I have been a Firefox person since v2.zero got here out about 12 years in the past. There had been occasions when it wasn’t the most effective internet browser on the market, however nonetheless, I stored going again to it for one motive: My favourite extensions would not work with the rest.
Today, I like the present state of Firefox itself for being quick, customizable, and open supply, however I additionally respect extensions for manifesting concepts the unique builders by no means considered: What if you wish to browse with out a mouse? What in case you do not like gazing brilliant mild popping out of the monitor at night time? What about utilizing a devoted media participant for YouTube and different video internet hosting web sites for higher efficiency and prolonged playback controls? And what in case you want a extra refined method to disable trackers and pace up loading pages?
Fortunately, there’s a solution for every of those questions, and I’ll give them to you within the type of my favourite extensions—all of that are free software program or open supply (i.e., distributed beneath the GNU GPL, MPL, or Apache license) and make a wonderful browser even higher.
Although the phrases add-on and extension have barely completely different meanings, I will use them interchangeably on this article.
Tridactyl
Tridactyl lets you use your keyboard for many of your looking actions. It’s impressed by the now-defunct Vimperator and Pentadactyl, which had been impressed by the default keybindings of Vim. Since I am already used to Vim and different command-line purposes, I discover options like with the ability to navigate with the keys h/j/okay/l, work together with hyperlinks with f/F, and create customized keybindings and instructions very handy.
Tridactyl’s non-compulsory native messenger (for now, obtainable just for GNU/Linux and Mac OSX), which was applied lately, provides much more cool options in addition. With it, for instance, you may disguise some components of the GUI of Firefox (à la Vimperator and Pentadactyl), open a hyperlink or the present web page in an exterior program (I typically use mpv and youtube-dl for movies) and edit the content material of textual content areas together with your favourite textual content editor by urgent Ctrl-I (or any key mixture of your alternative).
Having mentioned that, take into account that it is a comparatively younger challenge and should be tough across the edges. On the opposite hand, its growth may be very energetic, and once you look previous its childhood sicknesses, it may be a pleasure to make use of.
Open With
Speaking of interplay with exterior applications, typically it is good to have the power to try this with the mouse. That’s the place Open With is available in.
Apart from the added context menu (proven within the screenshot), yow will discover your individual outlined instructions by clicking on the extension’s icon on the add-on bar. As its icon and the outline on its page on Mozilla Add-ons counsel, it was primarily meant to work with different internet browsers, however I can use it with mpv and youtube-dl with ease as properly.
Keyboard shortcuts can be found right here, too, however they’re severely restricted. There are not more than three completely different combos that may be chosen in a drop-down record within the extension’s settings. In distinction, Tridactyl lets me assign instructions to just about something that is not blocked by Firefox. Open With is presently for the mouse, actually.
Stylus
Stylus is a userstyle supervisor, which implies that by writing customized CSS guidelines and loading them with Stylus, you may change the looks of any webpage. If you do not know CSS, there are a plethora of userstyles made by others on web sites akin to userstyles.org.
Now, chances are you’ll be asking, “Isn’t that precisely what Stylish does?” You could be right! You see, Stylus is based mostly on Stylish and gives extra enhancements: It respects your privateness by not containing any telemetry, all growth is finished within the open (though Stylish remains to be actively developed, I have never been capable of finding the supply code for current variations), and it helps UserCSS, amongst different issues.
UserCSS is an fascinating format, particularly for builders. I’ve written a number of userstyles for varied web sites (primarily darkish themes and tweaks for higher readability), and whereas the interior editor of Stylus is superb, I nonetheless favor modifying code with Neovim. For that, all I must do is load an area file with its title ending with “.user.css” in Stylus, allow the choice “Live Reload”, and any adjustments might be utilized as quickly as I modify and save that file in Neovim. Remote UserCSS recordsdata are additionally supported, so at any time when I push adjustments to GitHub or any git-based growth platforms, they will robotically change into obtainable for customers. (I present a hyperlink to the uncooked model of the file in order that they’ll entry it simply.)
uMatrix
Jeremy Garcia talked about uBlock Origin in his article right here on Opensource.com as a wonderful blocker. I would like to attract consideration to a different extension made by gorhill: uMatrix.
uMatrix permits you to set blocking guidelines for sure requests on a webpage, which might be toggled by clicking on the add-on’s popup (seen within the screenshot above). These requests are distinguished by the classes of scripts, requests made by scripts, cookies, CSS guidelines, photographs, media content material, frames, and the rest labeled as “other” by uMatrix. You can arrange world guidelines to, as an example, enable all requests by default and add solely explicit ones to the blacklist (the extra handy strategy), or block every thing by default and whitelist sure requests manually (the safer strategy). If you have been utilizing NoScript or RequestPolicy, you may import your whitelist guidelines from them, too.
In addition, uMatrix helps hosts files, which can be utilized to dam requests from sure domains. These are to not be confused with the filter lists utilized by uBlock Origin, which use the identical syntax because the filters set by Adblock Plus. By default, uMatrix blocks domains of servers identified to distribute advertisements, trackers, and malware with the assistance of some hosts recordsdata, and you’ll add extra exterior sources if you wish to.
So which one shall you select—uBlock Origin or uMatrix? Personally, I take advantage of each on my desktop PC and solely uMatrix on my Android cellphone. There’s some overlap between the 2, according to gorhill, however they’ve a unique goal userbase and targets. If all you need is a straightforward method to block trackers and advertisements, uBlock Origin is a more sensible choice. On the opposite hand, in order for you granular management over what a webpage can or cannot do inside your browser, even when it takes a while to configure and it may well forestall websites from functioning as meant, uMatrix is the way in which to go.
Conclusion
Currently, these are my favourite extensions for Firefox. Tridactyl is for dashing up looking navigation by counting on the keyboard and interacting with exterior applications; Open With is there if I must open one thing in one other program with the mouse; Stylus is the definitive userstyle supervisor, interesting to each customers and builders alike; and uMatrix is actually a firewall inside Firefox for filtering out requests on unknown territories.
Even although I virtually completely mentioned the advantages of those add-ons, no software program is ever excellent. If you like every of them and assume they are often improved in any means, I like to recommend that you just go to their GitHub web page and search for their contribution guides. Usually, builders of free and open supply software program welcome bug reviews and pull requests. Telling your folks about them or saying thanks are additionally glorious methods to assist the builders, particularly in the event that they work on their initiatives of their spare time.
