Does anyone here use Mozilla's Firefox?

Rob Babcock · « **on:** 4 Jul 2004, 08:53 am »

I'm strongly considering ditching IE in favor of Firefox. Are there any potential downsides to doing so? Do the majority of sites fuction properly?

I'm getting really tired of the piss poor security of IE, and Windows in general, for that matter.

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #1 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 09:22 am »

I use it 90% of the time now. There are a few sites that don't work well with firefox so I just fire up IE when the need arises.

JohnR · « **Reply #2 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 10:07 am »

I use it all the time. There's still an occasional site that doesn't work w/ it, generally small sites that were probably designed a few years ago with whatever MS thought Javascript was supposed to look like then. I fire up ie5 on those occasions

Daniel · « **Reply #3 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 10:09 am »

I'm a new Firefox convert and have been able to use it exclusively with only minor annoyances.

mgalusha · « **Reply #4 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 12:01 pm »

I've been using it for quite some time and love it. Once you get used to the tabbed browsing there is no going back. Funny, I don't much care for Netscape but I love Firefox and they use basically the same engine.

Don't hesitate, start using it and save IE for the sites where the designer doesn't have a clue.

byteme · « **Reply #5 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 01:33 pm »

I love it as well. Tabbed browsing just rocks, and it's quick as hell too. I've been a long time IE bigot, all the way back to 2.0 even, never cared for Netscape at all, but Firefox is an entirely different animal. I only use IE about 2% of the time now.

Marbles · « **Reply #6 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 03:47 pm »

Thanks to this thread I just loaded Mozilla 1.7,

Is Firefox beta, or a live version? I just downloaded Firefox now too!

Thanks

Will this help keep me from getting virus's?

Marbles · « **Reply #7 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 04:48 pm »

Is there a spell checker in Mozilla mail?

cryoparts · « **Reply #8 on:** 4 Jul 2004, 05:46 pm »

Quote from: Marbles

Is there a spell checker in Mozilla mail?

Yes, there is one in Thunderbird which is the companion mail program to Firefox.

Firefox just released a new update to the browser 0.9.1, make sure you download that version if you go with Firefox, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Have a great 4th, all!

Marbles · « **Reply #9 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 04:15 am »

Thanks guys..so far I now am using Firefox and Thunderbird.

Do you guys know of a good calender program so I can get rid of Outlook all together?

JohnR · « **Reply #10 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 05:00 am »

Mozilla/Firefox/Tbird has a calendar plugin you could try (don't know anything about it, yet)

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/

JohnR · « **Reply #11 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 05:06 am »

Sorry, I didn't read their page properly. You don't have to use it as a plugin, Sunbird is a separate application:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird_download.html

It's a prerelease version though so you can expect some "issues"...

Will try it myself when I get a few minutes

Marbles · « **Reply #12 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 01:16 pm »

Thanks John, it looks really good.

I couldn't get it to load in Thunderbird, but had no troubles in Firefox.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #13 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 05:41 pm »

Okay, I'm now viewing AC with Firefox! So far, I think it's pretty cool, although to make it more similar to IE (until I get used to it) I'm not using the tabbed browsing thingy. Importing my favorites was really easy, and so far I'm digging FF.

I've set it to be my default browser for now, and I'm gonna see how it works for awhile.

Edited for really stupid typo.

mgalusha · « **Reply #14 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 06:10 pm »

Trust me Rob, you have to try the tabbed browsing. Here's a good example. Do a search for something on Goggle, doesn't matter what. Right click the links and choose open in new tab. It's nice being able to have the search results and the new pages all in the same window. Waaaaayyy less cluttered than IE.

Some of the themes for Firefox are very nice as well. Give the Noia 2.0 (eXtreme) a try.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #15 on:** 5 Jul 2004, 07:35 pm »

Yeah, I figure to try it out, but to start I'm must trying to see how many sites are going to work correctly with FF.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #16 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 01:00 pm »

Drats. So far, only one problem- my AV software's updating always fails with the default set to FF. The only way I've been able to run the update is to temporarily set the default back to IE.

Otherwise, I'm lovin' FF. It definately rocks! IE is now nearly just a memory to me.

TheeeChosenOne · « **Reply #17 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 05:26 pm »

I use Firefox as my main browser. I'm currently on version 0.9.

The positives are compelling for switching over. Most importantly, your computer won't be as vulnerable to attack from the web. This is a major issue as I've read of really crafty and dangerous attacks (including stealing your personal/financial information) from your computer. Nowadays, I'm reading more and more about internet experts recommending other browsers like Opera or Mozilla.

Aside of this, Firefox is great at blocking pop-ups and having the all-important tab function which makes the task bar at the bottom much less busy and encroaching. Firefox also has great add-on's--especially the 0.8 version. While I'm testing the .9 version, I prefer the .8 version by a good amount. I'm not alone in this opinions as most experienced Firefox users also prefer the more polished and flexible 0.8. Another way to look at .9 is that it really, for the most part, is an updated browser with some of the add-ons, period. You can play with MANY MORE add-ons with 0.8 which aren't available yet for 0.9. The decision is yours.

As far as negatives, Firefox may have some quirkiness with Microsoft sites which are purposely geared to work great ONLY on IE. On Firefox, the Microsoft site features are much more bare and frazzling. Aside of this, the web works great on Firefox. If you browse many new websites, you may encounter a lazily written web page that only really works well with IE. But those are too few and far between to take such an issue seriously wnough to not use Firefox as your #1 browser. To me, the biggest negative is that it sometimes doesn't wrap the text around (such as in forums) as well as IE. That means, you'll have to browse to the RIGHT when reading something. In my experience, IE is better at handling this. Again, this is a minor complaint.

Overall, Firefox is very polished and flexible. Plus it handles security issues much better than the oft exploited IE.

You can also try Opera and see if that suits you better. Some Opera lovers say it's the fastest browser. I have not reached this conclusion though as I have a broadband connection. Perhaps for 56k users, this issue becomes more evident. Opera, for me, is more complicated, busy, less flexible than Firefox, plus costs $40 for tabbing. It simply isn't worth it my eyes. In addition, Opera really has MUCH LARGER incompatbility issues with websites. For instance, Opera still doesn't work with SBCMy Yahoo start page or Gmail, just to name a few.

Try 0.8 and don't upgrade until advancements are more compelling. 0.9 is more unstable and less flexible with selections of add-ons.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #18 on:** 7 Jul 2004, 09:04 pm »

So far I've had no problems with wrap around text with FF- maybe I've just been lucky so far, but it's been better in that regard than IE.

I'm not to eager to try Opera or any other browser, at least not one I'd have to buy. I also have broadband, so speed w/dialup isn't relevant to me, either.

Adarsh · « **Reply #19 on:** 8 Feb 2005, 12:22 pm »

I'm using Firefox 1.0 and have problems with Windows Media Player when viewing streaming video.

If I click STOP, the video stops. Try going BACK and FF crashes.

Not very good there.

But Firefox is defintely worth it, especially with tabbed browsing.

-A