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Firefox Extension Guide and More
Anonymous Coward writes "A comprehensive list of Firefox extensions geared for the average power user and web developer includes description and screenshots of featured extensions. Plus Firefox Hacks and keyboard command guide. Always updated with the latest Firefox extensions, and tweaks."
Well, excluding extensions (which Opera has support for, too, though extending is more difficult), the only other advantages don't matter to most users: it's open source and it's a much smaller download. It blocks ads, too, so that's not an Opera advantage. It just comes down to a matter of preference after that: lower ram usage compared to better extendibility.
Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
1. First post has nothing to do with TFA
2. TFA is slashdotted after the first post
3. I'm waiting for the dupe.
Ah, Sunday mornings in cyberspace.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
TFA slashdotted after being up for less than 10 minutes on /.? There's got to be a better site for Firefox extensions. Not exactly making my bookmark list.
1 post and its already inaccessible.
No wonder the guy submitted it anonymously.
To make it stop crashing? I mean I like firefox and all, and I use it on every computer I have, but I've also seen it crash on every computer I've had... Especially when it comes time to open the dreaded PDF...
So I ask, are there any extensions or hacks to help with this?
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
The coral cache has mirrored this site already and works beautifully. If you don't know the URL, it is http://willlangford.com.nyud.net:8090/geekpages/fi refox/ Have fun.
Firefox caches a lot of pages in memory because studies show that the "back" button gets heavy use in average browsing situations. So cacheing recently visited pages improves performance.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Coral cashe: http://willlangford.com.nyud.net:8080/geekpages/fi refox/ n gford.com/geekpages/firefox/
8 a2de351770c74b9/index.html
:)
Google cashe: http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:http://willla
Mirrordot: http://www.mirrordot.com/stories/ae719a80708f8f89
One of them should work for you.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
I've used opera and I just didn't like the UI. Even though Firefox is not necessarily lightweight, it one of my main applications; it doesn't last a minute closed. I have my Gmail notifier in the corner, my adblock extension removing all banners and ad squares, I have my slashdot extension providing alternate links to sites. If I go to a site with an embedded wmv, avi, or whatever, I have MPlayerPlug-in which will play it for me. If there is a site where it disallows me because I'm not using Internet Explorer, I can switch what firefox identifies itself as. Pages load plenty fast, I've never thought of it as being slow. So, as someone above said, even though firefox has its faults, it fits my needs. Perhaps opera suits your needs better.
:/
That being said, coral cache, google cache, mirrordot and the original link all seem to not be working for me, so I can't comment on TFA.
"Everything worth innovating today will go to court tomorrow."
Since it opens the dreaded PDF as a plugin? A plugin that Adobe, not Mozilla/Firefox, developed?
Firefox is not a "memory hog." It simply uses all the memory of your system in a very effective way. Since modern computers ship with 512MB of RAM or more, Firefox will happily consume all this memory. Firefox *screams* with 16GB of RAM. It also *screams* when you have not so much RAM, although in this sense of "scream" I mean it crashes.
Firefox is also a visionary product, looking forward to the day when the browser is the only application one uses.. if it's not, it certainly doesn't leave much room for other apps.
I mean, seriously, I *heart* firefox, but it's scary when it consistently uses twice as much memory as the traditionally most bloated of all apps, a Java IDE.
From that list, I use Adblock Plus. Great extension if you have dialup, like me :)
1. GreaseMonkey.
It's cool. Seriously! It's way, way cool. And I mean that. Totally.
Best plugin evar.
2. I forgot.
Well.. while the linked site does not answer (/. effect probably), here's my favorite extensions. I try to install only those really useful to my efficiency. Right now, it's really hard to find the best extensions from Firefox's site.
p ?id=10&application=firefox
p ?id=1486&application=firefox
p ?id=220&application=firefox
p ?id=920&application=firefox
t / ;-)
Adblock
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.ph
Needless to say, the most important extension to me. But even better with this one: Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.0.3 https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/
TabFX
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.ph
while we wait for Firefox 2.0
FlashGot
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.ph
but I never really used it on a regular basis
Page Update Checker
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.ph
That one should be in the built-in features. Very useful.
And not to forget (not listed on Firefox's website): Bug me not:
http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/02/07/bugmeno
Very useful for the soul-sucking registration-required articles on slashdot
Cheers.
Animoog.org
The TFA is about Firefox Extensions.
The TFA was quickly Slashdotted.
The perfect moment to suggest the Slashdot Firefox Extension:
Slashdot Extension
Generates TFA mirror links and other handy features...
What it does suffer with is instability. While it was an improvement when I moved from Internet Explorer a few years back, Konqueror and Opera are both definitely better browsers. Familiarity with the UI, keyboard shortcuts, and the range of extensions are what keep me in Firefox, not the quality of the app itself - similar to what kept me in Windows for about a year after discovering Linux, incidentally.
i've got no problem with the memory usage. my install hovers around 60-70 megs with ~10 tabs opened at all times. if it starts acting funny and passes the 100 meg mark i just restart it. session saver helps you not give a fuck about that.
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
The only people who would kill for speed are geeks. As a 22+ year computer user I think I qualify. I almost never use the back button as I can't stand how so many sites reload when I do that. So I shift-click (or middle-button-click in Opera). So Firefox is hogging my RAM (that I use and want to continue using for other things TYVM) for a feature I don't use?!
I come here for the love
My Firefox really needs a tweaking... This page is taking all day to load!
Wait, a much smaller download than Opera?! Opera v8.51 was 3,843,584 bytes. Anything less than this can not seriously be considered as a notable feature.
I come here for the love
Firefox caches a lot of pages in memory because studies show that the "back" button gets heavy use in average browsing situations. So cacheing recently visited pages improves performance.
When your low memory system starts swapping because of FF, its definitely NOT improving peformance.
Why does FF not free() memory when I close tabs or windows? I can get to a situation where I have closed everything except a blank window and it yet still hogs hundreds of megs of memory.
Firefox is my favourate web browser. But unfortunately, linux build of firefox is a memory hog. I wonder if it is the linux distribution maintainer's mistake or there is a bug in firefox code for linux.
Linux Help
for all things on Linux
So what is an average power user? Did somebody do a survey? (the term average implies some statistics have collected...)
Adblock may handle most everything else, but it is still lacking in its ability to handle {Macromedia|Adobe} flash.
The solution is FlashBlock, and it works incredibly well. Not only does it make browsing faster, it reduces the bright flashing 'bunch bush to win $10' ads to whitespace -- tis much easier on the eyes.
For those rare occasions where you actually want to see the flash, just click on the play button that adblock substitutes for the embedded swf.
So Firefox is hogging my RAM (that I use and want to continue using for other things TYVM) for a feature I don't use?!
No. You're not using Firefox, you're using Opera. Remember? Firefox isn't hogging any of your RAM for anything. Feel better now?
Nice layout, Web2adelic baby!
geez people, just add .nyud.net:8090 after the .com (http://willlangford.com.nyud.net:8090/geekpages/f irefox/)
Forecastfox - Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or status bar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive extension.
FlashGot - Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular external download managers for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD (dozens currently supported products, see http://www.flashgot.net/ for details). FlashGot offers also a Build Gallery functionality which helps to synthesize full media galleries in one page, from serial contents previously scattered on several pages, for easy and fast download all.
Adblock - One of the best plug-ins ever written. Adblack allows you to block elements of a web page, images, flash, i-frames, etc This will help make pages load faster and with zero ads!
Adblock is a content filtering plug-in for the Mozilla and Firebird browsers. It is both more robust and more precise than the built-in image blocker.
Adblock allows the user to specify filters, which remove unwanted content based on the source-address. If this sounds complicated, dont worry: its not.
Just add a few filters. Every time a webpage loads, Adblock will intercept and disable the elements matching your filters. See?- nothing to it.
Adblock Filterset.G Updater - This is a companion extension to Adblock and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adblock that blocks most ads on the internet. In addition, this extension allows you to define your own set of filters that you can add along with Filterset.G during an update.
Tabbrowser Preferences - This extension provides a comprehensive UI for changing a number of the hidden tabbed browsing preferences in Firefox. It also provides the ability to control how internal and external links are opened in the browser and how the browser will react when links are sent to it.
IE Tab - IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. Note, this will also allow you to run Windows Update also.
Wizz RSS News Reader - News is the new frontier for the web. With the up-and-coming rss and atom technologies, news is becoming easier to read and more accessible, but Firefoxs livebookmarks are rather lacking when it comes to features.
Wizz RSS News Reader is the solution. Over the past year, its evolved into a mature feed aggregator. Although the UI lacks polish, it includes a number of powerful features, such as the watch list, OPML support, and the ability to subscribe to podcasts. The documentation is extensive and the author maintains support forums, so its easy to get help too :)
Viamatic foXpose - The Viamatic foXpose plugin is a tiny little extension that lets you view all your tabs inside a browser window.
Duplicate Tab - Duplicate Tab allows you to clone a tab along with its history.
SessionSaver - SessionSaver restores your browser -exactly- as you left it, every startup, every time. Not even a crash will phase it. Windows, tabs, even things you were typing theyre all saved. Use the menu to add + remove sessions; right, shift, or middle-clickin
Why does FF not free() memory when I close tabs or windows? I can get to a situation where I have closed everything except a blank window and it yet still hogs hundreds of megs of memory.
That may be your operating system's fault. Many OSes assign memory to an application as demanded, but do not reclaim it when it's released - they leave it assigned to that application, so the next time the application demands memory it can just reuse the same block. I believe Windows may do this as a compatibility measure -- it reduces the likelihood of badly-written programs crashing, because there's a better chance that dereferencing a freed pointer will still actually point to valid data.
So, yeah, it sucks, but it's not necessarily Firefox's problem.
For french speaking people, I've written mine a few days ago. It also explain how to install all your favorites extensions in one time. http://tium.iteam.org/blog/?2006/02/17/17-passer-d e-firefox-a-super-firefox-en-moins-d-une-minute
Ah, but Firefox does free memory when you close tabs and windows.
It just almost never returns it to the operating system. See, instead of using one of the many well-tested memory allocators available online, they use a custom memory allocator. And the way it works, it only returns memory used at the end of the heap back to the OS.
So, generally speaking, memory Firefox uses will NEVER be returned to the OS. Oops!
With that, use Coral extension! It works well in my Mozilla v1.7.12 installations in Windows XP, Mac OS X 10.2.8, and Linux (Debian).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
No Tab Mix Plus?
I've replaced 3 other extensions including Tabbrowser Preferences with this and I will never turn back.
http://tmp.garyr.net/
So how come it won't just render a "back" gesture instaed of trying repost the !$%% data to have the server regenerate the page? That's what the !@#$#@$ reload button is for.
Sorry 'bout that. Its just that the "instant" back (w/o re-post) is one of the things I miss from opera. I'm sure all of my other annoyances could be fixed with plugins in ff, but I don't have time to find them (mozilla.org is terribly unorganized, imho).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Ever since I started running with NoScript enabled, I haven't needed either FlashBlock or Adblock. NoScript has a similar "click to run" method for handling flash, and it appears that most annoying ads are launched via javascript.
*sigh* back to work...
Aside from the fact that the server handling that page is obviously ill-equipped to handle any load the list itself starts out with "Forecastfox". Yay. Recommended only for those who want their browser decked out like a walking talking christmas tree complete with blinkenlights. Don't forget to complain about memory use on the forums later.
Me, I like to keep it light:
Adblock plus, Bugmenot, Downthemall, Sessionsaver, Greasemonkey, Tabmixplus.
Optionally Aardvark, Del.icio.us, enhanced history manager, and IEtab.
-- No Sig is a Good Sig
Fasterfox does some nice things and IMO belongs on the list of good extensions..
As far as the author's claim.. In the fasterfox config there is a tab for "Enhanced Prefetching" which comes disabled by default and has the following warning:
That page has some interesting answers on prefetching and seems to show that fasterfox is playing by the rules. I don't think the author has shown much expertise in the extensions field. Also if he's upset at fasterfox for bandwidth wait until he gets the bill from this slashdotting
I have been using Opera and firefox. Firefox's best concept is extensions. But since there were extensions compatibilty issues when upgrading from 1.0.x (i guess) to 1.5, i had to dump firefox because i screwed up my installation which had a LOT of extensions. my bad. Now that Opera 9 has widgets, its almost equivalent to having extensions. Plus Opera already has lot of standard features which are available as firefox extensions. Forecastfox was my favourite in firefox but now its available as a Opera widget.
I don't want a signature.
(Excuse the AC posting. I'm posting from my cellular phone.)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reducing_memory_usage_(F irefox)#Settings_that_reduce_memory_usage
http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/04/04/reducing-y our-memory-usage-in-firefox/
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Did you hear a whoosing sound above your head when you typed your response?
I was kind of curious about your link titled "Firefox is the most unstable program in common use." Perhaps it was some sort of study; I was interested in its methodology.
But no, it's a link to another posting by you. You cite all sorts of interesting bugs in Firefox, which are bad and wrong, but don't add up to justifying your statement that it's the "most unstable". Clearly many users find it "stable enough", especially at the price ($0), and more usable than the leading competitor (i.e. IE).
By the time I got to posting this you'd already been modded "offtopic", which isn't entirely right: the article is about FF extensions, and you're validly pointing out that extensions make FF even more unstable. You devote a lot of space to a memory bug which does need to be fixed, but debugging details aren't relevant in this forum. Nor is your repeated assertion that FF users are some sort of cult who are intent on covering up the bugs by modding you down.
So you're gonna get modded down, and you're probably going to take that as more proof of your persecution. I wanted to take the time to suggest that if you struck a more reasonable tone in your arguments, focusing more on the bugs and their effects than the ad hominem attacks on FF developers and users, then you might find a more tolerant audience.
In support of the troll, what would you say if MS Word or vi worked like that?
I came across this recently, similar to Aardvark. It's CSSViewer which shows in a (large) tooltip, the css applied to an element over which the mouse is hovering.
I found it very useful for closing the loop between code and result.
Should check out "advanceddork" it just was updated to 2.0 beta
Its a great search tool, I cant live without it anymore
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2144/
"Description: This small, yet powerful Firefox extension was designed to quickly and efficiently search for specified text inside Google's Advanced Operators."
It's nice that the guy mentions NoScript, but why does he mention it with the web developer tools? It's a very handy general purpose extension. By the way, it's amazing to see how many web developers can't use the <noscript> tags properly (or just don't care): lots of websites just break when you turn off Javascript--no error messages, no nothing.
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
How secure are extensions? I see from Wikipedia that the whitelist and 3 second delay are meant as defenses against malicious extensions, but do they get put under the microscope before they go on the whitelist?
In my opinion, the one feature of Safari that almost kills Firefox is how good Safari Auto-fill is. I've tried a few FF auto fill extension, and they are not in the same ballpark at all. Anyone out there know one I'm missing? If not, could you make one?
San Francisco Photographers
I thought this was pretty handy, adding to the extensions I already use regularly.
One thing I wasn't sure was why he neglected to include Window Resizer in the Web Design section. When I'm doing design, this thing is hella valuable because you can just hit a button and switch your window size to what it would be maximized on 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200. Great for seeing how your site will look on multiple resolutions.
--cabbit
This is the first mention of noscript I've run across in this discussion. IMHO, it is the very first thing that needs to be installed. It will block plugins, like flash automatically, and disable javascript by default. Then, if you actually want to use you can turn it on temporarily for the session, or whitelist the particular site permanently. It should certainly be moved into the core ASAP.
Even my dad can work it. It was easy to explain. "If a site looks really funny, you probably need to tell the computer to trust that site. Click 'temporarily allow...' and the site will probably work fine then. Only do it if you think the site isn't working fully, and you are sure you trust it." I haven't had to clean up any spyware on my dad's computer, I haven't heard him complaining about popups, or annoying flash ads, or anything since I installed it. It's great!
Most important firefox extension ever. Everybody who uses the internet owes the author a beer!
I really like the All-in-one-gestures extension, but not for the reasons you might guess. At first I tried out using gestures for normal actions but found it generally more tedious than normal keyboard shortcuts. However, gestures includes one feature that cannot be done with the keyboard: removing specific portions of a webpage.
I use Flashblock to eliminate most annoying flash advertisements, but so many webpages are just filled with so much crap that it's best to get rid of the clutter altogether. Even block flash ads take up space in the middle of text, and even not animated images can be distracting. By remapping "Hide Object" to the simple left gesture and "Undo Hide Object" to the right gesture I can quickly trim down most webpages. This is also useful for a few webpages which use small text but have poorly coded layout which gets screwed up when the text size is increased, as sometimes eliminating unimportant layout blocks can put things back in order.
The Google toolbar is also a great extension. Sure, Firefox already has Google search built into its toolbars, but I love having a spellchecker that works in any webform. Search history also proves handy every once in a while.
The ultimate plays for Madden 2006
> Since modern computers ship with 512MB of RAM or more I wish. In the U.K. most big computer vendors still put all the money into the processor, because consumers know that the processor speed is the indicator of performance. An Acer advertising insert from a newspaper happens to be near the top of my paper recycling pile and while most computers in it do have 512MB or more it does have a 1.6GHz laptop and a 2.8GHz (!) desktop with 256MB.
Note that the Slashdot comment linked was modded up.
Platypus!
With Platypus, you can easily create Greasemonkey scripts to strip junk out of your favorite sites. You don't have to use JavaScript to strip out those unwanted sidebars at your favorite sites, and you don't have to search for scripts that others have written to see if someone else wanted to make the same changes.
You said: "... you're validly pointing out that extensions make FF even more unstable."
You are apparently not disagreeing with the idea that it is unfriendly to encourage people to use extensions when everyone agrees that extensions often make Firefox unstable.
You also apparently are not disagreeing with the idea that Firefox is the most unstable program in common use.
Also you have apparently not read the linked material which explains and supports the issues intensively.
I'm sorry, but ANY list of "good extensions" which doesn't include EASYGESTURES is simply some nerd's favourites - and not an ACTUAL list of good extensions.
EASYGESTURES is the greatest aid to navigating the web since the invention of the hyperlink. There simply is no substitute for opening multiple tabs in the background: it improves the speed and amount of information available to you, in a way which does not cause any waiting.
Every single person I have taught to use Easygestures (and this includes 8-year olds to an 88-year old!) admits that it is "the best thing anyone ever taught me about the Internet".
So what are you waiting for? http://easygestures.mozdev.org/
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
Back IS Close replaces the "Back" button with a "Close" button when the "Back" button is disabled because there is no page to go "back" to. That Close Button will close the tab or browser, as appropriate.
Back IS Close is the perfect complement to tabbed browsing: it closes the many tabs tabbed browsing opens.
Secondly, I have never heard anybody state that all extensions are unstable. I've seen lists of unstable extensions, but by no means is every extension listed on any of them.
Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
You've obviously never attempted to post a bug to the Mozilla Bugzilla. The developers are the rudest, least responsive, most conceited group I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. When they're being paid to make Mozilla (and make no mistake, with Mozilla receiving some $70 million annually from Google, they're being paid), you'd think they could at the very least show some respect to the community that helped them grow.
But, no. Point out massive memory leaks, you get told "it's a feature!" or "oh, that's just the extension's you're using" or "oh, you can't read the memory usage column correctly." The last one is my favorite, because apparently I'm too stupid to notice the memory growth between when the browser started (50MB) and the current time (150MB). Any shared libraries would be in that first 50MB number and therefore be totally irrelevant to the 100MB additional memory being used.
Then we get to bug reporting. Almost any bug you post will get closed as either "INVALID" or "DUPLICATE", usually very rudely. "But you should have searched Bugzilla before posting!" Well, I did! I just didn't manage to guess the magical combination of words that would come up with the root cause of the bug I was experiencing. Because, after all, I'm supposed to know absolutely everything about the layout system before posting layout bugs.
Firefox desperately needs more people like Futurepower(R) to point out the flaws and bugs in it that the developers refuse to address. It leaks memory, wastes CPU (it takes Firefox a good 30 seconds to finally close after I close the last window - during that time, it's taking 100% CPU), and generally is a bloated POS. Yet the developers are refusing to address these issues, instead just waving their hands and blaming extensions and plugins for issues that are obviously issues with the browser.
I've been seriously thinking of starting up a "FirefoxWatch" blog to try and track the various bullshit Firefox developers spew about why their browser should be allowed to leak memory at alarming rates and waste massive amounts of CPU for what should be simple operations (closing a window). Every time an article on Firefox comes up on Slashdot, I become a little more convinced that the world needs a source to counteract the blatant Firefox spin by the cult of Firefox users. Firefox has a host of issues that need to be addressed - but anyone refusing to follow the cult dogma gets branded a troll and ignored.
this is just a great extension for those of use that got 10+ extensions installed ListZilla
It's a fact stated on the extensions page that to many extensions can in fact overload firefox and it's critical to know exactly what you need/want to do.
In my case, the only extensions I include are downthemall, spoofstick, adblock, and copy plain text. This solves 95 percent of the web annoyances while enhancing my experience with FF signifcantly over IE.
If you want to sync bookmarks across all the machines you use, there's an *excellent* up and coming bookmark syncrhonizer, which is better (fewer bugs) than other sync extensions: Foxmarks.
http://www.foxcloud.com/wiki/Main_Page
From that page: "Foxmarks is an extension for Firefox that synchronizes bookmarks across multiple machines."
Why does the link about slashdotting go to a wikipedia article about some site called Digg :)
:(){
I had it enabled (without the enhanced functionality mind you) and my firefox memory usage jumped to 120MB+ on startup, on a blank page! and then Firefox proceeded to consume 100% CPU and slow things down to the point where I had to use the Task Manager to kill it. I found the cause by removing one extension after another. The moment the Google Safe Browsing extension was uninstalled, things went back to normal and Firefox was not using more than 27MB of RAM.
After some googling, I found a thread about this memory leak I also came across this - a thread detailing which combinations of extensions result in memory leaks.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
Of course, Opera has damn near all of that built in now, and is still 1/4th the size of Firefox.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
MSWord costs money. i'd call support and bitch about it. vi is a damn text editor. text editors don't crash or use lots of resources. what i'm saying is that for what it does and how it does it Firefox is *not* a hog. if i can live with it in only 256 megs of ram, then i must call bullshit on all the people that have 2G and still whine.
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
hows does TabFX compare to Tab Mix Plus:
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon.php?id=1122
That's the one I've been using.
HD Trailers
I've always wondered this, so I hope someone can answer this for me: Firefox is arguably the premier open source desktop product, with security being one of its selling points. At the same time, almost anyone can write an extension for it which alters its behaviour, possibly in some hidden way. How do we reconcile the two?
I wonder about this every day as I start up Firefox on my KDE desktop. Should I be using Konqueror instead? After all, it passed the ACID2 test. But then I think of all those indispensable extensions --Adblock (Plus), Filterset.G, NoScript, etc. Geez, every time I install those (at the dozen work computers I use, since I rotate between locations), a warning dialogue pops up which I habitually ignore: "Warning! This extension is not signed!" (So far I haven't come across a single extension that *is* signed.) And I wait the obligatory n seconds before clicking on the "Install Now" button.
My current take on this is that, yes, Firefox has this vulnerability built in, and I actually hope that some day some trojan extension makes headlines so we can start taking this seriously. In the meanwhile, though --where are the signatures on the extensions? Where's the md5 hash (or whatever is secure these days) on the extension download page?
Am I being too cavalier? Are we breeding a bunch of Firefox users who are as numb to security threats as the typical MS Windows user who accepts spyware as a way of life, or as the typical smoker who gives nary a glance at the big notice on the cigarette package that says, "If you smoke this, you will die"?
Or can someone please show me that I'm wrong? Can someone please tell me that the downloaded *.xpi files are actually human-readable and as open-source as JavaScript? Does Firefox set up a sandbox so that InnocuousExtension.xpi can't actually log my keystrokes or send my pageview history to TotallyInnocentDomain.com.ru?
Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
For even faster caching (on linux), Do this:
/etc/fstab:
/mnt/ramdisk tmpfs defaults,gid=<whatever> 0 0
/mnt/ramdisk"
/ mnt/ramdisk");
Make a ramdisk by putting this line in
none
on shell prompt type "mount
Then, in the firefox user profile directory (typically ~/.mozilla/firefox/<arbitrary>), open the file user.js and add the line:
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.parent_directory","
restart firefox
The cache loads in ramdisk, much faster that doing disk I/O for caching.
Also, it may be possible to do about:config in firefox and enter the new string
"browser.cache.disk.parent_directory"
and put the ramdisk path as the value.
l'Homme n'est Rien l'Oeuvre Tout: Gustave Flaubert to George Sand
The only thing that makes firefox usable, in my opion, is Mozex. It allows you to handle text areas, links to non-html URLs, and lots of other tasks using the external applications of your choosing.
The official version is way of out date, since firefox keeps on changing the way extensions work... but there's an updated version here:
http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/~iam23/code/mozex/
Why one should need an extension to force a browser to do what should have been built in from the start is another matter.
I can only imagine the mozilla people sat around one say and someone said, "Let's see . . . we can either write our own crappy text editor from scratch and *force* every user to use it. Or, we can give people the option of using any of hundreds of exisiting editors with decades of development history behind them." And someone else said, "You know, I've always wanted to write a text editor. But since there are so many good ones out there, no one would ever use mine unless we forced them to do so. Let's go with the first option."
The announcement of extensions for Firefox is a huge coup. Microsoft Internet Explorer isn't designed for extensions. They have plug-ins, but with such poor security that Charles Barker called it "The most insecure software running on the modern PC", it's pretty clear that IE's days are numbered.
And now someone has listed all the Firefox extensions. With a list, choosing extensions will be even easier. I can't wait for this to be released (his site is slashdotted at the moment). With extensions, Firefox will be even better. This is great news!
You may be interested in Nuke anything enhanced. It adds an right-click option to remove chosen content, but for loaded flash content, because of the way it steals the right-click content menu on focus, you need to learn the right-click sweet spot trick which is best for you. I've found two methods that work best for me, depending on the layout. One is to right-click just outside of where the right-click content menu gets jacked, the other is to highlight an area with the start/end embed code tags included, but that is sometimes tricky.
I also used this extension on my previous, RAM challenged box, and it gave me no grief.
Alternately, peruse the Squarefree bookmarklet section, ZAP. Some nice features to eliminate annoyances, which do not require piling on extensions within the program itself.
Rush Limbaugh is a perfect real world example of an oxycontinmoron
Most people that have problems with Firefox amping out their memory have it because of an extension that has a memory leak (such as SessionSaver). Take a look at your extensions and you'll usually solve that problem.
Saving the World: One Drink at a Time
I'm neither a mozilla adept nor evangelical, and I cannot address your concerns about lusers the whole world over, but there are ways to keep your own box reasonably secure.
An xpi file is only a zipped archive. Rename one to zip and try it, if your zip program doesn't recognize the extension.
What is inside the compressed xpi archive will differ from extension to extension, but many of the files are 'human readable'. (rdf, js, manifest, xul, etc...)
Where you may need another program to read the xpi archive's files are the *.jar files, which are sometimes a part of an extension's archive, but they are also archives, which most compression program can handle, and they too are usually archives of 'human readable' files.
It takes a bit of work, but hey, it is after all, your box, not mine.
Also, for the security conscious:
In a bit of opposition to the second recommendation above, I use and have been happy with a few of MR Tech's Mozilla Extensions, especially the local install extension.
The Mr Tech website also has a public board for mozilla-based extensions.
Also, check out available bookmarklets for functionality you are looking for, and avoid extensions if a bookmarklet does the trick. A few possible places for applicable bookmarklets are, one, two, three and four.
Rush Limbaugh is a perfect real world example of an oxycontinmoron
Now, if you had suggested something which required a source code change, that would be one thing. But those are just normal settings, and closed source programs have them too. In fact, I think two of those are even in Opera's GUI.
Clever signature text goes here.
You may be referring to the optional Java bundle that used to be available ages ago, but Opera doesn't require Java to run. It was simply there as a convenience. Opera without Java was 3 or so MB.
Heck, since Opera 5, Opera has bundled the Flash plugin in all versions, so basically Opera itself is half a meg or so smaller than the download since Flash adds a lot to the size.
Clever signature text goes here.
FYI, Opera has always been a smaller download than Firefox. On Mac and Linux, Firefox is about twice the size of Opera, IIRC. On Windows, Opera is now 3.7 (including the Flash plugin which is 700K or so), while Firefox is 5.
Clever signature text goes here.
...to correct the injustice of the parent being modded "Troll." The poster asked a legitimate question, but it seems to have rankled a Firefox fanboy with mod points.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
Sorry, I don't think the point of free software is to duck responsibility for high quality.
I think you missed your own point. Extensions alone do not make FF unstable, the point is unstable extensions make FF unstable. That's true of any large project, that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Stay away from poorly-written extensions or help contribute development; don't bash FF for enabling developers to do what they've been doing since the dawn of [insert language-flamefest of choice] - write bad code.
Hmm - actually, looking at the highlights of the first google page, it would appear that everyone that comes up agrees that it's possible to write unstable extensions - hardly the same thing.
Personally, I agree - I have had extensions that seem to cause the browser to crash. When I uninstall them and limit myself to the one or two . . . okay, twenty-eight extensions I have installed that seem to be perfectly okay, I don't have crashes.
Pardon me sir, but your hyperbole is showing.
Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
You do know that Opera had that first, right? And they manage to do that without the memory leaks.
In other words, you are eating the bullshit the Mozilla folks are feeding you.
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See the following comment. I don't know who wrote it, but in my experience everything that is said is correct: I've been seriously thinking of starting up a "FirefoxWatch" blog.Mozilla Foundation actively promotes extensions.
When there are problems, users are told "Do hours of work to discover which extensions are unstable with your usage patterns."
Many, many people have suggested that maybe Firefox should not be so vulnerable to problems with extensions, OR maybe extensions should not be encouraged. That issue is consistently avoided. Mozilla Foundation takes NO responsibility for extensions, but that is not made clear to new users. There is no official system of approval for extensions.
Firefox is sometimes unstable with a clean profile and no extensions. The issue of fundamental Firefox instability is often avoided by blaming extensions.
So, the intellectual dishonesty has an angry purpose; it allows Firefox developers to hide the instabilities in Firefox.
Many Firefox users experience problems with instability. It is intellectually dishonest to try to draw attention away from that fact by directing attention elsewhere.
You said, "I've been seriously thinking of starting up a "FirefoxWatch" blog..."
There is an entire web site devoted to Firefox dishonesty: Slyerfox.
So cacheing recently visited pages improves performance. It doesn't improve performance when it's eaten most of my RAM.
Adblock has those nasty memory leak problems, though, and I didn't think it had been updated in more-or-less forever.
Definitely use filterset-g updater with either, though.