How to optimize Firefox for a 1024x600 Netbook screen.

You have a 24" LCD monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution, now you buy a Netbook with a 1024x600 resolution.  How do you  ensure that when you cruise the Net, your spanking new Netbook does nearly as well as your 24" LCD monitor ?

I own a Asus EeePC 1000H Netbook and use Firefox 3.5.3, which is the current latest version. All the Addon extensions below, work with this version.  This article is relevant for all Netbooks, Windows or Linux, with 1024x600 screen resolution.

You may download the latest version of Mozilla Firefox from here.

My Objective for modding the Firefox browser on my Netbook was to :

1. Maximizing realestate,
2. Maximizing functionality,
3. Increased readability,
4. Security & to an extent good looks.

This is how my Firefox browser looks with all the below Addon extensions.

I could have pressed F11 to get the full screen but I prefer having my icons, toolbars & status bar on the screen while I roam the Net. 


Important Note : Some Addon Extensions aren't yet authorized as compatible with Firefox 3.5.x by Mozilla but they can be used by disabling the Firefox Addon compatibility check.  I have tested all such Addons extensively and they work without any problems.

When you disable Firefox's compatibility check, you will get this message when you open the Add-ons box.  Don't worry, all is good.

From the top of the screen, I have just two compacted tool-bars with almost all the functionality in them.

Addon Extensions to maximize Realestate and functionality :

1. Tiny Menu - Replaces the standard menu with a tiny menu popup.  You can move your Firefox menu onto your Navigation Bar thus reducing one toolbar.
2. Smart Bookmarks Bar - Hides bookmarks names in the bookmark bar but shows the names when you move your mouse over the bookmark icons, therefore, you can pack more bookmark icons on the same toolbar.
3. Favicon Picker - This extension allows you to replace bookmark icons using the properties dialog.  You can also replace blank favicons with any one you want.  Good site for downloading and replacing favicons in your bookmark bar : Favicons 1, Favicons 2
   
4. Tab Mix Plus - TAB browsing with an added boost - you get many more options to play around with TAB's.  I specially like the Open-tab-when-the-tab-gets-the-mouse-focus option and the Open-in-new-Tab-for-links-outside-the-website one.
5. Stop-or-Reload Button - A combined Stop-or-Reload.  This reduces one Icon on the navigation toolbar.
   
6. Hide Chrome v1.1.3 - Simple extension to hide window's chrome with toolbar button or ctrl+F2 keyshortcut. To change keyshortcut, use the keyconfig extension. Hide Chrome extension adds also two new buttons - Close Application and Minimize. (this extension is Experimental right now but works well with Firefox 3.5)
7. Fission - Fission combines address bar and progress bar (Safari style). This makes the progress bar more visible and allows for a nice visual effect.  This allows you to hide your status bar and still get to see the progress bar.
8. Organize Status Bar 0.6.3 - This extension will enable you to organize your status bar icons. You can now rearrange or remove any item (icon or text) in the Firefox status bar. If your status bar is full and cluttered like mine was, give this a try.

 Addon to Increase Readability on your Netbook :

1. No Squint v2.0b6  - Manages site-specific full page and text zoom levels. A really useful Addon for Netbooks as it zooms the Web-pages with your default zoom or site-specific zoom.  Use it to fit-to-width websites which have a higher horizontal resolution than 1024 pixels and zoom websites whose text is too small for the Netbook screen.  One of my most favorite Addons.  (This Addon is a Beta version but works well with Firefox 3.5.3 after disabling the Addon compatibility check)  
2. SmoothWheel - smooths the two-finger / mouse-wheel scrolling on your Netbook.

Other very useful Addon Extensions for your Netbook :

1. FlagFox - Displays and flag depicting the location of the current web-server.
2. Xmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - Synchronizes your bookmarks across machines.
3. StumbleUpon - Discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.  You may note that this adds a toolbar to your browser hence reducing the realestate on your screen.  Despite that, I use this a lot.   I just "hide" this tool bar whenever I am not using it.
   
4. KeyScrambler 2.5.0 - protects you from keyloggers while entering data in your browser. (This latest version is downloaded from the publishers website)
   
5. ProCon Latte - Filter web pages containing explicit content based on text on websites.

 Hope this helps someone and more suggestions, from all, are welcome.