User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0b7pre) Gecko/20100916 Firefox/4.0b7pre Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0b7pre) Gecko/20100916 Firefox/4.0b7pre Firefox should open "Options" in a new tab rather than a new window, as about:options A la the new add-ons manager. For this to work, the options also must change in real-time, rather than having to press "OK" for the changes to be made. Reproducible: Always

is this planned for firefox 5 ?

Bringing config / control of an application like the matter handled by the application is *a bad idea*, a fad à la Google Chrome. It has security implications. For the basic user, clicking stuff in a tab is playing with a page, so it is pretty safe, it is not changing the settings of the browser itself. Contrary to acting in a real window / dialog of the application. Actually, when I open some preferences, like the add-ons manager, I expect it to come as a front window / dialog, I hate when it opens a new tab mixed with the navigation tabs. It controls the behaviour of the whole browser, so I expect a window or a dialog, like the preferences window. Furthermore, this preferences dialog must have at most one existence. As a tab, what if I leave it and later, when I'm in another window, I request it ? It opens as a second occurrence ? Awkward. Or Firefox brings the old window ? And if its some-stuff-manager tab was in the background, it puts it to the foreground ? And then, when I close it, I land not only in a different tab than I was before, but even in a different window. Bad, disturbing user experience. Furthermore, there are a bunch of annoying scenarios in Firefox tab behaviour where closing a tab does not bring you in the tab you were in just before. Same goes for the Downloads manager. As this too : I have many windows with many tabs. I want the Downloads window. I go, on Mac, to the Windows menu - called Fenêtres in French, so not so much a paradox ;-) - and I choose Downloads. I get the Downloads window. I leave it open and I go navigating in my windows and tabs... Later, I want it again, I find it easily in the list of windows. If it is a tab deeply sunken somewhere, how do I find it ? And if the menu finds it for me and puts it in front of me, that brings the disturbances previously mentioned. Config / control stuff is not navigation, this should not interfere with the user's navigation flow. Real time applying can be interesting, but usually I prefer a dialog with OK and Cancel buttons. So I can freely look for stuff in the prefs and playing with them to enable some sub-parts..., and then click on Cancel, thus to leaving the settings intact.