.

And there it is.

My Firefox.

No gradients. No extra visual noise. No attempt to make the browser itself the centre of attention.

Just a browser.

I’ve always liked Firefox partly because I could make it feel like my browser. I could change things, remove things, keep things simple. I don’t need every new design to be more expressive, more colourful or more modern.

Sometimes I just want less.

So for now, browser.nova.enabled = false is staying here.

The slightly worrying part is that I don’t know how long that will work. I’ve already seen discussions suggesting that this preference is only temporary.

And if that day comes…

I might have a problem.