2y ago

What are some good extensions or apps that you use for your browser or desktop? Really useful ones outside of uBlock Origin or Dark Reader.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1309480

I use Vivaldi (Chromium).
I currently use uBlock Origin, Tab Count, Dark Reader, Read Aloud, Google Docs Offline, Srroll In, OneTab Plus (the original OneTab app kept glitching on me), and Dyslexic Browser.
I'm willing to have 15 apps/extensions for my browser and then probably no more after that (otherwise, the memory it'll take up will just make browsing super-slow, at least up until I finally upgrade my RAM card, which should be soon). Dunno if you can really use more than 15, to be perfectly honest, but I'm open to advice.
I want apps/extensions for university, research, reading and comprehension, language-learning, video-editing, and general QoL changes.
Also, let me know if I should still be using Vivaldi. What browser do you use? To me, Vivaldi is so far the best browser out there, at least currently (after having tried Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera). What extensions do you use as well for your browser of choice?
Let me know and let's give each other advice or whatever. Cheers!

20 comments

I use firefox, so I'm not positive if all of these are available for chromium based browsers.
Each extension varies in how big it is, so there isn't an easy rule for how many extensions to use. Also, if you're trying to increase privacy, many extensions can make your browser fingerprint more easily identifiable.
uBlock Origin - I have it set to block everything by default like NoScript, whitelisting sites as I use them. I used to use uMatrix for this before it was discontinued, but this works well enough.
Tridactyl - Advanced vim-like keybindings. It has more features than something like Vimium, but I've had it occasionally break sites so I had to change the noiframe settings listed on the troubleshooting page.
Midnight Lizard - I've been using this lately instead of Dark Reader. It has much more customization, but I've occasionally had it mess up on some sites.
CanvasBlocker - Sends out fake info to make your browser fingerprint different each time. This doesn't fully prevent fingerprinting with how I have my add-ons set up, but it at least makes the job harder for trackers and gives them less real data.
Local CDN - local copies of common libraries, so you don't access a bunch of 3rd party sites to download javascript. This sends your data to fewer sites, but if you're trying to stay anonymous it makes your fingerprint more unique.
AutoTabDiscard - This unloads inactive tabs, which comes in handy if you have a ton of tabs open. You can disable it for any sites you always want to keep active. You can also tweak how many tabs to keep open and how long before it tries to discard them.
Leechblock NG - Set time limits for how long you want to spend on each site. If you use it right it can help break addictions to certain websites.
Stylus - I use it for a couple of sites that just have really terrible styles or don't work well with dark mode.
AutoFill Forms - Handy for if you have any repetitive forms you need to fill out.
DownThemAll - I don't use it often, but really useful when there's a bunch of links to download.
ViolentMonkey - Per site custom javascript. I don't use this much, but occasionally comes in handy to make a website do what you want.
Tab Reloader - for sites that you want to keep refreshed.
I've got a bunch for integration with various websites and software:
Plasma Integration - This integrates stuff like video playback and notifications into KDE. Also needs a package installed to connect to. There's also Gnome Shell Extension, which does a similar thing for for Gnome.
Flatline - Install flatpaks more easily from flathub website. I usually avoid flatpaks, but it's convenient for when I do.
Mastodon Simplified Federation - More easily interact with other mastodon sites to forward to your server.
SponsorBlock for YouTube - I really hate ads.
Bypass Paywall Clean - This gets around paywalls for a bunch of news sites. It's not on mozilla's add-on page, so need to get it off gitlab.
Pinboard Pin - for my bookmarks.
BlueLiteBlocker - I rarely go on twitter, but blocking all the top replies with blue checkmarks makes it slightly less terrible.
RedditEnhancementSuite - I don't use reddit much lately, but when I do, this makes it more usable.
moderator toolbox for reddit - mod tools for reddit
TinEye - just adds a right click option for images to do reverse image search.
I'm pretty sure these are Firefox only, but I'll leave them here for anyone else who's interested.
Simple Tab Groups - I like using this to organize my tabs into groups. There's probably better ways to not have so many tabs open but it's convenient to have a bunch of open tabs when I want them.
Multi-Account Containers - Helpful if you have multiple accounts on the same site, or want to keep your cookies separate for different tasks.
Firefox Translations - adds more language options to Firefox's offline translation.
- This is... pretty definitive.
  You really put a lot of thought into this. Thank you! I'm saving this comment of yours.
  
  This question gets asked pretty often, so I'd been meaning to write something up for a while. Browser extensions were one of the first ways I got interested in free software, and there's a lot of really useful ones out there.
  If you want even more options, here's some I have installed but disabled.
  Forcastfox (fix version) - Shows the weather.
  Gesturify - Control the browser with just mouse gestures. I don't really use it because I try to use keyboard shortcuts, but it's really handy if you use a mouse a lot.
  GNU LibreJS - Blocks any non-free javascript. This is not a easy or fun extension to use. I've got my one system set up to use only free software, with this enabled. It really shows you how much proprietary javascript you're using.
  Picket Line Notifier - It tells you what products are from companies with ongoing strikes.
  Kiwix - Download offline sections of wikipedia, stackoverflow, khan academy and a bunch of other websites. They also have desktop and phone apps, so I don't really use the browser extension.
  Buster: Captcha Solving for Humans - I love how there's an add-on bot that can solve captchas to prove you're a human.
  Allow Right Click - Turn this on when a website tries to block you from saving images.
  User Agent Switcher and Manager - Occasionally you find a site that doesn't work in your browser, but just changing the user agent string often fixes it.
- You might be interested in Tab Stash on Firefox. Let's you create groups like tab groups but you can close and reopen them.
  
  It looks like a good extension, but I feel like my setup works better for my workflow. Tab groups with auto tab discard has a similar effect, and there's an archive option for when I really want to unload the whole group.
  Tab groups are really handy for multitasking if you use multiple desktops. I have a window open on each desktop, and switching between tab groups switches to the relevant desktop.
Rikaichamp
learning Japanese
Vimium
keyboard-centric workflow
Bitwarden
password manager
I generally found I really need 2.
UBlock Origin
Bitwarden
Others are interesting, but I wouldn't use them enough to warrant installing them on every system I run.
- Fair enough.
Cookie AutoDelete. I'm using it on Firefox, but there seems to be a chrome version.
- Is there a reason to use this instead of the builtin functionality?
  
  Maybe you could be a little more specific about what builtin functionality you're talking about. I have yet to see Firefox delete cookies on its own while it's open.
I use Image Max URL so when I open an image in a new tab that I want to inspect in greater detail, it redirects me automatically to the highest resolution version for my viewing pleasure.
- Good idea.
Consent-O-Matic is super convenient if you frequently visit new websites or clear your cookies. It will automatically decline all those annoying pop ups! https://github.com/cavi-au/Consent-O-Matic
Ghostery. Thank god I was going to stop surfing bc all those super extra annoying gdrp (godr, grdp, you know what I'm talking about) popups.
On Firefox I like Nimbus for advanced screenshots and Raindrop.io as my available-everywhere bookmark manager.
- I also use Raindrop.io!

20 comments