Firefox 9 is going to bring a change to the new Don’t load tabs until selected feature which was introduced in Firefox 8. In Firefox 8, when Don’t load tabs until selected option is checked, ALL tabs (normal and pinned/app) don’t load until selected. However, in Firefox 9.0 (release date December 20th, 2011) only regular tabs will not be loaded until selected, pinned/app tabs will load on start-up and prior to the last viewed tab.
There was talk in Bug 674452 of adding a Always restore pinned tabs sub-option (checked by default) under the Don’t load tabs until selected option, but that was shot down. The main reason I use app tabs is they take up about 85% less space than a normal tab. This change should prove to be rather interesting and confusing for users when Firefox 9.0 is released.
When is Firefox going to stop loading a blank new tab page along with my app tab when it launches? I have to close out of the new tab to read my app tab page when I open the browser. I’m on version 8 and still no option or add-on to do this.
or the default ‘Home Page’ one of those things that is on my ‘to-do’ list to find a tweak for.
Is there a way to unload and load tabs with FF 8? Like when BarTab used to work.
There’s the UnloadTab addon. Just set the time setting to -1 and then you can manually unload tabs (selected tab or all the other tabs) by right-clicking on them.
Ok – At least it’s not a bug. I was looking for the answer, and I found it, but I don’t like it. I have 7 pinned tabs that I use on a daily basis (I’m a web developer and a blogger). I was pleased when they would only load when selected, as in FF 8. I am NOT pleased with the change. More tabs loading means more memory being hogged. I would definitely have used the “Don’t load tabs until selected” option. Wonder why the idea was shot-down? It seems to me then you have the best of both worlds.
Well, it’s not a bug, nor is it a feature. I got soooo used to tabs loading only when selected, regardless whether it was a normal or a pinned tab. So I’d like to get at least a suboption “Load app tabs” which can be unchecked.
i was looking in about:config for a way to stop this from happening, but no such luck. Now i see it’s virtually impossible. Bummer. This sucks. It (almost) renders dont-load-till-selected feature useless, and so soon after it was introduced….
What does this option mean by “selected”? I don’t understand how this feature works.
I am on Firefox 16 beta. Was this feature abandoned meanwhile?
Is there any extension I could use instead?
I am leaving this comment over a year since the last one because I am having the same problem. Infinitely frustrating that they force pinned tabs to load and that the user has no say in the matter. BUT, maybe since this discussion was going in full force a solution has been found that I am not yet aware of?