WHAT: The latest update to the Mozilla Firefox browser, version 17, is not compatible with the latest release of the Tab Mix Plus addon. Tab Mix Plus is an essential addon which I cannot live without.
HOW: There is a solution to the problem: Install the development version of Tab Mix Plus. Firefox will ask if its ok to install it and you can just say yes.
WHY: Tab Mix Plus adds a range of tab functionality to Firefox which, for people like me who tend to have as many as 50 tabs open continuously, is essential. It allows the tab bar to extend into multiple rows. It allows the current tab to be highlighted in your color of choice, which is extremely useful when there are 50 open. It allows the close tab button to be displayed on only the current tab thus saving precious screen real estate on the tab bar. It also allows for fine-grained control over the ordering of tabs when they are opened or closed.
WHERE: Ok, I’ve kind of exhausted the interrogatory-word meme thing here, but one thing I will say is that addons are what make Firefox extremely cool. The browser becomes what you want it to become, or not become. I will have to make a post soon of my list of favorite Firefox addons as I did with Chrome not too long ago. By the way, I still use Firefox as my primary browser. Chrome is nice and I appreciate it however Firefox is still far ahead of it in terms of features and configurability.
Now Firefox is coming out with its own OS for mobile devices and I’m very excited about this.
PHILOSOPHY: I’ve always sort of hoped that there would come along some kind of competitor to Linux which is developed by an industry/academic consortium which aims to be a kind of open, standard OS platform. I would like to see all the major hardware, software, and peripheral vendors agree to support one open OS platform which aims to make their life easy and be free and open.
I frankly don’t care about binary blobs required to drive peripheral devices if that is what makes the peripheral manufacturs happy. I do care that the OS platform be open, stable, and convenient for all parties to work with so that it becomes a lasting standard and can supplant all other platforms!
I don’t feel that Android will ever be that platform, although I appreciate Android and am happy that it is out there. It is far better than iOS without question in terms of openness and features.
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