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XMarks Portable Plugin? Or Are We Waiting for FF 4 which has Sync?

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jnagyjr
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XMarks Portable Plugin? Or Are We Waiting for FF 4 which has Sync?

I hope this isn't covered elsewhere, or is not in an inappropriate forum.

I would like to see XMarks portable plugin (or can it be used in the FF Portable w/o any further issue?). I know FF4 has bookmark sync (I have beta 4 installed), so is an XMarks portable development project not feasible? What about those who don't want the new FF (I may not want it, depending on how my plugins migrate)?

John T. Haller
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Dunno

I don't know if XMarks is portable as I don't use it personally. Nearly all extensions are portable with no modifications. We generally don't do modifications to portablize extensions. You could always try Mozilla Sync instead (since I believe it is portable-compatible already).

The new 4.0 will be transitioned to by 95+% of people soon after launch. Everyone will have to transition within 6 months of release (when 3.x is dropped entirely).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Bahamut
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The new 4.0 will be

The new 4.0 will be transitioned to by 95+% of people soon after launch.

4.0 has a lot of changes that will break certain extensions, and it's sure to affect more than 5% of Firefox users. Despite all the opportunity given to add-on developers to make things work, there are bound to be a lot of extensions that won't be compatible before launch.

Vintage!

John T. Haller
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Extensions

You have to remember that the vast majority of Firefox users use no extensions at all (other than plugins like Flash). We geeks tend to use a lot and forget the non-geek masses.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Bahamut
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You could be right, but I

You could be right, but I doubt that even 75% of users don't use extensions. I'm quite sure there will be at least 10% of Firefox users who will have at least one regularly used extension that doesn't function properly on Firefox 4.0 on launch day. Thankfully, the really popular extensions tend to be actively maintained.

Vintage!

John T. Haller
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Percentages

There are 365,000,000 active daily Firefox users. The most popular extension (and the reason many people wanted extensions in the first place) Ad Block, has 10,000,000 active daily Firefox users (2.7% of all users). The next most popular extension with statistics available is Personas Plus with 4 million active daily users (1.1% of all users).

Most non-technical users simply don't use extensions other than Flash (which now uses a downloader extension to install). My mom, dad, sister, non-technical friends... all of them run Firefox without any extensions.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Bahamut
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There are a lot of very

There are a lot of very popular extensions without statistics available. Also, Adblock was superseded by Adblock Plus long ago, so I'm sure ABP has more users than the original. Perhaps you are right, but I don't think there is any way to know for sure since there are so many extensions and no usage data on all but a few of them.

Vintage!

John T. Haller
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Not Exactly

I am referring to Adblock Plus (Not AdBlock). The most popular extension list is right there and lists ALL extensions available whether stats are available or not organized by weekly downloads of the extension. Adblock Plus, the most popular extension in the world on Firefox, had 10 million active users today. No extension is more popular than that.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

metacell
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I use XMarks with Portable

I use XMarks with Portable Firefox, and have no problems (except Firefox being dreadfully slow, but that may have other reasons).

shanet
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Why not install Firefox

Why not install Firefox Sync?

Just google it, you can download it for firefox 3.6.x

Shane Thompson
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jnagyjr
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Reasons I don't use Sync as

Reasons I don't use Sync as an extension to 3.6.x
1) I've been using XMarks now for about 6 months.
2) Didn't know it was available as an extension, probably will transition to it and delete my XMarks account, though I might now. Not sure how keen I am about Mozilla having so much info on me (it syncs tabs, history, bookmarks, etc.). All I sync with XMarks are my bookmarks (and I tend to sync at least once a day, if not more often).

Thanks all for the helpful responses, I'm just building up a list of what I want/need when I get my 16GB thumb drive. (:

"Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1 (NKJV)

Chris Morgan
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:D

I like the verse in your signature. Goes nicely with mine in things to think about when posting.

I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1

jnagyjr
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Sigs

Thanks, I use that sig almost every forum I go to now (it's either that one or Subsiste Sermonem Statim).

"Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1 (NKJV)

tgrantt
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I use XMarks and FFP

I only use FirefoxPortable, on three computers, 2 XP one Win7, and XMarks works fine on all, no plugin needed.

I am not my signature.

Neard Harbinger
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It's worked fine for me on my

It's worked fine for me on my portable installs. I've had it on there for well over a year.

That said, do keep in mind, it's going away at the end of the year....no more Xmarks.

hunter067
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Sad, sad thing..

...To see such a grand service go down he sink, and I started to put it to official use for tranferring stuff between my home computer, my flash drives, and my VMs.

I'm tired of people living in their fantasy world when the clock is ticking away, and when they are unable to see reality for what it is.

Poopie McGhee
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It Lives!

They said, "Thanks to your passion, Xmarks now has multiple offers from companies ready and willing to take over the service and keep making browser sync better and better!
This is not a signed, sealed done deal yet. But with multiple offers on the table we’re pretty confident that Xmarks will continue on with no service interruption."

http://blog.xmarks.com/

hunter067
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I actully...

...Read the blog a couple of days ago, it was awesome news! I just do not know why Firefox Sync wont work across OS's.

I'm tired of people living in their fantasy world when the clock is ticking away, and when they are unable to see reality for what it is.

jnagyjr
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Backup Bookmarking

Looks like I'll be hitting up FF4 beta now to sync my bookmarks, though I better start to find an alternative to XMarks. ):

"Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1 (NKJV)

Darkbee
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Beware!

I don't want to be party pooper, but I wouldn't celebrate just yet. Simpy, a social bookmarking site was sold on the promise that the service would continue. The company that bought it stripped what they could out of it (email addresses for spam I'm sure) and just let the service die (current Simpy website shows Reuters news). I can't complain much since it was a free service but a little notice would have been nice. I'm glad I backed up my bookmarks when I began to see the warning signs.

hunter067
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I agree.

It may seem all fine and good now, but what if they got taken over by some less-than-savory corporation (they are selling xmarks, after-all), that has a browser service like Microsoft, Apple, or Google came along and bought it? What would they do? If no one where to buys it then goodbye to to two million customers and nearly 1.2 billion of their bookmarks.

Seems that another good thing is going like, *cough,* Mandriva, *cough,* *wheeze.*

I'm tired of people living in their fantasy world when the clock is ticking away, and when they are unable to see reality for what it is.

rangaroo
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SyncPlaces extension

SyncPlaces works well without the need for external service.
I use a ftp server on FreeBSD for 14 workstations
on the LAN. Easy to make sure all machines have same bookmarks.

Lots of options in the extension, And FileZilla is an easy option
for a ftp server.

I wouldn't want my bookmarks on a public service.

Just an option.

hunter067
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Depends I guess...

The only thing (I think) marketers or otherwise would get out of my bookmarks is that I have a fetish for a verity of OS's (Windows, Mac OS, GNU\Linux, et cetera), and OCD about software, as I bookmarked every website of every piece of software I have ever used, weather I still use them or not. I do, however, think about passwords I have synced on xmarks, who knows who might go though those things.

I guess if I do have sensitive bookmarks or otherwise, I would not use a public service either.

I'm tired of people living in their fantasy world when the clock is ticking away, and when they are unable to see reality for what it is.

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