[Ayatana] Arguments for and against top-placement of tabs in Firefox

[David Siegel <david.siegel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In response to a brooding religious war among contributors over tab positions in Firefox, Firefox designer Alex Faaborg posts arguments supporting and challenging the decision to place Firefox tabs on top by default:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmgtW2Iw-kE

Contributors who are active in the Mozilla community will know that this debate literally goes back for years. So in some respects this video will serve as quick summary of all of the different arguments both for an against the change. But the more interesting part isn't about looking back, it's about looking forward. Recently modern browsers have been transitioning to placing tops on top, and that decision isn't arbitrary, it isn't about fashion. The change to placing tabs on top isn't about one browser versus another browser, it's about the evolution of the Web as a platform.

It would behoove us to justify contentious design decisions in a similar fashion.

David