OT- Getting Firefox GMail Old Compose (for a while) - Re: Why some say "rpm hell"

[Fernando Cassia]

On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Fulko Hew <fulko.hew(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  Can you post some instructions ? (for getting GMail usable again
> after
>  "New Compose")
>  
Get UAControl from here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/uacontrol/

Once installed, Go to Tools->UAControl Options
Click "add new site", type as site mail.google.com
and as user-agent:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0)

That will give you Old Compose

Explanation:
The Mail.google.com coders couldn't get the "New Compose" to work on IE8,
so if Google detects you're using IE8 on GMail, it gives you the "Old
Compose".

UAControl fakes the user agent ONLY for the domains you specify (in this
case, mail.google.com).

It will, of course, only work for as long as google keeps supporting IE8
for GMail, which likely won't be for very long, as they tend to follow
Microsoft in their planned obsolescence cycles. :-(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

...but in the meantime it's a good stopgap solution.

The real solution will be for Google to permanently enable old compose as
an option for those of us who prefer it.
There's a petition here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/128/981/668/google-gmail-please-go-back-to...

Sadly only 700 signatures so far...

If History is any indication, Google engineers in their Ivory Towers don't
give a rat's *ss about what we think... they think they know better...

Oh, and you asked about the other part of the solution, it's the Firefox
Stylish extension, grab it from here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stylish/

It lets you use any of the user developed styles on userstyles.org,
including these for GMail:
http://userstyles.org/styles/browse?search_terms=gmail

My personal preference (which some surely might find odd but it suits my
work style and my eyes are pleased with it) is the black background, green
text "terminal" theme (that used to be great as developed by Google, until
they turned it fugly with white-on-black text, and white background on
compose),
http://userstyles.org/styles/71798/gmail-terminal-all-black-background

It looks like this: :)
pic.twitter.com/PXMbZ8hU9A <http://t.co/PXMbZ8hU9A>

Hope this helps you, and some other Fedora users...

FC

-- 
During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
act
Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un Acto
Revolucionario
- George Orwell

[Fulko Hew]

On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Fernando Cassia <fcassia(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Fulko Hew <fulko.hew(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>
> > Can you post some instructions ? (for getting GMail usable again after
> > "New Compose")
> >  
>  
... snip ...


>  That will give you Old Compose
>  
THANK YOU!
This has: saved my sanity, fixed my carpel tunnel, and given me back at
least 5 minutes of each day
that I was recently wasting on the extra mouse clicks and movements that
were now needed to accomplish
the simplest of tasks.

... snip ...

...but in the meantime it's a good stopgap solution.
>  
I'll take any form of relief from that new UI, even if its only for a few
days.
When the first introduced it, I tried it for a few minutes only to conclude
how
user un-friendly it was. So I immediately turned it off.  Unfortunately
when they
turned it on permanently a few months ago, my productivity dropped, and
I was ... extremely frustrated.


> The real solution will be for Google to permanently enable old compose as
> an option for those of us who prefer it.
> There's a petition here:
>  
>
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/128/981/668/google-gmail-please-go-back-to...
>  
> Sadly only 700 signatures so far...
>  
I had already signed it back in August (# 413)
But like you said, Google won't listen, and we'll probably never get a
usable UI back.

[EGO-II.1]

On 11/23/2013 09:13 AM, Fernando Cassia wrote:
>  On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Fulko Hew <fulko.hew(a)gmail.com 
>  <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
>
>      Can you post some instructions ? (for getting GMail usable again
>      after "New Compose")
>
>
>  Get UAControl from here:
>  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/uacontrol/
>
>  Once installed, Go to Tools->UAControl Options
>  Click "add new site", type as site mail.google.com 
>  <http://mail.google.com>
>  and as user-agent:
>  Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0)
>
>  That will give you Old Compose
>
>  Explanation:
>  The Mail.google.com <http://Mail.google.com> coders couldn't get the 
>  "New Compose" to work on IE8, so if Google detects you're using IE8 on 
>  GMail, it gives you the "Old Compose".
>
>  UAControl fakes the user agent ONLY for the domains you specify (in 
>  this case, mail.google.com <http://mail.google.com>).
>
>  It will, of course, only work for as long as google keeps supporting 
>  IE8 for GMail, which likely won't be for very long, as they tend to 
>  follow Microsoft in their planned obsolescence cycles. :-(
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
>
>  ...but in the meantime it's a good stopgap solution.
>
>  The real solution will be for Google to permanently enable old compose 
>  as an option for those of us who prefer it.
>  There's a petition here:
>
> http://www.thepetitionsite.com/128/981/668/google-gmail-please-go-back-to...
>
>  Sadly only 700 signatures so far...
>
>  If History is any indication, Google engineers in their Ivory Towers 
>  don't give a rat's *ss about what we think... they think they know 
>  better...
>
>  Oh, and you asked about the other part of the solution, it's the 
>  Firefox Stylish extension, grab it from here:
>  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stylish/
>
>  It lets you use any of the user developed styles on userstyles.org 
>  <http://userstyles.org>;, including these for GMail:
>  http://userstyles.org/styles/browse?search_terms=gmail
>
>  My personal preference (which some surely might find odd but it suits 
>  my work style and my eyes are pleased with it) is the black 
>  background, green text "terminal" theme (that used to be great as 
>  developed by Google, until they turned it fugly with white-on-black 
>  text, and white background on compose),
>  http://userstyles.org/styles/71798/gmail-terminal-all-black-background
>
>  It looks like this: :)
>  pic.twitter.com/PXMbZ8hU9A <http://t.co/PXMbZ8hU9A>
>
>  Hope this helps you, and some other Fedora users...
>
>  FC
>
>  -- 
>  During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a 
>  revolutionary act
>  Durante épocas de Engaño Universal, decir la verdad se convierte en un 
>  Acto Revolucionario
>  - George Orwell
>
>  
Wow!....some of those look great! And while I tend to stick to my tried 
& true Thunderbird for emailing.....my younger brother is the "web mail 
King"!...he's gonna love this info! thanks so much!!


EGO II