Thursday, 26 June 2008

Firefox ten best add-ons, and how they compare to Opera

This was quite interesting, Info World listed the top 10 (then gave 2 number 1 spots, so this list goes to 11) add-ons for firefox that made it useful. I read the list and thought, wait a minute, most of these add-ons are standard features in my favourite browser, Opera.

Lets quickly run down their list shall we?

No. 1: Web Developer


If you do any Web development, this add-on is an absolute must. It does everything you thought you needed for HTML and CSS development, and then about a hundred things you didn't realize you needed but suddenly can't do without. Whether it's the ability to enable and disable Java and Java Script on the fly, resize the browser to 800x600 or 1024x768, or automatically fill out a form, it's all in there.

All features native to Opera


Opera does all this with no need for an add-on, no messy downloads or anything.

No. 1 (part two): Firebug


Although some Firebug and Web Developer features overlap, the two coexist quite well, and each has its strengths. I really like Firebug's CSS showcasing feature, which makes it absurdly simple to locate the CSS inheritance on any element. The collapsing HTML code viewer is also very handy.

Mostly available in Opera, really only useful for hard core web developers


And what's missing can be supplemented and exceeded by Opera add-ons (Yes, shock horror, Opera has supported add-ons for years)

And come on, the ability to edit files on the fly on your server? sounds nice but it breaks all the rules about proper development, keeping your test version seperate from the live site.

No. 2: User Agent Switcher


This is a simple extension, but one that can really help in a pinch. All it does is change the browser's User Agent to one of several predetermined strings, or one you create yourself. You can mimic Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, or any other user agent you might need -- great for testing browser identification code, or to use Firefox on sites that claim to only work with Internet Explorer.

This is an extension?


Opera has had a simple option on the right click menu for this for as long as I remember, but firefox requires an extension?

No. 3: Greasemonkey


This is truly a power-user extension. Greasemonkey allows you to write your own code, or draw on hundreds of community scripts (like Book Burro, shown), to modify any Web page. For instance, you could code an overlay for eBay to compare the current price of an item with what you might pay for it at any of a number of online retailers. In the right hands, it can take someone else's idea of how their Web site should work and make it all your own.

Fairplay, this sounds good and opera can't do it


But why would you want to go to that sort of effort? if a web page doesn't show you what you want then there will be one somewhere that does. Opera lets you define style sheets to make pages look as you want, which is far more useful for testing what your site looks like in other formats or making that "too small" text bigger etc.

No. 4: FireFTP


While there are many ways to transmit and receive files, FTP remains a popular method. There are dozens of FTP applications available, but why bother when this extension embeds just about everything you might need in an FTP client right into Firefox, including support for SFTP, SSL, and TLS?

You need an extension for FTP?


Who knew? I use a seperate FTP program for a reason, it's safer and more reliable. Opera can do a fair bit of FTP functionality anyway.

No. 5: Gspace


If you have Gmail, then you should have Gspace. With all that unused space in your Gmail account, you can use Gspace to store anything and everything right from Firefox. Hey, they gave you the space, might as well use it. Careful, though. If you overdo it, you might get locked out of your Gmail account for 24 hours.

I would never rely on GMAIL for backup


That's all there is to say really.

No. 6: CookieSafe/CS Lite


Even those of us who know what cookies are and what they can do can be somewhat lax about which cookies our browser stores. CookieSafe and the newer, lighter CS Lite make this task much simpler. With a toolbar button, you can quickly allow or deny cookies, and clear them for every site.

Native feature to Opera


All the control over cookies you could want is just a menu click away.

No. 7: Undo Closed Tabs Button


If only I had a dollar for every time I closed a tab by mistake. With Undo Closed Tabs, you can reopen that tab right where it was, no muss, no fuss. Unfortunately, no dollar, either.

Again Opera has done this for years


Just as Opera was the FIRST browser to use tabbed browsing, the trash can for closed tabs was added quite a few years ago.

No. 8: Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer


Most tech-heads have more than one computer. For instance, I have about 10 systems that I use on a fairly regular basis. If you use Firefox on all your systems, Foxmarks can keep the bookmarks synchronized among all of them.

Native feature of Opera


Admittedly, a fairly new one, but still, this is built in, not added by extension.

No. 9: IE Tab


This one isn't cross-platform, but for anyone running Windows, IE Tab is a handy tool. IE Tab embeds Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab, allowing you to render sites with IE without leaving Firefox behind.

Opera doesn't do this


But there is an extension which enables Opera to open sites in both Firefox AND IE if you really think it's useful, and can't open IE and cut n paste across.

No. 10: Sage


Sage and Firefox are like peanut butter and jelly: They just go together. Whereas Firefox itself can render RSS feeds, Sage makes them manageable and usable.

Opera has had an RSS feed reader built in for ages


Still from this article it implies so did firefox but it wasn't that good. Opera's feed reader works fine for me though.

Conclusions


Opera can, without extensions, do 8 from 11 in this list, and the rest it can do with extensions if you need it to.

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