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Firefox 4's best restartless add-ons
Unless you've been sleeping under a rock, or in a tent outside the Googleplex with an "I LOVE SCHMIDT" banner, you hopefully know that Firefox 4 supports restartless add-ons, or in developerese: bootstrapped extensions.Unfortunately, however, the process of converting an existing add-on into a restartless wonder is far from simple. A few months ago, back when the Firefox 4 beta machine really got into the swing of things, the developer of the world's most popular add-on, Adblock Plus, described his laborious and infuriating attempt at making his add-on restartless -- and today, just a few days away from the final Firefox beta, there still isn't a single big-name restartless add-on to be found.
On the flip side, writing new restartless add-ons is a little easier. Uptake amongst developers still seems to be very slow, though. Add-ons for Firefox (AMO) only has about 80 add-ons tagged with 'restartless', and even less with the restartless add-on's SDK, 'jetpack'.
Then, of course, only a few of those add-ons are actually worth using! Read on for our pick of the best Firefox 4 restartless add-ons.
[Grab a copy of the latest Firefox 4 beta and try out each of add-ons!]
Tab Badge
If you keep Facebook, Twitter, Reader, Gmail, or any other 'social' app permanently open in a tab, check out Tab Badge.Tab Badge simply puts a bright red notification counter into the tab that shows you how many messages (or RSS updates) are waiting to be read. It's especially useful if you use pinned tabs!
Pentadactyl
Pentadactyl is probably the weirdest and coolest add-on we've ever seen. It turns Firefox into a Vim-like client by removing all of the browser chrome and tacking a Vim console at the bottom.
If you're not a Vim lover (and let's face it, Emacs is far superior), you should probably shy away from Pentadactyl -- or at least be sure to hit :help soon after installing.
Grooveshark Remote Control
GReader Panel
Another add-on that utilizes Firefox 4's add-on panel is GReader Panel, which does exactly what you think: it pops up your Google Reader feed. Rather than use the normal large-screen Web version, it uses the mobile version. Cool!
Mozilla Labs: Lab Kit
The beautiful irony of this one is that it doesn't actually work with the latest beta build of Firefox -- but no doubt, once the final release of Firefox 4 is out, it will work a treat!Mozilla Labs: Lab Kit downloads the latest Mozilla Labs add-ons, including the Prospector add-ons and the social sharing tool, F1. Lab Kit also automatically keeps the add-ons up-to-date.
Mozilla Labs: Home Dash
Drag2up
Basically, drag2up lets you drag files from your desktop into any text box on any Web page. It then uploads the file to a file dump (such as Imgur for images), and pastes a link to the image in the text box. It's great for quickly sharing images on forums.
Alternative RuneScape Gamebar
Finally, one for the gamers! Alternative RuneScape Gamebar gives you quick access to all of your active trades on the Grand Bazaar, and notifications whenever a Distraction & Diversion becomes available again. It also includes a clock -- and there doesn't seem to be a way to remove it...We're looking for more restartless add-ons, and add-ons that only work with Firefox 4 -- so if you've come across any, please leave a comment!
Comments
16
Subscribe to commentsrl78Feb 18th 2011 11:46AM
Soon this will be trivial, as we will get to the point where a restart could seem instantaneous.
JordanMar 22nd 2011 11:28AM
@rl78 FF still has to reload all the tabs and restart addon sessions. For people who have quite a few tabs, or whose extensions keep track of varying information, a restart is still a jarring experience.
On the other hand, a browser restart can clear up some of that precious virtual memory that Firefox can tend to hoard, especially if you're a heavy visitor of Youtube and other flash sites.
David AtkinsonFeb 18th 2011 12:08PM
Maybe I'm strange but my favorite is bug582139. All it does is make the bookmarks button movable to the navigation bar when the bookmarks toolbar is enabled. I have Forecastfox taking up the right side of the bookmarks toolbar, which put the bookmarks button directly to the left of it. That drove me crazy. I don't think it was intentional, as when you opened the customize toolbar menu it was movable, and switched back when you hit done.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bug582139/
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 18th 2011 12:10PM
@David Atkinson I so nearly added that one just because of its name :)
Thanks for the input! (And let's hope the bug gets fixed...)
SpeedGunFeb 18th 2011 12:59PM
Here is a nice one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-doc-in-google-docs-viewer/
SilverWaveFeb 18th 2011 1:02PM
You only see the real potential of restart-less when you create a clean profile and then start adding your extensions ... that gets old real quick.
But with tab loading set to 0 and the quick start-up time these days its at least bearable...
What we really want is sync to track your extensions and auto-install any missing ones!
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 18th 2011 1:13PM
@SilverWave Ah, add-on sync... I wonder where that's got to!
SpeedGunFeb 18th 2011 1:04PM
Here is one my favorites: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-doc-in-google-docs-viewer/
And if you look at this tag you will find all sorts of good restartless addons: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/tag/jetpack
SpeedGunFeb 18th 2011 1:05PM
@SpeedGun
Oops, sorry for the spam. The caching system failed me and I thought that I had not posted the comment.
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 18th 2011 1:12PM
@SpeedGun You're forgiven! The caching beastie catches us all.
Thanks for the link (and it's already included at the top of my post :)
aj.zapataFeb 18th 2011 1:41PM
Home Dash looks very interesting. I'll try it once FF4 is officially out.
Utkarsh1Feb 18th 2011 2:13PM
I'd recommend Mozilla Labs: Prospector - Speak Words 4: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mozilla-labs-prospector-speak-/
Autocompletion for Awesome Bar, i,e, Fills in the rest of words as you type them into the location bar for Firefox 4 :)
P.S: Nice post :)
techfreak15Feb 18th 2011 2:40PM
I'd recommend Easy App Tabs, which allows you to double click to pin/unpin tabs, and Browse By Name, which re-enables the "Browse By Name" feature which was disabled in Firefox 4.
techfreak15Feb 18th 2011 2:41PM
@techfreak15
Whoops, forgot the links:)
Browse By Name: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/browse-by-name/
Easy App Tabs: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/easy-app-tabs/
AurrinFeb 19th 2011 1:45AM
A suggestion for your next firefox roundup? I made an extension that fixes the ugly orange button on FF4 for those who don't want to delve into userChrome.css
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/menu-button-reskin/
Sebastian AnthonyFeb 19th 2011 6:27AM
@Aurrin Sure -- looks good :)