While reading my RSS feeds today I ran across multiple stories saying today is the 5th anniversary of Firefox 1.0  This got me thinking, I used Firefox before it even had that name.  I used it back when it was still called Phoenix.  I first started using Phoenix after hearing Leo Laporte say something about it on Call For Help.  Yep these were the old days when TechTV was still on the air.  Anyways I remember him saying it was portable, and I just happen to have a 128mb USB  drive burning a hole in my pocket.  By the way, that USB drive cost me $100.  I was spending a bunch of time online between classes at the Library at UAH and Phoenix was awesome, it let me have an entire browser on a removable drive.  I even remember spending hours playing with extensions when they first came out.  Cut to 5+ years later, and I’m still using Firefox at home, work, and on the go.  I still have a portable version I keep on a 8gb thumb drive which cost me $12.  As some thing changes some stay the same.

News: Firefox turns five

I have been using Google Reader for about a year now, and I love it.  It is the best web based RSS reader out there.  A few months back I ran across a Firefox extension Google Reader Notifier.  This had proved to be a great extension for showing how many items were unread in my RSS Reader.  Then about a month ago the developer update and broke the extension.  It just wasn’t reliable anymore.  So I went on a search for a another extension, and what I found was even better.  Google Reader Watcher does the same thing but uses SSL for its connection.  I must recommend this extension for all Google Reader users.

Google Reader Watcher

First I would like to talk about Firefox 2.0 If you haven’t already download it, and you will love it. The new theme is awesome, and the built in spell checking is great for dumb asses like me. It even knows swear words. Anyway after upgrading some of my old extensions no longer worked, so I found new one. Here is a list of the extensions I am using as of now. I use every one of them, and couldn’t live without.

• Adblock Plus 0.7.2.2
• del.icio.us Complete 1.3
• DOM Inspector 1.8.1
• Download Statusbar 0.9.4.5
• Forecastfox Enhanced 0.9.3.1
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 0.84
• Gmail Notifier 0.5.6.5
• Greasemonkey 0.6.6.20061017.0
• IE Tab 1.2.0.20061106
• MR Tech Local Install 5.3.1.1
• Paste and Go 2 0.3.4.4
• PermaTabs 1.3.0
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.5
• Verizon Minutes Used 0.91

Well later this month Firefox 2.0 is suppose to be released, and with it comes spell checking. Although I have been using spellbound for months now, built in spell checking would be great also. Anyway, in my resent change to Linux I have had troubles with spellbound. But then I ran across this dev version which after I installed the dictionaries I installed the extension, and everything works better than the older version. So if you just can’t wait till Firefox 2.0 then get this dev version and you are ready to go. w00t!!!

Update: Sorry I had linked to the wrong page. All fixed now

So I have to tell you, I have been a user of Firefox since it was a baby, back in the days it was called Phoenix. Yep back when you didn’t have great and wonderful extensions, back when you could download it and just run it. Firefox has come a long way, in the past few years. It has risen to take the world by storm. I believe the latest statistics I read, was the Firefox was used my about 15% of the people. But I will you thats not good enough. We need to make it higher. So if you don’t use Firefox, you can get it through this link. If you do use Firefox, this link has some good stuff for you.
Visit Download Mozilla Firefox
Also if you visit my Firefox tag, you can see the extension I use.

Have a good day, and remember, IE sucks.