Favorite Firefox Addons for Netbooks

Firefox is a netbook's best friend. This is a collection of my favorite Firefox Add-ons. They help free up screen space; stop ads, flash and scripts; add functionality; and make Firefox a secure browsing experience. Firefox > Chromium.

Get Back Your Screen
More tweaks for freeing up screen space. Unless you like squinting and scrolling.

Compact Menu 2
This extension adds the CompactMenu icon to the Navigation Toolbar, and hides the Menubar.
To press the icon or Alt-key then "Menu" open.

autoHideStatusbar
Hides the statusbar. The statusbar is shown back when hovering a "sensitive zone" with the mouse and can be shown back when a page loads or when hovering a link, according to the preferences. Additionally, a statusbar icon and/or a toolbar button can be used to quick enable/disable. hotkey: CTRL-ALT-U (show back the statusbar until a click is made)

Autohide Tabbar 2.0
Auto-hides the tab bar. By moving the mouse to the edge of where the tab bar was, you can make the tab bar show up again.Tab bar can be relocated to the bottom of the main window by the setting in the Options page. So the page you are viewing would not jump up and down when the tab bar is toggled.


Stop Ads, Flash & Scripts
No more wasted bandwidth and slowing down your netbook with ads, flash and scripts you don't want to run/see.

Adblock Plus
Once installed, it's a snap to filter elements at their source-address.
Just right-click: Adblock. Filters use either the wildcard character or full Regular Expression syntax. Hit the status-element and see what has or hasn't been blocked. This plugin is important because loading ads slows down your netbook and takes up screen space.

Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper
This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adblock that blocks most ads on the internet. In addition, this extension allows you to define your own set of filters that you can add along with Filterset.G during an update. To report missed ads or problems with the extension visit the support forums.

BetterPrivacy
Flash-cookies (Local Shared Objects, LSO) are pieces of information placed on your computer by a Flash plugin. Those Super-Cookies are placed in central system folders and so protected from deletion. They are frequently used like standard browser cookies. Although their thread potential is much higher as of conventional cookies, only few users began to take notice of them. It is of frequent occurrence that -after a time- hundreds of those Flash-cookies reside in special folders. And they won't be deleted - never.

Flash Block
Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves place-holders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content. This one is key, I don't want flash objects loading and making noise when I'm mobile/in a meeting. Flashblock speeds up Firefox by not downloading videos you don't plan on watching.

NoScript
It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site, guarding your "trust boundaries" against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) and Clickjacking attempts, thanks to its unique ClearClick technology.Such a preemptive approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality.

YesScript
Unlike NoScript, YesScript does absolutely nothing to improve your security. YesScript strives to remove hassles from your browsing experience, rather than add them. Use YesScript on sites that annoy you or hog your system resources. One click to the icon in the status bar turns scripts on or off for the current site.


Add Functionality to Firefox
You'll wonder how you ever lived without these extensions. I don't remember how I did. The web was a dark, dark, place back then...

Xmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Xmarks. Install Xmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.xmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer.

Mozilla Weave
Free browser add-on from Mozilla Labs that keeps your bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history and open tabs backed up and synchronized, with end-to-end encryption for your privacy and security.

Undo Closed Tabs Button
Tired of going to History -> Recently Closed Tabs just to undo a closed tab? Then this extension is for you! This extension allows you to undo closed tabs via a toolbar and/or tab bar button or the right-click context menu.

Tabs Open Relative
Tabs Open Relative makes all new tabs open to the right of the current tab, rather than at the far right of the tab bar. I don't know how I used tabs before this plugin came along.

Open Image In New Tab
Adds right-click context menu item for opening images in new tabs.

Context Search
Expands the context menu's 'Search for' item into a list of installed search engines. Hold Ctrl or middle-click to open results in a new tab, Shift to open a new window.

FirefoxNotify
Provides for integration between Firefox and the Galago project's specification for notifications. This allows for Firefox to integrate better into Linux desktops which support a Galago compatible notification server.

GreaseMonkey
Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript. Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at http://userscripts.org. You can write your own scripts, too. Check out http://wiki.greasespot.net/ to get started. This extension does some amazing things, check out for more at http://userscripts.org.

Easy Youtube Video Downloader
Add buttons to download YouTube videos in FLV, 3GP, MP3, MP4 and 720p HD and 1080p Full-HD qualities. Supports all new 1080p FULL-HD video downloading and works with new Youtube video layout.


Don't Forget to Check Out:
Customizing Firefox for Netbooks.
This guide helps you get the most out of Firefox on your netbook. These tweaks are so easy even a Windows user can do them! Zing!

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Customizing Firefox 3.6 for Netbooks

Owning a netbook has it advantages, the small 8.9 to 10 inch screen is not one of them. Firefox's default user interface takes up 25% of the vertical space on your netbook. Below is my collection of Firefox 3.6 customizations that will help you reclaim over 20% of your netbook's screen and make Firefox run faster.


- Default Firefox 3.6 in Lucid Lynx, notice the wasted space on menus


Remove the Bookmarks Toolbar:

- Right click Firefox's blank menu area and un-check the Bookmarks Toolbar


Make The Tool Icons Smaller:

- Right click Firefox's blank menu area and select Customize


- Check the Use Small Icons box


Remove the Status Bar:

- Under View un-check the Status Bar Box


Remove The Menu Bar and Make It An Icon:

- Download the Compact Menu 2 addon


- Select Yes


- Compact menu 2 replaces your menu bar with a small blue icon

By right clicking the Firefox menu area and selecting Customize, you can configure Compact Menu.



Show The Download Manager as a Tab:

- Download the Custom Download Manager addon


- The old download Manger Window


- The tabbed download window

To change any of Custom Download Manager Settings, go to Tools>Addons



To access Firefox's Configuration File
Type about:config into the URL address bar

- Ignore the warning, and select I'll be careful, I promise


- The main about:config page


Autohide The Tab bar when only displaying a Single Tab:
- Type browser.tabs.autohide into the filter box
- Double click the browser.tabs.autohide entry to set the value to true


- The constantly displayed tab bar is probably the most annoying "feature" added to Firefox, it's a complete waste of space


Make Firefox Run Faster By Enabling Piplining:
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining, it will make several attempts at once, which really speeds up page loading. It's not very nice to slam websites with multiple requests. Be a good person and limit yourself to a reasonable number.
- Type network.http.pipelining into the filter bar
- Double click the network.http.pipelining entry to set the value to true
- Type network.http.proxy.pipelining into the filter bar
- Double click the network.http.proxy.pipelining entry to set the value to true
- Type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests into the filter bar
- Double click the network.http.pipelining.maxrequests entry and set the maxrequests to 15
- Right-click anywhere inside Firefox about:config page and select New-> Integer
- Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0 (zero)


Stop Firefox from Loading Pages in the Background:
Firefox downloads webpages from links it thinks you may click. This may make the experience seem faster but really it just bogs down Firefox and your netbook.
- Type network.prefetch-next into the filter bar
- Double click the network.prefetch-next entry to set it to false


Customize Backspace Button:
The Ubuntu default is set to scroll up when the backspace button is pressed.
I prefer for it to go back in my page history (like it does in Microsoft Windows).
- 0 Pressing backspace button will go back a page in the session history
- 1 Pressing backspace button will scroll up a page in the current document and [Shift]+[Backspace] will scroll down.
- Type browser.backspace_action into the filter bar
- double click the browser.backspace_action entry and set the value to 0

Now that your done you have a lean, mean and fast netbook optimized version of Firefox 3.6

- That's a pretty netbook version of Firefox, eat your heart out laptops

Check out my "Best Extensions for Netbooks Guide". (coming soon)

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Have Firefox Use Ubuntu's Notification System

- Firefox's notifications are not very elegant. They do not use the operating systems native notification system and stick out like a sore thumb.
- This guide will configure Firefox to use Ubuntu's notification system.
- The plugin used works for all versions of Ubuntu, not just 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope.

Step 1: Disable The Old Notification System
In Firefox's URL bar type about:config

- ignore the warning message


- Type browser.download.manager.showAlertOnComplete in the filter bar.
- Set the Value to false

Step 2: Download The FirefoxNotify Plugin

- You must check the"Let me install this experimental add-on" box to download the add-on.

Step 3: Restart Firefox

- Now Firefox will use Ubuntu's notification system.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Customizing Firefox for Netbooks

To access Firefox's Configuration File
Type about:config into the URL address bar

The red lines highlight the url box.
The blue lines highlight the filter box.
The filter box allows you to search your about:config file and is where you type the blue text commands.


Make Firefox Run Faster:
Enable Pipelining
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining, it will make several attempts at once, which really speeds up page loading. It's not very nice to slam websites with multiple requests. Be a good person and limit yourself to a reasonable number.
Set network.http.pipelining to true
Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true
Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 15
Right-click anywhere inside Firefox and select New-> Integer
Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0 (zero)

Stop Firefox from Loading Pages in the Background
Firefox downloads webpages from links it thinks you may click. This may make the experience seem faster but really it just bogs down Firefox and your netbook.
Set network.prefetch-next to false

Customize Backspace Button
The Ubuntu default is set to scroll up when the backspace button is pressed.
I prefer for it to go back in my page history.
Set browser.backspace_action to either 0 or 1
0 - Pressing backspace button will go back a page in the session history
1 - Pressing backspace button will scroll up a page in the current document and
[Shift]+[Backspace] will scroll down.

Enable Auto Scrolling & Smooth Scrolling
Go to Edit->Preferences and click Advanced.
Check the auto scrolling and smooth scrolling boxes to enable the middle click/touch pad to scroll smoothly left, right, up and down web pages.



Free Up Screen Space:
Use Small Icons
Right click an empty space on the Menubar , Navigational Toolbar or Bookmark Toolbar and select Customize. Check the Use Small Icons box.


Remove the the Bookmark Toolbar
Right click an empty space on the Menubar , Navigational Toolbar or Bookmark Toolbar and uncheck the the Bookmark Toolbar box.


Remap the Fullscreen Shortcut
If your netbook shipped without an F11 key, like my Dell Mini 9, use this guide to remap maximize to another key.

More screen saving tips can be found in the plugins section below


My Favorite Firefox Plugins for Netbooks:
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.foxmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer.

Compact Menu 2
Compact Menu 2 allows you to remove Firefox's Menubar and turn it into a drop down toolbar button. Another great plugin that allows you to save screen space.
My install guide can be found here.

Hide Tab Bar
Enables you to hide the tab bar. Another way to keep your screen clear of clutter.

Adblock Plus
Once installed, it's a snap to filter elements at their source-address.
Just right-click: Adblock. Filters use either the wildcard character or full Regular Expression syntax. Hit the status-element and see what has or hasn't been blocked. This plugin is important because loading ads slows down your netbook and takes up screen space.

Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper
This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adblock that blocks most ads on the internet. In addition, this extension allows you to define your own set of filters that you can add along with Filterset.G during an update. To report missed ads or problems with the extension visit the support forums

Flash Block
Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves place-holders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content. This one is key, I don't want flash objects loading and making noise when I'm mobile/in a meeting. Flashblock speeds up Firefox by not downloading videos you don't plan on watching.

NoScript
Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site, guarding your "trust boundaries" against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) and Clickjacking attempts, thanks to its unique ClearClick technology. Such a preemptive approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even unknown!) with no loss of functionality. I really love the speed increase this gives me.

Mouse Gestures Redox
Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward, close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage, without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard.

GreaseMonkey
Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript. Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at http://userscripts.org. You can write your own scripts, too. Check out http://wiki.greasespot.net/ to get started. This extension does some amazing things, check out for more at http://userscripts.org

Undo Closed Tabs Button
Tired of going to History -> Recently Closed Tabs just to undo a closed tab? Then this extension is for you! This extension allows you to undo closed tabs via a toolbar and/or tab bar button or the right-click context menu.

Custom Download Manager
This addon allows you to personalize your download manager. Now, you can open the download manager on a new tab or on the sidebar. You don't need a popup download manager cluttering your screen.

Tabs Open Relative
Tabs Open Relative makes all new tabs open to the right of the current tab, rather than at the far right of the tab bar. I don't know how I used tabs before this plugin came along.

Open Image In New Tab
Adds right-click context menu item for opening images in new tabs.

Context Search
Expands the context menu's 'Search for' item into a list of installed search engines. Hold Ctrl or middle-click to open results in a new tab, Shift to open a new window.

LittleFox
LittleFox, designed for optimal screen usage, leaving lots of room for browsing. For Firefox 2.0 and 3.0. Includes support for Personas, Forecastfox, Tabbrowser Preferences, Fusion, ReloadEvery, Stumbleupon, Gmail, Basics, Calendar, and many more. I don't use it. LittleFox does do a lot of the screen saving tweaks without having to do any of the work. Perfect for lazy readers.

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Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

How to Hide Firefox's Menubar

Take back your screen's real estate with this simple FireFox extension. Compact Menu 2 allows you to remove FireFox's Menubar and turn it into a drop down toolbar button.

Before Removing the Menubar


Once you Install Compact Menu 2 allow Firefox to restart.

Now right click a blank area in Firefox's Menubar, Navigational Toolbar or Bookmark Toolbar.
Unselect Menubar to remove Firefox's Menubar.

Once the Menubar has been removed, right click a blank area in the Navigational Toolbar or Bookmark Toolbar and select Customize.

Place the Menu drop down toolbar button on the Navigational Bar.

After Removing the Menubar
(with the menu toolbar button expanded)


With the Dell Mini 9's limited screen resolution, it is important to maximize every pixel of screen space. By using Netbook Remix's Maximus and Compact Menu 2, I can remove all unnecessary parts from FireFox and do more faster.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.