There’s actually a ton of reasons why I love Firefox, but I’m going to highlight just a few today:
- Tabs - You’ve probably heard this before, and will probably hear it again. Right now I’d have 18 different windows open if I was using IE, but instead I have 2. And that’s a low count–I’ve had way more.
- Security - Some of the security is because Firefox is less attacked, but I think even given equal footing, Firefox would do better with a much more modern code-base and less ties to the operating system.
- Extensions! - And here lies the main fun of Firefox. There are some ridiculously cool extensions you can use to expand the usefulness of Firefox. Most of these extensions are each worth a whole post about why they’re great.
- Gmail Notifier - If you’ve got a gmail account, this handy little icon is a great way to keep track of your email without having to keep checking the specific page.
- Forecast Fox - I’ve always hated the various weather programs that came for windows that were obtrusive and obnoxious. Forecast fox is neither, and even more useful, and quite flexible about how you configure it.
- BOOKMARKSSYNCHRONIZATION (original site and extension are outdated and broken — currently I’m using this extension - I can’t emphasize enough about how cool this is. If you use more than one computer; or heck, if you just use one, but want to be able to access your bookmarks anywhere, this is a really convienant way you can do it for your self without loading annoying add-on programs. After playing with it a lot myself, I even found a few other great sites that show you how to make the XML file you upload on the web really pretty. Please note that some of the links on my bookmarks are to internal work sites that won’t be accessible from outside my office. That’s one of the reasons it’s password protected; but not partifcularly brilliantly, just read the description.
Mainly for myself I’m going to be adding some additional links to extensions that I often use. Web’s as good a place as any to store them:
- Web developer
- Spellbound
- Keyconfig
- ChromEdit
- SwitchProxy - (note! Make sure to disable the ‘notify me of updates’ option in the preferences. Otherwise the extension can hang the browser on startup. Also, when installed, the current version causes an annoying delay when opening new windows. I’m planning on waiting for the new version.)
- FlashBlock
- ReloadEvery
- Sage RSS Reader
Wow, they just keep coming! New section of sweet extensions:
* GreaseMonkey
** CustomizeGoogle
** Book Burro
* Aardvark
* Platypus
* Excellent! I frequently lose bookmarks among the 400 or so total I’ve got. Fortunately, an extension exists to fix exactly that problem.
* SessionSaver — for the times Firefox crashes with a dozen tabs open that you were reading.
Additional notes about using firefox in linux since I’ve switched my daily-drive:
- To simulate windows like ctrl-backspace behavior: layout.word_select.stop_at_punctuation
- Emacs keybindings (for Gnome and firefox)
- Other good firefox tips.
- Everyone’s favorite love-to-hate option find as you type.
- MozPlugger (similar to, but much better than plugger)
As a user of Firefox, I’m interested to learn more about these extensions you’ve found. The Forecast Fox is really cool, I’ve been looking for something like that that won’t fill my computer with Adware.
Left by Nate on January 26th, 2005
just came across the link to my site from yours here…glad to see my little write-up on bookmark synchronisation proved useful. i have to admit thought that since starting to use del.icio.us, i’ve hardly taken advantage of the synchronisation feature. incidentally, i’ve just recently created a few simple extensions myself…have a look if you find the time, they could be of interest
Left by patrick h. lauke on March 6th, 2005
OK, I have finally put away my old IE ways and come to Firefox. Now, I’ve added a few extensions and plugins already, and I even added a few search engines to that thingie in the top right of the browser window, but I was hoping that you’d have an RSS extension recommendation for us all. I didn’t find one here though.
What I’d really like in an RSS extension for Firefox is something that would check all the sites I am interested in and show them all at once in an “Headling_Sitename” fashion. Preferably, I’d be able to nickname the sites that I was interested to keep each article notification shorter. Ex: Instead of “Why I love Firefox_Wantingseed.com” it could look like “Why I love Firefox_ws” Actually, now that makes me want to put the author’s site name first yielding — “ws_Why I love Firefox”.
This would work well for me because I could look down to the bottom right-hand side of my status bad and see something like ["ws_Why I Love Firefox" "jnj_House Plans" "/._SBC Promotes Texas Antiwireless Bill"] scrolling from right to left like a stock ticker. That idea is so doable that it just has to exist somewhere, and if it does you know about it already, so… let me in on the secret too, man.
Left by David on April 18th, 2005
no puede ser que nos esten obligando a descargar siempre la ultima version del firefox..
hoy quise bajarme el forecast o instalar un theme y no podia.. primero tenia que bajarme la actualizacion del mozilla..
tampoco para andar sacando una actualizacion por mes, eh..
por lo menos, yo, como usuario, las diferencias no las noto.. y esoti muy conforme con las versiones anteriores del navegador..
gracias.
fede
Left by fede on June 1st, 2005