Mozilla's Firefox is getting compelling

I've been using Firefox for a bit now, especially since I started having trouble under IE with displaying JoeUser themes. It's sleek, fast and doesn't clutter things up as much in my experience. I'm also a huge fan of the tab element over opening a new window, keeps my already cluttered taskbar a little cleaner. This is leaps and bounds better than Mozilla and Netscape (though it's coded by the same people). This has become my browser of choice for general surfing. Even the built-in pop-up blocker works great.

I'm surprised this isn't considered stable yet, I haven't had a single problem in the few weeks I've been using it.

FireFox is nice, but the way Ben Goodger (primary engineer on the FireFox project) is marketing it (http://bengoodger.com/weblog/ie.shtml) just pisses me off. Why should I have to switch browsers just to get to his site?

if you want to get a tabbed ie browser with activeX try avant browser. has tons of features like mouse gestures: hold the right button and click the left to go back one page, do the opposite to go forward.

I've also been using Mozilla/Firefox for some time now and I and only use IE for internet banking. Tabbed browsing is great and so is the "find link by typing"-feature. The less you need to use the mouse, the better.

I agree. I have been having issues with my install of IE not fully loading pages, etc., and no matter how I adjust the cache, etc., I can't fix it. Out of desperation I downloaded Firefox to see if it was my connectivity and I am impressed enough to keep using it. The only think I miss is IESpell.

Some of the plug-ins for fire-fox are interesting. I tried out some of the RSS feed engines with mixed results, but JoeUser comes through fine on News Monster. There is also a calendar add-in that can be stored remote and acceded from anywhere.

It amazes me that IE still does not block pop-ups automatically. If Mozilla can do it, if Google can do it by adding googlebar, why can't IE?

I guess I really don't miss the activeX controls as I have never really used them anyway.

Been up and running FireFox for 3 weeks now without a hitch.

I also run Thunderbird as my mail client, only complaint is that I can't cycle through messages from the icon bar.

my browser of choice, hands down, nothing comes close is MyIE2. ctrl right click to open a link in a new tab? nope a simple click with my wheel button does that for me. down right closes the current tab. down left reopens that last closed tab. All my IE plugins available, my favorites stays synched. An active popup/ad blocker. a fully customizable toolbar up top. I dont need to download any extra plugins, I've set the "boss key" to the period on my keypad so i can instantly toggle myie to minimize mode (helps more with multitasking). Its a lot easier to manage groups of pages and configure my tabs. (like i can set one tab to autorefresh every x secs)

I've been using my IE2 recently as well. I had tried it before and really wasn't satisfied, but version 0.9.16 works well. I installed a plug-in package and now have Notepad one click away. Very happy with the speed as well.

I switched from Avant Browser to Firefox - the plug-ins did it for me, particularly the tab control stuff - you can do all that middle mouse button stuff if you want. AND if you hunt around you'll find the IESpell plugin is duplicated and works fine for me.

Still having a few issues sorting out popup comment boxes (Firefox is displaying them in a new tab) but that aside I'm loving it.

FYI: there is a spell checker to be had, I just found it and got it going. You have to uninstall firefox, remove the application data in your main profile folder, reinstall, and then install 3 files. It is a pain in the butt, but honestly it is a swooby spell checker once it is running:

Hrm, my previous post seems to be farked, can't edit to make the link show, sorry. Here is the site that explains the spell checker:

Getting textarea spell checking to work with Firefox 0.8

Umm.. about the ctrl-click thing, in IE it's shift-click.

I like IE, it runs great on my computer.

~Dan

Reply #12 By: Dan Kaschel - 3/6/2004 1:52:13 AM Umm.. about the ctrl-click thing, in IE it's shift-click. I like IE, it runs great on my computer. ~Dan

yeah but it opens up a new window and that clutters up the taskbar. in avant or firefox the shift/ctrl-click opens it up in a tabon the browser bar. it's also easier to close a tab than a taskbar window (at least in avant you just double click the tab, which is closer than the x button at the top corner).

IE stalls for me constantly. I get halfway through a page of thumbnails on deviantart and it just stops. Firefox rips through them all, and faster than IE as well.

I think a big percentage of all the gripes and complaints about how the Internet is "slow" comes from people using IE. Probably 90% of all the browsing quirkyness disappeared when I switched.

I don't really think it's an accident that IE is is under-developed.   I think that Microsoft isnt allowed to push the line on that front....too much integration.  But what they do leaves them always two steps ahead of the spider.

They cater to developers.  How do you script FireFox to do anything?

 

Microsoft will win the browser because it "won't own it".  Instead they're just turning IE into an abstaction layer for WWW communication.   How many apps do you know these days that have some sort of web functionality?   Alot of them use IE.    Do you think microsoft cares that MyIE2 exists as a product?  I don't think so, i think it's exactly what they want (though a better name might be nice).  

 

Operating systems are supposed to stick to the basics.  They've just build WWW into the OS as one of the basics, and let 3rd parties use it how they want.   They still win over things like Firefox.    

Think about it, if Stardock were to write a Web browser application like MyIE2.....IE in a shell.   It would be the best browser anywhere, becuase it was written by talented people, with NATIVE controls.  

I tried it and liked it also. The quickest thing to get to like is the popup blocker...

Obviously by cater to developers, you don't mean web developers. I spend an extraneous hour or two, when creating a new web page, adding css hacks galore, so it will show up decently in the browser (and still lacks have the style, and functionality, firefox user see) For example, what about fixed windows? that way, when the user scrolls down the page, the menu stays with them, and without having to scroll back up, they can go to the next page. And, also my fancy web developer toolbar, allowing me to highlight different types of elements (tables, depracated, block level, etc...). And not just hightlight, but disable things on pages, view source, validate with a quick link, to make sure my pages are compliant to the standards, and much, much more. Now in regards to developers, check out the firefox extension page. Yes, all those people writing those extensions are "developers." Firefox has much more functionality than any other browser I've tried, and it's cross platform, meaning it works on almost any common platform today. If you haven't tried firefox, I highly suggest you give it a shot. The core browser is in and of itself, powerful, let alone, when coupled with the multitude of extensions to customize your browser. And, if you've tried the older versions, but haven't tried 0.8 yet, you should try it. It's made some huge jumps in usability.
Sam

I am downloading Firfox for my Linux machine as I'm reading this. I am looking forward to it as I have been a Mozilla and Netscape fan for some time now.

ummm, make that downloading Firefox. sorry for the typo