Should UM have its own start page?

Thoughts & Feedback
#21

I really like the idea about Ubuntu MATE having it’s own start page. I like the early look from @lah7 but I would like to have one in darker colour, maybe a option to switch between light and dark one in a corner. Something similar to Dark or Terminal option in DuckDuckGo.

While I would love to use DuckDckGo as my search engine, it didn’t do good enough job of searching in Slovenian the last time I try it a while back, while in English it was ok. Might give it another try soon to see if they improved already.

I have been using Startpage for last few years, it’s the first thing I change when installing new OS version/Firefox and I think it’s easier to find stuff you need with it then in google as it doesn’t follow their way of searching. I find 90-95% of everything I search for this days in both Slovenian and English. The only thing that it’s not easy to find and pirated stuff, which I don’t use much any more.

So I would really like to chose which search engine I want from the Start Page itself.

#22

Thanks for the tip! That’s helpful. :thumbsup:

Good idea, thanks! :sunny:

We could add more search engines, but for now to start with, I say we focus on Google and DuckDuckGo, then later add more search engines and add support other browsers like Chrome/Chromium.

Also bear in mind the more stuff on this page, the more bytes (bandwidth) it would cost Ubuntu MATE, (although that might not be an issue @Wimpy?) … Currently the page altogether is 43.4 kB… meaning 1000 unique requests a day = 43.4 MB/day, 1.3 GB/month. Of course, this will be compressed and minified as much as possible, plus cached in Firefox. Every byte counts I say.

To compare, http://start.ubuntu.com is 23.6 kB.

#23

A bit off topic, but an alternative is to make your own private Start Page (which is set as Home Page) as a local file on your computer. That’s what I do. One of the first things I do is change the default home page to a file on my computer. It has exactly what I want and need, and has evolved over time into an entire hyperlinked set of local web pages.

It doesn’t take much knowledge of HTML to do this - many of us users nowadays (myself included) have had an introduction to basic HTML in school. Start with a set of links to web sites you commonly use and go from there.

2 Likes
#24

Did you colormap and index your images? Alternatively, if you had a font made with the icons you want then any icons can be SVGs, those SVGs could be held and loaded from elsewhere and all the page would need to do is import the font for the icons.

#25

Couldn’t it use the search engine set as default in Firefox’s preferences? This is what the “normal” Firefox start page does.

Making people change the same setting in two different places isn’t very user-friendly.

I don’t know how easy it is to do this. Perhaps it is possible to change some aspects of the Firefox start page, the way Debian did when creating Iceweasel.

#26

No, not yet, they’re PNGs for now. I’ve just recently added a script to “compress” the page as an early start to reduce the size, but still a work in progress.

Technically, no. It’s only displaying a webpage and isn’t a re-brand of the “real” Firefox start page (like Iceweasel). Instead, this page is just a re-branded implementation of how Ubuntu does it at http://start.ubuntu.com, but you’ve raised a good point about implementing multiple search engines.

Edit: See response further below.

#27

Talking of optimisation, the whole page is now just 18.9 kB!

(Compared to 23.6 kB for Ubuntu’s, and 43.4 kB originally)

:notebook: I’ve noted requests and will begin to add them in. What’s next is to fork the Ubufox extension and re-brand that to point to the new page. @Wimpy would need to help with creating http://start.ubuntu-mate.org and packaging so it replaces Ubuntu’s Firefox extension for 16.10.

And then a new start page is born! :slight_smile:

#28

We can get http://start.ubuntu-mate.org up and running in no time :slight_smile:

#29

Oooh! What tricks did you use?

#30

@tiox, PNGs to JPG with the power of ImageMagik, and then encode the images to Base64 so everything is in one page :thumbsup: – Loads super fast, no icon flickering either! :smile:

Actually, after now having a look at Ubufox’s code, it is actually possible and what Ubuntu does with their start page. Only issue, I don’t think it works (and there’s only Yahoo or Google). Instead, we’ve decided to stick with the radio button idea.

#31

While it would probably ruin all your optimization work, since you mentioned radio buttons maybe for each search entry you could hide the default radio buttons and instead use images.

You can use a single image per-button with only background changes to the icon so you’re not having to use multiple images for selected. If you’ve ever used Firefox for Mobile, that’s the kind of feel I am thinking of.

Personally, I would use filter to desaturate and decolour each image slightly, so on hover and selected it uses full colour and saturation to make it stand out better.

#32

Just tested out the start page. Loads extremely quick. Thanks for putting this together.

1 Like
#33

Could be possible to do that, similar to Ubuntu’s start page. I’ll have a fiddle, there might be a CSS option for that. (No need for separate images) :wink:

#34

I am loving this idea! This is how it looks in Opera with Stylish and global dark mode.

Screenshot at 2016-07-13 13-16-21.png1920×1025 120 KB

#35

Updates:

  • Ditched the JPEGs. Now uses PNG for improved quality and transparency.
  • Uses a tad less kBs!
  • Added radio option for Google or DuckDuckGo.

@tiox, I’m afraid I cannot add links to Firefox pages, since the browser stubbornly does not change page.

@ele, I decided I won’t add a “dark” mode for now, since browser extensions can do this for all sites (like @mauimate’s screenshot) , as opposed to leaving this page and suddenly entering a white results page. Ouch for the eyes!

@mauimate, the global dark mode should look a lot better. :thumbsup:

@Wimpy should push the new changes later. :slight_smile:

We did hit a snag. The extension needs to be signed by Mozilla in order for Firefox to even allow installation.

So instead, the home page will be changed instead, keeping Ubuntu’s extension.

#36

I had to work late. I’ll push the new start page tomorrow morning :slight_smile:️

#37

And it’s is deployed:

2 Likes
#38

Is it possible for the cursor to be in the searchbox after the start page loads, so that someone can search right away, without clicking or pressing tab?

1 Like
#39

Yep, an excellent usability suggestion, thanks! It’s done. (Needs pushing when @Wimpy has a moment)

1 Like
#40

The Ubuntu MATE start page will be the default in Firefox for Ubuntu MATE 16.10 starting tomorrow :slight_smile:️

3 Likes