Extensions are one of the best features of Firefox. But it's a good idea to read the comments before you install them. Some of them will break other features.
The ones I use haven't had any negative effect so far:
BBCode
Bookmark Backup
Adblock
BugMeNot
All Music Guide corrector
ieview
googlebar
Image Zoom
Firefox Extensions
Moderator: ElTaco
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Shlomart Ben Yisrael
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I haven't had any trouble with extensions, other than when I updated Firefox the last time...had to reinstall waht I could, and in many cases, it took a few weeks before the extensions were themselves updated...but, they were.
BBcode and Adblock are must-haves. I really get a lot of use out of the Calendar extension, and the Habari Xenu News aggregator.
If I had to choose just one, it would be BBcode. The BB code buttons can be unreliable, and with the extention installed, you're just a right-click away from formatting your posts easily.
BBcode and Adblock are must-haves. I really get a lot of use out of the Calendar extension, and the Habari Xenu News aggregator.
If I had to choose just one, it would be BBcode. The BB code buttons can be unreliable, and with the extention installed, you're just a right-click away from formatting your posts easily.
King Crimson wrote:anytime you have a smoke tunnel and it's not Judas Priest in the mid 80's....watch out.
mvscal wrote:France totally kicks ass.
Anyone care to tell me, or anyone else that doesnt want to ask those of you that know........ what you know about Firefox?
From what I have read here and at various sites online, it seems to be worthy of using over IE. What do you personally like about it so much, and ........ can I still use IE if I want to, if I DL this?
From what I have read here and at various sites online, it seems to be worthy of using over IE. What do you personally like about it so much, and ........ can I still use IE if I want to, if I DL this?
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ElTaco
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Here are some traits:
Not made by MS: Sure that sounds like a stupid reason, but ms has some elementary flaws with their whole system and its that they have integrated it so much with windows and all kinds of scripting languages that there is a new way to hack IE or get spyware into your system just about every other day. Sure MS can make secure computer systems, but it seems they are just trying to complicate usage so much that its supposed to somehow secure it as well. Not working all that well. Then there is the whole MS is a large monopolistic company badboy who abuses the little guy.
Secure: This is a little harder. As I said, KISS is the generally accepted theory behind everything, and that can work for programming as well. I think that MS is combining everything so much that its just about impossible for them to trully secure anything. With that said, all software can be so complex that it may never be secure and this applies to Firefox and Mozilla as well.
Spyware: Unlike IE, mozilla and Firefox were the first browsers to come up with and implement spyware and popup security features. Firefox started out as a browser that was fighting these annoying things on the net. Firefox specifically disables features by default whereas IE was set up to allow everything. Sure ms has changed its tune now and has added popup blockers and some spyware protection, but still not enough.
Tabbed browsing: If you haven't seen it its simply amazing. You can open a new tab in your browser instead of a 2nd browser and load a webpage. This is advantageous in many ways. It keeps your desktop cleaner of windows. Its always nice to only have 1 browser open with 8 tabs then to have 8 browsers open. Within One browser I usually have all my message boards and news sites open. During the day I can take a break from work, bring up the browser and one by one move through the tabs to check out the latest posts and then the latest news.
Speed: Firefox is blazing fast. Why? Because all it is is a very small and finetuned browser. It doesn't have a million things integrated into it. It is meant to be a browser and that is all it is. Remember, Kiss.
Usability: Firefox is just as usable as IE and all the other browsers. It has all the common scripts integrated into it and it interacts with windows just as well as IE. All the common media files will play through the plugins that are installed when you set up the Program.
Download managers: Both Mozilla and Firefox have awesome download managers. These things pop up and keep track of one or more downloads at the same time in the same window. You can pause a download, stop one, remove it, resume it and play it when you downloaded it. IE doesn't come with any type of a download manager program, it just has the little windows that pop up for each download.
Compatibility: YOu can use the same browser on any operating system you choose. Linux, Windows, Unix, Apple.
Mozilla.org: Completely open source. You may in fact already be using firefox even if its not called firefox. Mozilla foundation creates browsers that can be used as a basis for other people's browsers. People write pluggins, addons for firefox and mozilla or they create their own line of browsers. (companies do this a lot of time to include their name on some part of their software package that browses the net.)
There is only one problem with Mozilla and firefox except its not a problem with them, its a problem with the way people write websites. Mozilla foundation (used to be Netscape back in the day) decided that their browser would fully support the html standard but would strictly support it and not allow the common mistakes that people make when creating a website. Microsoft in all their wisdom subscribes to idiots so they allow for certain mistakes and still display the website instead of displaying it the way the standard demands. Not to mention that MS rewrites standards before they are even released by the standard boddies. As a result, certain dynamic webpages that display fine in IE have problems in Mozilla and firefox.
Firefox: Mozilla foundation's fast browser (only) package
Mozilla: Mozilla foundation's larger browser with extra features included.
You can also try Opera or Netscape. Opera has been around for a good 7 or 8 years and was the fastest browser on a dialup connection. They are still one of the best open source browsers out there, similar to firefox.
Netscape is currently based on Firefox 1.0, with some extra netscape stuff included.
-ET
Not made by MS: Sure that sounds like a stupid reason, but ms has some elementary flaws with their whole system and its that they have integrated it so much with windows and all kinds of scripting languages that there is a new way to hack IE or get spyware into your system just about every other day. Sure MS can make secure computer systems, but it seems they are just trying to complicate usage so much that its supposed to somehow secure it as well. Not working all that well. Then there is the whole MS is a large monopolistic company badboy who abuses the little guy.
Secure: This is a little harder. As I said, KISS is the generally accepted theory behind everything, and that can work for programming as well. I think that MS is combining everything so much that its just about impossible for them to trully secure anything. With that said, all software can be so complex that it may never be secure and this applies to Firefox and Mozilla as well.
Spyware: Unlike IE, mozilla and Firefox were the first browsers to come up with and implement spyware and popup security features. Firefox started out as a browser that was fighting these annoying things on the net. Firefox specifically disables features by default whereas IE was set up to allow everything. Sure ms has changed its tune now and has added popup blockers and some spyware protection, but still not enough.
Tabbed browsing: If you haven't seen it its simply amazing. You can open a new tab in your browser instead of a 2nd browser and load a webpage. This is advantageous in many ways. It keeps your desktop cleaner of windows. Its always nice to only have 1 browser open with 8 tabs then to have 8 browsers open. Within One browser I usually have all my message boards and news sites open. During the day I can take a break from work, bring up the browser and one by one move through the tabs to check out the latest posts and then the latest news.
Speed: Firefox is blazing fast. Why? Because all it is is a very small and finetuned browser. It doesn't have a million things integrated into it. It is meant to be a browser and that is all it is. Remember, Kiss.
Usability: Firefox is just as usable as IE and all the other browsers. It has all the common scripts integrated into it and it interacts with windows just as well as IE. All the common media files will play through the plugins that are installed when you set up the Program.
Download managers: Both Mozilla and Firefox have awesome download managers. These things pop up and keep track of one or more downloads at the same time in the same window. You can pause a download, stop one, remove it, resume it and play it when you downloaded it. IE doesn't come with any type of a download manager program, it just has the little windows that pop up for each download.
Compatibility: YOu can use the same browser on any operating system you choose. Linux, Windows, Unix, Apple.
Mozilla.org: Completely open source. You may in fact already be using firefox even if its not called firefox. Mozilla foundation creates browsers that can be used as a basis for other people's browsers. People write pluggins, addons for firefox and mozilla or they create their own line of browsers. (companies do this a lot of time to include their name on some part of their software package that browses the net.)
There is only one problem with Mozilla and firefox except its not a problem with them, its a problem with the way people write websites. Mozilla foundation (used to be Netscape back in the day) decided that their browser would fully support the html standard but would strictly support it and not allow the common mistakes that people make when creating a website. Microsoft in all their wisdom subscribes to idiots so they allow for certain mistakes and still display the website instead of displaying it the way the standard demands. Not to mention that MS rewrites standards before they are even released by the standard boddies. As a result, certain dynamic webpages that display fine in IE have problems in Mozilla and firefox.
Firefox: Mozilla foundation's fast browser (only) package
Mozilla: Mozilla foundation's larger browser with extra features included.
You can also try Opera or Netscape. Opera has been around for a good 7 or 8 years and was the fastest browser on a dialup connection. They are still one of the best open source browsers out there, similar to firefox.
Netscape is currently based on Firefox 1.0, with some extra netscape stuff included.
-ET
RACK that.Red wrote:Two words: Tabbed Browsing
It's truly life-altering.
I've only been using Firefox for about 3 weeks but with the exception of updates, it's all I use now. I'm sure I'm not even close to using it to its fullest capabilities either. (So much I don't know about yet, I'm sure).
Thing is, I still catch myself going down to the bottom of the screen to "switch windows" instead of going up to the tabs. I HATE THAT! :)
I've downloaded most of the plug-ins I think and maybe a couple of extensions (including Tweak Network) but if any of you have any suggestions on maximizing Firefox's performance, fire away.
Oh, and I downloaded and am using Thunderbird too!
FIGHT ON!
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ElTaco
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CTRL + Tab to cycle through the tab. I love using Alt + Tab to switch between windows so when I finally took the time to look up CTRL + Tab, I started using it. One problem is that it doesn't work like the Alt+Tab combo in windows (in other words you can't keep going back and forth between two specific tabs if you have 10 of them open). As a result, I still end up using the mouse.
There are some other neat features that I've bragged about in Mozilla and firefox. You cannot easily use IE to browse a forum. I can go almost as fast with a mouse as I can without one. The Mozilla browser can search for links if you type it out. For example, click on the background and start typing 'The one board.com forum index'. At some point the selection will jump to the link in the bottom. With image links just jump to the text link before or after it and then use tab or shift tab to move to the image link (like the Post reply link for example).
Note that this feature doesn't seem to be available in firefox, but it has many other features that make browsing easier.
-ET
There are some other neat features that I've bragged about in Mozilla and firefox. You cannot easily use IE to browse a forum. I can go almost as fast with a mouse as I can without one. The Mozilla browser can search for links if you type it out. For example, click on the background and start typing 'The one board.com forum index'. At some point the selection will jump to the link in the bottom. With image links just jump to the text link before or after it and then use tab or shift tab to move to the image link (like the Post reply link for example).
Note that this feature doesn't seem to be available in firefox, but it has many other features that make browsing easier.
-ET
My one lingering complaint is that the browser seems to handle embedded java applets very slowly. Undoubtably that is due to the ass-backwards way that MS itself handles java...
King Crimson wrote:anytime you have a smoke tunnel and it's not Judas Priest in the mid 80's....watch out.
mvscal wrote:France totally kicks ass.
I'll say this...I recently broke down and got a new laptop. The Sun Java was installed w/ XP Home by default...I was rather amazed. On that machine, java loads pretty smoothly, and I haven't noticeda lag with firefox and java on that machine.
BTW...anyone who uses a java applet for a fucking ROLLOVER in 2005 should be drawn and quartered. Java should be used for shit like chat rooms, chess games, weather report interfaces...NOT something that you can do better with one line of javascript.
BTW...anyone who uses a java applet for a fucking ROLLOVER in 2005 should be drawn and quartered. Java should be used for shit like chat rooms, chess games, weather report interfaces...NOT something that you can do better with one line of javascript.
King Crimson wrote:anytime you have a smoke tunnel and it's not Judas Priest in the mid 80's....watch out.
mvscal wrote:France totally kicks ass.
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ElTaco
- Networking Securely
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- Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:12 pm
- Location: Northern VA
- Contact:
Another interesting tidbit:
Speakeasy ( http://www.speakeasy.net/ ), one of the larger DSL providers in the US has decided to offer a special version of Firefox under its own label. They are using it as an improvement to their service. The browser will include their logo and links that they recommend.
Maybe we could get together and create a T1B browser?
-ET
Speakeasy ( http://www.speakeasy.net/ ), one of the larger DSL providers in the US has decided to offer a special version of Firefox under its own label. They are using it as an improvement to their service. The browser will include their logo and links that they recommend.
Maybe we could get together and create a T1B browser?
-ET
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ElTaco
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No takers for the T1B Firefox browser? Oh well. :D
O'Reilly is getting ready to release two books about Firefox.
One is Firefox Hacks for power users (sup Tech forum regulars).
The second is Don't Click on the Blue E! for those wishing to change over from IE.
O'Reilly is getting ready to release two books about Firefox.
One is Firefox Hacks for power users (sup Tech forum regulars).
The second is Don't Click on the Blue E! for those wishing to change over from IE.
sorry, didn't see this. Personally, I eliminate all browser decorations as quickly as possible after install. We'd put something together, and I'd be looking to AdBlock it after like a day. ;)
King Crimson wrote:anytime you have a smoke tunnel and it's not Judas Priest in the mid 80's....watch out.
mvscal wrote:France totally kicks ass.
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ElTaco
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Thats not how it works. You replace the icons, links, bookmarks, homepage and the name. You can add in any addins that we like and so on so forth (like a dictionary, phpbb, adblock, etc...)
Then when new members ask about firefox, we can point them to our browser.
Anyway, it was mainly a joke because I don't feel like doing it.
Then when new members ask about firefox, we can point them to our browser.
Anyway, it was mainly a joke because I don't feel like doing it.