URL bar duplicates the title bar

[bkjohnson]

Did you search for similar issues before submitting this one? Yes

Describe the issue you encountered: When hidden (which is anytime except on mouseover or active), the URL bar displays the page title which is already displayed directly above it.

Expected behavior: A clean interface that displays information appropriately.

• Platform (Win7, 8, 10? macOS? Linux distro?): Linux Mint

• Brave Version: 0.12.8

• Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open any tab in Brave.
  2. Look at the title bar and see redundant information

I understand that there is an option to always show the URL bar, but I don't see why hiding the URL bar is considered a feature. At the very least the URL bar should be enabled by default in accordance with POLA because users are used to seeing the URL.

• Any related issues:
  Address bar should be active for about:newtab #3712 was about making the URL bar active for new tabs, not by default.

[bsclifton]

With Windows and Mac, this is a useful feature since the titlebar is not there:

I know many Linux users would like this feature too, which is tracked with #3126. If the titlebar was hidden like it is on Windows/Mac, would that solve the issue for you?

[bkjohnson]

Oops, I didn't even think about this being an OS issue. Yes, if the titlebar behaved like it does on Windows/Mac then that would solve the issue, as long as there was still an option to enable the URL bar.

[Sh1d0w]

Unfortunately unless there is a theming engine implemented in the browser, allowing the user to select a custom theme for the layout/window this won't be effective on Linux. Because there are too many distors with too many skins/themes and currently I don't think it is possible to fetch and mimic the theme layout in the browser itself (like it is hardcoded for windows), unless this is implemented on electon side.

Until then unfortunately the only solution I found for myself is to maintain a custom fork of the browser, with tweaked window styles to match my Fedora theme and to hide the title bar.

[luixxiul]

There are relevant issues: #1698 #1903. Both on Ubuntu Unity.

[bsclifton]

@Sh1d0w good call- unless we wanted to override the look and feel of the window manager, there is no solution currently.

@bradleyrichter should we consider defaulting the magic titlebar to OFF on Linux (since the titlebar always shows?)

[bradleyrichter]

Yes. Pointless redundancy is bad.

Please set title mode off by default on Linux. (all versions)