I use the following on all my Firefox installations:
Aging Tabs Lite -- useful for ignoring older tabs
Google Browser Sync -- not perfect, but essential for sharing bookmarks and passwords
Mouse Gestures -- mostly for the fast back and forward gestures

Well, I sure as hell don't use any of the Conduit toolbars infesting the addon site, that's for sure...

That being said, I only use two extensions at the moment: Google Browser Sync and Adblock.

I'd say that the Download Statusbar, a gesturing package (I use All-In-One Gestures) and even Aging Tabs could be useful parts of future releases. Especially that Download Statusbar; it's so very intuitive.

I guess if we forget about the size of the release (and installing IE7 had me banging my head against a wall compared to FF2), one of the questions is whether people are going to make full use of Firefox, and realise what a great tool they have at their fingertips. So my fairly non-computer-literate friends love gestures, and love ForecastFox, but they never realised that sort of thing was possible; yet the ease and beauty of these things really sets Firefox apart from IE. Computer-literate people will always be able to work out how to disable, e.g., gesturing, but those not in the know usually won't realise. It's a bit like buying a state-of-the-art power tool and then hammering nails with it! And that makes me sad...because objectively, almost everyone would want to use Firefox.

I use 27 extensions, but there's only one that I think should come in firefox as default:

- Context Search 0.4.1 ( http://www.cusser.net/extensions/contextsearch/ )

Puts a new entry in your right click context menu that has a submenu of all your installed search engines. So you can highlight some text, right click, and send the text direct to any of your installed search engines.

One thing I dislike about Resizable Form Fields is that it is possible to screw up Combo Boxes - resize them vertically and you get something similar to multi select option. Otherwise it is perfect.

Other addons I use (FireBug, IE View Lite, Nightly Tester Tools, Tab Mix Plus) are not that universally needed that it should be included in official release.

Please don't recommend removing the DOM Inspector - Firebug is great, but it's not perfect.

On some sites, clicking "Inspect" leaves you with a solid white page, and nothing selectable, until you hit Inspect again to revert.

However, on those same sites, the DOM Inspector still works, so if one needs to find an ID or such, it's still possible.

One of the biggest developments in the blogging world is the increasing popularity of sponsored posts. One add on, which I feel would be most certainly welcome would be one that tell bloggers the word count of their post. Tried searching but there is non around. Well, I guess we have to depend on or Word processor for the time being and use the old cut and paste method.

For browsing, I use:

• Duplicate Tab (detaching a tab into a separate window should be built into Firefox, IMO)
• del.icio.us (the simpler one, not the full-on bookmarks integration -- though I'll probably switch to that one at some point)

• ColorZilla
• FireBug
• HTML Validator (I've also tried the CSE version and Total Validator)
• LinkChecker
• MeasureIt
• Tamper Data
• User Agent Switcher
• Web Developer Toolbar

* All-in-One Gestures - (not default) I love me my gestures, but U has to be "scroll to page top" and D has to be "scroll to page bottom". None of this useless new window garbage.
* Greasemonkey - (not default) I develop userscripts. This is mainly because I only like gmail with my expanded set of keyboard shortcuts. Also useful elsewhere for smaller hacks.
* Errorzilla - (default) A better error page for those 404s.
* Faviconize Tab - (not default) I keep gmail open all day. Nice to have it small on my tab instead of big. (alt+1 focuses)
* Developer stuff - Firebug, Webdeveloper Toolbar, JRudderman's bookmarklets with keywords, etc

Since you mentioned Resizeable Form Fields a few
posts back, I've been using it. It's a good
and useful add-on. I can now edit and compose
by using the extension and full screen without space
limitations and a lot of scrolling.

As far as the add-ons that I use, they're kind of grouped
for different usages, for example, I use image tools like
colorzilla, screen grab, measure it and others for graphics
use and editing. And then I have a group of extension
handling extensions like FEBE and Mr Tech Local Install.

Firefox is a toolkit for me that has a good and strong foundation
that makes extending it easy.

I also use add-ons to promote Firefox by 1st knowing what's
available. In a two day period, I scanned through all of the themes
and about 1,000 add-ons (add-ons site).. Then when I meet a potential consumer,
I have the knowledge to recommend add-ons according to their online habits.
My Firefox and Thunderbird extensions.
http://mouserunner.com/Fx_Extensions_Guide/Ken_Saunders_Firefox_Extensions.html
http://mouserunner.com/Thunderbird_Guide/Ken_Saunders_Thunderbird_Extensions.htm

I still prefer Resizeable Textarea to Resizeable Form Fields. It doesn't make sense for all form fields, that's just bloatware.

- prefbar
- ie view (or lite)
- web developer toolbar
- image zoom
- webmailcompose
- MAB - mozilla amazon browser
- a host of bookmarklets in my toolbar...
... some others at home.
- a different theme - generally Orbit Yellow 2006

On my list to try soon:
- SmugBrowser & SmugManager
- view cookies
- pdf download
- viewsourcewith
- fasterfox

Asa, which textarea resize do you use? I see a couple in the extensions site.

jw

Download Statusbar http://downloadstatusbar.mozdev.org/ (115kb)
Stop Autoplay http://hemiolapei.free.fr/divers/sap/sap-en.html (11.9kb)
Show Image http://showimage.mozdev.org/ (7kb)

The last two are vital for people on slower speeds (along with Adblock Plus - however, I wouldn't integrate that for legal reasons). And both of them are small extensions
The Download Statusbar is how it should be.

stumble upon is the only so-called "service" extension i use, online bookmarking/socializing is not my thing, but i've found alot of interesting websites and the community seems nice, im still supprised to find alot of people have the same interests as me.

- prefbar
- ie view (or lite)
- web developer toolbar
- image zoom
- webmailcompose
- MAB - mozilla amazon browser
- a host of bookmarklets in my toolbar...
... some others at home.
- a different theme - generally Orbit Yellow 2006

On my list to try soon:
- SmugBrowser & SmugManager
- view cookies
- pdf download
- viewsourcewith
- fasterfox

Asa, which textarea resize do you use? I see a couple in the extensions site.

jw

fwiw, I'm not advocating that all of those that I listed would be good to incorporate into FF...

download status bar
adblock plus
delicious
ie tab (for my companies exchange server, outlook)
resizable form fields
gmail manager

Ones I'd love to see integrated:

Capswarning
Download Statusbar (this is the first extension I always install)
Print Context Menu (this is a lot more useful than it first appears)

Would be nice, but not essential

FxIF - display Exif image data
SuperDragAndGo

Ones I'd love to see integrated:

Capswarning
Download Statusbar (this is the first extension I always install)
Print Context Menu (this is a lot more useful than it first appears)

Would be nice, but not essential

FxIF - display Exif image data
SuperDragAndGo

I currently use Adblock Plus, Google Browser Sync, Mouse Gestures, and Tab Mix Plus.

Of these, I think Adblock Plus should be folded in to Firefox if possible.

I don't think Mouse Gestures would appeal much to the average user.

From Tab Mix Plus, one thing that I definitely should be implemented by default is a context-menu item for "Open in new tab" and "Open in background tab." It just makes sense, and I couldn't imagine it would confuse many users.

Adblock Plus
CustomizeGoogle*
British English Dictionary*
Download Statusbar
Fission
GetVideo*
New Tab Homepage*
Resizable Form Fields*
searchOnTab*
Stop-or-Reload Button
Tab Mix Plus
User Agent Switcher

The *'d items are one's I could live without, but from time to time I find them useful.

Tab Mix Plus- really, really didn't want to have to install this. But unfortunately the Firefox devs got the tab close button on the wrong side of the tab for OS X. It should go on the left, to keep up consistency across the OS. (repeated claims of 'it'll be too crowded with the favicon!' are wasted. Put the favicon on the right then! Tab Mix Plus gives me the option to move the button. If anyone has another solution I'd be very grateful!

Stop-or-Reload button just makes so much sense. When the page is loading, it's a stop button. Once the page has loaded, it's a reload button. You can't stop a loaded page, so I see no need to have two buttons on the toolbar. This is the solution.

Extensions I can't live without:
* All-in-One Gestures
* CustomizeGoogle
* Gmail Notifier
* IE Tab
* Nightly Tester Tools
* Sage
* User Agent Switcher
* Web Developer

Extensions I CAN live without, but I like to have:
* Fission
* Tab Preview
* Forecastfox

I've been using CustomizeGoogle for so long, that when I made a Google search on another computer, I thought to myself "where are all the other options??", such as "[ Origin Image | Origin Page ]" for image searches. I forgot that they were options added by the extensions.

I use a whole bunch of extensions - let's see, 12 at the moment (has been higher) but there's one that I believe should be standard functionality: Tab Mix Plus.
Probably not all of it, but there certainly should be more flexibility in configuring the way tabs work.
The main things I can't live without:
- Changing the Ctrl-Tab order to "most recent" (just like Alt-Tab works). In the rare case that I want to switch to the tab on the right or left, I just use Ctrl-Arrow.
- Proper "focus last selected tab" on close, instead of the unlogical 'logic' in FF2. (Note that you get this for free if you enable the former, of course.)

I disagree with you about the resizable form fields, though. IMHO, that is really custom, non-standard functionality, which belongs in an extension.

- Michael

I use a whole bunch of extensions - let's see, 12 at the moment (has been higher) but there's one that I believe should be standard functionality: Tab Mix Plus.
Probably not all of it, but there certainly should be more flexibility in configuring the way tabs work.
The main things I can't live without:
- Changing the Ctrl-Tab order to "most recent" (just like Alt-Tab works). In the rare case that I want to switch to the tab on the right or left, I just use Ctrl-Arrow.
- Proper "focus last selected tab" on close, instead of the unlogical 'logic' in FF2. (Note that you get this for free if you enable the former, of course.)

I disagree with you about the resizable form fields, though. IMHO, that is really custom, non-standard functionality, which belongs in an extension.

- Michael

Apologies for the double post... :-[ I got a timeout, so I assumed it didn't get posted.

- Michael

Indispensable for me:
- download manager tweak (new windows take forever to load; download manager belong in the sidebar)
- Scrapbook (still the killer feature of Mac IE 5)
- Tab mix plus (similar to other posts)

Not for the general public
- Greasemonkey
- Firebug
- switch proxy
- auto copy

Almost didn't upgrade to 2.0 because it wasn't available
- autocomplete manager (FF's autocomplete is terrible.)

I keep wondering why the dom inspector is still included, too.

I use DOMi because I know it'll work. Firebug still doesn't in anything above 2.0*.

Hello and thanks for asking again what people use.

My top extensions list is for ones I find really useful on a daily basis. My middle extensions list is for ones I use on a weekly basis. Extensions listed under thinking of dumping and dumped are extensions that for whatever reason I find no longer useful.

::
::
Top Extensions Used:

- Adblock Plus
- Adblock Filterset.G Updater
- Flashblock
- Fasterfox

These four extensions get rid of annoying ads make the Internet useable. I even load them on other Firefox installs that I use. The only exemption I make on the filters is to allow Google Adsense ads through.

- Add Bookmark Here
- Download Manager Tweak
- ViewSourceWith
- Image Toolbar
- ErrorZilla Mod

These five extensions make using Firefox go much more smoothly. "Add Bookmark Here" makes it easy to add bookmarks. "Download Manager Tweak" because the default Firefox Download Manager UI is hideous. "ViewSourceWith" because I like NotePad. "Image Toolbar" makes copying and saving images very, very easy. "ErrorZilla Mod" just looks better than Firefox's default 404 error page.

- CookieSafe

I had to add on "CookieSafe" because in Firefox 2, you guys took away the ability to block 3rd party cookies when you changed the Options UI. I really WANT that feature back in Firefox 3. I know all the security arguments against it because it isn't an all encompassing protective feature anymore. Still, being able to freely decide to block any percent of bad cookies is nice.

- Calculator
- FlashGot

"Calculator" is a nice extension for doing quick calculation. "FlashGot" is great for helping to get large downloads.

- FirefoxView
- IE View Lite

These two exist in my collection because I use Microsoft Windows XP SP2 instead of Mac or Linux.

- Paste and Go 2

A weird little extension I fell on that makes opening links faster in the URL bar.

- Tab Mix Plus

I use this extension because Firefox's default tab functions and default session/crash manager are weak and not robust enough for my needs.

::
::
Middle Extensions Used:

- Amazing Media Browser
- VideoDownloader
- DownThemAll!
- Screen grab!

These four extensions are great for grabbing multimedia items.

- BugMeNot

For those few remaining sites that unnecessarily require a log on to read information.

- Compact Library Extension Organizer (CLEO) & Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE)

These two extensions along with the MozBackup program make it easy to back up and restore Firefox profiles.

- Talkback
- Keyconfig

These two have uses every once in awhile.

- Performancing
- Sage

For my limited blogging needs.

- StumbleUpon

"StumbleUpon" fights boredom.

- Codetch
- ColorZilla
- Nightly Tester Tools
- FireBug
- FireFTP
- View Source Chart

I sometimes use these extensions when I'm designing webpages.

::
::
Thinking of Dumping:

- Converter
- MeasureIt
- Torbutton

::
::
Dumped:

- Spoofstick

Firefox 2's Phishing Protection feature makes this unnecessary.

- PDF Downloader

I don't use Adobe Reader anymore and replaced it with Foxit Reader for PDFs. Since PDFs no longer open up in Firefox anymore, I don't need this extension to stop and download the PDF.

- Update Notifier

Firefox 2 finally has an automated Extension and Theme update manager that works just like the update manager for Firefox. Thanks for the hard work and folding this extension's functionality into the main product.

- Anonymouser

This extension isn't as useful as it once was to me as my surfing has changed.

- Blockfall

I never got around to reloading it into Firefox 2 after it didn't work in Firefox 2 Beta 1.

Ny favourite add-on is "tab to window", which lets me move a tab to its own window. I find I often want to look at two websites side-by-side, e.g. to copy date information from Gmail to a web calendar. Flipping between tabs makes is awful. Putting one of the tabs in its own window lets me position it the way I want to see it.

My second favourite add-on is part of the Google toolbar: the "Up one level on this website button".

Ny favourite add-on is "tab to window", which lets me move a tab to its own window. I find I often want to look at two websites side-by-side, e.g. to copy date information from Gmail to a web calendar. Flipping between tabs makes is awful. Putting one of the tabs in its own window lets me position it the way I want to see it.

My second favourite add-on is part of the Google toolbar: the "Up one level on this website button".

Long Titles comes damn close to being non-optional. No observable ill-effects, fixes that damn tooltip bug, ought to be rolled into the 1.8 branch without delay.

Nuke Anything is occasionally useful. BugMeNot has become a lot less so in the last year or so, which is a good thing. DownThemAll! kicks enormous amounts of butt when I'm mp3blogsurfinating. How'd I Get Here has saved me a few times. I love 'em all, but I wouldn't roll any of 'em into the default install.

Google Notebook is my best friend now. It has made my life so much easier, and although I still have a "temp" folder of bookmarks, the useful stuff is now getting stored and annotated in a searchable, friendly way. Great extension.

For development, Firebug and Colorzilla.

For day-to-day surfing, Adblock, Download Helper, Flashgot, Free Download Manager plugin, and Google Browser Synch.

And ForecastFox.

Currently disabled: Stylish and Tab Mix Plus.

I'd recommend Colorful Tabs & Style Sheet Chooser Plus...
Very unintrusive add-ons i.m.o. and makes the browser experience just that little bit more pleasureable.
I really don't understand why the standard built-in style switcher doesn't support keeping the chosen style persistent. Either it is starts to do this (hence implement Style Sheer Chooser Plus) or otherwise remove it all together. The standard implementation is pointless.

SubmitToTab definitely needs to be folded into Firefox, as does dragdropupload. They add features that are so basic I'm surprised they need to be extensions - the ability to middle-click on submit buttons to open the results in a new tab, and the ability to drag-drop files into upload input fields.

SwiftTabs adds one important missing feature - *customizable* hotkeys for next & previous tabs. Really, all the hotkeys should be customizable.

Undo Closed Tabs Button is pretty important too - if you have a "New Tab" button, you should have an "Undo Closed Tabs" button.

Fission is also a pretty good canidate - it embeds a progress bar behind the address bar, like Safari does.

Those are the only ones I have that I would want as core browser parts.

userChrome.js, Greasemonkey, Stylish. I like hacking Firefox to my liking but not messing with extension files. userChrome.js at least, I think should be included in Firefox. There's even a bug for it, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332529

I can't live without Search Keys, and I think it should be folded into Google Search (not Firefox).

Please don't kill of DOM Inspector unless there is a commitment to keeping Firebug compatible with trunk builds.

Just listing what should be part of Firefox IMO:

- Download Status Bar (everybody downloads files, everybody need a decent download manager)

Locationbar2 and Dictionary Switcher are also two good ideas of extensions hat could be integrated, although maybe not as is.

JB

Some things I'd consider for integration:

- Ook: extremely simple extension that puts your bookmarks menu at the bottom of the right-click menu you get when you click anywhere on a page. This means I can get to my bookmarks on muscle memory, without having to go all over the screen to my bookmarks menu (available from cdn.mozdev.org).

- Auto Copy: I'm not sure how complex this is, and it should be optional, but once you get used to having whatever normal text you select copied into your clipboard buffers (except in form fields), you really want all of your applications to have this behavior. Luckily, PuTTY has it, the extension also works on Thunderbird and Trillian has it by default, so most of the applications I spend a lot of time in have this feature.

- Google Browser Sync: having something like this would be cool, but the merging part is still a hard problem that even Google doesn't always get right in my experience. Also, you'd need to think about possible ways of storing the data.

I have twenty extensions. What I would prefer would be to have most of them embedded in Firefox, but let the user decide which ones to switch on - just add another tab in the Tools>Options menu with boxes to tick off.

Among the optional extensions I would include:

1) Adblock plus with Adblock filterset Updater - make them a single extension, with automatic filterset update option.

2) Context search - some people might prefer this option, others could find this annoying

3) Converter

4) Linkification - very simple extension, but quite useful, saving time with cutting and pasting links

5) Scrapbook - this is indispensable for internet research, but not everyone might need it

6) IE tab - there are still pages which do not display properly in Firefox and this extension lets you switch into and from IE engine with a single click and lets you specify, which sites to load with IE engine by default.

Then there exist extensions which should be on by default, although some users might still find it more convenient to switch them off, if they don't like them. These are the extensions which a) improve the functionality of Firefox in a very subtle, but much useful manner and b) extensions which let the user customize the standard behavior or appearance of Firefox to suit him best.

1) Tab Mix Plus - is is the most comprehensive extension for tab behavior that I know; a must, as the user should be able to customise tab behaviour to his liking - after all, tab browsing was one of the most important "selling" features of Firefox when it first appeared

2) Mouse gestures - apart from filling in the search fields or address bar, browsing should be as simple and comfortable as possible; with mouse gestures the user does not have to change hands constantly to press a button on a keyboard or travel miles and miles with a mouse pointer just to switch tabs or go one page back

3) Download status bar - all other types of download behaviour intrude in the user browsing experience; with download status bar the user can see the progress of downloading, but there are no warnings to jump out at him, nothing to click on to confirm this or that

4) How'd I get here - many first time users of Firefox complain that when they open a new tab, they cannot go back as they were used to in IE but must switch to the original tab instead; in fact, when then close the original tab, there is no "back" to go to. This extension solves this problem.

5) Image toolbar

6) Menu editor - another extension to let you customize Firefox appearance

7) Searchbar autosizer

Off course, the single most useful browsing application is Admuncher. I can imagine browsing without Firefox, but I would not want to be without that one.

M.

Extensions I'm using with every Firefox installation:
Adblock Plus, Flashblock, GMail Manager, Greasemonkey...

...and lately I found this great extension called Kontext Keywords
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/490/
It adds your keyword searches to the right-click menu. (The extension has to be forced to work with FF2. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Extensions.checkCompatibility )
Including keyword searches and search engines to your context menu could even be built in Firefox. They might have to be an option to select only some searches to be included. I doubt novice users don't use much context menu so one extra submenu wouldn't confuse them.

What would be nice to see built-in in some sort of AdBlock. But the actual blocking should be done easier (not so fond how this is handled in AdBlock). A very nice way this can be done in is like what Opera has done in version 9. A simple solution that any non-geek would understand (hopefully).

i think that show picture should be integrated, i mean, reload a picture without realoding all the page...

and add bookmark here...

i cannot live without these

Lets see...

Web Development tools:
IE View
Opera View
Web Developer Toolbar
Live HTTP Headers
ColorZilla
Firebug
SEO for Firefox

Surfing
Adblock Plus
Video Downloader
Copy Link Name
Control Tab Preview
Advanced Travel (lets you find the best flight price across lots of sites)

Themes + Config Settings:
Theme Winestripe: (Sets the styles back to Firefox 1.5 type!!!)
browser.tabs.tabMinWidth: 36 (those tab scrollers are HORRIBLE!!!)

ADD ONS I MISS, since they are NOT Firefox 2.0 compatible...
Snapper
Screen Grab
X-Ray
Firefox View

It's joke, I don't think you can talk... when Opera have 2 vulnerabilities FireFox v1.x and v2.x have multiples vulnerabilities.

About Opera : http://secunia.com/advisories/23613/
About FireFox : http://secunia.com/advisories/23282/

Opera 9.10 is safe browser and provide best performance than FireFox.

Regards,
IonX

I use:

Adblock Plus
All-in-One Gestures
Paste and Go 2

I've become so addicted in the past few years to mouse gestures that it's somewhat hard for me to browse the web without them. That said, I'm not sure whether the average person would use them.

Paste and Go is a very nice little extension that I think should be integrated into Firefox (at least the core portion). It simply sets it so that a certain keyboard shortcut automatically pastes the contents of the clipboard into the address bar and visits the site. I find it very useful for the times when there's a plain-text URL that I want to visit, since I just have to copy it and hit the shortcut (rather than selecting the address bar, pasting, and hitting enter). I feel like this would be good to incorporate into Firefox because it's very small and wouldn't hurt those who don't use it.

I use:
* Adb+
- BrE Dict
* Cookie Button Statusbar
- Customise Google
- Deepest Sender (deactivated - only installed for street cred reasons, I'm not a blogger)
- DE Dict
- DOM Inspector (deactivated)
* Download Statusbar
- Foxytunes (deactivated - too heavy to load + deteriorating context menus at first)
- GMail Man (there should be some built-in way to look for mails in Firefox, the possibility to use GMail Man was one of the reasons to use GMail for me)
- Greasemonkey (deactivated - street cred only)
* ImgLikeOpera (you got DSL, what do you not want to see for bandwidth reasons? Images, of course)
* Popup Alt Attribute (shows ALT text over images in a tooltip, just as IE)
- Quick Locale Switcher (deactivated)
* Internote
- POW (deactivated - no idea, how it works)
- Raed Tihs (deactivated)
- Firebug
* Sage
* Stop-or-Reload

* = important for me.

I like the Bookmark Duplicate Detector, I hope something similar could get into the core.

Things that I believe should be included in firefox are:

Locationbar^2, Emphasizes the domainname and decodes URLs

Long Titles, this is actually a workaround for a bug I believe should be fixed

Tab Preview, shows the contents of the tabs in thumbnail format while hovering over them

FxIF, for viewing EXIF data of image though the image properties window.

I use a couple of other extensions, but those can be concidered non-usefull for average users.

Things that I believe should be included in firefox are:

Locationbar^2, Emphasizes the domainname and decodes URLs

Long Titles, this is actually a workaround for a bug I believe should be fixed

Tab Preview, shows the contents of the tabs in thumbnail format while hovering over them

FxIF, for viewing EXIF data of image though the image properties window.

I use a couple of other extensions, but those can be concidered non-usefull for average users.

Here's what I use:

* ColorZilla
* Adblock
* MeasureIt
* IE View
* Super Drag and Go
* Web Developer Toolbar
* Long Titles (prevents tooltip breakage)

Here's what I use:

* ColorZilla
* Adblock
* MeasureIt
* IE View
* Super Drag and Go
* Web Developer Toolbar
* Long Titles (prevents tooltip breakage)

I use a few, most are to minimize the over all UI of Fx.

All-in-One-Gestures
Compact Menu
Download Statusbar
Fission
Forcast Fox
Image Toolbar
Menu Editor
Searchbar Autosizer

Here's a quick desktop shot to show what I mean.

http://flatrabbit.com/stuff/fr_desktop-d_070111.png

Prefbar is the one I use daily. If I don't use it at least once a day, it's only because I wasn't browsing. Which is rare.

Greasemonkey and Platypus are second, bur a distant, I don't use them as much as I used to.

DOMI is incredible and invaluable. I'll have to give Firebug a try, but since it's only selectable for Advanced/Custom installs, I don't see any reason to pull it yet. I hope Firebug looks into Firefox chrome as well as web pages, or it just won't replace DOMI.

Google Notebook extension is another life saver of mine. I uses it almost daily as well.

The only one of those I see as being even a close candidate to being folded into Firefox would be Prefbar, and I'm just not sure enough people need that functionality.

my list:

Adblock Plus - makes a local news site I daily visit actually usable, just as one axample
All-in-One Gestures - yes, I am a mouse person
BBCode - phpbb has a weird post editor
ChromEdit - I'm a Firefox h4x0r :D
Disable Targets For Downloads - hmm, has this been fixed or not?
DOM Inspector - I actually use this here and there, to help customize browser appearance
Download Statusbar - I just hate the default downloads finished popup, but still like to know when downloads are done
DownThemAll! - for pr0n sites :P
Gmail Notifier - self explanatory
Nightly Tester Tools - I sometimes need to force extensions compatible, plus, it copies your extensions list to clipboard :)
Plain Text Links - a forum I often visit does not transform links into clickable urls automatically
PrefBar - using this since mozilla 0.9.6, mainly to toggle proxy use, java, image resize, send referrer, and to clean cache+history
Tabbrowser Preferences - default tabs preferences offer too little options
Undo Closed Tabs Button - this should really be built in!

the next three are enhancements for the online football (that's soccer for you overseas) manager game hattrick.org:

FoxTrick
Hattrick LiveFox
PsicoTSI Terminus Edition

Adblock plus
Resize Search Box (why isn't this in firefox yet?!?)
IETab
Customize Google
CuteMenus SVG

Adblock plus
Resize Search Box (why isn't this in firefox yet?!?)
IETab
Customize Google
CuteMenus SVG

The first extensions I always install are:
TinyMenu
CopyURL+
AutoCopy

I think the services of CopyURL and AutoCopy should definitely be included as an option. I used to always install the OpenBook extension but that hasn't been updated in a while and the ability to Add a Keyword for a Bookmark at the same time you create it is achievable through userchrome.js and I see no reason why that shouldn't be included by default.

I'm not a heavy add-on user either, Firefox does everything I want without them really. But there's certainly some fantastic ones about - something useful for everyone. For me, I just use CustomizeGoogle, Download Embedded, Flashblock and ImageShack Right Click. Flashblock is great! I used to also use Plain Text URLs, but I think I removed it when I realised you can just highlight a URL and drag it onto the tab bar to open it :D That kind of small convenience is one of the reasons I use Firefox. It's these neat little things that make Firefox so much smoother to browse in. Try to do something like that in other browsers... nothing.

Lionel, thanks for the hint!! ContextSearch really is indispensable! God, how could I live without it? FF2 default context search functionality is a pain in the ass when you use lots of search engines!! Wow!! Thanks a bunch!!
http://www.cusser.net/extensions/contextsearch/

And I also find to be indispensable:

VideoDownloader, for downloading youtube and sites alike videos to your PC;
http://videodownloader.net/

DownThemAll!, awesome download manager/accelerator built INTO firefox! A lot better, therefor, than Flashgot and etc!

Well, since you've asked, I only use a small number of add-ons. Adblock Plus, CustomizeGoogle, New Tab Homepage and Stop-or-Reload Button. I think that if any of these should be bundled into Firefox, it should be New Tab Homepage and Stop-or-Reload Button.

Ooo; a sequel to http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2006/03/extensions.html :)

> So, what add-ons do you use?
> What do you use them for?

- getting the FF UI the way I want it:

Back/Forward DropDown Remover
Clone Window
Colorful Tabs
CuteMenus - Crystal SVG
DictionarySearch
Find Toolbar Tweaks
No Go Buttons
^Plain Text Links
Restart Firefox
Stop-or-Reload Button
*Show Image
*Slim Extension List
TargetAlert
Tiny Menu

- making the web a nicer place to visit / reducing paranoia :)

Adblock
Adblock Filterset.G Updater
Allow Right-Click
BugMeNot
CookieCuller
DownThemAll!
DownloadHelper
Flashblock
NoScript
PhishTank SiteChecker
RefreshBlocker

- Firefox-based apps (including games)

*Blockfall
Card Games
FireFTP

- informational widgets:

Forecastfox
Live IP Address

- screengrab:

Nuke Anything Enhanced
*Screen grab!

Note:
* = installed but not compatible with FF2
^ = installed but not working quite right in FF2

> Do you have any interesting anecdotes about using add-ons to spread Firefox to others?

I've found the Card Games extension tends to wow people :)

> Which add-ons do you think should be folded in to Firefox?

Well first I would correct the mistakes (as per MS: features? ;) introduced into FF2, namely right now you can't remove just the Go buttons (hence the reason I use the No Go Buttons extension) and I hate Hate HATE Quick Find (hence Find Toolbar Tweaks).

Show Image (7 K) is something that should have been in Firefox from the start; I should not need to reload the whole page just to fix one image that a server is being flaky about.

Then I would (as I have advocated before ;) incorporate the Stop-or-Reload Button (7K) since in practice, no one ever needs to push stop and reload at the same time. BTW, while not an extension, I think the "New Tab" button should definitely be in with the rest of the buttons. With IE6 now going extinct, tabs should be emphasised.

Clone Window (6 K) would be nice to add into the preferences.

After that its more of a would-like than should, but it doesn't hurt to bring them up :)

Colorful Tabs (27 K)
I find grey tabs so dull after having used colorful ones...

Tiny Menu (29 K)
If Firefox wants to allow users to hide the menu in a sensible way, not in the brain-dead way IE7 did, this is it! Have a look at my Firefox :) http://members.shaw.ca/Limulus/files/ff2tm_top.png

PhishTank SiteChecker (54 K)
Something along these lines will end up in Firefox I'm sure. Just thought I'd mention it.

Adblock (75 K)
Adblock Filterset.G Updater (79 K)
I can never go back to non-adblocked internet.

And its totally unnecessary, but...

Card Games (108 K)
Because Firefox can be fun even when you don't have an internet connection ;)

Add Bookmark Here
Should be built into Firefox, without a doubt.

Edit: since I read the comments, I've replaced 'Plain Text Links' with 'Fetch Text URL' and added 'Submit to Tab' (which I would classify as a UI modifier).

Ooo; a sequel to http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2006/03/extensions.html :)

> So, what add-ons do you use?
> What do you use them for?

- getting the FF UI the way I want it:

Back/Forward DropDown Remover
Clone Window
Colorful Tabs
CuteMenus - Crystal SVG
DictionarySearch
Find Toolbar Tweaks
No Go Buttons
^Plain Text Links
Restart Firefox
Stop-or-Reload Button
*Show Image
*Slim Extension List
TargetAlert
Tiny Menu

- making the web a nicer place to visit / reducing paranoia :)

Adblock
Adblock Filterset.G Updater
Allow Right-Click
BugMeNot
CookieCuller
DownThemAll!
DownloadHelper
Flashblock
NoScript
PhishTank SiteChecker
RefreshBlocker

- Firefox-based apps (including games)

*Blockfall
Card Games
FireFTP

- informational widgets:

Forecastfox
Live IP Address

- screengrab:

Nuke Anything Enhanced
*Screen grab!

Note:
* = installed but not compatible with FF2
^ = installed but not working quite right in FF2

> Do you have any interesting anecdotes about using add-ons to spread Firefox to others?

I've found the Card Games extension tends to wow people :)

> Which add-ons do you think should be folded in to Firefox?

Well first I would correct the mistakes (as per MS: features? ;) introduced into FF2, namely right now you can't remove just the Go buttons (hence the reason I use the No Go Buttons extension) and I hate Hate HATE Quick Find (hence Find Toolbar Tweaks).

Show Image (7 K) is something that should have been in Firefox from the start; I should not need to reload the whole page just to fix one image that a server is being flaky about.

Then I would (as I have advocated before ;) incorporate the Stop-or-Reload Button (7K) since in practice, no one ever needs to push stop and reload at the same time. BTW, while not an extension, I think the "New Tab" button should definitely be in with the rest of the buttons. With IE6 now going extinct, tabs should be emphasised.

Clone Window (6 K) would be nice to add into the preferences.

After that its more of a would-like than should, but it doesn't hurt to bring them up :)

Colorful Tabs (27 K)
I find grey tabs so dull after having used colorful ones...

Tiny Menu (29 K)
If Firefox wants to allow users to hide the menu in a sensible way, not in the brain-dead way IE7 did, this is it! Have a look at my Firefox :) http://members.shaw.ca/Limulus/files/ff2tm_top.png

PhishTank SiteChecker (54 K)
Something along these lines will end up in Firefox I'm sure. Just thought I'd mention it.

Adblock (75 K)
Adblock Filterset.G Updater (79 K)
I can never go back to non-adblocked internet.

And its totally unnecessary, but...

Card Games (108 K)
Because Firefox can be fun even when you don't have an internet connection ;)

I can't imagine how people get around without TMP, Local Install and Stylish. Personally, i wouldn't use Fx by now if not for those 3.

i miss SessionSaver's saved sessions. (yes, having auto-resume in 2.0 is nice.)
i used to get into a project and have all kinds of tabs open, and save them off.
then i could shutdown/leave/return and keep my browser tabs clean until i returned to the project.

------------------
Can't live without
------------------

General serfing:

- Tab Mix Plus
- Adblock Plus
- Image Zoom
- Net Usage Item
- Remove It Permanently
- Sage
- Auto Copy

Web Development:

- Firebug
- HTML Validator
- IE View Lite
- Web Developer
- ColorZilla
- MeasureIt

----------
Very Handy
----------

General Use:

- Restart Firefox
- FoxClocks
- ScrapBook
- Super DragAndGo
- TinyURL Creator
- Update Notifier

Web Development:

- LinkChecker

--------
Security
--------

General Serfing:

- NoScript

To be frank, I do not want Firefox to become bogged down with too much 'folded' in. What originally attracted me to Firefox was the cleanness of it all and... what I've always been most annoyed with Microsoft about is the incredible number of features it has that I neither want, nor need. Microsoft looks at what users want and then adds that to the near infinite list of already implemented features. Will there ever be enough room to navigate their software? Can you imagine what they will look like several years down the road? When you begin having a bazillion toolbars (we're there already, but it will only get worse) and you only need just one simple one, then you're wasting valuable (and expensive) space on your personal computer. YOUR computer, which Microsoft likes to believe belongs to them.

That said, what I absolutely adore and am in total love with are Firefox's extensions. Freedom of choice! I like the idea that I can pick and choose what I personally need. I don't have to jump through hoops to enable/disable tons of things that I could care less about.

So on to my extensions list. I have a good many, but there are a few that I just cannot (and would not want to), ever live without and some are just plain cool and/or fun.

Must Haves:
Adblock Plus (like so many here)
Tab Mix Plus
Delicious (but needs major improvement - still, I like it)
Google Toolbar
IE Tab (but often it doesn't work properly within Firefox, also needs work)
No Script
PDF Download (now more than ever because of the recent Adobe security issues)
WOT
Update Notifier

Cool/Fun:
Colorful Tabs
Linkification
Stumble Upon (there really needs to be a support group for us addicts)
View Dependencies
Fast Video Download

I have many more installed, but those are the big chunks I most often use.

I use only html validator and google toolbar