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Posts tagged with "widgets"

Top 150 Popular Firefox Extensions and Opera

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Updated again: the extensions list, and the summary below, was last updated 2007-06-08, taking into account the new Addons site. Lots of sleazy spyware toolbars were finally removed. Added a few corrections based on comments here at 2007-06-17. Added a few more correction at 2007-07-29. Thanks!

Updated: the extensions list, and the summary below, was last updated 2006-12-09, taking into account the Firefox 2 release that made some extensions obsolete. Firefox out-of-the-box is catching up to Opera smile

Based on initial research sherlock from Dodd in the my.opera.com forums, I've compiled a list of the Top 150 most popular Firefox extensions, and classified the availability of the functionality they offer in Opera.

extensions.html

Some extensions are Firefox-specific (only relevant for managing Firefox itself), and there is considerable overlap in functionality for several extensions. That leaves the following summary:

  • 41 extensions offer out of the box functionality in Opera 9, with roughly equivalent capability,
  • 13 extensions are available by installing a UserScript or a Widget or dragging a button,
  • 17 extensions require advanced customization or are only partially available,
  • 45 extensions are not available at all in Opera.

[updated]After the December 3, 2006 update, out of 96 sets of extensions:
  • 32 (sets of) extensions offer out of the box functionality in Opera 9, with roughly equivalent capability,
  • 11 (sets of) extensions are available by installing a UserScript or a Widget or dragging a button,
  • 13 (sets of) extensions require advanced customization or are only partially available,
  • 40 (sets of) extensions are not available at all in Opera,
  • 3 extensions are are Firefox specific (like dictionaries).

[updated again]After the July 29, 2007 update, out of 113 sets of extensions:
  • 38 (sets of) extensions offer out of the box functionality in Opera 9, with roughly equivalent capability,
  • 14 (sets of) extensions are available by installing a UserScript or a Widget or dragging a button,
  • 21 (sets of) extensions require advanced customization or are only partially available,
  • 38 (sets of) extensions are not available at all in Opera,
  • 4 extensions are Firefox specific.


Corrections are welcome, but only from people who have actually studied both the extension and Opera's behavior. 'why would I need it' is a valid reaction to some extensions, but will probably not lead to changes in the table wink

Tweaking widgets

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The image shows the analog clock you can get from the Widgets download page for Opera 9. The clock comes with three skins, which can be consecutively activated by left-clicking the clock. The one on the right has two little tweaks, done by editing the contents of the widget zip file.

Removing the text is very easy, this is directly taken out of the html file. Activating the fourth (hidden) skin for the clock requires a little bit more, but should also be easy enough for the tweakers among us to figure out. This transparent skin makes is much nicer to keep the clock 'pinned' without really obscuring your normal windows.

Note: I had some trouble taking a screenshot, so this is actually two (parts of) screenshots pasted clumsely together.