Firefox, what are the advantages?

FaxModem1 · Post by **FaxModem1** » 2007-04-29 09:43pm

Some of my friends suggested I start using Firefox, so, before I decide. I want to hear why its such a good idea to use the thing. Currently I use Internet Explorer, but I'm willing to change.

So what's so good about Firefox?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-04-29 11:49pm

FaxModem1 wrote:Some of my friends suggested I start using Firefox, so, before I decide. I want to hear why its such a good idea to use the thing. Currently I use Internet Explorer, but I'm willing to change.

So what's so good about Firefox?

Compared to IE6, or IE7?

There's no contest compared to IE6. IE6 sucks donkey balls, and was written ages ago. IE7 has a lot more features, but (and here's something that's not widely reported) it's a lot more unstable too. There are certain websites that consistently crash IE7, and it's not just one fucked install. I've seen the same website crash IE7 on several machines, including one with a fresh install of XP.

Another problem with IE is the fact that it's so tightly integrated into the operating system. If IE locks up and you have to forcibly close the window, it can fuck up your entire desktop and you have to log out and then log back in before it's normal again.

And finally, there are the lingering security issues. Is it just me, or is anyone else sick of the Windows Update notifications that say nothing but "vulnerability which may allow a remote attacker to take control of your computer"? What's the fucking attack vector? Don't you think the consumer would like to know?

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2007-04-30 12:08am

Wong here you can get all the info you ever want about what WU installs.

MS Technet / Security

Worst bug in ages

But it is not that obvious where to find it if you just surf to Microsoft.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2007-04-30 12:20am

I will add that other goodies include, for the most part, widespread compatibility with Firefox -- most sites will work fully -- and apparently less memory usage (see PCWorld). The current version also includes tabbed bookmarking (you can save a folder to open all of its resident bookmarks in separate tabs of the same window), it keeps track of your tabs so you can reload all of them at once or undo closed tabs, and in the event of a crash or other abnormal program close you have the option of restoring the session.

If interested, the beta for Firefox 3 is scheduled for July.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-04-30 12:57am

Holy shit. On one of my machines, IE7 is now so unstable that it crashes every time I start it up. Everything else on the machine works fine.

PS. In a stroke of irony, the adult streaming-video website www.hotmovies.com has special features that only work on IE, but it consistently crashes IE7 as soon as you click on the "Enter" link

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-04-30 01:30am

Other than that, I have nothing positive to say about it. If the tabs aren't your thing, IMO there is no compelling reason to switch, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try for a few days anyway if you wanted to.

Security.
Also, on the IE7 stability thing, I have IE7 running under Wine for sites that are not firefox compatible and it still manages to somehow lock up the entire wineserver forcing me to do wineserver -k (kill).

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2007-04-30 01:41am

Regarding Fire Fox, when your browser crashes for some reason, you can launch your browser again and get the same websites you were viewing prior to the crash, which is a really nice feature given the many weird things Windows does. Its also got the handy little weather forecaster and radar thing for constant weather updates at the bottom of your browser, if you download that feature. Also, if you're lazy, Fire Fox also has mouse button commands to go back a page, go forward and other sorts of thigns if you're too lazy to hit the delete key or hit the go back button.

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2007-04-30 02:09am

In addition to the above, tabbing is easier on FF2 than any other browser I've ever used. FF2 also has a built-in spellcheck program, which is useful for forum posting. You can also pause and resume downloads, which is nice. The user interface is much nicer and more utilitarian than IE7. The find function in Firefox is dramatically superior to that on IE.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2007-04-30 02:21am

I recently was using my uncle's laptop, and a plugin for IE7 would crash on the first startup. Eventually it crashed on every startup attempt, and the computer had to be restarted. That won't happen with Firefox, unless you have a bad extension.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2007-04-30 02:27am

Every machine I've seen running IE7 has been rendered slower and more unstable. It was an overnight sort of thing - very noticeable.

It's bad enough that all of the campus computing labs at ASU are sticking with IE6.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-04-30 02:30am

Does IE7 have tabs?

(I don't know, I never use it.)

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2007-04-30 02:54am

It does, as does (apparently) upgraded IE6.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2007-04-30 03:25am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Does IE7 have tabs?

(I don't know, I never use it.)

Yes but on my machine IE7 is sluggish when opening and closing blank tabs one at a time (I've never gone above 3 tabs in IE). I only have that happen in firefox when I'm opening or closing over 50 at a time, but once the opening and closing is done I have no problems.

Besides its only a 6mb download (plus addons) and if you don't like it you can just uninstall and go back to IE.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-04-30 04:00am

What do you do to your computers that IE7 slows it down? IE7 here is significently faster or atleast equal to IE6 or Opera, while being just as stable. If IE7 crashs on my PC, which it does in very specific circumstances, it just crashs it's sole window, not any other IE7 window, nevermind the system.

The only slow part is opening and closing tabs.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2007-04-30 05:28am

Firefox is crap. Get opera instead. Much more stable.

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2007-04-30 05:48am

MKSheppard wrote:Firefox is crap. Get opera instead. Much more stable.

How is Firefox unstable? I switched over from Internet Explorer to Firefox two weeks ago, and it's so far treating me 200% better than Internet Explorer ever did, without any addons or anything like that. Loads websites faster, and it's crashed a grand total of one time. Just once, in two weeks. Whereas Internet Explorer crashed every day, or every other day.

I currently have no complaints.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-04-30 05:50am

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:
MKSheppard wrote:Firefox is crap. Get opera instead. Much more stable.
How is Firefox unstable? I switched over from Internet Explorer to Firefox two weeks ago, and it's so far treating me 200% better than Internet Explorer ever did, without any addons or anything like that. Loads websites faster, and it's crashed a grand total of one time. Just once, in two weeks. Whereas Internet Explorer crashed every day, or every other day.

I currently have no complaints.

I seriously find it curious what are people doing with IE6 and IE7 to make it crash so much. Sure, IE6 sucks security wise, but it was quite stable on my computer.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2007-04-30 07:38am

Darth Wong wrote:Holy shit. On one of my machines, IE7 is now so unstable that it crashes every time I start it up. Everything else on the machine works fine.

It's like that on the computer I use at school, too. What's worse, you have to have admin rights to change the default browser, so it's a real pain in the ass. It's been like this all the time, too. IE7 has not started even once on that computer.

Ace Pace wrote:I seriously find it curious what are people doing with IE6 and IE7 to make it crash so much. Sure, IE6 sucks security wise, but it was quite stable on my computer.

Seems like IE just doesn't like to work on certain computers. IE6 crashed all the time on the computers at my old school. Though, Firefox 1 crashed pretty often there too, but we used it because when Firefox crashed, you only had to restart it. When IE crashed, it took the whole fucking computer down with it.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2007-04-30 09:22am

I'm using IE7 here at work but at home I use Firefox, it comes down to simple math. If, like me, you browse at some "questionable" sites there is most likely a shit load of cookies and browser exploits lined up to invade your system. IE7 isn't less well designed than FF, i actually prefer IE7's tab system, but for the simple fact that because IE7 covers the vast majority of web users the hacker assholes target IE and that in itself makes FF safer.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2007-04-30 09:33am

I would compare any browser out there as I have and choose what works best. It's going to be your computer it'll be working on after all.

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2007-04-30 09:57am

IE7 is the slowest browser on every system I've tried it on. Firefox, Opera, and IE6 are much faster. Firefox and Opera have less security vulnerabilities, so you don't have to worry about spyware automatically installing. (The fact that I happened to avoid an exploit simply because I was trying the browser out, despite that exploit infecting everyone I knew using IE is what made me switch.)

Anyway, you should probably check out both Firefox and Opera. They're both completely free, so you don't have anything to lose.

Firefox

Tends to be compatible with more sites
Has an inline spellchecker that highlights misspelled words (practically a must-have for forum posting, as has been mentioned)
Faster and more stable than IE7
Crash recovery
Plugin support

Opera

Spell checking (not inline; doesn't highlight words as you type)
Faster than Firefox (especially on older systems)
Nicer-looking default interface
Widget support

I'm not as familiar with Opera, so I may be missing some important Opera features. So, again, I recommend you just try out both and see what you like best after a few days of using each.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-04-30 10:03am

Opera has great crashing 'support', in the sense that your session data is nearly always saved and available to be restored the next time you start Opera up. To me, thats awesome.

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-04-30 10:20am

Ace Pace wrote:Opera has great crashing 'support', in the sense that your session data is nearly always saved and available to be restored the next time you start Opera up. To me, that's awesome.

Which is exactly what firefox also has.
I can't really make accurate stability comparisons between Opera and Firefox since I run linux and stuff "Just doesn't crash(tm)", but I've used both for decent amounts of time.

One thing most people have forgotten is that Opera has a built-in bittorrent client, newsreader, POP/SMTP mail client and IRC chat client. And you can edit pages in your local cache and view them with just a reload. Opera has lower memory usage.

Of course firefox can do all of that with plugins, but that also increases memory usage (which, btw, can get pretty extreme; 120mb+) and they don't integrate with the interface as effectively as Opera pulls it off. As mentioned, firefox does have a better implementation of spellcheck. Firefox also has Live Title's and Live Bookmarks which I'm not sure Opera has.

When it comes to security, bugs and security flaws in firefox are fixed VERY quickly, but Opera has the advantage of being completely closed source.

I've found Opera's browsing interface to be quite irritating at times as compared to firefox's simple interface, but being so simple is also a disadvantage. You have to dig through convoluted menu's to get to you're plugins.

I say try both Opera and Firefox and go with whatever you like best, trying the widgets/plugins/themes for both. One thing though; EITHER is better than IE7.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-04-30 10:31am

Mad wrote:
Opera
Spell checking (not inline; doesn't highlight words as you type)

Faster than Firefox (especially on older systems)

Nicer-looking default interface

Widget support

I'm not sure I'd count the nicer looking interface as a pro, considering how subjective that is. Personally I find Opera's default interface rather fugly, which is one of my main reasons I dislike it. (It has too much "stuff" in its toolbars and buttons, wheras Firefox is very minimalist).

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2007-04-30 10:57am

Resinence wrote:One thing most people have forgotten is that Opera has a built-in bittorrent client, newsreader, POP/SMTP mail client and IRC chat client. And you can edit pages in your local cache and view them with just a reload. Opera has lower memory usage.

I can't believe I forgot the Bittorrent client.

Firefox also has Live Title's and Live Bookmarks which I'm not sure Opera has.

Opera has (as far as I can tell) full RSS reader support, which I find superior to Firefox's Live Bookmarks. Opera's RSS reader tells me when there are new items, while I still have to go to each Live Bookmark and look myself to see if there are updates.

When it comes to security, bugs and security flaws in firefox are fixed VERY quickly, but Opera has the advantage of being completely closed source.

With Firefox getting more popular, there is always the concern that spyware makers will eventually start targeting Firefox as well. Time will tell how that works out.

I've found Opera's browsing interface to be quite irritating at times as compared to firefox's simple interface, but being so simple is also a disadvantage. You have to dig through convoluted menu's to get to you're plugins.

I prefer Firefox's interface, as well. Opera takes some getting used to, but it made sense to me once I understood it.

General Zod wrote:I'm not sure I'd count the nicer looking interface as a pro, considering how subjective that is. Personally I find Opera's default interface rather fugly, which is one of my main reasons I dislike it. (It has too much "stuff" in its toolbars and buttons, wheras Firefox is very minimalist).

True, I guess the word I meant is "polished." Opera's interface is shinier than Firefox's default interface. It makes Firefox's interface look boring by comparison, even though FF's interface is perfectly functional. Skins are available for Firefox, of course, if the shininess of the interface is a concern. (Personally, I don't bother. The default interface does exactly what I need.)

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Firefox, what are the advantages?

Firefox, what are the advantages?

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