Build it yourself, for yourself.
I use my extensions to give myself the browser I can only dream of having. But, it takes a while to find the best ones, so here, I will give you what I have found and why I like them. I have tested most of these on both Windows XP and on Linux (Ubuntu 5.10) so you should be able to use them there. I am not sure about the Mac usage though.
First, always start with a fresh Firefox download from here.
Next, the goods- Extensions:
Install with setup:
Here you will find the items which I go get as soon as I install Firefox. Let me say that my intention is not to show where to get them all, a Google search will do that, if you include the version number. I don't want to give a bunch of links that are outdated every time a new version comes out, but I will give you the names.
- All-In-One Sidebar 0.6.4
- For your sake, get this one ASAP. It makes your life much easer if you are able to use it. I actually move mine to the right side of the screen, since I am hitting my scroll bar there anyway.
- Colorful Tabs 1.1
- This really helps keeping tabs separated as you will have different colors for each tab.
- Button Pack 0.7.8
- Button Pack gives you some great tool bar versions of menu options, including one buttone that, when left-clicked goes to the top of the page and when right-clicked goes to the bottom
- del.icio.us 1.1
- del.icio.us 0.5.11
- This may look redundant, but one is from del.icio.us itself and the other is from another site, Extension Mirrors I think, but I am not 100% sure on that one. I like the menu the official one gives, but the subscription button from the second is better.
- Flashblock 1.5.1
- I hate forced Flash. It feels like an eye-rape with some of the stuff they put out there. If you have sites you must go to, you can always whitelist them.
- Greasemonkey 0.6.4
- Never know when you will need it, and I use it to block Google Adsense ads, as I have visual trouble reading text next to them.
- IE Tab 1.0.8
- I hate IE for some of the forcing it does, but sometimes you have to use it. This at least keeps it tabbed up like you know you want it. And set *.microsoft.com/* to be used under IE Tab always. It helps.
- My Portal 1.0.4
- You can use this as your start page and just have all of your bookmarks here. Using a little experimentation, you can build a start page with this as it will hold RSS feeds and Search Bookmarklets both.
- Noia 2.0 (eXtreme) 3.01
- This is my favoriate theme and I use it for my desktop too.
- Searchbar Autosizer 1.0.6
- SearchPluginHacks 0.1.3
- This gives me a searchbar I can customize and add/remove engines from at will.
- SpellBound Development 0.9.8.20060108
- I cannot spell. Everything I spell in Word ends with <F7>.
- Tab Mix Plus 0.3.0.5
- It adds tons of tab functions along with a session saver.
- Update Notifier 0.1.2
- This really helps keeping everything up to date.
- Xinha Here! 0.9
- If you do a lot of posting or editing of web pages that allow HTML but don't have a full toolset for it, this is "da bomb" as they say.
Install as soon as possible after setup
Now, here is a list of the items which I add as soon as possible.
- Download Manager Tweak 0.7.1
- This fixes a few missing items for the default download manager.
- Foxylicious 0.6
- This is very useful for times when I cannot get to del.icio.us to update my bookmarks as it will synch it to my local folder.
- FoxyTunes 1.1.5.4
- FoxyTunes Skin – Aqua Bubbles 2.0
- I can control my WinAmp out of my status bar with a full featured control set. And the Aqua bubbles matches my Noia icons.
- Gmail Manager 0.4.3.6
- AWESOME Gmail addin. I would recomend this to anyone using gmail.
- SiteAdvisor Firefox Extension 20.0
- If you ever browse, ahem, questionable sites, you want this. It will tell you risk factors about the sites you are on or search for.
Install if needed or to test
Here is what else I have currently that either I am trying out or I am not 100% convinced about yet. I won't go into them in detail, but let me say that ListZilla is great for letting you know what you have installed, including every extension and theme.
- Adblock Plus 0.6.1.2
- BugMeNot 1.3
- Compact Menu 1.7.4.5
- Customizable Toolbar Buttons 0.1.6
- CuteMenus – Crystal SVG 0.9.9.72
- DownThemAll! 0.9.8.7
- FireFTP 0.90.1.1
- FireFTP button 1.1
- Grocery List Generator 1.21
- jsLib 0.1.340
- ListZilla 0.7
- ODFReader 0.1.1
- Talkback 1.5.0.1
If you would like to see how I work with these, here is a screenshot of my desktop.
