dria.org

[I use a Mac, so all the images in this post are of the Mac user interface. The UI for other platforms will differ slightly. Click on pictures to view other sizes.]

Plugins are small third-party programs that can be added to Firefox to manage content that Firefox does not handle itself. Popular plugins include Adobe’s Flash player, Quicktime, Windows Media Player, Java, RealPlayer, and Shockwave. Without the Flash plugin, for example, you wouldn’t be able to watch YouTube videos.

In Firefox 2 the only way to get information about what plugins you have installed is to type “about:plugins” in the location bar. This brings up a page of somewhat complicated, detailed information about the plugins that looks like the following screenshot. The page is a simple list of information — there is no way to interact with the plugins through the page at all.

Firefox 3 still has the about:plugins page, but also offers a much more useful new feature as part of the revamped Add-ons Manager. In Firefox 3, you can open the Plugins section of the Add-ons Manager by going to the “Tools” menu, selecting “Add-ons”, then clicking on the “Plugins” tab of the Add-on Manager.

Here you can see a much simpler and easier to understand list of installed plugins and their version numbers. Each plugin can also be enabled or disabled with a single click, and you can go to the original source of the plugin (if it is specified) by right-clicking and selecting “Visit Home Page”.

In addition, like with other add-ons in Firefox 3, if a plugin is found to contain a security vulnerability, Firefox will automatically disable it and tell you where to get an updated version. This is a significant security improvement for Firefox, which previously had no way to let you know that you had bad plugins installed. The list of blocked plugins is stored locally on your computer, and Firefox periodically verifies that the list is completely up to date. If Mozilla knows about a vulnerable plugin, you’ll be informed and protected automatically within 24 hours.

And there you have it. Another small but vital improvement that makes Firefox 3 significantly safer and easier to use.

Being involved with Firefox development and testing is both an honour and a privilege. The one major drawback to being on the bleeding edge of the Mozillaverse, however, is that none of your add-ons ever work. Sure, I’ve had the absolute joy of using the Smart Location Bar (aka: Awesomebar) for ages, but I’ve also been living without any of my add-ons for months. It’s been hard. Very, very hard.

Naturally, when faced with the choice between using the new Firefox 3 features with no add-ons and reverting to Firefox 2 and getting all my add-ons back, I stuck with Firefox 3. I’m not kidding when I say that Firefox 3 is better than Firefox 2 in pretty much every possible way. It’s awesome and there’s no way I’m going back. Now, however, I don’t have to choose one over the other — with the recent delivery of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, I get to have my cake and eat it too.

Release Candidate 1, you see, coincides with the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) site adding support for the final add-ons MaxVersion update. This means that all Firefox add-ons can now finally be updated such that they will work with the final release of Firefox 3. Lots of add-on developers have been waiting for this, so a huge number of add-ons are now getting updated. I spent yesterday going through the list and playing with some of my favourites, and it’s like Christmas has come seven months early.

I know a lot of folks are waiting for add-ons to get updated before diving in to help test the Firefox 3 release candidate, but now’s your chance. Dozens of add-ons are being updated to work with Firefox 3 every day, and there are hundreds already set to go. Here’s a list of 20 I’ve installed and checked out (arranged conveniently in alphabetical order):

Adblock Plus - This one does pretty much what it says on the box: Adblock blocks ads, and does so with grace and aplomb. This is one of the universals that pretty much every Firefox user I know has installed, and is one of the hardest to live without. Also updated for Firefox 3 is the Adblock Filterset.G Updater add-on companion for Adblock.

Download Statusbar - While the Firefox 3 download manager has been revamped, some folks have slightly more hardcore download requirements, which is where Download Statusbar comes in. Freshly updated for Firefox 3, this is one of the more popular Firefox add-ons out there.

Faviconize Tab - This is the one add-on I really have a hard time living without, and I’m unbelievably happy it’s finally updated for Firefox 3. I danced a dance of joy when I was finally able to stop overriding my add-ons compatibility check (which is generally a terrible idea) and could actually install Faviconize Tab for real. Such a simple thing, but such an incredibly useful thing. I love this add-on.

Firefox Companion for Ebay - I’m still a little afraid of Ebay (impulse shopping habits + credit card + 24hr access to a world of awesome things to buy = fear), but I do use the Companion to watch some of the more interesting auctions I run across.

Flashblock - One of the more infuriating things about trying to read on the Web are the flippy flashy animated doodads that hover around the margins making it impossible to focus. This is pretty much what Flashblock is created to fix, blocking the animated fiddlybits until you click a button on each to display it. This is a vital sanity saver for me, and I’m really glad it’s updated now.

FlashGot - If you do a lot of downloading, FlashGot is a must-have Firefox add-on. This being updated for Firefox 3 is going to save me a ton of time and mouseclicks.

Forecastfox - Being Canadian and currently on the edge of summer, I’m a little obsessed with the weather these days. When it’s not raining, or cold, or too windy to stand up, or dark, it’s actually gorgeous out, and keeping close track of when that sun is going to shine is a vital part of day-to-day life in May. Forecastfox being ready for Firefox 3 means I don’t have to obsessive-compulsively reload the Environment Canada website any more.

GooglePreview - This is actually a “new to me” add-on that I discovered yesterday, but it’s really great. Again, it’s simple and unobtrusive, just quietly enhancing your Web experience without getting in your way. What it does is add a small preview thumbnail to your Google search results. It’s just neat.

Live HTTP Headers - This one’s for the Web Developers in the audience, as it lets you view the running stream of HTTP headers of the pages you browse. Very useful, and ready for Firefox 3.

Mouse Gestures - This is another “new to me” add-on that I was playing with yesterday that may change how I use the Web. I never really thought much about mouse gestures until I started using them, and it turns out they’re actually pretty awesome. I’ll definitely be messing around with this one for a while to see if the novelty wears off, or whether it’ll be a long-term sort of add-on for me.

NoScript - NoScript is a hugely popular security-related add-on that gives Firefox users very fine-grained control over what JavaScript, Java, and executable content is allowed to run in the browser.

ScribeFire - Formerly known as “Performancing”, ScribeFire is a very cool and full-featured blog editor that integrates with Firefox. Now that it’s ready for Firefox 3 I’m going to start using it again — it makes sense to have a blog editor integrated with a browser, in my opinion, because blogging is so absolutely tied to the Web. ScribeFire has come a long way since its original launch, so if you haven’t checked it out lately, you should take it for a spin.

Shareaholic - If you’re like me and spend a whole lot of time looking at things on the Web, you end up finding piles of things that you want to share with other folks. Shareaholic is a fantastic add-on for this, integrating with digg, del.icio.us, facebook, foxiewire, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader, magnolia, reddit, stumbleupon, tumbler, twitter, and more. Jay Meattle, the developer who also happened to win the Extend Firefox 2 contest with this add-on, has recently updated it to work with Firefox 3. And there has been much rejoicing.

Speed Dial - The Speed Dial feature was originally debuted by the Opera web browser, but several add-ons mimicking the functionality very quickly came available for Firefox. I like Speed Dial in particular because it’s very straightforward, super easy to customize, and is now completely up to date for Firefox 3.

StumbleUpon - I didn’t actually start using this add-on until my Dad told me about it one day, and now I’m a bit of an addict. Be wary, however — StumbleUpon is a bit dangerous in that it can eat days of your life if you’re not careful. I’m just glad the toolbar can be toggled on and off, else I’d never get anything done. Fun stuff, extraordinarily popular, very slick.

ThumbStrips - ThumbStrips creates a browseable graphical timeline of your surfing history that is displayed along the bottom of the browser. Originally I figured it would be like another, fancier version of tabs but it’s not that at all — it makes flipping back and forth through your recent browser history really easy, which can be great in situations when you’re checking out Google search results and so forth. Neat stuff.

TwitterFox - Being slightly unnerved by social networking in general (FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc.) I generally don’t spend much time on such sites, but I’ve made an exception for Twitter. Twitter is simple and fun. It’s also useful, believe it or not, and (if you keep your “Following” list pared down sensibly) it can be super interesting and informative. TwitterFox is a neat little add-on that integrates Twitter right into Firefox that works well and generally does what you expect it to do.

Video DownloadHelper - If you’re interested in saving Web videos to your local machine — for example, to watch while on a plane or otherwise offline — Video DownloadHelper is a great add-on to use. Sites it works with include YouTube, MySpace, Google videos, DailyMotion, iFilm, and others.

Web Developer Toolbar - Chris Pederick’s Web Developer Toolbar is one of the absolute must-have Firefox add-ons if you’re a Web Developer. It’s been around for years and puts a world of useful utilities at your fingertips, saving time, effort, and frustration.

Wizz RSS Reader - If you’re a bit of a Webfeed junkie and LiveBookmarks aren’t enough, you’ll probably want to check out the Wizz RSS news reader add-on. By way of the sidebar, Wizz lets you subscribe to Webfeeds and quickly flip through new posts or updates to those sites. Wizz is, in my opinion, a great middle ground between LiveBookmarks and a full-featured desktop Webfeed client like Vienna.

So, there you have it — 20 top notch add-ons that are ready to go for Firefox 3. If you’re curious about Firefox 3 and would like to check out the Release Candidate and play with some of these, Friday afternoon seems like a perfectly reasonable time to do it.

Alex Polvi is doing a weekly update about the “State of the Add-ons” that need help getting updated for Firefox 3. If you’re an add-on developer (or would like to be one!) and would like to help, head over to Polvi’s blog and he’ll point you in the right direction.

[I use a Mac, so all the images in this post are of the Mac user interface. The UI for other platforms will differ slightly. Click on pictures to view other sizes.]

While Firefox 3 includes lots of new features and big shiny changes, it also includes a pile of more subtle, but no less important, changes and improvements. One area that has been revisited (rather than totally redesigned) is Firefox’s password management facility.

In Firefox 2, password management is a bit of a struggle. When you enter a password on a page you are asked whether you want Firefox to remember that password or not. The problem with this particular dialog is twofold: first, it appears before the login is complete so you have no way of knowing whether you have actually entered the correct password; second, it is modal, blocking any other browser actions, so there is no way to verify that the password works without first dismissing the dialog box. It’s a good feature, it’s just sort of poorly designed.

The actual Firefox 2 password manager is also a bit rough around the edges. You can only view the full list of all sites for which there are stored passwords, sorted alphabetically by URL or login name. There is no way to filter or search the list, so to find an old stored password, you have to either remember the URL and scroll down to the item in the list or scan through the full list manually. I have hundreds of passwords, so as you can imagine it’s all a bit of a pain.

Firefox 3 fixes all of this, and the new password management features are significantly improved and much, much more thoughtfully designed.

The dialog box asking whether you would like Firefox to save a password has been replaced entirely. Now, instead of popping up a modal dialog before the login has succeeded, Firefox 3 presents the option to store a given password using an information bar that slides down from the top of the screen after you have logged in. This allows you to verify that the password is correct before asking Firefox 3 to store that password.

The information bar is non-modal as well, so you can continue using the Web as normal without being forced to dismiss it first. In fact, the information bar will continue to hang around so long as you’re on that login’s site or manually dismiss it. When you leave the site, the information bar will automatically disappear. Not to worry, however, because if you return to the site and login again, the information bar will reappear.

Additionally, the password manager has filtering and searching capabilities, making it significantly easier to find and deal with passwords for certain sites. For example, here I’m filtering the list so it displays only those sites that include “mozilla.org” as part of the domain:

Other password-related features are more or less the same in Firefox 3, including creating and using a master password (which you should all do, really), displaying stored passwords, and so forth. The changes are relatively subtle, but if you’re like me and have hundreds of stored passwords these small changes can make a huge, huge difference over all.

Other posts I’ve written about Firefox 3

• Firefox 3: Awesomebar (Smart location bar)
• Firefox 3: Bookmarks
• Firefox 3: Color profile support
• Firefox 3: Site identification button

We’ve been publishing the about:mozilla newsletter since November of last year. Having been at this for almost six months, we figure it’s time to gather some reader feedback, which is why we’re running The about:mozilla Newsletter community survey.

If you are a regular reader of the newsletter (or if you used to read it but stopped for some reason), we would really appreciate it if you could take the time to respond to the survey that’s being hosted over on the Mozilla Europe site. At the end of the survey there’s a place where you can enter whatever additional comments, ideas, thoughts or criticisms you may have. The more feedback you can give us about the newsletter, the better the newsletter will be in the future.

The survey will be only be running for a couple of weeks, so the sooner you can head over and help us out, the better. If you would like to know more about the newsletter, sign up for it, or read past issues, check out the about:mozilla wiki page.

Here’s the survey: The about:mozilla Newsletter survey.

Whipped this up in under an hour (mostly simmering time) using nothing but pantry items. Alternate name would be “Simple Weeknight Chili”.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 14oz can kidney beans
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp butter
• Medium white or yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp chili powder (the Penzeys stuff is really good)
• Pinch dried oregano
• Salt + pepper to taste

Method

1. Brown ground beef over medium heat in a medium stockpot, drain and rinse. Drain and rinse beans. Put empty pot back on the heat, add butter, onions, and garlic. Saute for 5-6 mins. Toss in chili powder, oregano, salt + pepper and continue frying for a couple of minutes. Stuff will stick to the bottom a bit, but that’s ok — it will come off later.
2. Add browned meat, beans, and tomatoes (including juices). Stir and heat until simmering. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 25-35 minutes (or longer if you want — the longer you simmer, the more the tomatoes will break down). Done.

Serve with crusty bread and a beer.