Yesterday was a somewhat slow day, so I spent some time on the housekeeping of my Firefox browser. Somehow I managed to accumulate a lot of extensions, themes, plugins, bookmarks, bookmarklets, and what not. It felt like a good time to clean the mess up a bit.
I spent about two hours going through the list of all installed pieces, upgrading outdated versions, changing old solutions to the modern alternatives, getting new tools, and so on. I have to say that after that effort my Firefox works faster, and it suits me better now. One of the biggest changes from my previous setup became the use of Tab Kit extension. Among its many features, it has the one that I’ve been passively looking for for a long time now – tab bar on the right side, instead of top, but not as a part of the sidebar, and with a tree view. Combined with Aging Tabs extension, the result is exactly the way I wanted it.
(it is better in real life than it is on the screenshot)
Now when I open links from the site in the new tabs, these new tabs are organized in a tree like structure. Tabs that I haven’t yet visited are highlighted in green. Current tab is highlighted in blue, as usual. And the rest of the tabs are coloured in different shades of grey, depending on how long ago I last viewed them. Also, because the tab bar is separate from the sidebar, I can get an additional panel on demand, with an application that I need the most at the moment, without sacrificing my precious tabs.
And just in case you are wondering which other extensions I am using, continue reading for the list of all extensions, which was generated by one of the extensions on that list.
Application: Firefox 3.0.1 (2008071615)
Operating System: Linux (x86-gcc3)
Total number of items: 42
- Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.1.3Synchronizes Adblock with Filterset.G
- Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5Ads were yesterday!
- Aging Tabs 0.7.1Makes unused tabs fade with age and highlights the selected tab.
- All-in-One Sidebar 0.7.6Sidebar control with award-winning user experience!
- Better Flickr 0.3A compilation of useful Greasemonkey scripts for Flickr. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the Help tab for more information.
- Better GCal 0.3Enhances Google Calendar with a compilation of user scripts and styles. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the Help tab for more information.
- Better Gmail 2 0.6.1Enhances Gmail with a compilation of user scripts and styles. All scripts copyright their original authors. Click on the script homepage in the Help tab for more information.
- Better GReader 0.3Enhances Google Reader with a compilation of user scripts and styles.
- Callout 0.3.2.1Notification Services for Javascript
- CustomizeGoogle 0.75Enhance Google search results and remove ads and spam.
- CyberSearch 0.9.10Adds advanced Google Search capabilities to the Firefox 3 address bar.
- Delicious Bookmarks 2.0.95Access your bookmarks wherever you go and keep them organized no matter how many you have.
- Download Statusbar 0.9.6.3View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar
- Dummy Lipsum 2.3.0Generate “Lorem Ipsum” dummy text.
- Extended Copy Menu 1.5Provides the option to copy selection as plain text or html.
- Extended Statusbar 1.2.8A Statusbar with Speed, Percentage, Time and loaded size (like Opera’s one)
- Extension List Dumper 1.14.1Dumps a list of the installed extensions.
- Find In Tabs 0.3.1.1Searches for text in all tabs.
- Firebug 1.1.0b12Web Development Evolved.
- Firefox Showcase 0.9.4.9Easily locate any tab you’ve opened in Firefox.
- FirePHP 0.1.1Firebug Extension for AJAX Development
- Flagfox 3.2.8Displays a flag depicting the location of the current server
- Flashblock 1.5.6Replaces Flash objects with a button you can click to view them.
- FoxClocks 2.4.91Displays local times around the world in the statusbar/toolbar. Supports virtually all time zones.
- Gmail Manager 0.5.5Gmail accounts management and new mail notifications.
- Google Gears 0.4.15.0These are the gears that power the tubes! :-)
- Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.1.20080605LTake the power of Google with you anywhere on the Web!
- GUtil! 2.3.2Google® Utilities in your Firefox Menu and Toolbar
- IMDb Preview 0.5Preview movie & actor posters when hovering over their IMDb links.
- Linkification 1.3.5Converts text links into genuine, clickable links.
- Pencil 1.0.3Sketching, simplified
- Session Manager 0.6.1.13Saves and restores the state of all windows.
- Tab Kit 0.4.3Tab grouping, multi-rows, tree view, and other tweaks.
- Tabs Open Relative 0.3.3Tabs open to the right of the current one.
- TimeTracker 1.2.4Track the time you spend browsing.
- TwitKit 1.1An extension that adds a Twitter sidebar to your browsing experience!
- TwitterFox 1.6.1This extension lets you know twitter statuses.
- Update Notifier 0.1.5.4Notifies you when updates are available for your extensions and themes.
- URL Link 2.02.2Allow navigation to broken/unlinked URLs
- View Dependencies 0.3.3.0Adds a tab listing dependencies and their sizes in the Page Info window.
- Web Developer 1.1.6Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
- YSlow 0.9.5b2Make your pages faster with Yahoo!’s performance lint tool.