Revert Chrome Refresh 2023 or keep it avoidable

[highbaser]

Google started to introduce a UI refresh, starting from M115. The change is called "Chrome Refresh 2023". There are many bug reports, UX issues and negative feedback about this change and Google seems to be stubborn enough not to pay attention and force it upon all of its users, like they did with DirectWrite, however this change has already received even more negative feedback. With M125 release, Google is expiring (and later removing) the flags that can disalbe the changes of Chrome Refresh 2023.

Chrome Refresh 2023 is already in latest Thorium-Win7 (now: 122.0.6261.168) as it's based on M122 but the feature is turned off by default via flags. From a desktop user point of view it's an anti-feature that ruins the classic desktop experience (with mouse and keyboard), wastes vertical real estate, replaces icons to colorless unrecognizable ones. These changes are even visually incompatible with a compact desktop running Windows 7, Vista or XP.

My suggestions are the following, whichever is easier to implement.

• Completely remove Chrome Refresh 2023 and keep the old looks.
  I don't think any desktop user would miss a change that makes their browser look like a dumb tablet.
• Keep flags related to Chrome Refresh 2023 so Thorium users can turn them on/off.
• Introduce a configuration option under Settings > Appearance to turn on/off the whole (or parts of this) UI change.

Chrome Refresh 2023 flags

• #chrome-refresh-2023 Chrome Refresh 2023
• #chrome-refresh-2023-ntb Chrome Refresh 2023 New Tab Button
• #chrome-refresh-2023-top-chrome-font Chrome Refresh 2023 Top Chrome Font Style
• #chrome-webui-refresh-2023 Chrome WebUI Refresh 2023
• #customize-chrome-side-panel Customize Chrome Side Panel
  This may not be necessary. It's about a bug that if you don't turn this flag to Disabled, Chrome Refresh 2023 flags are all ignored. See: https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330756862

Issues

Issues related to Chrome Refresh 2023, from the Chromium Bug Tracker.

• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/335553327
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/332574933
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/332081796
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330842283
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330743875
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330753883
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330589210
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330443177
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330373923
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/329953462
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/327022941
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/41490387
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40947720

Negative user feedback

Negative feedback from mostly advanced users who suffered a UX degradation because of Chrome Refresh 2023.

• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269780757
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269812926
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269774466
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269868881
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269982965
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269956094
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269946774
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269800018
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1c5jgmu/icons_in_chrome_tabs_are_misplaced/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1c695ef/how_to_get_tab_favicons_back_to_normal/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1c5zvnx/disabled_chrome_refresh_2023_and_customize_chrome/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1c5xeja/broken_icon_placements_after_update_how_to_fix/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1c6ette/why_are_my_tab_icons_higher_up_than_normal/

[Alex F.]

@highbaser I've already done this in regular Thorium M123 because I hate it too.

When this repo gets rebased on Chromium/Supermium 123, it will have those fixes too.

However, Chromium 125 completely removes all the older code related to non-CR23 UI. In that case it will be alot harder to maintain, and depending on the amount of files involved, I might use CR23 UI. I would like to make a patch to at least put the tab search button back on the right side again though.

[highbaser]

As far as I know, Supermium devs have reworked the entire tab drawing logic in order to have a look&feel that fits into the XP ecosystem. You advertise thorium-legacy (Thorium-Win7) as something that fits into the Win7 ecosystem aero glass tab bar, etc. Chrome Refresh 2023 ruins this all so I think it's as much vital to keep it as important it was to create all your compatibility patches for Win7, like the one that keeps Aero glass support. Also, Supermium is planning to keep the UI before refresh in the long term. So I don't think you'll need to write these patches from scratch past M125.

[Crude Buster]

It seems these imbeciles can't help but change for the sake of change and not let people choose their damn design. If it were so good people wouldn't be trying to avoid it like the plague it is. This kind of thing made me abandon Firefox years ago.