I'm a Windows user, so apologies if what I ask/suggest makes no sense on Mac OS.

Is there anything special about the currently focused tab? For example, is it a pinned tab? Pinned tabs generally do not want to be replaced by pages from a different site. More info on pinned tabs: Pinned Tabs - keep favorite websites open and just a click away.

Do you use any add-ons related to opening links in web pages in a new tab? Just wondering whether that might be affecting bookmarks, too.

Do you use any add-ons related to Containers? Containers are a feature that allow you to isolate sites from one another and that could affect whether a page can load into the current tab or requires a new one.

Ah, yes it is a pinned tab. Works fine in a regular tab. Strange because the pinned tab will open a site I enter in the search/URL bar in the same tab. But not a bookmark. It would be nice if the behavior was consistent. Thanks for your help!

           --Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for posting back. I guess a bookmark works the way a link works rather than the way to address bar works. Not sure what makes the most sense.

FWIW This behavior is different from Chrome. I got fed up with Chrome not working on a lot of sites plus I have been looking for a reason to quit Chrome so I just started using Mozilla -- I had used it for a while when it was first released many years ago. In Chrome I always left my first tab pinned and used it for whatever I was working on at the moment, using bookmarks to open each new site in that pinned tab. Obviously, under Mozilla I will have to learn new ways of working. It looks as though I cannot put an unpinned tab to the left of pinned tabs so my basic work tab will move around -- not very convenient but I guess I will adapt. Just some feedback for the developers if you could pass it along.

Mozilla launched a new site for product feature change suggestions. There is a Discussion section for rapid feedback (or general complaining), and an Ideas section for more specific proposals where the votes count toward getting those ideas considered. You can find it here: https://connect.mozilla.org/

I don't know whether mixing regular tab and pinned tabs will get on the agenda, but you never know.

I don't think that it will be possible to mix pinned tabs and unpinned tabs as the latter are placed in a scrollable overflow area and there are quite a few attributes for first and last tab in both of these sections.

• https://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/base/content/tabbrowser-tabs.js#line-1232

this._firstTab?.removeAttribute("first-visible-tab");
this._firstTab = visibleTabs[0];
this._firstTab.setAttribute("first-visible-tab", "true");
this._lastTab?.removeAttribute("last-visible-tab");
this._lastTab = visibleTabs[visibleTabs.length - 1];
this._lastTab.setAttribute("last-visible-tab", "true");
this._firstUnpinnedTab?.removeAttribute("first-visible-unpinned-tab");
this._firstUnpinnedTab = visibleTabs.find(t => !t.pinned);
this._firstUnpinnedTab?.setAttribute("first-visible-unpinned-tab", "true");