Yo, man! Chill out!

In order to view the menu bar, simply press Alt. Once that is done, you have it temporarily. Now all you need to do is go to View > Toolbars and check Menu bar.

And the tab strip is this:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/gallery/image/9469 (the one below the address bar)

Tab strip is the area inside the green, but you can't click on any of the tabs or any of the existing buttons, which in my case leaves only the pink areas.

Tobbi and Grad:

Thanks to both of you for your prompt replies.

To Tobbi, I'm amazed that someone would remove the Menu Bar as the default. That is the most basic, easiest to use option. What is the logic, if any, to removing the Menu Bar by default?

Next, using the ALT key to temporarily display the Menu Bar is hardly my idea of an intuitive approach. Why not start with the Menu Bar and then give users an option for another view if they so desire? It doesn't make any sense to me.

To Grad, thanks again for your response but this is another example of people writing help files using geek terminology which many non-geeks do NOT understand.

Menu bar is switched off by default, because everything that it contains is also found in the orange [Firefox] button, while the button saves you 44 pixels on your screen.

Also, Tobbi mentioned ALT only as a one-time solution so that you could go into View and switch the Menu bar on. Which can also be done by right-clicking next to an open tab and clicking on the 'Menu bar'.

Grad, I would gladly exchanges 44 pixels for a Menu Bar that is easy to see and read. The current setup requires that one knows they can find their Menu Bar by clicking on the orange FireFox button. And I would bet millions of people, including me and my friend, did NOT know that. In addition, that requires 2 clicks of the mouse instead of one. In light of the above, I think removing the Menu Bar was an example of horrible programming.

And yes I realize Tobbi gave us a one time option using ALT . But that's yet another example of why removing the Menu Bar as the default is such a stupid idea.

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it.

I'm guessing they chose to turn it off by default based on the usage statistics they're getting from people around the world.

I find the new Firefox button to be ergonomic and really intuitive, and so do my friends. Honestly, I've never heard any of them complain about this new feature, so you're simply exaggerating with this "millions of people" statement of yours. Also, the button requires the same amount of clicks as the menu bar does.

By the way, I'm not sure which version of windows you're using, but the Firefox button has been on by default for Vista and Win7 ever since... Firefox 4 (2 years ago)? Naturally, it stayed the same for Win8.

~~ And just so we're clear, did you also write to Microsoft to complain about them removing Start menu from Windows 8, which your friend is now using? That I would actually agree with.

Grad, you made some good points but we still disagree. I'll acknowledge that maybe millions was a slight exaggeration but nobody has an accurate count. However, I do understand the difference between making something simple and obvious versus a programmer trying to prove how clever he or she is.

Grad, I'm guessing you and your friends are much younger than us as we are well above the age of 50.

As for the number of clicks, I'm confused by your comment. My Menu Bar is always visible so I have to merely click once on Bookmarks to get to those menu options. It sounds as if you have to initially click on the orange FireFox button in order to see the Menu Bar, and then click a 2nd time on Bookmarks. That sounds like 2 clicks of the mouse to me.

I have Windows 7 and never saw Windows 8 so I can't comment on your excellent question. I personally had the Menu Bar displaying 100% of the time for as long as I could remember. I just couldn't remember how I initially turned it on several years ago and the help file proved to be more confusing than helpful.

Actually, you only need to click the Firefox button, then move your mouse over to [Bookmarks] and hover the mouse over it for 1sec, or move the mouse a bit to the right, over the arrow button [>], and the bookmarks will show up immediately.

Still, that's not what I do - I use the bookmark bar for my favorite bookmarks, and on the right side of the bar is an easily accessible [Bookmark] menu. Also, by clicking Crtl+B I can turn on a bookmark sidebar, which actually lessens the 'clicks' for later. It's especially useful for widescreen monitors.

I think we covered everything. However, I did want to emphasize that maybe in your generation, clicking on the orange Firefox button to see the Menu Bar is intuitive. However, in the older generation, it is something we would never think of. In light of that, I still believe this is an example stupid programming.

A Menu Bar should be the default . If a user wants the orange Firefox button instead of the Menu Bar, that should be an option. Firefox programmers have it backwards.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this issue with me.