Firefox: too much space between menu items
 

When I upgraded Firefox to version 45.2.0, I found that the amount of blank space between menu items increased. It makes me want to have fewer bookmarks outside their folders so I don't have to scroll as much. Or maybe use smaller fonts, though I already see the downside. It's a minor annoyance, but I was happy with Firefox the way it was. Anyway, is there any way to reverse the change?

So it looks like you jumped to the next Firefox ESR -

In between Firefox 38? and 45 Firefox made the leap to GTK 3, so Firefox is now using your GTK 3 theme now. To change this, you need to tweak your GTK 3 theme's font size/spacing size or switch themes.

If you're under GNOME, you can use the GNOME Tweak Tool (methinks), and if you're using KDE you can tweak with the GTK 3 theme under the Personal Settings / System Settings.

Another option you have is to add a specific menu vertical space setting to Firefox's UserChrome.css (which you will have to create if it doesn't already exist).

This will entail you learning how to use UserChrome.css (won't take you long) and then finding out which id/class is associated with the menu drop-down items (might take you a while to track down, possibly having to use a DOM inspector).

Thank you, good people!

Well, I might mention that I was happy with my old Firefox and by no means particularly wanted this ESR version. But the apt-get dist-upgrade included it; I didn't really know what I was getting. I had had Firefox pinned for a while, but gave up. Maybe I'll try to downgrade. It's been entirely a nuisance.

I de-installed whatever LinuxMint 17.1 installed.
Then I downloaded my preferred version/build of Firefox (built by Mozilla for Ubuntu).
Installed it. Pinned using Good Luck.

there is a cool ff plugin
"classic theme restorer"
and you can put the tabs BACK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TOOL BAR , WHERE THEY BELONG

CTR can also revert changes in spacing in various places. I started using CTR way back when the tab bar could no longer be hidden while there was only one URL open, v23 or something like that. Most will find CTR is easier to use than userChrome.css for the many things CTR is competent to change, like moving the main menu icons back to the left side, and putting a solitary tab close button on the right side of the tab bar, making Firefox look like Firefox instead of like Chrome. :)

One thing worth noting is that reverting to an old, unsupported version of any browser is very, very, dangerous from a security standpoint, as security patches for your browser and OS are the heart of system security. You probably were upgraded because the old ESR version of Firefox hit its EOL or will fairly soon.

You would be better off using extensions to make your Firefox look like how it did in the days of yore. My inner browsing reactionary always wants to switch to SeaMonkey :)

Thanks, I updated my OP with a stern visual warning. My bad.

That's why I'm annoyed. Security requirements effectively force me to use the latest version even if I don't like it. I'll try the above recommendations.

then use the plugin classic theme restorer

it did wonders for me

ff 47 ( 48 is not yet in the suse 42.1 repos )
http://imgbox.com/AIv2ADy9