Looking for a lean, mean Mac only Firefox theme?  If you want Firefox to look a little more minimal on your Apple-powered PC, then look no further than Leanfox.  This theme has all the style and substance you need, and little to no distractions in the interface.

Here is a little more about the theme, from the developer:

The aim of this theme is to be no-nonsense, clean, utility like, compact, minimal. This theme has no extra lines or details anywhere: the tabs blend into the main chrome and only the active tab is really highlighted – making you concentrate on only one thing at a time. There’s also minimal separation between the tabs as it became apparent that separating lines were just distracting.

Only downside to this theme is it is Mac only for now (no Windows version yet) but maybe if we leave the author enough nice comments showing him the need for Windows version, he might reconsider.

You can pick up this theme from the Firefox Add-ons web site or via the official Leanfox theme site.

GrayFox, a new theme for Firefox does exactly that.

You see, the image you see above is from the theme when you have “Use Small Icons” checked in the Customize Toolbar window (right-click the navigation toolbar > select customize).  If you use un-check the option to use small icons, then the theme switches to look like this:

Pretty neat, hu?  The theme obviously has inspiration from Apple’s OSX, and Safari – but I won’t hold that against them.

Now for my next trick, I will let you know where you can find this awesome new theme for Firefox.  You can download the GrayFox theme for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

In the first 24 hours that is was available, Firefox 3.0.11 was downloaded 150 million times.   This big news comes on the heels of Apple boasting about 11 million downloads of Safari 4 in three days. *tries not to chuckle*

Now it is likely that both companies included the automatic updates in their download numbers, however that doesn’t really take away from the fact that many more users are getting those latest updates these days, which for security reasons is a very good thing indeed.

So congrats to Firefox for 150 Million downloads, and to Safari… well, 11 million is pretty good too. *holds back “that is cute” remark*

Download the version you want to use here:

• ACE Safari Foxdie (Blue)
• ACE Safari Foxdie (Graphite)

Also, if you need a Thunderbird skin that matches, there are two more choices for you made by the same great developer, John Locke.  Check out ACE CuteBird (Blue) or ACE CuteBird (Graphite).  For more news, updates and information on John’s theme work, check out foxdie.us.

Open Links in Chrome – As the new kid on the block, it took some hunting to find a good way to switch to Chrome in a hurry.  The Chrome View add-on for Firefox is what you need.  This extension lets you open the page your currently viewing in Firefox, via Google’s new Chrome browser.

Open Links in Internet Explorer – Switching from Firefox to Internet Explorer is something we have been doing for some time now.  There are two great add-ons that allow you to do this.  The first is IE View.  This extension gives you the ability to open any page you have open in Firefox, in Internet Explorer.  An even better alternative though is IE Tab.  IE Tab will embed Internet Explorer inside of your Firefox tab, so you don’t really even have to switch browsers.

Open Links in Opera – Ah, yes Opera.  The girl at the dance with all the features that nobody uses.  Just in case you might want to hop over to Opera usage for a while, there is OperaView.  This too will give you a new context menu item that will let you open the target link in Opera.  Great for web developers or people who just like to be “different”.  (don’t worry, we won’t tell anybody)

Open Links in Safari – Lastly, the new pretty boy on the block (at least for Windows users) before Chrome took the spot, Safari switching can be done with an add-on too.  Safari View (mac) and Safari View (win) get you from Firefox to Apple’s browsing delight very quickly.

That has to be a little ‘bit of an embarrassment for the Apple team but good news for all the Apple users out there that are looking forward to trying out and switching to Firefox 3 – once the final version hits the streets.  Sure, the Safari wildebeests will say Firefox is only faster by a 7% margin but it is still a feather to be had in Mozilla’s proverbial cap.

Many are pretty angry about Apple using it’s software updating service to push out updates for products people never downloaded. A lot of people are asking, “Well, why would they do this?”.

The answer is simple. They want an easy way into the browser wars. Ridding on the coat tails of Quick Time or iTunes, sneaking onto a person’s PC is the easiest way to do it. John Lilly (Mozilla’s CEO) had a very interesting write up on this worth checking out.

Lets just say, don’t be surprised if in a few months down the road the number of Safari users equals or is a little less than the number of iTunes users. Who would Safari be able to knock down the list? Opera or Firefox?

The Browser Wars was the ongoing battle between Internet Explorer (from the blood-sucking programmers at Microsoft) and everyone else. Everyone else includes a bevy of web browsers from front runner Firefox to Opera, Netscape, and Safari. All of these competitors offer great alternatives to Internet Explorer but have fallen short in adoption due to Explorer’s monopoly-like control in most computers that run Windows.

[Read More About Firefox's Browser War Win!]