If you use the patches for the prebuilt binaries, you'll have to unpack the appropriate JAR files (toolkit.jar for the patch to the network‐error page; browser.jar for the other two), apply the patches, and jar them back up. I recommend using the source patches if you're already compiling Firefox.
I've uses these patches with XFCE 4.4.0, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, and 4.4.3.
The lack of blinking of taskbar buttons was one of the things I liked about XFCE over Gnome and Windows. Then they added it. This patch removes it. Patches libxfcegui4.
Window title bars should not blink, either. Patches xfwm4.
Another thing I liked about XFCE was that if you had only a couple windows open, their taskbar buttons still were wide enough to cover the width of the screen. Why cut off information for no reason? Then they changed that, too. This patch restores the old behavior. Patches libxfcegui4.
I created these patches somewhere around Gaim 2.0, and they still work as of Pidgin 2.4.1.
I can sort of understand why the Pidgin developers decided that colors, italics, etc. should persist from message to message: It means there doesn't need to be a separate UI for configuring the defaults. But I'd much prefer that there be a "use this as default formatting" button for the people who want it and that the formatting reset to that default every time a message is sent. This patch doesn't bother with the button (though "Reset formatting" is now available in Pidgin itself), but it does automatically reset your formatting each time you send a message.
CTRL+L clears a conversation history from the window. I never want this, but I occasionally press it when I mistakenly believe that Firefox has focus.
I've used some patches since Firefox 1.5, but I know I had to make some changes for 2.0, which is what most of these patches have been tested the most with. I'm currently using them with Firefox 3 Beta 3.
If you use the patches for the prebuilt binaries, you'll have to unpack the appropriate JAR files (toolkit.jar for the patch to the network‐error page; browser.jar for the other two), apply the patches, and jar them back up. I recommend using the source patches if you're already compiling Firefox.
"Edit" is a text‐manipulation menu. I feel strongly about this. "Tools" isn't a terrific place for the Options item, either, but it's an improvement. I will concede that this is one thing the Mac does better with its application menu.
I use quicksearches for my search needs, so I've hidden the search bar. This has the undesirable effect of causing CTRL+J to open a window when I bump it by mistake.
When a page doesn't load because the server is down, I usually reach for Google Cache, the Wayback Machine, or Coral Cache. This patch adds links to those sites' caches of a page when the page fails to load.