Firefox/Thunderbird Plugins: Is Less More?

comforteagle writes "I've published the first of a two part look at the new dynamic duo of Mozilla's Firefox and Thunderbird. While most folks thus far agree with the 'less is more' mantra when it comes to the base applications, the plugins seem to be a different story. Hey, there's little wiggle room to debate that the firefox base application (the subject of the first article) isn't the shizzle, but how about the add-ons and plugins? For that matter, do you agree that less is more. or is too little included?"

Less really is more

[Roland Piquepaille]

Dillo [dillo.org] is a fast, small footprint, neat little web browser.

I still use Moz mail for my mail though, but that's mainly because I have megabytes of old mail in hundreds of folders and I want to keep accessing them.

Love it

[cybermace5]

It's great to be able to pick and choose stuff, without everything under the sun installed and enabled. I hate mouse gestures, but can't live without click-to-view Flash and the User Agent Switcher.

Re:Flash

[semifamous]

Yes, but when you don't want Flash, this is wonderful. [mozdev.org] The flash ad shows up as a button that you have to click on instead of having something playing background music or talking to you in the background...

Good stuff.

Re:Google Bar

[Josh Mast]

You are aware Firefox has a search entry box that can use google, right?

Mod up the coward!

[Anonymous Coward]

site gone from the planet, article text:

There are two wildly successful open source projects right now that are sweeping across Windows, Mac & Linux desktops. Firefox and Thunderbird. Both applications have two distinct characteristics. They are stripped down versions of their predecessor - the Mozilla bundle, and both are based on a plugin structure allowing users to include only features they want or need permitting them to remain simple to use.

In this first of two installments we take a look at Mozilla's Firefox web browser.

Mozilla Firefox is the next generation open source Internet browser from the Mozilla Foundation, and is set to succeed Mozilla Navigator as the default browser for the Mozilla suite of applications at some point in the near future. Firefox and its sister project Mozilla Thunderbird (the new Mozilla mail and news client) are standalone projects which can be run in isolation from one another, making it possible to replace your tired standard browser with a fresh copy of Firefox without getting all the extra bloat you won't use. It's exactly this approach and thinking which lies at the heart of the project and is behind its phenomenal success. The Firefox project was started in 2003 with the aim of becoming the best browser for Microsoft Windows as a result of the disillusionment of a group of developers with the current Navigator program. The group wanted to create a browser to illustrate what a browser could be if it was based on the Gecko layout engine and XPFE with no commercial constraints and no feature creep. At the same time they aimed to strip down the user interface and redesign it until it achieved the goal of being an efficient easy to use way to access the web. Simplicity was and is the projects goal with the embracing of the "less is more" adage, something which I believe they have achieved.

".. if only all open source programs were like this."

At the time of writing Firefox is currently version 0.8 and fully workable as it approaches its milestone 1.0 release. Its release schedule is focused not on deadlines but rather when the browser is ready after the bugs have been squashed and the appropriate features have been implemented. The positive affect of this is that its not a project which is pressurised to fulfil commercial deadlines and therefore focuses more on the quality of the product. This approach can often be found to be lacking in open source programs as they increasing comply with commercial demands.

The method of installation of the program depends on what operating system you are using. If you're using Windows or Mac OS X then there's an easy to use installer which will quickly and without fuss install the program for you. Linux users on the other hand are slightly disadvantaged as there is no installer for the precompiled version although one is planned for 0.9 and above. And of course as with any other open source application the source code is also available for you to compile from scratch if you feel so inclined.

"Firefox really excels in its simplicity, which is a real credit to the developers. They've managed to keep a tight control on the features included in the browser by saying "no" to a lot of submissions. There is no clutter in the browser and the whole experience is one which is focused solely on how a normal user accesses the internet."

Once you've got Firefox installed and loaded you're instantly struck by the simplicity of the program and the feeling that it "just works", this is mainly a result of the less is more attitude which the developers have applied throughout. The user interface throughout the program is well thought out and intuitive, everything is exactly where you'd expect to find it so there's no hunting for this or that as with so many other programs out there. The simplicity of the user interface also has something to do with the fewer features which Firefox has, which makes it harder to clutter up the menus. Overall the menus and dialogues have been well thought ou

Re:Google Bar

[semifamous]

You mean this one? [mozdev.org]

I don't understand. One exists. Did you not know that, or not like the way it is implemented?

Re:addblock

[bubkus_jones]

Flash block is the other one I always get, with adblock.

Re:Less is the opposite of more

[SoCalChris]

Posted from Mozilla Spacemonkey

You're still using Spacemonkey? I'm runing Mozilla Uberphoenix.

On a serious note, the Web Developer [texturizer.net] pluging can't be beat. It allows you to do many useful things, such as turning off CSS at a site that doesn't use it properly, plus a whole list of other useful tools for web developers.

Where's the composer?

[DdJ]

I might be able to handle the "less is more" philosophy, as long as in the end all the old functionality is available.

But where's the composer? The WYSIWYG HTML editor that's a part of Mozilla? It's really not bad. I'd hate for it to disappear.

Re:firebird problems

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Personally I just can't stand the Download manager. But happily there is a solution. btw that is the greatest thing about Mozilla et al. Pretty much not matter what your problem there is almost always an extension or workaround to give you what you want.
Anway, as I was saying there is an an extension you might want to check out. Downloadwith. You can set it up so that wget or getright etc handle your downloads etc. Nothing mindblowing since it is of course possible to just use say Getright with IE but it s dandy way to get around the download manager and offers some decent customization options.
I use wget and it works pretty well.

Re:I'm sorry...

[kamapuaa]

..but did you mean to use the word "shizzle"?

I'm glad to see the legacy of E-40 [allhiphop.com] getting distilled all the way down to Slashdot.

Although I'm waiting for it to be an option on Babelfish.

Re:Wow

[IthnkImParanoid]

http://texturizer.net/firefox/faq.html#q2.2 [texturizer.net]

It requires a registry key to be added if you installed from a zip file.

Re:Barebones and plugins = good

[mldl]

Don't worry about it. Everyone feels exactly the same. Once Firefox 0.9 arrives this will be totally different as extensions, themes and updating Firefox itself will all be handled by a gooey new managers.

Follow Ben Goodger's blog [mozillazine.org] if you need some ammo to show people Firefox is still improving.

By the time 1.0 comes around all of the little annoyances will probably be gone.

Re:whoopie shit

[afidel]

Wow, stupidity huh. That's why I work as a successful consultant solving customer problems every day. Not to mention the fact that I'm pulling a 4.0 part way through my second bachelors. Btw CAT and PET scans clearly show a different physical and electrical structure to the brains of people with ADD. Go away little troll.

Re:New tech buzzword?

[LostCluster]

I can see "Shizzle" going into the tech term dictionary in the same way SimCity 2000 introduced the term "Reticulating Splines" [patcoston.com].

Those might be two real words, but they're absoutely meaningless when used together. In reality, when any of the Sim* games show that phrase, they just mean "Please Wait..." because they're doing various tasks that they don't want to explain to the users.

Re:Flash

[Jugalator]

Is that better than adblock? It blocks selected Flash ads too (with a button you can click to prevent that too, I think). It also blocks most other things a user could wish for too. :)

Re:Where's the composer?

[xEndymionx]

Nvu! [nvu.com]

Re:Where's the composer?

[jdawg]

Right now, it's called Nvu. Glaz says he'll be contributing the code back to Mozilla.org so they can make a stand-alone Composer app.

http://www.nvu.com

See also Glaz's blog:
http://glazman.org/weblog/dotclear/index.ph p?Nvu

Re:Google Bar

[damballah]

Firefox does have a google tool bar [texturizer.net]

Re:Google Bar

[Anonymous Coward]

In Firebird/Firefox, just press "/" to do an incremental search through the document (Ctrl-g and Ctrl-G to move forward and backward). You can do an incremental search on the links by just typing. This functionality is far better than Google Toolbar's. There is no annoying clicking on buttons to search through the page. That is why I don't use IE with Google Toolbar as my main browser.

FlashBlock used to be called FlashClickToPlay

[sbszine]

I use both in conjunction. Adblock blocks nominated Flash entirely (which is good for ads), whereas Flashblock makes a space in the page for Flash content, but prevents it from playing until you click on it. Sometimes (almost never, but sometimes) Flash is worth seeing.

Re:Google Bar

[cybermace5]

Well, everyone who uses Firefox knows that you can simply start typing letters to find links with those words in them, them F3 to find the next link. Also, if you type / and then the words you're looking for, it automatically finds them in the plaintext. That, to me, is much handier than any in-page search toolbar.

Re:I like the simple but expandable model

[(54)T-Dub]

I love firefox, but the thing I find most annoying are the options. The default options is laughable in it's lack of customizablility. The Things they left out [texturizer.net] does somewhat better, but also covers some wacky settings I couldn't give 2 cents about. about:config is like my dad's garage. Sure it has everything you need to build a car/house/small government ... but try and find a screwdriver in that mess.

I complain because I wish there was better tab management. As a windows developer who uses gvim I tend to have dozens of windows open at any one time, so having one browser with multiple tabs is a godsend. What I really need, however, is to have all external links (email, trillian, url files) open in a new TAB. Not a freaking window, and not over the current tab I have open. I used Tabbrwoser Extensions [texturizer.net] for a while and loved the functionality of it. I eventually tracked a nasty bug back to it however. Once or twice a day my CPU would kick into overdrive, 99% used up by firefox. I would have to kill it to get control back and would subsequently loose all my various web pages. As a web developer I found this extremely frustrating. Alas I'm forced to disable my favorite extension and I've been unable to find another one that works properly or a property in about:config that does what I need .... [/rant] *gasp* I need a breath

The Joy of plugins - where to start

[aaron_pet]

Trivial is the firefox plugin that I install most often. It allows me to increase and decrease the font size with just a click (like konqueror, but better)

Autoscroll, is now included by default, but This was one that i installed on every firefox machine I found. It is so essential for people moving from a windows world without carpel tunnel syndrom, to the linux world.. who would like to keep their wrist tendons intact.

Radial Context buttons, are super neat, they are pretty non standard... but they are better than mouse gestures... which are also available as a plugin :)

menu compactor (I forget the name of this) I just plain don't use the bookmarks toolbar entry, the Tools, the Help, the Edit... occasionally.. and very rarely the file menu..

So I get back some screen space by compacting it into a single entry!

SVG... this feels like the future... flash without flash..

----
now for the browser plugins for which so many peopel were confused about...

mplayerplug-in isn't working with the nightly builds of firefox right now, but it is so sweet, i can't wait for the next version.

flash -- gotta have it

java -- gotta have it too

for the plugins, I symlink... er copy recently, the systems plugin foulders to /home/aaron/work/firefox/firefox/plugins

then expand the nighly tarball
tar -xvvzf firefox-

I'm using it with GTK2 and xft. (anti aliased fonts baby!) They do provide a nighly build for this!!

at the time of this posting:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8a) Gecko/20040513 Firefox/0.8.0+
is the last semi-stable firefox for linux. (it crashes occasionally, but it's a nightly build!)

Oh, the Firefox 0.9 will have BEAutifull new icons. They are crisper than 0.8's

If You're not using firefox.. I'll look at you funny

Re:I like the simple but expandable model

[Sylver Dragon]

There really should be an option to open all links in a new tab. Perhaps there is a convenient hot key? (Ctrl+click) That's mighty nice but there should still be a single click mode.

What's wrong with the middle-click to open a link in a new tab? Granted that most of us who use Windows regularly don't have a middle button, but this is as good of reason as any to finally upgrade that old mouse. And some, like myself, already have a middle button, and love the ability to middle click to open in a new tab, as opposed to the left click to open in the same tab. Of course, I use the Mozilla suite as a whole (I just got used to my email client and browser being one app. Plus, I do update my web site occasionally.) But, the option to have the middle-click to open in a new tab is in FireFox .8, which I use at work (browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick)

Re:I'm sorry...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not so much that, but the fact that the word was *incorrectly* used by someone who is probably nerdy and white.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=f o' +shizzle+my+nizzle

Shizzle is not a relacement for "shiznit", but some people have misinterpreted it to be so, because they believe that any "SH" word can be used as "shizzle".

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=s hi znit&f=1

Yes. There is some structure to ebonics.

Less is not more.

[AnotherBlackHat]

Less is better.

- not a .sig

Re:addblock

[pbox]

My prefernce list is:

1. mouse gestures - rocker rocks!
2. flash click to view - stop annoyance
3. adblock - stop watchin me
4. compact menu - more space for content
5. toolbar enhancements - right click is natural
6. download statusbar - say no to default download mgr
7. cutemenus - they just so cute
8. user agent switcher - for scripts by stuppid webmonkeys
9. image zoomer - sometimes better to see
10. thing they left out - animate once
11. firebird grippies - grippable frames
12. smoothwheel - logitech wheels suck
13. firesomething - to poke fun at moz devs
14. bookmark links checker - if you got lotsa them

Thunderbird:

1. Quotecolors - just nicer

Re:Love it

[rainman_bc]

Live HTTP Headers is a godsend for those working on web scraping and stuff.

The web developer tools are amazing too -> being able to resize the browser to different resolutions on the fly, send your code to different validators, view form information on the fly, dom information, etc etc. What an amazing set of utilities.

Keep up the good work!

Re:Speaking of the download manager

[Adam9]

Bug #229062 [mozilla.org]. It's target is set for 1.0beta. It should get fixed.. eventually ;)

Re:I like the simple but expandable model

[rpdillon]

Just set your helper web application in whatever program to run:

mozilla-firefox -remote "openURL(%u, new-tab)"

This will bind to an already existing instance and just open the new tab, leaving everything else as is. I think the new tab does take focus though, which is appropriate.

Re:URI support!!!!

[BZ]

That support is already there. Since there is no "standard" app for telnet (or ssh), Mozilla doesn't have one preset, but you could set one yourself. It works on Windows because on Windows there is a standard API to ask the OS what app should handle a protocol. Linux has no such beastie, though on modern GNOME systems the gtk2 builds will pick up the gnome-vfs preferences for this (which of course sucks if you happen to be a KDE user; this is where an actual working OpenDesktop thing would be nice).

Re:Speaking of the download manager

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's how I solved it (or so I remember):

Go to the "about:config" page.
Make the following changes:
"browser.download.manager.showAlertOnCom plete"=fal se
"browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting"=fa lse

Hope that helps.

Re:I like the simple but expandable model

[theCoder]

I don't know if this will work on Windows, but this is my solution on UNIX. My /usr/bin/mozilla is really just a shell script wrapper. Near the end of the script, I replaced "openurl($optlast,new-window)" with "openurl($optlast,new-tab)". Then I sent my default browser action (I think it was a GNOME property, but it's sometimes app specific) to run /usr/bin/mozilla with the URL as the argument (that's pretty standard anyway). Now, whenever I click a link, it opens in a new tab.

The only problem I've had with this is that on Solaris, of the Mozilla window is on another virtual desktop, when the page loads, Mozilla is moved to the current desktop (instead of waiting for me to go to it). This is probably just a CDE issue, though.

Works great on Linux, though. In fact, the weirdest thing is clicking on a link on an app running from a different machine and having it (probably through some $DISPLAY and X magic) tell Mozilla running locally to open the URL. Exactly what you'd want, but not what you'd expect. Now, if only I could get that (and my other fix to make Mozilla and Thunderbird play nice together) be the standard so I wouldn't have to repatch every release.

Re:I'm sorry...

[edoc]

It's fo shizzle you insensitive clod.

Re:addblock

[MachDelta]

Nice picks ya got there.

Myself, I try to keep FF as simple as I can possibly stand it:
Flash Click to View (aka: Flashblock) - No more flash ads is wonderful. Sometimes this extension can be annoying (you have to re-click after every page load), but IMO people should just use less friggin Flash.
All-in-One Gestures - Best. Extension. Evar. I know some people don't like mouse gestures, but I am completely hooked on them. I can do anything, anywhere, faster. I'm even to the point where my navigation bar is hidden - I never have to use it!
Things They Left Out (TTLO) - Just adds some more handy options. Most of them I never use, but some are really nice to have (MIME types, for one).
Nuke Anything - Everyone should have this extension. EVERYONE. Mouse gestures are preference, but as far as i'm concerned, NukeAnything should just be built right into the core. Being able to remove almost ANY aspect of a page is invaluable. Don't like an image? Nuke it. Don't like a paragraph of text? Nuke it. Text entry box? You can nuke that too. Just click on anything, select "Remove this object", and poof - its gone! The only thing it doesn't work for is flash... which is why we have FlashBlock!
Popup Count - Pure curiosity. I like to know when a webpage tries to spam me with popups so I can make a mental note of never visiting there again.
Show Failed URL - Something that should be default behavior IMO
Tabbrowser Extensions (TBE) - Another extension I couldn't live without. All the excellent options and abilities this thing gives you is almost overwhelming. It can take a while to set up, but once you get your mix right, you'll love it.
Download Statusbar - Download boxes suck. This extension is ten times better than Firefoxes "feature".
IEView - For those oh so rare occasions when I need to view a website in IE. I can just pop into teh devil's tool for a second, do my business, and get the hell back out.
CuteMenus - Makes it easier to browse context menus at a glance. I just wish you could define custom icons for other extensions' additions.
Firesomething - Because "Mozilla UberBadger" is just funny.


But hey, thats just me. Everyone else can have whatever the heck they want - which is why extensions RULE! :)

Replacing Tabbrowser Extensions

[Manuzhai]

There's a thread [mozillazine.org] on the MozillaZine forums that lists some smaller extensions you can use to get most of the TBE functionality without TBE (since some consider it bloated, and with bloat comes complexity, with complexity comes bugs).

Re:Speaking of the download manager

[TheMysteriousFuture]

Of course you know that <a href>'ing from slashdot to bugzilla is not allowed right?