Firefox is one of the most popular browser and rapidly gaining popularity. One of the important factor which drives this popularity is its active team of developer and huge support base.
The team of developers have made firefox customizable to such an extent that each installation of firefox is unique and different from other in looks, performance and functionality.
Over a period of time of using firefox, I have understood that firefox is beyond one persons understanding for its features and functionalities. However, using my limited knowledge of firefox, i thought of sharing my experience on customizing, my firefox.
I have already written a post on <a href="http://planetshiv.freehostia.com/2008/top-10-plugins-for-firefox/" target="_blank">Top 10 plugins for firefox</a> and this post will help is customizing and enhancing firefox to another level.
<strong>Apart for browsing and checking webmail, firefox can also do a lot of added functionality. I have noted a few of them.</strong>
1. <strong>Firefox as Mail client</strong>:
You need not install a seperate client for using pop3 mail services. Simply install <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5593" target="_blank">Simple Mail</a> [URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5593] and you get a simple working mail client in your favorite browser. Enjoy
2. <strong>Firefox as RSS reader</strong>:
We all subscribe to various RSS feeds of news, blogs, articles and much more. People end up having numerous RSS feeds. Just install <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/424" target="_blank">Wizz RSS news reader</a> [URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/424] or <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/77" target="_blank">Sage</a> [ URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/77] and you get a very good RSS Feed reader within your browser. Both of them support customization, arranging as per your preference, grouping the feeds and so on.
3. <strong>Firefox as FTP client</strong>:
<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684" target="_blank">FireFTP</a> [URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684] is amm excellent FTP client which support normal FTP as well secured FTP and various other file transfer protocols, with option to customize proxy and many more features is perhaps one of the best light weight FTP client and as it is integrated to firefox, it eliminates need of a seperate software.
<!--more-->
4. <strong>Firefox as Bittorrent manager</strong> :
<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4844" target="_blank">Foxtorrent</a> [URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4844] is an a bit torrent client add on which installed makes firefox as a bittorrent client. As i have not used this addon, i don't know much about it. However, the review looks encouraging
5. <strong>Firefox as Blog Editor </strong> :
<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730" target="_blank">ScribeFire</a> [URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730] is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, upload images, and post to multiple blogs.
6. <strong>Firefox as IRC client</strong> :
<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16" target="_blank">ChatZilla</a> [URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16] provides all the usual IRC client features: multiple servers, a built-in list of standard networks, easy searching and sorting of available channels, logging, and DCC chat and file transfers, plus easy customization with JavaScript plug-ins and CSS styling.
7. <strong>Firefox as Download Manager</strong> :
<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201" target="_blank">Down Them All</a> [ URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201] is the only download manager / accelerator integrated to Firefox without using any external software. It support resume, pause, multi download, spped control, prioritization, etc.
Well these are few application / software substitutes which are available as add-on to Firefox and eliminates the requirement of various softwares. Experiment them and choose what you like most. Keep them all or keep some, Enjoy firefoxing.
Note: <em>I use firefox 2 and these work with it, if you are using other version , just do a bit searching, you will be able get the equivalent substitute.
</em>