Firefox - what are the advantages

[+the pooks]

I am a pretty conservative individual and reluctant to change, but I thought I would give Firefox a go since it has gotten positive publicity lately.

 

I used it for a few days and have reverted to you-know-what for the following reasons:

 

1. I did not perceive any improvements for the stuff I did, so I thought I would stick with the familiar because then I did not have to get used to a different layout.

 

2. The word "favourites" sat more comfortably than "bookmarks" although this should not be an issue.

 

3. Adding something to "favourites" went more smoothly than adding a "bookmark"

 

4. When you start typing a URL the suggestions that pop up in Firefox are more detailed and cluttered than the suggestions that pop up in IE.

 

Other than the above I did not perceive any difference. I suspect this topic has been covered in a lot more detail here and elsewhere, but it would be appreciated if the geeks out there could enlighten me and perhaps persuade me to try something new - as the saying goes : "a change is as good as a holiday"

 

Please help

[jholly]

5. I enjoy using a browser that is the target of naughty people that want to steal my passwords. I don't like the fact that FireFox is much less of a target.

[+intolerable]

extensions on ff are great. i save tons of time using tab kit and session manager.

Edited December 28, 2008 by intolerable

[XC_Tracker]

The biggest advantage of Firefox is the fact it isn't IE.

[brisey612]

Not to go off-topic, but google's browser Chrome is by far the best way to go. The tabs run individually on seperates processes, besides the built in protection. It's defiently built for people who are looking for protection, and a much simplier format than IE or Firefox.

[+dakboy]

You've only scratched the surface. The address bar is exceptionally powerful. Add on a few extensions like Greasemonkey (there are several Greasemonkey scripts which enhance gc.com) and Adblock Plus, and your browsing experience will be transformed.

 

Not to mention the lack of security holes you can drive a truck through like what IE has. Firefox is also much faster.

 

I'm not sure how adding a Favorite in IE can go "more smoothly" than a Bookmark in Firefox. It's a nearly identical process. CTRL-D is the quickest way on both.

 

Chrome is a nice experiment, but I went back to Firefox because I need my extensions.

[+swfirefly]

I've always liked firefox, but it stopped working a few weeks ago. Anyone know what would cause this?

[+dakboy]

I've always liked firefox, but it stopped working a few weeks ago. Anyone know what would cause this?

Create a new profile to see if it's the program, or just some of your settings. http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles

 

FYI, "it just stopped working" doesn't help other people help you. It's about the same as telling your mechanic "the car makes a funny noise" over the phone and asking for a diagnostic without any further information.

[+SkellyCA]

I prefer Chrome

 

You can break tabs off and make it it's own window, or put two windows together as tabs; plus you can open chrome and it opens all the tabs where you left off. and your most used site are right in your face in a new tab

[+dakboy]

You can break tabs off and make it it's own window, or put two windows together as tabs; plus you can open chrome and it opens all the tabs where you left off. and your most used site are right in your face in a new tab

All of those are already available in Firefox as extensions or base functionality, or will come with the next release.

[+SkellyCA]

I do use FF for some things. Another thing I like is that the address bar is also the search bar.

[+Don_J]

Hi, my name's Don and I'm a former IE user,

 

I have no desire to participate in the browser wars, but it seems that the security updates come almost as fast for Firefox as they do for IE, and Chrome had five updates released the day after the browser was released. IMO, they are all vulnerable, if the right bad guy is trying hard enough. That's why it's essential to have other measures in place.

 

I will relate my experience, however. I'm usually of a mindset that if it's not broke, don't fix it. I was happy to use IE. It worked. One day, a forum that I had been a part of since about 1993, switched it's interface. I ended up with a screen full of ads, plus, users could now add giant images to their sig lines. It became a hide and seek contest just to find the actual content. I had heard about Firefox and the Adblock extension, so I gave it a try. Poof, no more ads. No more obstructive images. I loved it. I ended up using Firefox for just that site and IE for everything else. As I only used Firefox for that one site, I had no real comparison of the two browsers.

 

One day, I opened one of my cache links in Firefox and was surprised at how fast it opened. I opened the same link in IE, then went back and forth a few times. Firefox was noticeably faster. I have a very robust computer and if I can notice a difference, there must be a difference. I started opening some other sites. Everything was noticeably faster. At that point, the choice was clear as to what browser I would be using.

 

More importantly, probably half of my browsing time is spent at CG.com. I looked through Prime Suspects, (thank you), Greasemonkey scripts, installed the ones that would help me, and was simply amazed at how it changed my experience. The one that allows you to only type a TB code once is a miracle.

 

Later, I found a theme that maximized screen real estate, and an add-on that changed the tabs to work more like IE, (which I did like better). The big blue "E" just sits on my desktop. I don't click it any longer. As a side bonus, I no longer have 8000 "temporary internet files" after 2 days of browsing.

[+TotemLake]

 

I have no desire to participate in the browser wars, but it seems that the security updates come almost as fast for Firefox as they do for IE, and Chrome had five updates released the day after the browser was released. IMO, they are all vulnerable, if the right bad guy is trying hard enough. That's why it's essential to have other measures in place.

This is the most factual statement I've seen posted in these forums about the different browsers.

 

Other than that, I'll add some slow responses might be due to the fact most people enable the download the current page everytime rather than view cached contents.

Edited December 28, 2008 by TotemLake

[+Mredria]

I really like the add-on foxmarks on firefox so that i can have all my bookmarks on any firefox machine. I hear there's things like this for other browsers though.

[+Sparrowhawk]

The coolness of Firefox is the ability to customize the HECK out of it using extensions.

 

For instance... you know all those times when you see a link that is not hyperlinked, like this:

 

www.apod.nasa.gov/apod

 

Instead of this:

 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

 

There is a very good extension called Linkification that will automatically make the link clickable even though the original person did not do it that way.

 

AndThenThereAreThoseTimesWhenSomeIdiotWritesInSomeLongLineWithNoSpacesAndItMakesYourScreen

StretchOutWayTooAndCanDriveYouAbsolutelyNuts.

 

If that happens, just use this extension to break up the line to a reasonable size.

 

Adblock Plus helps get rid of obnoxious ads that are flashing in your face.

 

Remove It Permanently lets you right-click and permanently kill any graphic or ad that annoys you.

 

Now... I am sure that SOMEWHERE out there, there could be a YouTube video that you want to download and keep for yourself...

 

...and for this particular video, you have perfectly legal, written permission to download according to the originator of the video itself, RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT?

 

And you would not do something so tacky as to download something illegal, riiiiiiiiight?

 

Of course you wouldn't.

 

So when it comes time to get a copy of that perfectly-legal-to-download video onto your hard drive, install Fast Video Download, then go grab the free VLC player to play that video for yourself, offline. No problem!

[khh338]

I was using IE a few years ago and I got browser hijacked . At the time I was using IE and getting a few virus's each week . I ended at spywareinfo.com I followed there suggestions to avoid future problems that among other things included the use of Firefox. I can't remember the last time I had spyware or mailware problems. I probably get 3 or 4 virus's a year if that. As has been mentioned there are a bunch of add on flash killers and what not that let you choose what you want to see. I'm very happy with it .

[+TotemLake]

I was using IE a few years ago and I got browser hijacked . At the time I was using IE and getting a few virus's each week . I ended at spywareinfo.com I followed there suggestions to avoid future problems that among other things included the use of Firefox. I can't remember the last time I had spyware or mailware problems. I probably get 3 or 4 virus's a year if that. As has been mentioned there are a bunch of add on flash killers and what not that let you choose what you want to see. I'm very happy with it .

One a year is too many. Since 1992, I can still count on less than one hand how many trojans and viruses I caught (and knocking on wood it stays that way). Spyware on the other hand is the nefarious slowdown of all machines and hackers are all too willing to develop ways of getting around the most popular browsers. As mentioned earlier, there are appropriate programs to guard against this.

 

My spelling on the otherhand, needs a lot of work.

Edited December 29, 2008 by TotemLake

[+Cuddlefish]

I use Firefox and Adblock Plus along with a java script blocker.

 

I used another computer last week (that only had Internet Explorer) and was SHOCKED at how many ads etc. cluttered every webpage I typically visit. I never see them.

 

The internet is a much quieter place with Firefox.

[+fourbeer]

I liked tabbed browsing in Firefox. I think IE recently added it, but I had already converted to Firefox.

 

I like the foxmarks extension that allows me to synchronize all of my bookmarks with all of my computers giving me the same set of bookmarks on any PC I use.

 

It also seems like Firefox hangs much less frequently than IE.

[+Prime Suspect]

 

I have no desire to participate in the browser wars, but it seems that the security updates come almost as fast for Firefox as they do for IE, and Chrome had five updates released the day after the browser was released. IMO, they are all vulnerable, if the right bad guy is trying hard enough. That's why it's essential to have other measures in place.

This is the most factual statement I've seen posted in these forums about the different browsers.

 

Other than that, I'll add some slow responses might be due to the fact most people enable the download the current page everytime rather than view cached contents.

The difference is that FF tends to fix all their bugs, while MS is content to let some fairly serious ones hang around for years, with no fix in sight.

 

Also, the next major FF release will have a blazing fast javascript engine.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

There's a lot that I like about FF, but one thing is the ability to add custom search boxes in the upper right corner. I have Amazon, AllMusicGuide, Dictionary.com, eBay, Wikipedia, No Slang (Internet Slang), and Weather Underground, as well as a few more esoteric choices.

 

Chrome is too bare bones, but I understand that we may be able to add FF extensions to it in the near future. That would be great!

[+the pooks]

Thanks everyone for your input. I have succumbed to the pressure and changed back to FF. Hopefully it will grow on me.

[+Renegade Knight]

Firefox - what are the advantages

 

I liked that it had tabs when IE didn't. Now I like how it handles tabs better than IE's methods. Since I use a lot of tabs when browsing this is the killer feature. I like the plugins for Firefox as well. I have found 1 for IE, but FireFox has an army of plug ins for everthing like saving a page as a PDF, RIAA warning when you buy musing on Amazon, Ad Blocking and others that are handy.

 

IE still displays some pagest that FireFox has problems with. Vice Versa isn't as common. Thus I still use IE. A couple of things I really like about IE is how it saves bookmarks as files. I find it easier to change computers and keep my bookmarks though I've figured it out for Firefox as well. The other thing is that you can save a webpage as a single file. I do this for key webpages like reviews, software that I may try or whatever. This latter one was solved by the the save as PDF plugin for Firefox.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

IE still displays some pagest that FireFox has problems with. Vice Versa isn't as common. Thus I still use IE.

 

Yeah, sometimes you'll come across forms that don't work in FF. That's why its good to use the IE View Lite plugin. Just right-click and select View This Page in IE.

[+StarBrand]

I use both IE and FF. Mostly just IE. Been using the IE 8 Beta - while still a bit buggy - it certainly vastly improves many aspects of web browsing.

 

FF is ok and better at showing some websites and some speed problems but overall - I perfer IE.

[jholly]

I guess after starting with Mosaic and progressing to Netscape I never really got into the IE thing. Besides IE didn't run very well on my unix workstation so I ended up with FF on it. Seemed to be the right thing to do at home with the windoze box. The blue e just sits there.

 

Jim