Internet Exployer or Firefox?

[Fralalala]

This is a Public Service Announcement


i have a solution to all your problems.


firefox!


that is all.

Then what is the solution to Firefox?
I like to stick with IE, it has everything i want without having to download tons of plug-ins ect.
 

[FlameDragon]

ya but ie has littel security and no spyware protection so why keep something that will just let ur pc get killd and be spamd with ads

[MrMxyzptlk]

Don't debate it, folks.

Ppl will always have different preferences - something MS has tried to prevent, frankly, until court-ordered to give way to USER preferences for alternatives - so to each his own, I say!

There are PLENTY of reviews recommending either, or even OTHER browsers, so it all comes down to what the user likes or finds easiest to have/use nowadays....

The WWW is founded on the idea of implementation-independent flexibility and OPEN standards, so the more diversity to assure things stay that way the better!

Hence I think it's GREAT to have such competition!  (I only wish it were a truly level playing field, is all....  )

[ÞÛmª]

<mercilessplug>I LOVE LYNX! All text is BEAUTIFUL. You have to have skill to make a page look good on there...</mercilessplug>

But when I use Windows... I personally use Firefox more.
As a web designer, I prefer Firefox. IE does have ActiveX (note to users, Firefox does not), but since I have coded for IE/Fx compatibility, and I love CSS, I have come to loath getting my webpages to display the same in IE. I do though (IE is still a VERY major browser, as in the #1 or #2).
Many more aged folks I know who know less about their computer than I know about dark matter think Internet Explorer IS the internet, like it resides in the browser.
</rant>
Yeah Mxy, with the big Microsoft lawsuit and all that in '95 (I was 6).

[Sot]

Since upgrading this PC to Vista I decided to stop using Firefox and force myself to use IE7.  Like MS Exchange and IIS, IE has been cleaned up quite a bit and the number of vulnerabilities has dropped significantly since the good old days.  And IE7 now offers tabbed browsing (admittedly a stolen idea, but it's about time!) and add-on capabilities as well - so why load another browser when you already have one?

Unfortunately, I was only able to convince myself of that for about 3 months.  IE7 is bloated, slow, hangs often, and the number of useful (<--key word) add-on's is nowhere close to what's available for Firefox -- and I don't even use very many of them.

Firefox seems to be inherently faster out of the box, and you can optimize it based on the speed of your computer and network connection to make it even faster than that - noticeably faster.  Google will show you many ways to do that manually, but the easiest way is to use Firetune for Firefox.

[BFM_Chaindog]

<bash>IE6 was nice, and Firefox 1.2 was a wonderful alternative to the zillions of M$ vulnerabilities inherent in IE6.  Then M$ jumped the gun and tried porting their IE7 browser to WinXP to compete with their surprisingly good competition, Mozilla Firefox. 

They introduced Firefox and Opera's concepts of tabbed browsing...and failed to keep multiple tabs from crashing it. 

They introduced Firefox's thousands of add-ons as pre-installed plug-ins...and failed to stem the bloatware from sponsoring companies (which Firefox doesn't have problems with). 

They introduced a cleaner, shinier interface...which failed to be much different from IE6, and was already visible in cleaner browsers for Firefox, Opera, Safari, and others. 

They introduced the Genuine Advantage Tool and REQUIRED all users to download the software portion of the online GAT to ensure that their OS and ALL M$ products on their systems were authentic...and failed to account for the tens of thousands of people who suddenly failed to Verify their software because of bugs in the GAT's encoding and had legitimate software (they've since fixed those bugs, but a little too late).

They introduced streaming MSNBC Live for use with your Live Messenger and Live Hotmail amongst other services for easier integration....and failed by breaking the tie-ins between Media Player and the Media Player plug-in required to use MP online content in your browser window.  Now half of the online content fails to load, or loads slower than before.  NOTE:  The Firefox MP add-on works! </bash>

The new Firefox 2.0+ has more add-ons/plug-ins available by users and professional coders, whereas IE7 has to either have such things pre-installed with IE7 or as 'patches' to the IE7 code.  Also if there is an add-on you don't want, simply have it uninstalled.  Want to add more?  Simply add those you like at any time.

The following are the kewl extensions Chaindog uses, and not all are for minor reasons.  Some of those add-on extensions are major pieces of great code!!

Adblock Plus  0.7.5.1   Works on everything from ad servers to pop-ups.
Backgroundimage Saver 0.1.2  Save or view background images (even if behind transparent GIFs)
ColorfulTabs 2.0.6    Helps by coloring your tabs differently to prevent/minimize confusion (colors move with the tab if you move tabs around!) (not to be confused with 2 other tab color add-ons which are darker or less flexible).
Download Embedded 0.5   Downloads all embedded objects on a webpage.
Download Statusbar 0.9.5.1  Minimized visual statusbar at bottom of page instead of popup.
DownloadHelper 2.4.2   Download videos/images/music from MANY sites.
DownThemAll!  0.9.9.10   Mass downloader for Firefox.
Fast Video Download 1.3.1.4   Save videos and embedded objects from YT and others.
FEBE 5.0   Backup for your Firefox data
FirefoxView 0.31.2   Loads/views pages/links in Firefox browser from IE windows.
Generate Numly Copyright 1.3   Generates Numly Numbers for copyright proof (good for photographers like myself).
Google Video Downloader 1.1  Works on the old Google Video website (hidden but still active)
Googlebar for Firefox 0.9.15.10    Google search!
IE View 1.3.3   Open pages/links in IE from Firefox windows.
Image Assistant  0.2.4  Launches images in external viewers
Image Zoom 0.3  THE ULTIMATE TOOL FOR IMAGES ONLINE EVER!!!  Zoom up to x400 with minimal distortion!!
Map+ 1.1.0   Allows you to view an online map of a mouse-selected address.
Media Pirate 2.3   Basically a video downloader like the rest (catchy name though!).
Minimize to Tray 0.0.1.2.....  Minimizes all Mozilla windows to system tray.
Nuke Anything Enhances 0.54  (Allows hiding of almost ANYTHING via context menu.  Hide ads, pics, music, backgrounds, colors, boxes, links, etc.).
PDF Download 0.9.1  Allows you to download any online PDFs for FREE!
Save Image in Folder 1.1.3   Personally customized folder saves.
Show Picture 0.6     Displays the selected image (great for pics that fail to load).
SmoothWheel 0.44.7......   Smooth document scrolling.
Splash 1.2.2    Adds a Firefox splash screen to the opening wait time (like Halo, IE, etc.).
Split Pannel 0.8   Opens panels left/right/bottom from current URLs
STOP!  Hammertime!  2.0   Stops pages from loading with vocal words from MC Hammer.
Tab Effect 1.1   Switch between tabs using 3D effects   (really awesome too!!!)
TargetAlert 0.8.9.8   Provides visual cues for destinations of hyperlinks.
UnPlug 1.6.06  (unplugs web page plug-ins/videos/etc.)
Video Download 2.0   Download videos from numerous websites (includes some not covered by below)
VideoDownloader 1.1.1  (same as above but includes numerous other websites).
WeatherBug 1.0.02  Weather Channel forecasts and conditions.
Zombie Keys 1.1.4    "Brings dead keys to life, accented letters made easy!"

[Forseti]

I agree with all the above comments about firefox and especially with Mr Mxyz and the PortableApps (grasp the rainbow here http://portableapps.com/). Everything held and ran on a tiny USB (I have everyting and it takes up less than 500MB) and it leaves no footprint on your PC, can be completely isolated, all 100% free, and just as good if not better than the originals. Has everything from web browsers to office suites to games. Runs a little slower of a USB (not noticibly really) but absolutely no slower if you have it on your harddrive. Got mine on it's own partition - why you ask, because even though it has great security, it is as simple as erase and reload in 5min for security or cut and paste if you want an identical copy for another PC.

Well there is all that and the fact that IE can NOT be trusted. Even though I tell it to not save any of my history, cookies or anything else it still does. I give it no space to save and it still does. It will even save your most recent documents under history even if you do not want it to. Try this --> erase your (recent) Documents that you can see in your start tab right under "Programs" -> go start -> settings -> taskbar and start menu -> start menu tab -> Custom button -> I use classic menu, but both have a button to clear Recent Documents (advanced tab for WinXP default start-> CLICK that button to clear them then look at that recent "Documents" in your start menu again ---> Gone right??? WRONG, now open IE of any type and click History -> today -> My documents -> and there they all are EVEN IF YOU TELL IT TO NOT SAVE YOUR HISTORY. OMG what do I need to do to have some security with Windows and IE.

Sorry for the shouting but this always irritates me. Long story short, Firefox does what you ask it to.


PS and lol Mr Mxyz, I looked at that Mosaic link of your and boy does it make me reminisce and feel old. I remember using it and gopher and others, being upset when I had to switch to others. When web addies had to be known and typed perfectly, when there were no search engines (http://www.vlib.org/, http://www.metacrawler.com/ and http://webcrawler.com/ being godsends) and even before WWW when everything was FTP lol.

[99]

I have used IE for years until I finally got fed up with the problems and switched to Firefox. I have had no problems since, I love firefox much better and will probably never go back.

[Ediseye]

ya but ie has littel security and no spyware protection so why keep something that will just let ur pc get killd and be spamd with ads

That’s why you use protection. Even with using Firefox, you don't have to have the web open and you can still get a virus. It's not too hard...Everyone is targeting Windows because of the market share, not targeting IE.

Anyhow, like Mxy said, its preference. Same goes for the whole Windows vs. Mac debate. I've been in the debate for about 2 or 3 years now and I am telling you, it's still all preference. It's hard not to stress it enough.

Bottom line, IE is by Microsoft. Firefox is by Mozilla. If you want to boycott Microsoft, then choose Firefox or something else. If you just want a good browser, pic any of them out there. The most popular ones have all you need.

And at that, I'll let you all keep debating. I just find it foolish to the people who swear by Firefox or another browser after only hearing things about the competitors and never actually having major problems with them.

Have fun debating! (!

[Slanzinger]

It is a case of preference, I agree. I've not had major problems, I just prefer FF's interface. SHIFT+Enter = adds www. and .net, CTRL+SHIFT+Enter adds www. and .org, in addition to IE's CTRL+Enter = .com (which never seems to work right for me in IE7) - and I've learnt to use ctrl+L for address bar and K for search bar, causing me confusion whenever I try to use the other. For me, it's a learned process, and it's difficult to go back.

The security issue isn't that "If you use this browser you won't get spyware ever" - it's just that there's less to exploit as FF doesn't use ActiveX.

[freddd]

It is a case of preference, I agree. I've not had major problems, I just prefer FF's interface. SHIFT+Enter = adds www. and .net, CTRL+SHIFT+Enter adds www. and .org, in addition to IE's CTRL+Enter = .com (which never seems to work right for me in IE7) - and I've learnt to use ctrl+L for address bar and K for search bar, causing me confusion whenever I try to use the other. For me, it's a learned process, and it's difficult to go back.

The security issue isn't that "If you use this browser you won't get spyware ever" - it's just that there's less to exploit as FF doesn't use ActiveX.

Ctrl+Enter!!!
Wow, finally! I have been looking for a couple of months now of how to add www. and .com to my URLs. Thanks you!!! [/off subject]

Anyway, I think Firefox is a lot better than IE.
1. No pop-ups. I almost never get pop-ups with Firefox, and I get at least one on every 3 page I go to on IE.
2. The version of IE that I have does not have tabbed browsing. I can't even use the internet without tabs now. (I mean I don't like to.)
3. I've been using FF for so long now, that I am used to the interface. IE seems so confusing since I'm not used to it.
4. Add-ons. Couldn't live without my FF add-ons. I don't know anything about IE add-ons, but I sure love my FF ones.

[Vaude]

Fire Fox FTW!!!!!

[PBJ]

I say firefox when you are just searching the net for information and have no need for Java or movie players.  I'm pretty sure internet explorer is better for watching movies. however if you are doing a long download like a 30 min download, firefox works better for me.