The Mozilla organization released the first public beta of Firefox 1.5 yesterday. It boasts a zillion bug fixes, new features, and lots of improvements all around. Once Firefox 1.5 is out of beta and released I’ll build a G5-optimized version, as usual. You can also get a G5-optimized build of the beta on the Firefox nightly build page (the September 9th build is the beta).
The beta is great, but one problem is almost all existing Firefox extensions will not work without some tweaking. I’m an impatient (and rather nerdy) guy, so I whipped off Firefox 1.5-compatible versions of the extensions I use.
Download Firefox 1.5 Beta compatible extensions
Note: All I did was tweak the latest publicly available version of these extensions so that they would install on Firefox 1.5 beta. That doesn’t mean these are guaranteed to work, so caveat geek.
Click on the extension name to install — you’ll probably need to give permission to this site to install extensions.
- All-In-One-Sidebar 0.5.4: Adds a very useful sidebar that combines the extension and download window, and much more. Compatible version now available at developer’s site
- Bookmark Sync 1.0.2: Allows you to sync your bookmarks to a server and between multiple copies of Firefox. Not as slick or as problem-free as Safari’s .Mac bookmark syncing, but it’ll do. Here’s a short tutorial on how to set this up to sync bookmarks to a dotMac account. Developer’s site (?)
- Clear HTTP Auth: Clears the HTTP authentication cache. Handy for sites you have multiple logins that uses HTTP authentication. Developer’s site
- Greasemonkey 0.5.3: The elephant in the room. Alter and tweak site content and display to your heart’s content. Developer’s site
- Live HTTP Headers 0.1.0: Allows you to view all of the HTTP headers as you load pages in Firefox. Handy nerd stuff. Developer’s site
- Mouse Gestures 1.0.1: Who needs a keyboard, anyway? Developer’s site
- NextPlease 0.6.3: I need a keyboard. Allows you to “click” next and previous links using the keyboard. Developer’s site
- Platypus 0.51: Allows mere mortals the ability to create Greasemonkey scripts. Developer’s site
- Scribe 0.21: Adds the ability to save form input text areas - very useful for posting to Movable Type, etc. Developer’s site
- StopReload 1.1: Combines the stop and reload buttons into one, just like Safari. Ahhh, that’s better. Developer’s site (?)
- Tabx 0.91: I like having a close tab button right on the tab itself. This extension makes me happy. Developer’s site (?)
- Tweak Network Settings 1.1: Supercharge Firefox’s network settings to make it download pages even faster. Developer’s site
- User Agent Switcher 0.6.6: Pretend that you’re that floozy Internet Explorer 6 or some other browser harlot. It’s what the kids are doing. 1.5-compatible version now available from the Developer’s site
- Web Developer 0.93: Possibly the best extension (tied with Greasmonkey, perhaps) available for Firefox. Adds a plethora of tools to make any web nerd squirm with delight. 1.5-compatible version now at Developer’s site
As the underlying code for extensions have not been changed, these should auto-update when the developer posts a new version to the Mozilla Update site.
I did not create these extensions, so do not post support requests in the comments. These are not “official” releases, so you’re on your own.
Oh, and the ever-talented “Aronnax” has updated his gorgeous Mac OS X Firefox themes to work with the beta. The original domain redirection is down, but you can download them here. Here’s a preview to whet your appetite — this is detail from the themed called GrApple (Brazil Pro):
Okay, now I really have to get back to what I was supposed to be doing. Enjoy, folks!
