HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
black7375
Firefox-UI-Fix
SCSS2021–2026
black7375 / Firefox-UI-Fix

Firefox-UI-Fix

🦊 I respect proton UI and aim to improve it.

42Distinct people
64Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
5.9KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

🦊 I respect proton UI and aim to improve it.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year64 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2021-06-01 14:05:41 UTC to 2026-09-29 13:52:59 UTC.

051015202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 21 mentions; 2 submissions, 19 comments20212022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 12 mentions; 3 submissions, 9 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 1 submissions, 6 comments20232024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 15 mentions; 4 submissions, 11 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 0 submissions, 6 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC21219
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC1239
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC716
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC15411
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC606
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
Lepton (old name: Proton Fix) Table of Contents Lepton (old name: Proton Fix) Introduction Installation Guide WHY Proton? WHY Not Proton? Padding Comparisons Sponsors & Contributors Bug / Questions? FAQ 🔔🔔 Does the theme not work after installation? You should copy user.js file before the theme works. The option system depends on user configuration, and nothing applies without settings. Also, real-time changes are difficult because of technical limitations and require a restart. Some settings can be conflicted and should be explicitly set to false. 🔔🔔 Is your Firefox version v102 or lower? You have to set userChrome.compatibility.accent_color to true additionally. Introduction Proton is Firefox's new design, starting from Firefox 89. Photon is the old design of Firefox which was used until version 88. Proton's overall feel is good, but there were a few things I didn't like and wanted to improve. That's why this project was born, and Lepton to denote light theme layer. Disclaimer: It works on Firefox 89 and above!! Wiki Installation Guide Screenshots Tutorial Options Compatibility Issues Solution Tips Show Off Your Config (Lepton's design ⬆️) Feature List (Click) Color Default light/dark theme contrast enhancement Colorful context menu More dark mode support Windows/Mac/Linux system theme support Windows 7 compatibility Icons Panel Context Menu Global Menu Library's open context Video Player Padding Narrower Tab Panel Menu Density Others… Tab Bar Layouts Tabs on Bottom One Liner Vertical Tab Support Tab Design General: Connect with toolbar (buttons like tabs) Selected: Box Shadow: Highlight the selected tab Bottom Rounding: Natural MultiSelected Adjust Color: Easily recognizable Unselect: Divide Line: React to hover like chrome Unloaded: Dimmed: Looks like inactive Clipped: Clearer Text: Adjusted clipped gradation Closed Button: Visible on hover Sound: Remove Second Label Show Favicon: Always show favicon PIP Icon Container Tab: Highlight line position: Displayed under tab Button Design New tab: Looks like tab Activity Stream Design Search Bar: Focused Shadow: Same as the accent color Hand off to Awesomebar Icons: Size: Fill (Changes dynamically to your size) Error Page Design Illustrations: Restore error page illustrations Video Player Background Style Size at fullscreen Fullscreen Overlap mode Others Animations Hidden & Auto Hide Activate calculator at address bar Mouse pointer for each context Installation Guide Installation script (experimental) Linux/Mac users: bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/master/install.sh)" Windows users: Run with powershell (Does not work at Win7?) Powershell -c "Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/master/install.ps1 -useb | iex" Manual Installation You can see the installation guide with screenshots on the wiki. Download files Click the green ":arrow_down: Code" button above Select ":package: Download ZIP" Find your profile directory Open about:support in a new tab Find the Profile Directory(Linux) / Profile Folder(Windows) entry Click the Open Directory(Linux) / Open Folder(Windows) button Copy downloaded files Extract the downloaded zip file Copy the user.js file to the previously opened profile directory Create a new directory inside your profile directory called chrome Copy the remaining files from the extracted zip-file into previously created the chrome directory Restart Firefox Click the Clear startup cache… at the top of about:support If you prefer Photon, see Lepton's photon-style. If you prefer Proton, see Lepton's proton-style. WHY Proton? I think a lot has improved. (Proton's design ⬆️) Neatly organized menu Icon beautiful enough to remind you of Edge Nice color scheme Satisfied Rounding Modal window & Scrollbar!! WHY Not Proton? However, there are also many flaws. (Photon's design ⬆️) Is it a tab or a button? Where are the menu icons? Icons in ActivityStream are too small Padding gaps are wide ⚠️ Address bar 3-point menu, screenshot moves to toolbar (can't fix) Padding Comparisons Photon (Quantum) Proton Lepton Sponsors & Contributors Thanks to all sponsors & contributors to this project for providing help and developing features! Sponsors A donation was received on Ko-Fi Safira duncanyoyo1 Minithra Kevin Ernst Private sponsors: 5 Contributors A list of all contributors can be found in CREDITS. Bug / Questions? If you found a bug, please contact issue. If you have any questions or inquiries, please contact discussions. FAQ Black pixels around the selected tab bottom corners Please follow the Installation Guide, or set about:config's svg.context-properties.content.enabled to true . The closed button and some panel menu icons are not visible. Please follow the Installation Guide, or copy the icons directory to chrome . Less icons in the panel with photon-style I didn't put all the icons like before.
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

64 sources
Lepton (https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix) to the rescue. I really hope they, or someone else, will allow us to tweak the interface and come back to what we need on our productivity oriented devices, aka computers. I've been using Vivaldi lately. It's nice but I miss some shortcuts from firefox, and it's still Google Behind. I feel betrayed by Firefox and depressed about the internet to come a little bit more every day.
In Firefox Nova – our first look at the browser's big redesign
> Apart from the UI which is crap since their last major update But when they updated the UI, they - Added options to use to make it very close to the old layout - Set those options for you if you had it customized like that in the previous version Which is IMHO much better than how Mozilla handled the redesign - you can get the old style in a GitHub repo thanklessly maintained by one person[0], enable userchrome support in about:config (until they decide to take it away one day!), and enable compact mode (also gated behind about:config and called "Compact (not supported)". Oh, and remember to update the userchrome every few updates because they keep breaking it. That's the difference between user-centric and not user-centric. [0]: https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix
In Firefox 148 Launches with AI Kill Switch Feature and More Enhancements
If the Google, Pocket and other ad money dries up, Mozilla the company may go away but the Firefox browser itself will continue on because it's open source. As an exclusively Firefox user for over 20 years, I suspect if Mozilla the company dies, it will won't negatively impact Firefox much, at least in any meaningful way. In fact, the browser may be somewhat better off managed like the Blender or MAME projects. In the last five years or so Firefox has increasingly introduced controversial changes that make it (IMHO) less good, primarily around interface design. And, from what I understand, Mozilla employs full-time UX designers who've been driving much of that. Of course, with Firefox it's still possible to modify, fix and restore all these recent interface "improvements" with user CSS but it's a constant annoyance to need to keep fixing
Read the rest
it. Fortunately, there's an active community effort around restoring the Firefox interface and usability, exemplified by the brilliant Lepton project https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/releases. My perception just watching the evolution of Firefox from the outside, is that it used to be a browser that celebrated the ethos of "Have it Your Way." However, Mozilla the company gets money to pay its executives and employees (millions in the case of more than one recent CEO) by actively driving users and eyeballs for Google, Pocket and other advertisers. So the company is highly incentivized to try myriad changes and redesigns to increase appeal to "the masses" of browser users. Thus, the UX keeps getting 'simplified' and 'de-cluttered' with advanced functionality 'de-prioritized' and add-on support demoted to second-class afterthought - instead of the shining key feature advanced users value most. Basically, in recent years the Firefox UX and end-user features have been pushed by the substantial payroll needs of the Mozilla company to become more like Chrome and Safari instead of embracing its unique position as a tool for power users who value advanced features, customization and extension. And it was all for naught because Firefox has continued to lose market share while ignoring (and even actively alienating) its niche community of fanatically devoted power users.
In uBlock Origin is no longer available on the Chrome Store
For anyone interested in what features there are (I should really have this on an article on the website, but also... how do you market all this? I went for a 'generic' landing page as I assume the average person cares little) Please note some features became available in Firefox after we added them, not related I believe it was just coincidental. A high level overview of what Waterfox offers vs Firefox: * DNS over Oblivious HTTP to encrypt and anonymise DNS requests. Currently the only browser on the market to do so by default I believe? Just a note that we've partnered with Fastly for this and they control the "relay" node in the middle, for proper privacy sanitisation. More info: https://blog.cloudflare.com/oblivious-dns/ * In-depth configuration of numerous preferences within the Firefox codebase, striking a balance between privacy an
Read the rest
d web usability. * Full support for JPEG-XL (including for animation, alpha, progressive decode, and colour profiles). * Vertical tabs and sidebar support: https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox-x-treestyletab/ * In-depth UI customisations. Currently working with black7375, on Lepton for customisations specific to Waterfox. You can view all the UI changes not available in Firefox but available in Waterfox at https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/wiki/Options. * "Classic" about:config available at about:cfg and "classic" password list at about:passwords * Removal of all telemetry within the browser. * Removal of all A/B testing within the browser. * Removal of all unnecessary external connections (Google, Mozilla, Meta, etc.) where feasible. Quality of life changes: * Ability to disable auto-updates (not available in other forks) * Integration with Ubuntu's Unity menu on Linux * Ability to "restart" the browser in one click * Ability to right-click "unload" tabs not in use * Ability to "copy" tab URLs * Ability to enable an old-school status bar—allows you to pin functions and addons to the bottom of the browser UI. * Ability to disable Ctrl+W (or cmd+W) with a preference. * Ability to play DRM content such as Netflix, Disney+, etc., not available in any other open source forks. * Private Tabs (you don't need to open a new private window if you don't want; you can instead open a private tab). * Ability to have tabs above address bar, below address bar, or at the bottom of the browser UI. * Extensive changes to the about:preferences page, allowing changing of browser settings usually hidden. * Technical support for Chrome and Opera extensions (this needs work!) * Usage of a more privacy-centric search engine when in Private Window mode. There's a bunch more, but still need to collate them more. Oh and also no AI bullshit that siphons your data off to 3rd party providers. Doesn't mean I'm completely against it, but it has to be local only and performant IF it were to ever make its way to Waterfox.
In Waterfox: Fast and Private Web Browser
That's almost exactly describing Librewolf, though it adds a ton of privacy 'hardening' features out-of-the-box, which can be a positive or negative depending on who you ask. I personally use Librewolf with the Lepton (Photon style) UI[0], which replicates the previous UI style Firefox used a couple years ago, with small square tabs and condensed menus, before the current pseudo-tabletified abomination. Of course, if you like the current UI—you'd literally be the first person I've met to like it—you can just use librewolf stock and it doesn't apply any changes to the standard Firefix UI. [0] https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix
In Introducing a terms of use and updated privacy notice for Firefox
I thought I would miss the search box when it disappeared but actually the "awesome bar" is pretty awesome : You can disable search suggestions and it will only search your keywords in history/bookmarks/opened tabs and then you just tab into the list, else if there's nothing of interest in the list you can always press enter and it will launch a search in your default search engine. All that power accessible with just Ctrl + L, Tab and Enter. You can also launch @search_engine $keyword directly in the bar, search bookmark/history/tabs directly with */^/% symbols. You can't disable search suggestions on Chrome (I wonder why...) This is the main reason I am still on Firefox despite the weird UI design choices... which can easily be fixed with that script : https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix
In What We're Working on in Firefox
Yes! FF PMs and designers seem to HATE user customization, add-ons and power user capabilities yet those are the main reasons I came to FF and why I still use it. While FF is still the best browser for me (barely), it's only achieved this by all the alternatives enshittifying and dumb-ifying their browsers even faster than FF. As it is I have to spend significant effort under the hood customizing UserChrome scripts just to maintain minimal usability. (...and thank the heavens for Lepton (https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix), a regularly maintained, well-curated, all-in-one collection of essential Firefox fixes (which can each be turned off individually via flags.)
In What We're Working on in Firefox

Showing the 15 most recent of 64 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.