Klar's Journal: Firefox... what's that?

I've been very reluctant to try firefox after being accustomed to using IE for such a long time. Also, I had a bad experience of using an earlier version on mozilla at school, which was very very slow at loading pages.

I finally decided to give it a try. I just didn't feel that I deserved to consider myself a geek and read slashdot if I didn't at least try to stray from microsoft in the browser department..

I've been playing around with it for a few hours so far, and I'm still debating on using it for my default browser. As for looks, I think it is a bit more pleasing on the eyes, especially with easy to change themes. For speed, in my tests IE has been slightly faster at rendering pages. I'm actually impressed with tabbed browsing--I didn't expect it to help much, but so far, it seems to make things a lot quicker.

More testing will be required before I make my final decision. If you are thinking about trying it, I'd say to go for it. Nothing to lose but an hour of play time.

Anyone recommend any good extensions that I should try? Right now I'm using the gmail one, and it seems pretty good.

Firefox Extensions

[stretch0611]

I have not tried the Gmail Extensions, but I am hoping [slashdot.org] to...

I Enjoy:

• Web Developer [mozilla.org]
• WebmailCompose [mozilla.org]
• Linkification [mozilla.org]
• Adblock [mozilla.org]
• Flash Block [mozdev.org]

As someone just starting to leave IE you will probably like IE View [mozilla.org]

Extensions

[kbranch]

I don't think that Firefox is all that great in it's default configuration. It really comes into its own when you configure it exactly the way you want via extensions.

I'm not really sure why, but Firefox .9 broke quite a few of the extensions I really like. The new extension list mozilla.org links to is also far smaller than it used to be. You can find the old list here [texturizer.net].

I use .8 on my desktop and .9 on my laptop and don't really see much difference other than the extension manager and the default

Re:Extensions

[Crazy_MYKL]

Tabbrowser Extensions works on 0.9, grab it from Extension Room [mozdev.org].

Some fun stuff

[tqft]

I see All-In-One gestures listed above - highly recommended - so

Firesomething for some everyday fun. Changes the titlebar. Ok pretty pointless but why use Firfox when you can use (currently) Firecow.

blockfall (tetris-like game extension)
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-i nfo/blockfal l

Extensions to use....

[MvD_Moscow]

IMHO, firefox is good enough even in its defualt setup. Btw, did the rendering speeds seem slower or did you use service like http://www.numion.com/Stopwatch/

Extensions that I can't live without:
ChromeEdit (a fast method to edit different config files like user.js)
Sage (if you are into RSS)
Search Button (to customise the search bar's behaviour)
Session saver (a must if your experimenting with extensions)
Single window (useful if you use tabs) Spellbound (an ok spellchecker)
Cutemenus

Btw, the best

spellbound and sage

[LWATCDR]

Sage for RSS feeds.
Spellbound is a must have spell checker.

One of my favorite features

[Epistax]

Is the search bar. I used firefox(bird) for months but ignored it. A couple days ago I decided to check it out and all I can say is wow. I can search imdb, a dictionary, wikipedia and google all without having to follow a bookmark or typing in the page first. There are many other options but those are the choices for me.
Aside from these I use all the adblocking I can get my hands on.

extensions

[next1]

- tabbrowser extensions
- user agent switcher (rarely needed but when you do it's there)
- live http headers
- adblock
- chatzilla

are all good extensions i have installed.