Firefox – A Blog by Franklin Pettit

Am I dinosaur? I use Firefox!

I saw several blog post tonight discussing the continual decline of Internet Explorer. IE finally dropped under 50% for the month of September. (Techcrunch)(Mashable)

Just under 50% use IE the most non-compliant insecure browser available. But largely that group does not know better or has no choice. You know the folks who refer to their desktop IE icon as “the Internet.” The ones who call you, their tech savvy friend or relative, and say, “I started up my computer and the Internet was gone.” Someone call the FBI and put out a “Red Alert”: the Internet is missing.

In late 2010 I cannot imagine using IE6. As a web developer IE causes more day to day problems than I can count. I do not code for IE6. IE7 and IE8 are headaches in their own right. I spent this summer in the redesign of a website and 99% of the compatibility problems where related to IE.

But, my primary browser is still Firefox. Yes I know Chrome is fast. Yes I know Chrome has addons. Yes I know Chrome is closing on all the other browsers like a freight train. It’s latest percentage share finds it at 11.54%.

Firefox simply has the set of addons I require on a day to day basis. Firebug (not Firebug Lite)(DL) is still Firefox only. I can not function on a daily basis without it. Tab Mix Plus another add-on allows me to control tab behavior and how links open up. I have used it for years. I must have it.

So, I am early adopter no more but a relic, a fossil limping along in Firefox. But for now functionality is king.

By the way if someone finds “the Internet” let me know.

8 FireFox Extensions That Are New To Me

firefox

With a new job came a new computer, new work OS, new Screen resolution, and a new number of screens. So a new computer and OS includes a fresh Firefox install.

In this post I will describe my current Firefox extensions. In my new job I am currently doing web development primarily.

Some of these addons are very new to me. A new Firefox install is a good opportunity to find out which extensions you can not live without. I will always install Tab Mix Plus. It is the first extension I install. The very first one.

Please do not forget about other gems like Ad-Block plus, Copy Plain Text, and Feedly. First here is my list of new extensions to me. These are new ones that I have personally used only in the last couple of months. My total list of installed addons totals 24. As always the lists are easily generated with InfoLister.

New To Me Extensions

All-in-One Sidebar (Gives the sidebar power. It has made me use the sidebar more and not neglect its power.)
ColorZilla (For Web Dev – Very popular. Makes It easy to view colors on any page.)
FaviconizeTab (Tab customization. Shrink tab to favicon width only.)
Firebug (For Web Dev – Very popular. I now know why.)
MeasureIt (For Web Dev – Measure anything on your screen in pixels. Cool.)
Searchbar Autosizer (Puts the Searchbar very small out of the way and then auto-expands as needed.)
Split Browser (Great for a wide screen monitor like I now have. Gives you the ability to see 2 tabs at once.)
Web Developer (For Web Dev – Very popular. More web dev functions. Try it you will like.)

Other Addons Installed

What am I missing? These are just some tools I have been using. Help me out!

What tools make life in Windows Vista on a wide screen monitor complete?

What other important web developer extensions am I missing?

My Blog Has Been Louis Grayed!

Yes this is a good thing. In fact it is a very good thing. Louis Gray is one of the premier Tech bloggers writing today. I visit his site daily and even have an email subscription to make sure I do not miss a post.

Louis has shown great interest and respect for the small unknown blogger. Since March he has been profiling 5 Blogs a month. March, April, May and June. The small blogs he has spotlighted have taken off and many are must reads in my google reader now. These blogs have included Hutch Carpenter, Charlie Anzman, SheGeeks, Julian Baldwin, Michael Fruchter, Mark Dykeman, Colin Walker, Alexander van Elsas, and many other outstanding blogs.

I am honored to be included in the list for July. I am included in great company. I already subscribe to two of them. I have already been reading Nathaniel Payne’s NerdFlood and David Risley but can not wait to check out the other two as well. Here is the list:

1) Bob Warfield / SmoothSpan Blog (smoothspan.wordpress.com)

2) Jesse Stay / Stay N’ Alive (www.jessestay.com)

3) Franklin Pettit / FPettit.com (www.fpettit.com)

4) Nathaniel Payne / NerdFlood (www.nerdflood.com)

5) David Risley / DavidRisley.com (www.davidrisley.com)

Thanks Louis for the link and mention. I am honored to be in the company of your monthly featured bloggers. I better get posting. I currently have 33 open drafts in WordPress. It is time to finish some off and put out more content.

Firefox How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count My Add-Ons

Mozilla annouced today that FireFox 3 Download day was a success. A world record was set with 8,002,530 downloads in a 24 hour period.

The much hyped download day was not without its problems as we remember. But the record was set and FireFox 3 is great.

If you do not use FireFox click the button above and download it now. I will admit I was a little late to the FireFox party. Although probably still qualifying as an early adopter I did hesitate switching from IE.

The reason to switch is addons. The FireFox wealth of browser extensions make it the must use browser for Windows.

The following is my everyday list of addons that I run. If I had to pick one and only one it would be Tab Mix Plus. I can not run FireFox without it. Tab Mix Plus gives you total control over your Tab behavior.

Here is my list of the current addons I am running. Info Lister does a great job of listing the extensions and plugins you have installed. As a result it was very easy to produce this list.

I love FireFox 3 but unfortunately some of my favorite extensions from the list have not been updated yet. FireFox without the extensions is still a great browser but the addons make it the only one I ever use.

Firefox 3 Goes Live and Mozilla’s Site Goes Down

This is Firefox 3 live day. They have been promoting Download day for a while. At this time though it looks like the mozilla’s website has gone under due to the traffic volume. I can not get the site to load. I will try later. Download here.

Update: I got the site to load but the download link is still for Firefox 2.

Update 2: Try this direct download link for the Windows version of firefox 3. Bwana McCall posted links over on FriendFeed for Linux and MAC as well.

Better Google Reader

Better GReader is a Firefox extension by Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. This Firefox extension combines many Google Reader Greasemonkey extensions into one easy installable package.

I updated to the newest version 0.2.5 that includes a Greasemonkey script with enhancement to the feed icons.

The addon uses each sites favicon as the feed icon. Pretty cool. You can download the Greasemonkey script only here.

Finally here is a link to the Lifehacker post about Better GReader.