Key Post: Anyone using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer

Re: Keys

I personally would never cut off my nose to spite my face in this context. If Microsoft came out with a browser which was as competitive, standard, stable, secure, full featured and extensible as others then I would have no hesitation in using it.

Don't hold your breath, Clubman.
As long as IE is the biggest browser, hackers will target it.
In fact, hackers will target anything Microsoft, just to spite them.

However for many years now this has been the case with IE.
Are you missing the word NOT from the sentence above? :)

Zealous supporters of one browser over another should bear in mind that few are perfect and all software packages have their bugs. I have been using FireFox (neé FireBird) for a long time now and really like it but have had some hairy moments with it - e.g. several crashes once I moved from early alphas to the 1.0 pre-release and then full release and only last weekend my home installation somehow screwed up my profile causing FireFox to crash on startup every time necessitating the deletion of my old profile and recreation of a new one (something that most average users would probably not have a clue about!).

I used Mozilla prior to Firefox and have of course had some times not work, but not the disaster scenario you mention. I have, however, several times over the years had huge problems with Internet Explorer, which I couldn't fix without completely reinstalling Windows. This for me is a strong reason to decouple the browser from the OS.

Now, maybe, if this decoupling happens properly with IE7 it might be safe to consider using IE again. We'll just have to wait and see.

Having said that I reckon FireFox to be the best browser by far right now and would wholeheartedly recommend it but I personally would steer clear of "religious" attachments to any computer platform or applications.

Religious, qui, moi? :)
 
Re: Keys

Are you missing the word NOT from the sentence above?

Yes! Mea culpa.

I used Mozilla prior to Firefox and have of course had some times not work, but not the disaster scenario you mention.

Actually that was the second time that FireBird/Fox screwed up my profile and required remedial action but I put the first one down to (a) running alpha software (as it was) and (b) possibly installing over a previous version or using incompatible extensions which I think was discouraged.

I have, however, several times over the years had huge problems with Internet Explorer, which I couldn't fix without completely reinstalling Windows. This for me is a strong reason to decouple the browser from the OS.

I agree but in spite of its flaws and the many things I absolutely hate about it I've never had IE screw my system up.

Religious, qui, moi

Just speaking generally brother! :) I was just thinking of all those boring geeky "religious" computer wars along the lines of Unix/Linux/Apple versus Windows, Netscape/FireFox/Opera versus IE etc. etc. where people seem to lose their faculties for objective reasoning. :\
 
Re: Keys

Religious, qui, moi?

Just speaking generally brother! :) I was just thinking of all those boring geeky "religious" computer wars along the lines of Unix/Linux/Apple versus Windows, Netscape/FireFox/Opera versus IE etc. etc. where people seem to lose their faculties for objective reasoning. :\

Fairy Nuff, as they say.

Just don't get me started on iPods versus iRiver and other bricks... :eek
 
Firefox

Just installed Firefox an hour ago have to say I am impressed by the workings so far
 
Re: Anyone using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer

I have also been using Mozilla for a reasonably long time. It had been mentioned on AAM on numerous occasions.

IE used to take forever to load AAM pages on my Windows 98SE. When I switched to Mozilla, everything worked more smoothly. Each version of Mozilla is a great improvement on its predecessor.

I, also, particularly like the tabs and the fact that multiple home pages can be set up as tabs and that I can use the keyboard to easily switch between them. [Ctrl key + 1,2 etc]

Marion :hat
 
Re: Keys

I changed from IE to OPERA 7.5.
which as a beginner I love using.
As a browser it is so much quicker
no great problems to date.
 
New to Firefox

Hi All,

Installed Firefox today in work and at home. It seems pretty good, but I can't really see any benefit over IE. Particularly with the tab thing which was much mooted on this forum and by others. - I normally open up a new window in IE by pressing Ctrl-N, which pops up a new IE window, and I can switch back and forth using the taskbar (I have disabled the grouping option, so that I get 2 boxes in the taskbar, not one IE box with (2) in it...).

I suppose the supposedly "better" security gives it a slight advantage, but this wouldn't really push me to make the switch. There is plenty of other Microsoft software on my PC.

Other than that, it seems to operate a bit more smoothly than IE, the layout is new and different to IE, a change is as good as a rest as they say.

Is there anything that I'm missing that you Firefox proponents find useful?
 
Re: New to Firefox

By default opening new IE windows launches a new process each time (right click on the Windows taskbar, select Task Manager... to see how iexplore.exe appears once for each new window). The more windows the more of a drag on your PC. I think there's a way to disable this but wasn't able to find it when I checked just now. Obviously the more tabs opened in a tabbed browser the more resources that are used but these will be significantly less than launching a separate process. The security issues are signifincantly more important than you make out. Just look at all the posts here from people whose PCs have been infected by viruses/parasites which most likely got in via IE! In my experience FireFox (by virtue of using the Gecko HTML rendering engine from the Mozilla project) renders pages quicker than IE. Ultimately it's down to personal choice as much as issues such the above. I prefer the overall user experience with FireFox and the extensibility possible using extensions and would definitely recommend it. Maybe when IE 7 arrives it will challenge it.
 
Re: New to Firefox

One thing I would like to add is that I rather liked the ability to save a complete web page (.mht) so I could read an article offline for later. In Firefox this option isn't really as good... There is an add-on for this option however. I use both at the moment (90% firefox) and other 10% for sites that break because of IE only support... ie try buying a dell.. :)
 
Re: New to Firefox

I use both at the moment (90% firefox) and other 10% for sites that break because of IE only support... ie try buying a dell.. :)

I did just this quite recently in FireFox 1.0 and had no problems. What problems did you have?
 
New to Firefox

One big advantage of Firefox is the ability to block images from a site - no more annoying, bandwidth-eating ads. You can also get a flash blocker to get rid of those annoying flash animation ads. Suddenly unison.ie is usable again!

Opera's pretty good too but it's image blocking isn't quite as sophisticated.
 
Re: Netscape 8 (Beta) = Firefox & IE!

Interesting article on CNET - [broken link removed].


Netscape released to beta testers an early version of a much-anticipated browser that takes advantage of the recent and wildly successful Mozilla Firefox 1.0 release. It's no surprise that the Netscape 8.0 (beta) runs the Gecko engine that also powers the Firefox browser. (Netscape owner AOL Time Warner spun off the Mozilla team as a nonprofit last year.)

But there's a surprise in this early version: the future Netscape also renders pages in Internet Explorer. This early version doesn't install IE; instead, it relies on the version already installed on your PC. Also new is built-in antispyware. Sites listed on Netscape's spyware and phishing blacklist (supplied by third-party antispam and antiphishing vendors) will be denied ActiveX and cookie access on your desktop.

Copyright ©1995-2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Full article [broken link removed]
Click to expand...

31228793-2-300-SS1.gif


One to watch...

It will be interesting to see how this compares to the [broken link removed] "View Page in Internet Explorer" plug-in you can get for Firefox to render pages in IE?
 
Re: Netscape 8 (Beta) = Firefox & IE!

the future Netscape also renders pages in Internet Explorer. This early version doesn't install IE; instead, it relies on the version already installed on your PC.

Does this mean that it's simply a kind of [broken link removed] for IE insofar as it uses the IE (rendering) engine but presents its own GUI interface - in which case, "where's the beef"?! :\
 
Re: Netscape 8 (Beta) = Firefox & IE!

Does this mean that it's simply a kind of skin for IE insofar as it uses the IE (rendering) engine but presents its own GUI interface - in which case, "where's the beef"?!

No - it uses the Gecko rendering engine by default, but if you hit a site that doesn't display or work properly using this engine, you click a toolbar button to load it using IE, but all within the same Netscape frame.

This is better than the IEVIEW plugin for Firefox, where the "View this page in IE" context menu simply loads the page in a separate instance of IE!

Hopefully, Netscape 8 will allow you to specify / remember which sites need to be viewed in IE.
 
Re: Netscape 8 (Beta) = Firefox & IE!

No - it uses the Gecko rendering engine by default, but if you hit a site that doesn't display or work properly using this engine, you click a toolbar button to load it using IE, but all within the same Netscape frame.

OK - I get you now. That's interesting.
 
Re: Netscape 8 (Beta) = Firefox & IE!

There was another interesting article on Netscape 8 on Friday [broken link removed] on CNET.com.

Subjective verdict of author: stick to Firefox.
 
Use Netcaptor, gives you a tabbed IE

I use Netcaptor, it's a tabbed browser that uses IE to display its pages. So no website compatibility problems plus adds plenty of features on top of IE along with enhanced security and ability to prevent unrequested popups. Free.
 
netcaptor

downloaded netcaptor and must admit, am impressed.
I'll use for a few days to see how it stands up.
 
Re: netcaptor

Always nice to stimulate diversity in the browser "gene pool"! :)

enhanced security

If it uses the IE engine then, in spite of the security enhancements added, it is presumably still vulnerable to most or all IE exploits that are discovered from time to time? I don't like the way tabs are not resized when many tabs are opened requiring scrolling through them unlike FireFox which shrinks tabs as required.
 
IE7 to take a cue from Firefox

[broken link removed]
Microsoft has confirmed that its upcoming version of Internet Explorer will include tabbed browsing, a feature made popular by competitors Opera Software and Firefox.

By Renai LeMay, [broken link removed]
Published on [broken link removed] May 17, 2005, 9:22 AM PT

Is this too little too late, after [broken link removed] and others are swinging behind Firefox?
 
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