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Should Download Status Bar be in Firefox by default?

April 14, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Those who use Firefox (I hope a large number of readers, though Opera and Safari are good, as well) are undoubtfully aware of the amazing addon that is Download Status Bar. Let’s face it, the download manager built in to Firefox is annoying and clunky. But in a recent conversation with a friend of mine an interesting question was brought up: Should Download Status Bar come preinstalled on Firefox?

Is it wrong for Mozilla to preinstall addons? Or is the usefulness of certain addons worth giving up the “no pre-installed software” idea? (My opinion is “yes”.) Chime in below

Should download statusbar be in the release of Firefox by default?

  • Yes (71%, 58 Votes)
  • No (18%, 15 Votes)
  • Yes, but off by default (11%, 9 Votes)

Total Voters: 82

(I can only imagine the feedback I’d get if this were about Adblock!)

7 Responses:

Comment by Protag

That is a great question- I was thinking of that the other day and I totally think it should be.

Comment by Guy

I voted no because there was no third option. Yes but not on by default. It’s holds minimal download in unapparent ways to new users. Firefox base install is meant to have ease of access. The way the download window displays info is far more obvious to the first time users than the download status bar. A better way would be to just package your own firefox install and let the default be as is. It’s open source right? ;)

Comment by Tyler

Third option added.

Comment by jakebw

I don’t think that it would be responsible of Mozilla to include code that they do not control in their browser, enabled by default. This would allow someone else to introduce bugs that they cannot control via updates, and they have no control over what other features get included, without their consent (fasterfox now built in and enabled by default in version 2.0!). I don’t think that Mozilla is ever going to do something that will cause them to lose control of their own browser. The only way we are going to see this is if the functionality offered in that extension is incorporated into the browser.

Comment by Ethan Steckmann

I think Firefox and Ubuntu should come in to versions.

People Version: This for Firefox would mean Adblock plus and Download Status Bar and some of the other great add ons come pre installed and in Ubuntu it would be basicly what it it now.

And Slim version: This is more with Ubuntu then Firefox, but this version would include almost NOTHING keeping it small, fast, and to the point. This would be great because who needs all those games I have flash games, and who needs Open Office I have google Docs.

See what I mean?

Comment by Tyler

Voting is closed. If you can’t read results in a bar graph form, 71% Yes, 18% No, 11% Yes; off by default.

Comment by Alex

Very good!

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