Please don't show a tab when there's only one in Firefox

[shanen (Shannon Jacobs)]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Actually several of those existing bug reports are probably the same, but at this point I don't care enough about Firefox to worry about it. I'm only writing this because the new bugs are just SO upsetting and they AGAIN clearly show the need for some competent regression testing over there. My real attitude is that I'm just waiting for a better alternative--but maybe I'll be forced back to Microsoft's garbage.

#1 problem: Now Firefox crashes and closes all of its windows at random intervals. The restore when restarted usually works pretty well.

#2 problem: Tabs visible even when there is only one tab. Annoying waste of screen space--but it used to be an actual advantage for the Ubuntu/Linux version of Firefox over Windows.

#3 problem: Probably the broken webpages, but there are so many problems now that I can't really say.

Suggested REAL solution. A better economic model that insures adequate regression testing. Whatever you have now, it is NOT working well. I don't really care what you do anymore, but here is one suggestion:

http://eco-epistemology.blogspot.com/2009/11/economics-of-small-donors-reverse.html

At this point Ubuntu is so bad that I am only using it on inertia (and on the two main machines I'm basically forced to use the old less flaky versions, though I am running the newest version on three other machines for experimental purposes--that continually fail). I hope some viable alternative will appear, but I have no more enthusiasm for Ubuntu. I knew quite a number of Ubuntu enthusiasts, but as far as I know, the best case is that some of them are still trying to defend it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: firefox 3.6.7+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-19-generic i686

[shanen (Shannon Jacobs) (shanen)]

Upon reflection, I think that #3 should be the utter mangling of the "form and search history" data. It USED to be a useful feature in Firefox.

[shanen (Shannon Jacobs) (shanen)]

Oh yes. Apologies for the profanity. I tried to keep it calm, but one word slipped through. Not really a defense of my transgression, but if I wasn't so annoyed, I wouldn't have wasted the time in the first place. Overall, I'm just venting my frustration at the failure of Ubuntu, which long ago did seem to be a very good thing. Perhaps it should be compared with the widespread disillusionment with President Obama?

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. We needed to upgrade since Firefox 3.0 had reached end of life and it was not feasible to Backport security patches. There was some regression testing. In fact, we requested help from the community to test, but with the number of updates, we could not have anticipated every contingency.
Let's address your issues:
1. There were some reports of crashes in Firefox 3.6.7 which prompted Mozilla to quickly release Firefox 3.6.8. This should be released to Ubuntu on Monday. If you'd like to get it sooner, you can try it from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ppa . If this doesn't stop your crashes, please file another bug report and we'll try to figure out what is crashing.
2. I'm sorry that the tabs show up even if there is one. This was already introduced in Firefox 3.5. I believe that there is a request already for this and I will use this bug as your request for this feature. I'm not sure as this qualifies as a regression, but rather an unexpected feature change.
3. Please file a separate bug report for each page that's broken unless they are showing the same symptoms in which case, just list them all as examples in a single bug.
In general, it's best to file one bug per issue.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Actually, this was made an selectable option. Please go to Edit -> Preferences. On the Tabs tab, there's an option for Always show the tab bar. Uncheck that and the tab bar will disappear when there's only one tab. Please follow up with separate bugs for your other issues. Please don't hesitate to report any other issues you may find,