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Last post Author Topic: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful  (Read 766096 times)

Deozaan

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #900 on: February 13, 2017, 05:40 PM »
Warning on Ghacks: Firefox Focus privacy scandal

First of all: Maybe you missed the update which says their source was full of errors.
Secondly: I've started using Brave quite a bit lately to improve privacy.

4wd

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #901 on: February 13, 2017, 06:18 PM »
Warning on Ghacks: Firefox Focus privacy scandal

First of all: Maybe you missed the update which says their source was full of errors.
Secondly: I've started using Brave quite a bit lately to improve privacy.

If you don't mind not being able to install extensions, a portable browser based on WebKit/Qt, built-in adblocking, built-in user data encryption, HTTPS anywhere, etc, etc you could give Dooble a try ... if nothing else it's another browser to add to the mix  :P

By default, nothing is kept from a session unless a passphrase has been set:
2017-02-14 11_21_46.png
« Last Edit: February 13, 2017, 08:03 PM by 4wd, Reason: My grammar sucketh royally today ... »

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #902 on: February 13, 2017, 07:58 PM »
@Deozaan: Hey, ta muchly for that pointer to Brave. I had completely forgotten about your posting about it. Shall try it out.
As for the Mozilla/Focus thing, I did see the update, but regardless of what Mozilla claim to be reporting errors, I shall remain skeptical until the offending report is "corrected" by its authors.
I looked at what they wrote and, being skeptical, was aware that it was apparently an issue rather than being certain. I will be interested to see whether they admit to being mistaken. I figured they probably wouldn't have been so definite in what they had written if they had not been able to substantiate it. Still, one never knows, journalists having demonstrated pretty ably by now that the art of factual investigative journalism seems to be dead.

@4wd: Thanks for the pointer to Dooble (sigh). Now I shall have to try it out...

EDIT 2017-02-15:
Browser - Brave: I downloaded and tried to install this, but ran into a brick wall (as in, "it wouldn't install"). I then figured out that it was not a simple "fire-and-forget" install for Windows, and it seemed to require some arcane knowledge and tools to make it all work. At that point I pulled the plug as I don't have the time, inclination or patience to muck about with a kludgy browser utility installation. A browser is a common utility, and its installation either works, or it doesn't and it didn't. End of. For all I know, it might have been a good browser, and I'm sure I probably wasn't able to do it justice, but there we are. Oh dear, what a pity, never mind.

Browser - dooble: I downloaded, installed and briefly trialled dooble, but though it seemed quite a nifty and "lite" browser (nice GUI as well!), it had some ergonomic idiosyncrasies, some of which were rather good and some which I didn't particularly want to have to live with or adapt my working methods to, so I uninstalled it. Pity, really.

Browser - Firefox!: I also updated my favourite - Firefox (via the beta channel) - but it's got so bloody awful now that after starting up the latest updated version and tediously fixing all the broken bits that seem to get broken with every.ruddy.update. and watching it crawl blindly about the floor like some creature seeking a sluggish and quiet death, I thought "Ah, sod it. This thing seems to have become nothing but trouble now." and put it out of its misery. I shut it down in disgust and went back to using Slimjet - which is still stable as all heck and it pains me that I don't have any real criticism of it. I must be missing something...    :tellme:
« Last Edit: February 14, 2017, 12:18 PM by IainB »

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #903 on: February 14, 2017, 12:27 PM »
@Deozaan: I updated my comment above with some feedback on Brave. Thanks for the pointer anyway.

@4wd: I updated my comment above with some feedback on dooble. Thanks for the pointer anyway.

Deozaan

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #904 on: February 14, 2017, 01:05 PM »
Not to get too off-topic, but FWIW I had no problems with the Brave installer. It "just worked" for me. Sorry your experience with it wasn't the same in that regard.

Further discussion about Brave (or other browsers) probably ought to be in a new/different thread to prevent this one from being derailed/hijacked.

panzer

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #905 on: February 15, 2017, 02:48 PM »
Further discussion about Brave (or other browsers) probably ought to be in a new/different thread to prevent this one from being derailed/hijacked.

There are so many browsers out there that you'll need at least another forum for that, let alone another thread.

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #906 on: February 15, 2017, 03:23 PM »
There are so many browsers out there that you'll need at least another forum for that, let alone another thread.

Yes. Maybe that could be a good reason for considering having a separate board in this forum, reserved for all browser-related discussion threads - including this one.    :tellme:

IainB

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dantheman

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #908 on: March 19, 2017, 12:35 PM »
And the top extension are... going bye bye!

See why at Ghacks.

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #909 on: March 19, 2017, 08:18 PM »
And the top extension are... going bye bye!
See why at Ghacks.
________________________
Thanks for posting that @dantheman. Depressing reading, really. I used to read everything ghacks wrote about FF (Firefox), but since embarking on a migration (exit) away from FF and towards Slimjet (after trialling it), I've tended to not spend much time on FF and had just let it languish.
After reading that ghacks post though, I did some thinking about it and reviewed my exit-and-migration-strategy - which really is more of a trial-and-error path away from FF --> Slimjet than a real "strategy" per se.

I had been on the FF beta channel, which had become unbearable for me, as every new update seemed to break a load of stuff - more than it introduced new/good functionality - so FF had become of incrementally reducing usefulness to me. So, yesterday I did a FF "refresh", but that didn't seem to help matters, so I expunged FF beta and went backwards, installing the latest current "stable" version. - v52.0.1 (32-bit). I restored all the FF add-ons from Sync (which seems to work quite well nowadays, though, from experience, the corresponding Slimjet Sync seems better - more reliable). Surprisingly, that version of FF seems to start up quite nicely - not that I'm actually able to use it very much. In fact, it's not really usable, as the "awesome bar" doesn't seem to work very well. That bar used to live up to its name, but now when one enters a URL and clicks on the "go to" button, presses enter or Ctrl-R (Refresh), nothing happens. Can't get it to work. Doing a FF "Refresh" evidently makes no difference. Can't even go to about:config to see what might be the problem!    :tellme:
No useful help in the discussion forums either. This is what I mean about FF - it increasingly seems to be the case that it is simply nothing but trouble, a time bandit. Life's too short. I don't want to spend my cognitive surplus worrying about trying to fix such perpetually breaking stuff, nor do I want to have to drag around a mechanic to fix FF for me, wherever I go, for the rest of FF's product life.

There were several FF add-ons and functionality that were my main reasons for sticking with FF. Now I am in a "replacement mode" where I am finding effective substitutes in Slimjet - substitutes for those FF add-ons and functionality. A key FF add-on for me was Scrapbook and I now have a good/better and non-proprietary substitute for Scrapbook in Slimjet. The migration of the old Scrapbook legacy database (which contains a few thousand records) is still a data management problem to be solved elegantly though, but I can meanwhile use FF to manage that database (though it's a kludgy approach as I had already gone beyond the boundaries of the Scrapbook data management functionality, which is rather kludgy in that regard).    :-[

There's one bit of intrinsically useful FF functionality (not an add-on, I think) that I am currently trying to find a substitute for in Slimjet.
It is this: When the FF user right-clicks on a page, a menu pops up, which includes two entries somewhere in the middle of the menu list of entries:
  • View page source.
  • View page info.
Clicking the "View page info." item gives something like this (see image below) - which offers a seriously useful piece of functionality that I cannot yet see how to get replicated in Slimjet:

20_656x634_DD2F1D7C.png

I apologise in advance and acknowledge that, now that I have stated it as being a "...a seriously useful piece of functionality...", this could well risk drawing unwanted attention to said functionality and be taken as a signal for Mozilla to break said functionality as they strive to maintain their seemingly remorseless dive to the bottom with FF.

EDIT 2017-04-09 1628hrs: Page Info window - View technical details about the page you are on
« Last Edit: April 08, 2017, 11:28 PM by IainB »

dantheman

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #910 on: March 20, 2017, 05:31 AM »
@IanB,

Not sure about:config issue since it works well for me.
But for the rest of your observations, i cannot, not agree! :P
Sure, there top notch extensions but there are also all those lesser known that you count on when you need them.
As you so elaborately well exposed, there so many more issues that have come along, adding to the fuel to make die-hard FF users irrevocably disgruntled...  >:(
We just don't have much choice than to look elsewhere for a viable solution.  :(

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Sunset of Googlebar Lite.
« Reply #911 on: April 09, 2017, 01:12 AM »
Another one bites the dust.
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
Sunset of Googlebar Lite
April 6, 2017.
As of today, I am officially withdrawing my development support for the Googlebar Lite Firefox extension. I’m aware that the extension no longer works well in the latest builds of Firefox, and I have absolutely no desire to fix them. Mozilla’s development environment has gotten pretty irritating as of late, and I just don’t have the cycles (or the drive) to fix the issues that exist.
The future of Firefox add-ons lies in WebExtensions, and toolbar support in that arena is pretty bare-bones (last I looked). The default Firefox search box meets most needs, which has motivated me to drop this extension.
For those that are so-inclined, I will accept pull requests at the official googlebarlite repo. Or, you can fork the project and roll your own.

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Simple Gmail Notes.
« Reply #912 on: April 09, 2017, 01:24 AM »
Just discovered this today. I was adding the Chrome Simple Gmail Notes extension to Slimjet and noticed that they had a Firefox version too.

I didn't know it existed until today. Looks potentially very handy.

Curt

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #913 on: April 16, 2017, 10:47 AM »
I have just moved from an old laptop to an old but stronger and faster x64 PC. I also moved my Firefox settings, but was disappointed that all the favicons now were missing from the bookmark manager.


Favicon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A favicon /ˈfæv.ɪˌkɒn/ (short for favorite icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons, associated with a particular website or web page. A web designer can create such an icon and upload it to a website (or web page) by several means, and graphical web browsers will then make use of it. Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page's favicon in the browser's address bar (sometimes in the history as well) and next to the page's name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page's favicon next to the page's title on the tab, and site-specific browsers use the favicon as a desktop icon.

Wikipedia_favicon_in_Firefox_on_KDE.pngFirefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

Favicons can also be used to have a textless favourite site, saving space.
-Wikipedia explaining Favicon

It turned out that the usual trick, FavIcon Reloader, is out of date and therefore has a new name: FavIcon Reloader up to FF 48 only!

Taking a new PC into use, easily becomes a period full of disappointments - and I was annoyed and disappointed for a couple of days, because I could not find anything that would do the trick. But suddenly I looked at the words in a new way: Ehh... How hard can it be, Curt? I removed Firefox 52 and re-installed Firefox 48 and 'FavIcon Reloader up to FF 48 only' - and ran it. Yes, of course it is working with version 48, hence its name! I then upgraded to version 52 and was delighted to see all the small pictures smiling at me again :-)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/faviconreloader  :up:
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

MilesAhead

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #914 on: April 17, 2017, 07:51 AM »
@Curt I hate running without favicons o any browser.  So I will go to some length to get them loaded.  If you have your FF already backed up there may be very little risk to the folowing scheme.  Get a FF installer for the last version that supports the AddOn and install it.  Install and run the favicon getter.  If favicons seem normal I would log off, then back on just to make sure they are flushed to disk.  Run the latest FF installer.  You should still have your favicons

FF used to balk if you tried to downgrade but they removed that block some time ago.  I regularly install older versions on top with no particular issues.  It is probably the easiest way to get the favicons back short of visiting the sites manually.

(Sorry if typos.  I am on a 7 inch tablet.  It has a keyboard but the text is pretty small to read.)

Curt

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #915 on: April 18, 2017, 02:25 PM »
Because this 'new' PC of mine has more brute power, than what I have been used to, ever before, I didn't try to ease its burden, but simply have installed ALL my favourite add-ons:

My favourite add-ons
Application: Firefox 53.0,
Operating System: WINNT (x86_64-msvc)


Also, the bookmarklet Print Friendly & PDF https://www.printfriendly.com/ must be mentioned  :up:

-----
post modified:

it saddens me to now realize that most addons (in my spoiler) are not including the proper link to Mozilla. I am not sure I will take the time to correct that many :-(
« Last Edit: April 29, 2017, 06:58 AM by Curt, Reason: Mozilla links »

dantheman

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #916 on: April 18, 2017, 07:54 PM »
@Curt,

I'm surprised you don't have "Beyond Australis" on your list.
Wish someone could come up with a good substitute before November comes around...  :'(

Using beta 53 64bit at present and it is weird that the new dark compact theme Mozilla has, works at first then it stops on restart. Conflict with other addons maybe. Pitty, it's about the only thing i like about the newer Firefox.

Have FTDeep Dark as default for ages now to fall back on, but i'm afraid that this most excellent complete theme will be in the gutter too on that 11th month. More tears...

Btw, was that the correct link to Google Yandex reverse image search?
« Last Edit: April 19, 2017, 05:22 AM by dantheman, Reason: forgot one thing »

Mikekolly

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #917 on: April 19, 2017, 12:59 PM »
I am using these extension:-

Del.icio.us
Adblock 0.5.2.039
FlashBlock
FlashGot 0.5.9.98
Tab Preview 0.3
Translate 0.6.0.8
NoScript
Web Developer 0.9.4
PDF Download
ListZilla 0.7
NoScript
Screen grab! 0.6
 :)

Curt

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #918 on: April 19, 2017, 06:14 PM »
@dantheman

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-yandex-reverse/ is created by the owner of dmtr.org, and he likes to advertise it. Thank you for telling! I have corrected the link (in my previous post).

Beyond Australis is looking good, but I use the less good looking Classic Theme Restorer which is more versatile. You may say I am going the opposite direction of FT Deep Dark, as my eyes don't like black on black. Our Dirhael would have loved it: https://www.donation...82.msg74597#msg74597 (click desktop_wip.jpg)

Still half a year to hope for the best.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2017, 06:01 PM by Curt »

dantheman

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #919 on: April 19, 2017, 07:33 PM »
Nice screenshot from Dirhael for sure!
Your Arizona cave shot was pretty cool as well!  :-*
FT Deep Dark, better than all other dark themes I've tried.
Don't usually like dark black, but this one has its niche.

FEBE has always been a default for me.
Mozilla muffs up on syncing at times so it's always nice to have a plan b.

Half a year to hope for the best.
Yup.
Just wished Mozilla could do something better than adding an extra theme or two with a promise of better security with extensions.

IainB

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #920 on: April 20, 2017, 02:35 PM »
"Your Arizona cave shot was pretty cool as well!"
Well, with someone whose avatar was a caveman, one would expect them to say that...

MilesAhead

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #921 on: April 20, 2017, 04:01 PM »
"Your Arizona cave shot was pretty cool as well!"
Well, with someone whose avatar was a caveman, one would expect them to say that...


165px-Fred_Flintstone.pngFirefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful


yabba dabba do!




Curt

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #922 on: April 22, 2017, 12:14 AM »
Form fillers will not be what they used to be


1) Form History Control end-of-life?
Saturday, February 4, 2017 | 16:55

As much as I like to further develop the FHC add-on, the upcoming changes by Mozilla make it very difficult, if not impossible, to keep this add-on compatible with future versions of Firefox.

The changes needed to make FHC multiprocess (aka Electrolysis or e10s) compatible are surely possible and probably not very hard to do (although it does probably take many, many hours of work to implement), but the changes needed to make it WebExtensions compatible and maintain it's current features are almost certainly impossible.

The API's supported by WebExtensions do not include an API for accessing the formhistory which is the base for one of the core features of this add-on.
Furthermore this add-on relies heavily on XUL for the GUI and that is also gone under WebExtensions, so the complete GUI and all its interactions have to be rewritten from scratch.

According to the timeline of mozilla, it looks like WebExtensions are becoming the standard for add-on development in Firefox and will be the only type of add-on supported in Firefox by the end of 2017. (see wiki.mozilla.org and blog.mozilla.org)

All things considered I have to conclude that this Form History Control add-on has come end-of-life.

----------------------------------

2) Form History Control II
Monday, March 20, 2017 | 12:59

I am happy to announce that work on porting this extension to e10s and web-extensions has started.

Not all functionality from the current version can be ported due to limitations imposed by the new API.
Due to he lack of a decent FileIO-API importing and exporting history will be impossible. The new API is also missing services to interact with the browsers internal Formhistory storage, so the new add-on must gather and maintain its own copy.
--
-Stephan Mahieu, formhistory.blogspot

Curt

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #923 on: August 28, 2017, 08:11 AM »
a lot more addons were ruined by the last Firefox update. I have removed it and moved to "ESR" (Firefox Extended Support Release ESR):
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/52.3.0/releasenotes/

This way one can keep all the extensions and still have a browser accepted/made by Mozilla.

Deozaan

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Re: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful
« Reply #924 on: August 28, 2017, 03:45 PM »
This way one can keep all the extensions and still have a browser accepted/made by Mozilla.

For now...  :(