Firefox

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Firefox is a web browser created by the Mozilla foundation. It is the web browser portion of the Mozilla suite spun off into its own application, though it's matured and changed from that initial fork.

If you're looking for the e-mail part of the former Mozilla suite, have a look at Thunderbird.


Installation

Firefox is installed by default on the Peyton network as a module so you can run it on any Linux machine by loading the module with module load firefox if it's not already loaded and executing firefox at the command line. Macs have it installed in /usr/peyton/Applications. If you would like to install it on your personal machine, use whatever browser you have to go to http://www.mozilla.com. The front page should have a download link based on what platform you're currently using to browse there (ie, if you're visiting from a Mac, the Mac download should be on the page). Click "Other systems & languages" if you wish to choose a different version - such as downloading the Linux version from a Windows machine.

Actual installation varies slightly by platform:

  • Windows
    Run the downloaded program to launch the installer
  • Macs
    Double click the downloaded disk image, then drag and drop the Firefox application where you'd like to install it (such as /Applications)
  • Linux
    Uncompress the tar file, which will create a "firefox" directory. Move that directory to where you'd like the program installed (such as /usr/local/ or ~/Installs).


Extensions

Much like Thunderbird, Firefox can be modified with extensions which give new functionality or change the appearance of the program (and in fact, many extensions work on both programs). They can be downloaded from the Firefox website. Here's a few extensions that are quite useful to have installed:

  • Adblock Plus does a great job of filtering ads from web pages, while still leaving the necessary parts available (such as funny scripts that banks use, etc). Includes an updater which keeps its internal list of sites and regexps current.
  • Download Statusbar adds a bar at the bottom of the screen for your downloads, instead of the normal download window.
  • PDF Download will detect when you've clicked on a PDF link, and offer options for what to do with it - download as a file, view within the browser, or launch an external application to view it.

A couple more advanced or geeky extensions are Server Spy (tells you information about the web server you're connecting to, such as what software it is running) and Web Developer (gives you a new toolbar that lets you view CSS information and much more, great for debugging websites or site development). Most people won't need these two, but some have found them handy for debugging.


Plugins

Because these plugins can sometimes contribute to instability, and because not everyone needs them, we don't install these system-wide; however, you will sometimes find yourself in need of them, so we keep a known-working copy of the following plugins on-hand. All can be installed via modules.

  • Adobe Flash
Load with module load flash to create the appropriate link (note that the Flash module requires that Firefox is loaded first with module load firefox. Once loaded, restart FireFox as it only checks for the library on start-up. You can then check on Adobe's Homepage to verify operation.
  • Oracle Java
Load the module with module load java to install. Restart Firefox for it to recognize the plugin. You can test that it's working by visiting Sun's Java VM Test.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader
module load acroread will setup the symlink, and it will be loaded in Firefox after you restart the browser.