Mozilla Loses Another Lead Personality: Alex Faaborg

By Douglas Perry
published

Alex Faaborg, a principal designer of the Firefox UI, announced that he is leaving Mozilla.

Faaborg joined the browser maker in 2006 and was a lead designer of the Firefox location bar and the most recent interface change of the browser. He also led the effort on the Sync interface of the addition of the home tab to the browser.

Faaborg's departure follows vice president Mike Shaver, who left Mozilla to join Facebook. Firefox director Mike Beltzner resigned shortly after the release of Firefox 4 for a new position at DownUnder GeoSolutions. Faaborg said that he will do "design work" in an entirely different space, but did not reveal where that will be.

Faaborg is the third key personality to leave Mozilla in less than a year and, while there is still a core team of highly visible people in place, it appears that Mozilla might be changing - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, given the challenges ahead and the need for Mozilla to evolve.

Douglas Perry
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cookoy
    The FF UI is following chrome's minimalist design. He must be pretty bored and decided to use his design talents elsewhere.
    Reply
  • Goldengoose
    cookoyThe FF UI is following chrome's minimalist design. He must be pretty bored and decided to use his design talents elsewhere.
    They will design it how people want it - if people want minimalist design then thats what they get. If they start changing it in a way people don't like, people will find a browser that fits their needs better.

    Pretty simple stuff mate, showing your idiocy on the internet isn't funny or 'cool'.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    They're not leaving because Mozilla sucks. They're leaving because they're now famous and experienced enough to work in a larger, more profitable company (FB?). Makes sense!

    GoldengooseThey will design it how people want it - if people want minimalist design then thats what they get. If they start changing it in a way people don't like, people will find a browser that fits their needs better.Pretty simple stuff mate, showing your idiocy on the internet isn't funny or 'cool'.
    NOBODY "wanted" the dumbed down new FF design. At least we don't have to switch from it, we can revert to normal look.
    Reply
  • gti88
    Chrome "minimalist" design means that user have to spend more time to get access to different settings and functions. I've got FF 7.0.1, but it looks and works exactly like 3.6. "Add-on compatibility reporter" helps a lot.
    Reply
  • Goldengoose
    amk-aka-phantomNOBODY "wanted" the dumbed down new FF design. At least we don't have to switch from it, we can revert to normal look.
    I'm sure Mozilla will have done a lot more research into what people want from their browser then your 5 minutes of reflective time. What you don't understand is the majority of users aren't power users - from the way current browser trends are going the average user wants security, speed and a clean finish (minimalist). This want will be completely different to what the majority of tomshardware users would want from a browser.
    Reply
  • billybobser
    looked nice in screen shots, crap to use, reverted to old style.
    Reply
  • Goldengoose
    amk-aka-phantomOh no, not another "not all users are power users" troll. GTFO right now.
    Wow you really don't like criticism.

    You'd have to agree, not all users ARE power users, so why would you dislike it so much? It's a perfectly legitimate observation...
    Reply
  • bin1127
    not surprising. Faaborg actually means 'Facebook' in dutch.
    Reply
  • belardo
    Who cares... FF maybe stable once version 21 comes out next week!

    I can't wait! Anyone else pissing in their pants?
    Reply
  • dickcheney
    Please fire Asa Dotzler ASAP!
    Reply