Rated 5 out of 5 stars

by Bonejob on Aug. 5, 2008 · permalink

I've been using this extension for over two years now - through several Firefox versions - on my old XP box and my new laptop, on which I dual-boot Vista and Ubuntu Linux. I have not experienced any problems with stability on either of my machines, running any version of Firefox in ANY operating system.

I don't know what the deal is with "crappyaddonssuck" and "badplugin". There must be something else afoot in their systems. I have downloaded image files larger than 1GB speedily and without problems. I have dealt with flaky servers that drop connections, too, and I have ALWAYS been able to resume dropped downloads and eventually get the files I am after!

Nor do I have to "babysit" my downloads. I can easily continue working while the downloads are in progress. The system remains stable, doesn't lock, doesn't even slow down very much. And I don't have top-of-the-line hardware, either - just a clunker 2001-vintage Gateway box and a new but modestly-priced Acer laptop.

Across 300+ reviews, the overwhelming consensus is that DownThemAll! is a very good extension. Before one spews bile and invective, damning a piece of software, one should examine the consensus and consider - at least CONSIDER - that one's problem lies somewhere else. Perhaps a network driver is old or corrupt. That would be where I would look first, considering the stated symptoms.

I certainly don't get how one can lose one's settings and "personal data" due to a Firefox crash. Because I have used Firefox nightlies and betas as well as final releases, I have experienced Firefox crashes aplenty since the dark days when Firefox was still called Firebird, and NEVER has anything like that happened to me. An extension can cause Firefox to crash, but cause corruption of bookmarks? Ridiculous! Especially since this particular extension has NOTHING to do with bookmarks and interacts with the "bookmarks.htm" file NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST! IF that is really happening, something far worse than an errant Firefox extension is to blame!

Users need to NOT jump to conclusions and instead look inside the event logs that document all crashes. DownThemAll! is likely not a direct cause but only a tipping point - a trigger - interacting poorly with something else in the system that is already problematic. I would not rule out malware - not just viruses, but trojans, rootkits, etc. Even some piece of software elsewhere on the system may have written over a critical library (.dll) with a different version. With XP, this is a common scenario. With Vista, it's enhanced security is supposed to prevent this, but it CAN happen nevertheless! A bogus .dll file is a common cause of instability and crashes, no matter what extensions or applications actually trigger them.

To say that one is having trouble with an extension is valid enough - that is simply a statement of fact. To therefore blame the extension, damning it as "crap," without exhaustive investigation, without conclusive or even very persuasive evidence, and against overwhelming user consensus to the contrary, is not only unfair, it just generates heat without any accompanying light.