Mozilla Firefox Themes

85% of Firefox users use add-ons; Chrome users, just 33%

At long last, Mozilla has managed to calculate how many Firefox users have at least one add-on installed: 85%. It gets better, though: the average Firefox user has no less than 5 add-ons installed — but considering over 2.5 billion add-ons have been downloaded in the last 5 years, that’s not all that surprising. In total, 580 million add-ons are used every day by the Firefox user base.

On the flip side, over in Googleland, only one third — 33% — of Chrome users have an add-on (extension) installed. The most telling statistic, though, is that Google has only served 70 million extensions and themes — a puny fraction of the 2.5 billion dished up by Mozilla. It’s worth noting that these Chrome statistics are six months old — but given how Chrome automatically updates, and how it doesn’t suffer from the same add-on compatibility issues as Firefox, it’s safe to assume that the percentage is still around 33% today. The total number of downloads will have climbed significantly — but it’s unlikely to be much over 100 million.

Now that you have the straight-laced and objective figures, it’s time for speculation. Why are Firefox users three times as likely to use add-ons? There are two serious omissions from Chrome’s extension line-up — Video DownloadHelper and DownThemAll — but surely that can’t account for such a huge disparity. It is more likely to be an ideological difference. Chrome users don’t use Chrome for the extensions — they use it for its spartan looks and brutal speed. Firefox users, on the other hand, are surfers who couldn’t imagine experiencing the interwebs without their favorite add-ons.

Google’s massive marketing push in the last year has focused almost exclusively on speediness. The resulting shift from Firefox or Internet Explorer to Chrome will be from users looking for a faster web, not extensions or other creature comforts. In other words, despite massive performance gains over the last year, Firefox is still all about add-ons — and Chrome is all about speed.

via Browser Fame

Well the main purpose of a browser is to “browse websites”.  Chrome does it extremely well out of the box.  I would speculate a new Chrome use is so over joyed by the better performance over their other browser they haven’t found a need to install an extension?

I have Chrome and Firefox always open on my screens for work (web developer) and many extensions/add-ons on both.  I could get by with none installed just as easy, though I use Chrome more than Firefox.

The other Firefox 3 themes • Mozilla Links

As you may know, Firefox 3 introduces three different themes for all the officially supported operating systems: Firelight on Mac OS X, Tango on Linux, and Strata on Windows, which even comes in XP and Vista variations to better blend with Luna and Aero respectively.

If you are feeling envious of what the other platform or style got or just want to try a different look and have a couple of minutes to spare, you may want to give these themes a try.

Vista on XP , is a theme by Pascal Herbert that lets you use the Windows Vista theme, which is pretty much like the XP theme except all main navigation bar icons are blue and glassy instead of plastic-y.

If you prefer XP’s green plastic, try XP on Vista by the same author.

MacOS X Theme , created by GOLF-AT, brings Firelight’s brushed metal to users in Linux and Windows platforms. You will need a Mozilla Add-ons account though, as it is labeled experimental and awaiting further reviews.

Finally, if you don’t like change and believe Firefox 2 theme was just perfect, there’s also a theme for you: Firefox 2 for Firefox 3 will make you feel as it is 2006 again, yellow location bar for secure sites included.

Enjoy!

Firefox for dummies

Linux Bible 2010 Edition, Boot Up to Ubuntu, Fedora, KNOPPIX, Debian, OpenSUSE, and 13 Other Distributions

Knoppix hacks

Google, the missing manual

Ubuntu Linux Bible, Featuring Ubuntu 10.04 LTS