Lets say your computer has limited resources and you can only use five Firefox add-ons when browsing the Internet. Tell me, which would you choose and why. I’m currently cutting down on the Firefox extensions that I’m actively using because I felt that Firefox was using to much memory when I started it without opening a website at all.
This was largely due to the massive amount of extensions and themes that I had installed. After discovering that I could reduce the memory usage of Firefox by more than 15 Megabytes by simply reducing the amount of add-ons and themes I was using I decided to do just that.
I removed all themes but the default one and got rid of a handful of add-ons that I was using either because it was convenient to use them or because they would add a function that I was using from time to time. Add-ons that fell into this category where the Adsense Notifier add-on, the Google Toolbar, the StumbleUpon Toolbar, Gmail Notifier, Tab Mix Plus and others.
Several of the features that I was using were also available in one extension. As an example, the Search Status extension is displaying the Pagerank and the Alexa rank of the active website and I was able to remove the Google Toolbar and the Alexa Toolbar because of this.
I added Gmail to Thunderbird which made the Gmail Notifier obsolete because I run Thunderbird all day long. Five add-ons remained after this that I can’t live without, they are:
Adblock Plus – that’s my number one Firefox extension, can’t live without it.
Firebug – if you are a web developer you need this extension. It displays an unbelievable amount of information, great when working with CSS for instance.
Greasemonkey – a wonderful add-on that adds so much functionality.
Search Status – displays the Pagerank and Alexa rank among other things. Offers great information if you do SEO.
Tiny Menu – can’t live without the Tiny Menu anymore. All my menus, address bar and everything else is in one row on top. Saves lots of space.
Which Firefox add-ons can’t you live without ?
Related posts:
Alexa changes their rankingsGoogle Reader Notifier for Firefox
Tiny Menus for Firefox
Get Notified in Firefox about new mail
Tiny Menu Firefox Extension
Change Firefox Themes instantly with Personas
Firefox Extensions that I use
Personal Menu for Firefox
Adblock plus- love it
Greasemonkey- like you said- adds so much functionality
Speed dial- I find that really really useful
Stumble toolbar if you count that as an add-on- what would I do with my free time without that?
NoScript- love it, ok may be a pain to keep having to accept pages but it also blocks ads and other nasties :D
Great blog as always :D
Screen estate isn’t a premium on my box, although I do have a minimal layout. If I was limited to 5, I’d probably say ABP, StumbleUpon, FaviconizeTab, Stylish and PersonalMenu (I prefer the consistency of using an icon).
for me:
downloadhelper
ie tab
flashgot
Greasemonkey
Minifox theme
Downloadthemall
Faviconizetab
Fullerscreen
I have to really be careful when I goto friends houses because I want to install a bunch of extensions on their firefox.
Firebug – Perfect for programming, also very useful for downloading hidden things such as backgroundmusic and so on ;)
FireFTP – Fast, easy to handle. Like it very much for hosting my files.
Adblock Plus – Nothing left to say :)
All-in-One Sidebar – Looks nice, gives you a good overview.
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer – Who don’t like to have his bookmarks on every Computer available. Automatic synchronizing.
If there are some “mistakes” in my comment: Call it swiss-english, but I wanted it like that :D
Here are my top 5, most quite developer related:
- Web Developer
- Search Status
- ColorZilla
- Dictionary Search
- Fint Finder
But in fact, I need at least 10 add-ons minimum as an absolute must…
my favorites, as a user and not developper, are:
- download statusbar(very useful to get rid of the download window)
- mouse gestures (an absolute must-have for me. my fav one from far)
- adblock plus (huge must-have too)
- unofficial googlebar (with instant search and highlights)
- scrapbook(very useful for cleaning and preparing a page before printing it or storing it)
after that, I still didn’t figured out how to use greasemonkey correctly to make it useful for me. And for development, the developer toolbar is a must-have too.
Sorry, but I don’t see any point in cutting add-ons:
======================
Created: Fri Jan 04 2008 23:55:47 GMT+0200 (FLE Standard Time)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ru; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
ID сборки: 2007112718
Extensions: [25]
- Adblock Plus 0.7.5.3: http://adblockplus.org/
- Back to Top 5.0: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions
- CLEO 3.1: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions
- DOM Inspector 1.8.1.11: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/inspector/
- DownloadHelper 2.5.3: http://www.downloadhelper.net
- Dr.Web anti-virus link checker 1.0.15: http://www.drweb.com/
- ErrorZilla Mod 0.2: http://www.jaybaldwin.com/News.aspx?id=51
- Fasterfox 2.0.0: http://fasterfox.mozdev.org/
- FEBE 5.1.1: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions
- FlashGot 0.7.1: http://flashgot.net
- Forecastfox Enhanced 0.9.5.2: http://users.rcn.com/shoofy/forecastfox_enhanced/
- FoxyProxy 2.6.2: http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org
- ImgLikeOpera 0.6.15: http://imglikeopera.mozdev.org/
- Java Console 6.0.03: http://www.google.com/search?q=Firefox%20Java%20Console
- Morning Coffee 1.26: http://shaneliesegang.com/projects/coffee.php
- Mouse Gestures 1.5.2: http://www.mousegestures.org/
- MR Tech Local Install 5.3.2.6: http://www.mrtech.com/extensions/local_install/
- NoScript 1.1.9.6: http://noscript.net
- OpenBook 1.3.4.1: http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/
- Speed Dial 0.5.0.7: http://speeddial.uworks.net/
- Tab Mix Plus 0.3.6: http://tmp.garyr.net
- Talkback 2.0.0.11: http://talkback.mozilla.org/
- Ukrainian dictionary 1.4.0: http://ispell-uk.sourceforge.net/
- United States English Dictionary 2.0.0.6: http://www.blogzilla.info/spellchecker/
- VideoDownloader 1.1.1: http://videodownloader.net/
Themes: [2]
- Firefox (default): http://www.mozilla.org/
- Noia 2.0 (eXtreme) 3.371: http://kasteo.deviantart.com/
Plugins: (5)
- Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U3
- Microsoft® DRM
- Mozilla Default Plug-in
- Shockwave Flash
- Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
=================
And all that with 9 open pages – below 70Mb (~68), what is slim against my 1 Gb of RAM on my home PC (on working PC I got 2 Gb).
Ad block plus – you don’t realise just how much this does until you use someone elses computer
Tiny menu – Screen space is precious ona 1280×800 laptop
delicious – how did I cope without tagged bookmarks before?
google toolbar – Yes I know theres google built into firefox, but one search box can control pretty much all my google apps, and theres loads more functionaility built in
greasemonkey – as said already, its just so damn good
As others have said
-Webdeveloper
-SearchStatus
-delicious bookmarks
-Adblock Plus
-HTML Validator
bonus add-ons (if we get to go over 5)
-MeasureIt
Adblock Plus
IE Tab
All In One Sidebar
Download Helper
Download Statusbar
Ad Block Plus w/ Rick’s list
Flashblock
NoScript
Gmail Manager
Tab Mix Plus
Martin you are not making sense. You saved 15 whole MB? Wow. That’s impressive [not].
How much physical memory do you have on your computer? I have 2GB.
I just restarted FF to get a reading of memory reading minus the usual memory leak so well known to FF users. With 54 tabs open in 2 windows, I am using:
InMem KB….Private KB….Total KB
259,112…….248,136…….399,612
Would 15MB make any real difference in these totals? I think not. I have over 1GB of free Windows memory available right now.
Anyway, if I had to choose only 5 FF apps (out of the 40 or so I have installed), I might choose:
1. Adblock PLus
2. Scrapbook
3. Noscript
4. Flashblock
5. Permit cookies
If you gave me 5 more, I’d add:
6. Cooliris
7. Plain old Favorites
8. IE View
9. Fetch Text URL
10. Download Helper
- All in one Gestures, Closing tabs with an L rocks
- Flashblock, No you can’t play music or show a goofy ad!
- Google Toolbar – Autofill, Bookmarks, Highlighted searches, so much power…
- Tabbrowser Preferences, set in my tabbed browsing ways.
- ColorfulTabs, silly yet mildly useful.
-Adblock Plus
-Firebug
-Web Developer
-Auto Copy
-DownThemAll
Bonus:
-ColorfulTabs
-Adblock Plus
-Stumbleupon toolbar
-CustomizeGoogle (no longer need to click “Next Page” to see more results as the page scrolls endlessly!)
-Hyperwords
-Greasemonkey
Adblock Plus
Auto Copy
No script
Personal Menu
Download Statusbar
———–
Almost there:
Fission
Searchbar Autosizer
Greasemonkey
1. Canadian-English dictionary
2. Customize-google ( when it works) :/
3. Downloadthemall!
4. About this site bookmarks
5. Fission
Noteables
6. Orbit Downloader firefox integration
7.Password exporter
Can’t live without Mouse Gestures
I’d go for the following five:
- Hit-A-Hint: keyboard shortcuts to all links/fields
- ViewMyCurrency – automatically translate all currencies to your local currency
- Download Statusbar – better download status.
- Firebug: for JavaScript debugging
- Google Notebook: for saving snippets and pages publish them as RSS
(Adblock Plus makes my browser way too slow…)
1. Adblock Plus – very useful to clean up frequently visited sites
2. All-in-One Gestures – mouse gestures
3. ScrapBook – incredible useful add-on for web based researches that allows you to save and annotate any web page.
4. Tab Mix Plus
5. Flashblock – useful for slow machines when visit the web pages full of flashes
1. Adblock Plus
2. Scrapbook
3. Firebug
4. Unplug
5. KeyScrambler
My top five:
1. Tab Mix Plus
2. Adblock Plus
3. Download Statusbar
4. Greasemonkey
5. Past and Go 2 (this one is very useful)