When you go to set up a new computer, there's always your list of "essential" applications; i.e., applications you simply cannot function without. For some the first install is Firefox and its most-loved extensions. Maybe it's Outlook and your mail account. Hopefully there's an Antivirus application thrown in there somewhere.

When it comes to a Mac, there's one essential plugin that rules them all.

That plugin is Saft, for Safari.

Saft adds an incredible amount of customizable options to Safari: draggable tabs, full-screen browsing, auto-hiding the downloads window, plain copy, tab thumbnails, and so on. It even has ad and image blocking built in (though we've found that Safari 3 AdBlock works better at that function, at least for now).

Saft even covers the little things. For example, if you wanted a new tab in Firefox, you just double-click the tab bar, and voila, a new tab. With Safari, you have to use a keyboard shortcut to get a new tab. (For some people, that is an improvement; but some are clickers, and some are clackers). With Saft installed, no problem. You might call Saft the "Firefoxer" of Safari.

Saft has just been updated for Safari version 3.0.4. It seems that Apple's last security update for Mac OS X Leopard broke Saft temporarily. Thankfully, that issue has been speedily resolved in Saft 10.0.4.

Simply put, Safari without Saft is like Derek Zoolander without Blue Steel. We'll let you figure out the implications of that.

You can download Saft as a trial or register for a reasonable fee of $12.