Many people seem to be switching from IE to Firefox these days, and I was wondering what the limitations and advantages of said replacement would be. Any dedicated Firefox users here?

I've used firefox and it is good. One thing to keep in mind is the most websites are developed based on IE, and the IE is a Microsoft product, meaning better compatibility with Windows.

Personally, I find IE easier to use although I'm quite sure many will disagree with me. Firefox has tabbed browsing, wallpaper, and all other kinds of fancy doo-dads, but for basic internet chores I find IE to be quick and efficient.

Yeah, I tried Firefox, but it was too complex and went back to IE.

[img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] I'm willing to bet that some five year old could come along, and make us look like total morons with their knowledge of how to use it. :D

As much as MS might be slammed for their products, they are the innovators and they generally make good software (Windows ME doesn't count.)

Stay tuned for next IE that is supposed to be released with XP SP2 and shortly thereafter for other OS users. I hear it will have all the new features of Firefox but add the stability and ease of use that we have come to expect from IE. ;)

I use Mozilla Navigator and it works fine
there are however a few sites which dont work very well the mozilla code so be surte to keep IE as backup for those nub sites

IE works the best for me, so I use it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ie..never realy bothered with anything else...although opera and firefox look quite appealing, and i might switch...should i?

Nah, join the MS team!

Be different, embrace Microsoft! [img]smile.gif[/img] You will be rewarded! Microsoft will own the computer world, it's only a matter of time. You might as well be on the right team! :D

[ 08-09-2004, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: Animal ]

Firefox 0.9.2, can't say it is the best browser available, but it is good enough for me. I know it is not easy to use but once you have learnt how to use it, it is powerful and flexible. :D

Things like tabbrowsing and mouse gestures made browsing easier and more convenient. Long Live Open Source!!!

[ 08-09-2004, 11:24 PM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

well..not to be harsh or anything but the winning team..is killing my comp..Viruses and all...plus..ie is really slow for me now..so i'm trying firefox...11% done...sheesh

[img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

You want browsing?
Ask for built in pop-up blocker? Only on the other side.
You want tabbed browsing, don't look at IE.
You want to edit a webpage from within your browser, to see how it would look? Uhm, don't look towards Redmond.
Did you say you wanted to search, but more than just the normal crap? Yeap, you can neddle search, URL, PHP, web, domains, phone books, you name it, IE can't do it.

I use IE because it enables me to look at non english website like in japanese or chinese. I've hard time using other browser in that situation.

Actually MS <u>has</u> owned the computer world. Not anymore. Open source is taking more computers as we speak.

Om the actual topic, I use Mozilla. works fine for me. It has built-in pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, built-in password manager and it works fine on every site i've tried. Exept windows update. Whitch doesn't count. It also looks less ugly, and if it doesn't, you can download new skins. For free.

I use Firefox and it is excellent, once you have experianced tabbed browsing, you will never go back.
I still use IE when neccesary, but I will always use Firefox when I can.

IE, i have used Firefox and it was complicated, slower, and had compatibility problems so i still had to use IE sometimes. But spyware is less with firefox.

I switched to Firefox earlier this year, and haven't looked back. Love it. :D It takes a bit to get used to, but the tabs are brilliant and it chews up a lot less memory. Only problems I've had are that certain sites (bank sites, etc) don't work with it.

For some reason Firefox takes a bit longer to load pages on my computer, I use it occasionally, when I remember to start it up that is... [img]smile.gif[/img]

WHOO HOO FIREFOX IS AWESOME!!!

i've just used it for two days and it's awesome :D

onything is i can't get chatzilla to work..for some reason irc doesn't work on my comp at all..~_~ll

but its awesome

Anyway, I heard that M$ is no longer developing new versions of IE except for Longhorn (bundled). If this is true, that means that there will not be any IE 7.x or 8.x for "free" download.

Of course M$ will still issue patches and security updates for the current IE, but you will not be able to upgrade to the newer versions of IE unless you upgrade to Longhorn.

I think this move is to "force" people to upgrade their OS. Which means if you aren't happy with IE 6.0.x anymore, you had better upgrade to Longhorn or whichever latest version of Windows.

This move is considered as "logical" because M$ has won the browser war against Netscape. No point giving IE for free if they could charge customer for a copy or only bundle it with the latest version of OS.

[ 08-11-2004, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

I use IE. I cant say I've ever tried anything else. Although when I got broadband installed (quite recently) I tried out using the BT Yahoo browser (I am actually typing this in it) But I cant say I am too impressed. I mean it gives you a lot of links etc. and I suppose its useful. But I prefer a window without all the crap, this is one of the main reasons why I dislike AOL.

The guy who fixes my computers says he uses Opera. I have never heard of this or used it, does anybody know whether or not it's any good?

I have used Mozilla, and it was a kool web browser to have and I really liked it, but once again, all the websites weren't compatible with it. I haven't heard of Firefox. I just know that Mozilla was free, that was why I downloaded it. Plus it was recommended by those screensaver guys in techtv.

Mozilla is the "Full" version of firefox + Thunderbird. However, if you prefer to use only the stand alone browser, you can download Mozilla Firefox. The stand alone mail client is called Mozilla Thunderbird. They are normally referred as "firefox" and "Thunderbird" respectively.

Opera is another browser alternative like Firefox, but it has 2 major version, as far as I know of. They are the adware version (comes with banner ads on top) or the paid version.

Some people prefers to use Opera while others prefer Firefox. I prefers Firefox because it is completely free without the banner ads, not to mention the number of good extensions* for download.

*extensions are like special modules that can be downloaded and installed onto Firefox/Thunderbird for added functionalities. Some extensons will enable you to have a more effective cookies control while some will give you chat client, ad blocking capability and etc.

[ 08-11-2004, 08:38 PM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

I tried one called IRider once, and wasn't too terribly impressed, but thought it had potential...

On a side note, I have Mozilla on an external hard drive right now, but have never gotten around to using it...worth it???

EDIT: Trying Mozilla right now...apparently my version is kind of old...I'd say six or seven months...and they say I need a newer one, which is a major pain, I say...but, I do like the tabbed browsing...

I must say, though, it seems quite a bit slower at loading Ironworks than IE or AOL ever were....hmmm...

[ 08-11-2004, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: Ilander ]

I was actually quite happy with IE's interface, until I got sick of the fact that if you have more than a few windows open it was using up to 150MB of memory just by ITSELF... [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] I decided to flick it then as it was just a major memory hog. With Firefox I can have up to 10 tabs open and only use up to 60MB. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

I tried Firefox 0.92 and ran into two issues that put me back to IE, albeit probably temporarily. First, when I try to right-click and save something, it doesn't let me choose where to save it. I want that "save as" dialog.

Second, I seemed to run into a memory leak of some kind. After browsing for a while, I didn't have enough memory to open a video... or a document... or even a file. :(

Now that 0.93 has been released, I may try it again.

Hmmm, I havn't ever had that problem, but I do have a fair bit of RAM, the latest version should fix that though if thats the problem.

Well, I've decide that I like Mozilla, despite it's slow load times...I think it'll be my borwser of choice...it's easier to tab-navigate than having a bunch of windows open...

I use both Firefox and Thunderbird at home. I think most people would prefer it over IE once they got used to it. I can't say I've had any noticable problems with noncompatible websites, but I tend to stick to a few favorite sites.

That machine's got 512MB of memory (Win98), so it's maxed. I'm also not *positive* that Firefox was responsible for the memory leak, but it only happened after I installed it and ran for a while. I feel another experiment coming on...

I think it's only a matter of time until I switch to Firefox for good. Unfortunately, I do have one place I can't go to with it -- my company's intranet, which is where they keep things like my pay stubs now... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Now, if there's a way to have Firefox tell a site that it's really IE5 or better... then we have a clear-cut winner :D

*edit* not that I searched extensively for such a way, but I did look. And I didn't find :(

[ 08-12-2004, 02:50 PM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

Ermmm... okay. Right there, under Tools, Options, Downloads... first question: Ask me where to save stuff, or always save it in this place. It's now set for my preferences [img]smile.gif[/img]

Searching for the masquerading browser stuff isn't going anywhere yet, but I now suspect it's there.