What the hell were Mozilla thinking? I've always preferred Firefox as my browser. I loved its user interface, its flexibility, its general user-friendliness.
I was originally a Mozilla girl (yes, there was a browser suite called Mozilla, before they split it up into Firefox and Thunderbird). And the move to Firefox was painless. In fact, it was pleasant, after we'd moved over to Windoze XP and the browser on that OS didn't crash every time I typed into a text box (up until then, I still had to use Mozilla).
But 29? WTH? It's like a different browser! It sucks! Even the workaround for replacing tabs in their original place (duh, Mozilla, they go at the bottom!) was removed and now needs an addon. The addon bar has been done away with, again, needing another addon to be installed. The Home button can't be moved back to between the forward button and the URL box. Why?? The back and forward buttons and the URL box are separate entities, or at least they used to be up to v28.
Even with the addons to try to restore the look and feel of my old Firefox 28, it still looks and feels lame.
Man, seriously, I thought removing the status bar back in version [insert version number here] was bad, but this is just ridiculous.
You know what, it's like Mozilla's mission statement for this version was: Alienate as many users as possible! Or: Firefox -- You don't need Chrome -- you have us! Or something equally lame. I don't WANT to use Chrome. In fact, my attempt to switch to Opera fell flat on its face because I don't want to use another Chrome! (I would make an exception for Chromium, if I ever get round to acquiring a Linux box.)
If there was a viable alternative I would so switch. In the meantime I'm stuck using FF29 and muttering under my breath. (See below)
Firefox 29 sucks! And these people will tell you why better than I can:
Another thing, FF has been screwing up the last week (before v29). DeviantArt comments won't load, and neither will iPlayer Radio. I'm having to use IE (yes, I know) to view those pages properly. Even in safe mode. I shall probably have to reset Firefox and be forced to look at that ugly UI while I go about reinstalling all my plugins :'(
Update: A comment in fungotech's post above references a browser called Pale Moon. Aaaaand:
One of the most important changes in Pale Moon has been to retain the status bar in the browser, after the (already optional) element was completely removed in the development stages of Firefox 4, and complete removal of that area of the browser for add-ons (the add-on bar) in Australis...
...This is why the default in Pale Moon is to have tabs not on top, as it's more logical to have them next to the content. Australis completely removes the option to have the user interface laid out in this way, and forces everyone to use tabs on top, regardless of their use.
-- PaleMoon.org
You've sold me! I'm downloading it now.
Fake edit:
So long, Firefox. It's been a real pleasure knowing you. Farewell.