
Firefox extensions to make remote work and school a little better - joeyespo
https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/firefox-extensions-work-from-home/
======
jedberg
I didn't see multi-account containers mentioned:

[https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-
containers#readme](https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers#readme)

That one changed my life. It allows me to log into different AWS accounts at
the same time. Also different Gmail accounts at once (like my kids' email and
mine).

Also it gives you a massive boost in privacy since cookies don't follow you
around since they are restricted to one container.

Combined with Container Tabs Sidebar:

[https://github.com/maciekmm/container-tabs-
sidebar](https://github.com/maciekmm/container-tabs-sidebar)

You get the tree style tabs with automatic organization by container.

~~~
stilisstuk
I stil think profiles (personas in chrome) are better and more flexible. I can
completely have different browsers, extensions, themes, for different
contexts. This beats containers for me.

Firefox --no-remote

~~~
zwayhowder
One significant advantage of the Firefox model is the ability to bind domains
to a container. I cannot open my Internet Banking in the same container as the
hacking forums I might frequent, it will automatically launch in the correct
container. I use Chrome personas a lot (I have 8 on the go currently) because,
frankly I like Chrome more, but container URL isolation is a better
implementation of workload isolation. IMHO. I'm constantly opening URLs in the
wrong container because I just ctrl+T and start typing.

Actually you've inspired me to use a 'timewaster' blocking extension to
prevent some URLs from loading in my main personas. Might achieve the same
thing.

~~~
egeozcan
I've created a little app for myself that opens the right (Firefox) profile
when another application tries to start the browser. It's registered as the
default browser so it handles all the cases.

I guess I could also write a userscript that handles the links being opened
from the browser itself. Like the timewaster extension you mentioned but also
starts the right instance in background.

~~~
antman
That sounds as a good idea, how does that script look like?

~~~
egeozcan
Simple command line program that looks at its arguments and decides what
browser to open. Nothing fancy.

------
nine_k
I can't describe in short how Tree Style Tab improves tab management.

* You can logically organize tabs, very valuable when you researching something, or when you work on multiple related web pages. Say, issue tracker, a PR or two github for this issue, a couple of doc pages related to the code, etc. The beauty of it is that the tabs mostly self-organize based on the opening order.

* You can expand and contract whole subtrees to keep current things in focus, and other things, readily available.

* You can have 30 or 50 tabs and still actually read the captions of the tabs!

* You can bookmark the whole subtree, or move it to a separate window, or close all of its tabs, or refresh all of its tabs, etc.

~~~
ShamelessC
I love tree style tabs but it takes up _a lot_ of horizontal screen real
estate. It's great when my browser is in fullscreen but most of the time I
have a terminal on the right half with my browser on the left. This winds up
smooshing the actual website to switch to a mobile layout (if I'm lucky).
Otherwise the website is rendered useless.

Is it possible to make the sidebar float atop the webpage instead of pushing
the content in? Then perhaps it could quickly autohide as you move your cursor
near it.

~~~
enraged_camel
My issue is that you can’t disable the default tab bar, so you end up wasting
a lot of space by rendering each tab twice. It also makes the habit (of using
the default horizontal tabs) a tough one to break.

~~~
throwaway8941
Of course you can.

about:profiles

root directory → open directory

create a new file `chrome/userChrome.css` and put this into it:

    
    
        #main-window[tabsintitlebar="true"]:not([extradragspace="true"]) #TabsToolbar > .toolbar-items {
            opacity: 0;
            pointer-events: none;
        }
        
        #main-window:not([tabsintitlebar="true"]) #TabsToolbar {
            visibility: collapse !important;
        }
        
        #sidebar-header {
            display: none;
        }
        
        toolbarbutton#alltabs-button {
            -moz-binding: url(data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIj8+DQo8IS0tIENvcHlyaWdodCAoYykgMjAxNyBIYWdnYWkgTnVjaGkNCkF2YWlsYWJsZSBmb3IgdXNlIHVuZGVyIHRoZSBNSVQgTGljZW5zZToNCmh0dHBzOi8vb3BlbnNvdXJjZS5vcmcvbGljZW5zZXMvTUlUDQogLS0+DQoNCjwhLS0gUnVuIHVzZXJDaHJvbWUuanMvdXNlckNocm9tZS54dWwgYW5kIC51Yy5qcy8udWMueHVsLy5jc3MgZmlsZXMgIC0tPg0KPGJpbmRpbmdzIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm1vemlsbGEub3JnL3hibCI+DQogICAgPGJpbmRpbmcgaWQ9ImpzIj4NCiAgICAgICAgPGltcGxlbWVudGF0aW9uPg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgPGNvbnN0cnVjdG9yPjwhW0NEQVRBWw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIGlmKHdpbmRvdy51c2VyQ2hyb21lSnNNb2QpIHJldHVybjsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB3aW5kb3cudXNlckNocm9tZUpzTW9kID0gdHJ1ZTsNCg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHZhciBjaHJvbWVGaWxlcyA9IEZpbGVVdGlscy5nZXREaXIoIlVDaHJtIiwgW10pLmRpcmVjdG9yeUVudHJpZXM7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdmFyIHh1bEZpbGVzID0gW107DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdmFyIHNzcyA9IENjWydAbW96aWxsYS5vcmcvY29udGVudC9zdHlsZS1zaGVldC1zZXJ2aWNlOzEnXS5nZXRTZXJ2aWNlKENpLm5zSVN0eWxlU2hlZXRTZXJ2aWNlKTsNCg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHdoaWxlKGNocm9tZUZpbGVzLmhhc01vcmVFbGVtZW50cygpKSB7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHZhciBmaWxlID0gY2hyb21lRmlsZXMuZ2V0TmV4dCgpLlF1ZXJ5SW50ZXJmYWNlKENpLm5zSUZpbGUpOw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB2YXIgZmlsZVVSSSA9IFNlcnZpY2VzLmlvLm5ld0ZpbGVVUkkoZmlsZSk7DQoNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgaWYoZmlsZS5pc0ZpbGUoKSkgew0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdHlwZSA9ICJub25lIjsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIGlmKC8oXnVzZXJDaHJvbWV8LnVjKS5qcyQvaS50ZXN0KGZpbGUubGVhZk5hbWUpKSB7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdHlwZSA9ICJ1c2VyY2hyb21lL2pzIjsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIH0NCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIGVsc2UgaWYoLyhedXNlckNocm9tZXwudWMpLnh1bCQvaS50ZXN0KGZpbGUubGVhZk5hbWUpKSB7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdHlwZSA9ICJ1c2VyY2hyb21lL3h1bCI7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB9DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBlbHNlIGlmKC8uYXMuY3NzJC9pLnRlc3QoZmlsZS5sZWFmTmFtZSkpIHsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB0eXBlID0gImFnZW50c2hlZXQiOw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgfQ0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgZWxzZSBpZigvXig/ISh1c2VyQ2hyb21lfHVzZXJDb250ZW50KS5jc3MkKS4rLmNzcyQvaS50ZXN0KGZpbGUubGVhZk5hbWUpKSB7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdHlwZSA9ICJ1c2Vyc2hlZXQiOw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgfQ0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgaWYodHlwZSAhPSAibm9uZSIpIHsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBjb25zb2xlLmxvZygiLS0tLS0tLS0tLVwgIiArIGZpbGUubGVhZk5hbWUgKyAiICgiICsgdHlwZSArICIpIik7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgdHJ5IHsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgaWYodHlwZSA9PSAidXNlcmNocm9tZS9qcyIpIHsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIFNlcnZpY2VzLnNjcmlwdGxvYWRlci5sb2FkU3ViU2NyaXB0V2l0aE9wdGlvbnMoZmlsZVVSSS5zcGVjLCB7dGFyZ2V0OiB3aW5kb3csIGlnbm9yZUNhY2hlOiB0cnVlfSk7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIH0NCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgZWxzZSBpZih0eXBlID09ICJ1c2VyY2hyb21lL3h1bCIpIHsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHh1bEZpbGVzLnB1c2goZmlsZVVSSS5zcGVjKTsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgfQ0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBlbHNlIGlmKHR5cGUgPT0gImFnZW50c2hlZXQiKSB7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBpZighc3NzLnNoZWV0UmVnaXN0ZXJlZChmaWxlVVJJLCBzc3MuQUdFTlRfU0hFRVQpKQ0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHNzcy5sb2FkQW5kUmVnaXN0ZXJTaGVldChmaWxlVVJJLCBzc3MuQUdFTlRfU0hFRVQpOw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB9DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIGVsc2UgaWYodHlwZSA9PSAidXNlcnNoZWV0Iikgew0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgaWYoIXNzcy5zaGVldFJlZ2lzdGVyZWQoZmlsZVVSSSwgc3NzLlVTRVJfU0hFRVQpKQ0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHNzcy5sb2FkQW5kUmVnaXN0ZXJTaGVldChmaWxlVVJJLCBzc3MuVVNFUl9TSEVFVCk7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIH0NCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB9IGNhdGNoKGUpIHsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgY29uc29sZS5sb2coIiMjIyMjIyMjIyMgRVJST1I6ICIgKyBlICsgIiBhdCAiICsgZS5saW5lTnVtYmVyICsgIjoiICsgZS5jb2x1bW5OdW1iZXIpOw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIH0NCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBjb25zb2xlLmxvZygiLS0tLS0tLS0tLS8gIiArIGZpbGUubGVhZk5hbWUpOw0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgfQ0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB9DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgfQ0KDQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgc2V0VGltZW91dChmdW5jdGlvbiBsb2FkWFVMKCkgew0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBpZih4dWxGaWxlcy5sZW5ndGggPiAwKSB7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICBkb2N1bWVudC5sb2FkT3ZlcmxheSh4dWxGaWxlcy5zaGlmdCgpLCBudWxsKTsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIHNldFRpbWVvdXQobG9hZFhVTCwgNSk7DQogICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIH0NCiAgICAgICAgICAgICAgICB9LCAwKTsNCiAgICAgICAgICAgIF1dPjwvY29uc3RydWN0b3I+DQogICAgICAgIDwvaW1wbGVtZW50YXRpb24+DQogICAgPC9iaW5kaW5nPg0KPC9iaW5kaW5ncz4=);
        }
    

restart the browser

It also removes some other junk like the new tab button.

~~~
sharps1
Thanks this is very useful!

Note: To enable userChrome reading, set

    
    
      toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets
    

to true in

    
    
      about:config

~~~
donclark
Thank you for the update on the instructions, but its still not working in
Firefox. Anything else I can try or need to do?

------
Someone1234
> LanguageTool: By default, this extension will check your text by sending it
> to [https://languagetool.org](https://languagetool.org) over a securely
> encrypted connection. No account is needed to use this extension. We don't
> store your IP address.

Honestly I'd pay good money if someone invented a competitor to this,
Grammerly, or Ginger that was all local (an actual usage for machine
learning/NLP!). It doesn't need to be perfect just better than the bad
spelling/grammar solution built into Firefox, and more private than these
services.

~~~
inglor
Here is how you run your own languagetool server :]

[http://wiki.languagetool.org/http-server](http://wiki.languagetool.org/http-
server)

~~~
Someone1234
Thanks giving that a shot now.

Edit: Alright this is pretty good. I'm going to stick with this for a while.
It was super easy to get up and going (just spawn with "start javaw" for a
background daemon).

I installed the 14 GB n-gram data too, which makes it even better. Only tip is
that the command line arguments are case specific for some reason
(languagemodel vs languageModel matter).

~~~
coldpie
Don't forget to give the creators the "good money" you promised :)
[https://languagetool.org/#Price](https://languagetool.org/#Price)

------
jyr0s
A few of these have the "Access your data for all websites" permission and
honestly, I can't shake the feeling that I'm giving away all data on all
websites at all times if I install any of these

~~~
paulgb
As an extension developer, I hate to say it, but you're absolutely right to
feel that way. I've had people offer to pay me to put tracking or buy an
extension outright, and my extensions aren't even that popular; I can only
imagine what emails developers of extensions with 100k+ users get.

If anyone from Firefox is reading these, I'd love a way to link an extension
to a Github repository with a particular hash, and have users be able to
verify that the code in the extension actually matches what's in the repo.
Currently, even if an extension "lives" on GitHub, there's no way to know that
what's in the extension library matches what's on Github.

~~~
_xander
That's terrifying. Is there any auditing done by Mozilla to get an extension
published? Or is it a free for all?

~~~
paulgb
To their credit, Mozilla does have an approval process, but it's pretty opaque
what actually happens during that process. They also have a "Recommended
Extensions" program which does more thorough vetting, apparently. Chrome is
more of a free-for-all.

~~~
unityByFreedom
> Chrome is more of a free-for-all

Chrome is very strict, as of the last several months, about what they allow.
There's even a sticky in the support group for people whose extensions have
been stuck in review for more than 3 weeks:

[https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/?utm_medium=e...](https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!forum/chromium-
extensions)

------
kirubakaran
May I humbly suggest [https://histre.com/](https://histre.com/) that I'm
building?

Not only can you bookmark and take notes, you can share collections of
bookmarks with your teams and they can add theirs to the collection too.

You can save all the open tabs in a browser window into a collection and
either use it to restore that window later - perhaps even in a different
browser or computer, or share that with your teams so they can open the same
set of tabs.

It has tree style web history too.

The disjointed suggestions they have in this post is actually fully integrated
in Histre, Emacs-style if you will. The core idea is that you generate a lot
of signal as you go about your day doing stuff online and that can
automatically be put to use for you. Unlike the Knowledge Bases like Notion
and Evernote, where you need to capture and organize the information (which is
useful in a different way), Histre strives to automatically organize it for
you.

I'd argue that this supports the "remote work and school" usecase better.

Speaking of integrations, it has Hacker News integration too. Your upvotes are
saved into a collection. You can then share that collection with just some
friends or make it public (sort of your frictionless publishing page). I'm
working on recommending articles based on your HN upvotes.

~~~
rollinDyno
I created an account and then I was asked for my credit card details for a 30
day trial. I declined to do so and went to the home page where I was invited
to install an extension.

I clicked on the Firefox logo and it was a broken link so I can't really give
this a ride.

~~~
kirubakaran
Hey really sorry about that, bad timing. I got an email from a Firefox
reviewer this morning asking me to remove the uses of innerHTML. I'm working
on fixing that. It is taking a little while because of how I use it in Quill
([https://quilljs.com/](https://quilljs.com/)). I'll send you an email once it
is fixed. The extension is open source by the way:
[https://gitlab.com/histre/browser-
extension](https://gitlab.com/histre/browser-extension)

------
nilkn
I'll vouch for Tree Style Tabs. It's a killer extension that changed the way I
work and made Firefox into a serious productivity workhorse for me. I can
easily manage 10x as many tabs as I could before without ever feeling like I'm
getting lost in them.

~~~
rollinDyno
I've been using TST for a while now but this week I have found new
improvements.

I have started using Simple Tab Groups rather than OneTab and I have
customised the CSS in userChrome.css and now have a slimmer sidebar that
expands on hover.

Gif here: [https://postimg.cc/xJ2jfFGx](https://postimg.cc/xJ2jfFGx)

Edit: here's the repo where I got the expand TST on hover style
[https://github.com/TanzNukeTerror/Compact-
FirefoxCSS/](https://github.com/TanzNukeTerror/Compact-FirefoxCSS/)

~~~
somishere
This is sweet, cheers! I played around off the back of this to get a bit of a
hybrid going - pinned / active tabs up top and grouped / standard tabs down
the side:
[https://gist.github.com/theprojectsomething/6813b2c27611be03...](https://gist.github.com/theprojectsomething/6813b2c27611be03e67c78d936b0f760)

------
itcrowd
uBlock Origin needs to be on the list. It doesn't make remote work or school
better, specifically, but it makes the whole web great (again).

~~~
nogabebop23
yes - new computer/device for anyone in the family => install uBO. I've only
had one complaint abouty a site that no longer worked properly (and it was
both (a) garbage and (b) targeting kids specifically)

------
dkthehuman
If you want to be more intentional about how you use your time online, I
launched Intention on HN a little while ago:

[https://getintention.com](https://getintention.com)

Spent a lot of time getting privacy right: It only asks you for the sites you
select (not all sites like most other extensions).

HN thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22936742](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22936742)

~~~
pqdbr
Intention is awesome.

I had a habit of unknowingly typing "g" in my Chrome's search bar and visit G1
(a Brazil's news site). It became something I just did that on a whim,
multiple times along the day, and now Intention is saving me almost 50 minutes
of productivity every day.

~~~
jamesbvaughan
I just found your comment on another thread where you said that you wanted to
find Ira Glass's video on "taste" but now it's been long enough that I can't
reply to that comment, so I'm replying to this completely unrelated comment
because I've also had trouble finding that video in the paste and decided to
save the link the last time I found it.

Here it is: [https://vimeo.com/85040589](https://vimeo.com/85040589)

------
jonny383
I've found switching the user agent to Chrome to be the most effective
solution for ensuring sites and platforms operate as expected, without
degregaded experience.

Yes, this includes non-Google educational platforms that block access based on
user agent (not compatibility)

------
867-5309
If my kids are on Windows laptops I can use Microsoft Family settings to
control OS lockout, app access and Edge restrictions.

If they're on tablets I can use Google Family for a similar experience with
Android and Chrome.

If they're on Kindle Fires then Amazon offer similar Family settings.

OS aside, what does Firefox have to offer in this respect?

~~~
gowld
What's wrong with OS level control? Your kids can install alternative browser.

~~~
867-5309
Windows can only control Edge, so all other browsers have to be blocked. same
story with other OSes and their respective browsers

~~~
rovr138
What kind of restrictions are we talking about?

------
saidajigumi
I'd like to offer a recommendation for Zoom Tab Close[1]. It's an extremely
simple extension that closes out the leftover tab when a zoom link received by
the browser redirects to the desktop app. Just one bit of friction in my day
... gone.

[1] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zoom-tab-
clos...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zoom-tab-close/)

------
pncnmnp
When I switched to Firefox, I found the lack of pop-up styled Google
Dictionary to be a deal-breaker. So I created an extension -
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/popup-
encyclo...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/popup-
encyclopedia/). It supports both the dictionary and encyclopedia words.
Students may find this extension useful.

------
niftylettuce
We're releasing our extension soon for all browsers.

[https://forwardemail.net](https://forwardemail.net)

Here's extensions I use and my full setup:
[https://gist.github.com/niftylettuce/39597a7b3bc0660ffe1e09d...](https://gist.github.com/niftylettuce/39597a7b3bc0660ffe1e09d77588bcf6)

    
    
        git clone https://github.com/zenorocha/codecopy
        git clone https://github.com/philc/vimium.git
        git clone https://github.com/OctoLinker/OctoLinker.git
        git clone https://github.com/ilGur1132/Smart-HTTPS.git
        git clone https://github.com/ovity/octotree.git
        git clone https://github.com/mrcoles/full-page-screen-capture-chrome-extension.git
    

\+
[https://github.com/jswanner/DontFuckWithPaste](https://github.com/jswanner/DontFuckWithPaste)
\+ [https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock)

------
nevster
Panorama Tab Groups is the best replacement for the old Tab groups extension :
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-
tab-...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-tab-groups/)

I resisted upgrading for ages while there didn't seem to be a clear winning
replacement.

~~~
jayelbe
Thank you so much for sharing this! I used Panorama so intensively and thought
it was one of Fx's killer features. I'd given up hoping there would be a
suitable replacement - until now.

------
geoelectric
I'm unfamiliar with the Dark Mode extensions referenced in this article, but
I've had pretty good luck with Dark Reader.

It's not as performant on Firefox as on Chrome (and it really shows in Gmail
in particular) but overall it's been very reliable and easy to customize when
necessary.

------
neves
My favorite extension is the "Tab reloader". I can set it to reload my work
login page and it won't expire my session.

And uBlock Origin and Tree Tab are fundamental for the web. Containers also
nice, I can login at sites like Trello and GitHub with different accounts.

------
gnicholas
Humbly suggesting BeeLine Reader for Chrome [1] and Firefox [2], which has
seen a strong uptick in interest during WFH and distance learning. There's a
2-week free trial, and it's currently free for students via our covid program.

1: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-
reader/ifj...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-
reader/ifjafammaookpiajfbedmacfldaiamgg?hl=en)

2: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/beelinereader...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/beelinereader/)

~~~
kabacha
I've tried Beeline multiple times and I every time I come out with varying
experiences. For example it's pretty much useless for reading code stuff as it
colors in code blocks with no way to disable that.

Also I'm certain it actually makes well formatted text harder to read. As in
60-70 character lines with healthy paragraphing and imagery.

I'm kinda perplexed that they are charging 2$/month for this extension when it
could be replicated in javascript bookmarklet or grease monkey script. All it
does is blindly apply gradient to text.

Not a fan of accessibility innovations like this being made propriatory like
this either.

~~~
gnicholas
You're right about code blocks! We offer a domain blacklist feature so that
folks can prevent it from running on sites they read that have a lot of code,
and we are working on a smarter way to detect code blocks and not color them.

If you're certain that BeeLine "makes well formatted text harder to read",
then I'm pretty sure we're not for you! I'd be curious to know where you find
it helpful? Just for text that is displayed too densely?

We're doing a bit more than blindly applying gradients to text! The first
thing to figure out is where the body text is on a page. It's not easy to
avoid overcoloring (accidentally coloring captions or text that is on a
different-colored background) and undercoloring (not coloring all of the main
blocks of text). It's easy to do these tasks on a handful of websites, but
it's hard to come up with algorithms that work across the entire internet (in
many languages). But yes, what we do is something that is proprietary, and
that makes it different than some accessibility techniques. There are other
aspects of accessibility that are proprietary, for example high-quality TTS
voices like Amazon Polly.

But my goal is to have the technique that I invented, tested, and refined
adopted into products so that users do not have to pay for plugins and such.
There's good progress on this front, with major e-textbook platforms and big
newspapers looking to integrate the tech. Once we get a couple of these larger
licensees on board, there's a good chance we'll make the consumer tools free
for individuals.

~~~
kabacha
sorry to put you on the spot but what makes it difficult to simply ignore
`\<pre>` blocks?

As to answer your question - beeline is great for _badly_ formatted texts.
Many articles are in whooping 120 character long lines or absurdly long, bland
paragraphs. In those cases the benefit of beeline is definitely noticable!

Finally for technical bits, it seems that that beeline extension colors each
letter individually, however modern css already offers horizontal gradient[1]
which might be prettier and somewhat preserve the original document better.

[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39884260](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39884260)

~~~
gnicholas
Thanks for the advice! The last item is the most important I think, and the
reason we didn't originally do this is because the plugin has been cross-
platform since launch in 2013. I believe at that time the CSS technique only
worked on certain browsers. We have been talking about updating the coloring
technique to use CSS, but it hasn't been a top priority compared to everything
else we've been doing (both on the browser plugin and on the rest of the
business).

I'm going to talk with the team about your suggestion regarding \<pre> blocks.
We're early in the process of addressing this issue, which has come up
recently. Hope it's a quick fix!

------
ccktlmazeltov
If you don't use tree style tabs to browse the web, you're probably doing it
wrong.

~~~
yinyang_in
Was using it extensively, have customised it with userchrome file.

But then went to idea of having fewer tabs open and only w.r.t context I'm
working on. Lesser number of tabs made things much more simpler for me.

Have been both sides, and must way for people with lots of tabs, tree style
tabs is seriously good.

~~~
demosito666
I did the same. I was relying on tree style tab heavily and kept 30-40 tabs
opened all the time. Obviously without the extension this would be a pain.

But then I realized that most tabs I have opened hang there for weeks and
months without me even looking at them, occupying screen and mental space. Now
I made a simple habbit: once I've read the tab and don't need it right now, I
just close it. Should I need to return to it later, it's trivial to re-open it
from history.

One might think it's kind of a konmari approach, and when you're doing it you
don't need extra management tools anymore.

------
ww520
Since we're talking about extensions, can I suggest my own Tip Tab [1] for
visually navigate and manage tabs? Just updated it after a year of break. I
mostly use it for quick search and keyboard navigation (ctrl-shift-F, type
search term, Tab Tab Tab Enter to jump to the tab). Also use the predefined
search terms like, mail, news, finance, etc, to quickly filter down the tabs.

[1] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tip-
tab/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tip-tab/)

~~~
xcv58
Suggest mine Tab Manager v2 too: it has VIM-like navigation (hjkl) and other
features can be searched via Command+Shift+P. And Command+T (Alt+T for non-
macOS) to toggle the popup window:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-
manager-v...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-manager-v2/)

------
linhmtran168
I use Sidebery for tab management and find it more lightweight than Tree Style
Tab

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/sidebery/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/sidebery/)

And LeechBlock NG has massively helped me gain back my wasted time browsing
the web

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock-
ng...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock-ng/)

~~~
wakkaflokka
Wow, this is awesome. Much more responsive than Tree Style Tabs from what I'm
seeing, and the grouping mechanism is great. Thanks for the heads up.

------
duxup
I wish they would let you hide Firefox accounts behind passwords so the
browser just looks vanilla when you sign out. Rather it leaves bookmarks
behind.

Makes it hard to use with sharing devices like an iPad and etc.

~~~
Polylactic_acid
Does iOS not have user accounts? Every other OS has this and it makes this
feature useless.

~~~
duxup
iPads behave as single user device, so they don't allow for multi users at the
OS level.

Personally I'd prefer both Firefox and iOS support multi user things ... even
if just for my own convenience. I have "work" and "home" type profiles.

------
leppr
I still miss the mouse gesture extensions from the pre-Web Extensions days.
The suggested replacements only work on a loaded webpage, which limits their
use as a replacement to keyboard shortcuts, especially when combined with a
tab unloader extension[1].

[1] such as [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-tab-
disc...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-tab-discard/)

------
cJ0th
Learned about midnight lizard thanks to this post. like it a lot. some
websites take a while till they are rendered in midnight mode. However, my
laptop is not very powerful.

------
modzu
speed dials! this one is open source and privacy conscious (i'm the author):

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/yet-
another-s...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/yet-another-
speed-dial/)

------
Zardoz84
Simple tab groups it's a game changer. At least, I can have separate my tab
setup when I'm working, from the stuff that I have open when I'm with my side
projects, or when I simply doing other unrelated stuff.

~~~
Zardoz84
Also, the Private bookmarks, was a thing that I was feeling very necessary
like many years ago. It isn't perfect (alpha stage) but does the work.

------
monksy
The joplin extension and application.

([https://joplinapp.org/](https://joplinapp.org/) \- next cloud syncing
functionality baby!)

Duplicate tabs closer

------
musicale
> Impulse Blocker is here to keep you away from those distracting, timesink
> websites

... which are the primary use case for Firefox (and all other web browsers.)

------
djrogers
These maybe / are great features and extensions, but I don’t see what any of
them have to do with WFH?

------
SidAI
It's a good time for companies based on improving remote work/school...

------
theboywho
I fail to see how is this related to remote work and not just work in general.
Does firefox really need this this kind of "jump on the hype" kind of
marketing ?

