Replace IE with Browsehappy.com

Cabaal

Ok there's many of us on boards that promote Firefox and how good it is compared to IE, well I came across this little project and I think its worth promoting to as it promotes all browsers except IE,

http://browsehappy.com
The site promotes alternatives to IE for both Mac & PC (Opera, Firefox, Mozilla & Safari) and it even has succes stories of people who have switched - http://browsehappy.com/people

Alone with the above it has a section on why IE is unsafe to http://browsehappy.com/why/

Certainly worth given to people that are thinking about switching but are unsure
or for people you wish to convert..

[edit]
Just browsing the site and came across this
http://browsehappy.com/people/steve/
I think this sounds like most people that use IE,

Previously, I was using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows. It works well if:

1. I have the Google toolbar installed to prevent popups.
2. I keep the cache emptied and do a weekly scan of the computer with Spybot and Adaware.
3. I regularly check for and install the Windows updates.
4. Antivirus software is maintained and updated.

It made me laugh when I read it anyway

hostyle

Cabaal wrote:

I think this sounds like most people that use IE

...

If most people that used IE did any of that there wouldnt be half the problems that there are. IEs main problems are two-fold: 1. its crap both security-wise and standards-wise; 2. its userbase consists mostly of the uninitiated who click blindly through everything else and think the internet is meant to be full of pop-ups, viruses and all that other crap.

Ciaran500

Bri

Interesting site.

Is Firefox the best? The screenshot of Opera made it look inferior, and (I'm guessing) Mozilla is what Firefox is based on so it's not as good?

Edit: Having just bothered to read the FAQ while downloading, lets make my questions rhetorical...

Fenster

Well I swear by Firefox and always keep a copy on my pen drive for anyone at work who wants to try it.

EDIT: Getting back to the original topic, I don't like sites such as browsehappy.com that push you to one product or another, whether I agree with the topic on it, or not. I'd rather make my own mind up using the facts at hand, rather than going by sites such as this.

Bri

Well I'm impressed by Firefox...although it takes a little adjusting. Extensions, etc. are always a handy option. Although I can't see how exactly you install any add-ins?! Having read the site a few times I'm none the wiser. Something like you need the Themes page to install .jar files for you? Nothing happens for me. Extensions just sitting in a directory too - not getting picked up by the browser...even when looking under tools! I guess I'll just keep playing around with it.

Thanks for finally pushing me into getting this!

Dun

If you go to the Firefox Update page, you just click the "Install Now" button on whichever extension you want's page, and then re-start your browser.

To be quite honest, I felt a little bit 'denied' or that I was disadvantaged using Firefox (or Firebird as it was then) when I first changed over many moons ago, but now it's like that when I have to use IE. That and feeling like I'm constantly under threat from some stupid bug or another that's yet to be patched.

Bri

That's the thing: I am closing it. I've yet to restart XP but otherwise I don't see what I'm doing wrong. Is Firefox buggy still? I mean I just asked it to log me in automatically to boards.ie and yet it just sticks in my name and waits for me to type in the pass. Stupid thing (or me!).

Fenster

What version/OS are you using, Bri?

Bri

XP Home / FF 0.9.3

(Still no add-ons picked up!)

Fenster

Weird. Did you ttry uninstalling Firefox and removing all its files-It keeps configuration pretaining to app in <dir>:/Documents and Settings/<usr>/Application Data/Mozilla

Bri

Nope. I'll fiddle around a bit more before I bother uninstalling! Just getting used to it now...quality program - everyone should try it!

(No, I won't signup for a profile on browsehappy.com to sell it )

Syth

hostyle wrote:

...

If most people that used IE did any of that there wouldnt be half the problems that there are. IEs main problems are two-fold: 1. its crap both security-wise and standards-wise; 2. its userbase consists mostly of the uninitiated who click blindly through everything else and think the internet is meant to be full of pop-ups, viruses and all that other crap.

Agreed. 99% of a computers security problems are between the chair and the keyboard. SUP : Stupid User Probem.

Fenster

Here is what I hope to be a slightly less biased article on switching browsers. Most of it is just product placment, but it gets the message across

suppafly

Bri wrote:

That's the thing: I am closing it. I've yet to restart XP but otherwise I don't see what I'm doing wrong. Is Firefox buggy still? I mean I just asked it to log me in automatically to boards.ie and yet it just sticks in my name and waits for me to type in the pass. Stupid thing (or me!).

i'm relatively new to firefox too(been using about 3/4 months now) and when i first tried to install the themes it didn't seem to work at all. all that seemed to happen was that the tabs bar would be the same as the theme i picked and the rest ckassi. Then a few days later i tried again with a different theme and it worked fine then? i dunno why though?? so just keep fiddling about with it.

Bri

Will do. I'm not too worried about it looking nice - buts some of the extensions seem useful. And having to login to boards.ie is beginning to p*ss me off. Not enough to go back to IE but...well...it's getting there.

Fenster

Bri, seriously, if its bothering you that much, export your favourites, uninstall Firefox, delete that folder I mentioned, reboot and reinstall. It won't take more than five minutes.

Cabaal

While browsehappy.com is not a totaly even viewed site especially when it comes to IE its good in that it does not JUST promote Moz or FF or whatever it promotes the most popular non-IE browser and it allows the reader to read some change-over accounts from normal people.

As long as we don't gop back to the days of "Best Viewed" all be happy, all sites should work in any browser thats standard compliant.

OFF TOPIC:
suppafly why are you promoting Juice?, its nothing but a scam
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=180411

Bri

Fenster wrote:

Bri, seriously, if its bothering you that much, export your favourites, uninstall Firefox, delete that folder I mentioned, reboot and reinstall. It won't take more than five minutes.

Good point. Yesterday the Mozilla FTP kept mentioning tech. difficulties so I thought I'd wait. This morning I tried installing the most popular extension and it returned with nothing. Then I clicked on another and it loaded...nothing. Still logging in to this site every time too. So off I go to reinstall! I'm just sceptical that it'll be fixed. :rolleyes:

Here's hoping!

Celt

I found firefox to be overhyped, it was buggier then IE for me(!!!!!!) and it had the same features as Avant Browswer(and generally, they worked worse)

Dun

Well, I've got to say I'm biased, but at the end of the day, Avant Browser is IE at the core. It's not going to do any good against any inherent bugs in IE.

Dr_Teeth

I use Avant (www.avantbrowser.com) it uses the IE rendering engine wrapped in a custom browser application that supports all the good stuff like tabbed browsing, ad blocking, pop-up blocking etc etc.

It works very well for me - all the sites I visit work perfectly and I don't lose out any of the modern browser features. I use Firefox from time to time also.

One thing about Avant though, when it first installs it goes a bit overkill with the toolbars, but after pruning them down to the bare bones (forward/back/stop/reload/home and the address bar) the way I like it, it's all good.

Teeth.

ColmOT [MSFT]

www.maxthon.com is similiar to Avant Browser, but less buggy (IMHO). I used to use Avant before I found out about Maxthon, and moved immediatly because it rendered faster and was a lot less buggy.
Maybe Avant has improved over the last few months...

Having looked at Firefox, and use it from time to time, I think it's page loading times are the same as Maxthon, and the features are a little less intuitive than Maxthon to use...but that could be me!

Is it only because the IE API has the reputation of being buggy that ppl are moving?

Dun

Far from it. There's a whole list of reasons here. As I develop web content I also have a lot less trouble with Mozilla products and CSS compliance, etc. than having to find workarounds (i.e. taking advantage of bugs) in IE to get it to render correctly, so that's an endearing quality, but of course with the majority of robot-users still sitting on the IE fence, it's no great advantage.

Cabaal

Standard compliance is important imho even if some sites are still IE only its good that more and more people use compliant browsers, as for Avant browsers its kinda a waste imho because most people switch from IE to avoid the spyware etc and because that browser still uses the same engine it does not solve such problems like Moz or Opera do

Fenster

Using Avant browser, to put use an analogy, is akin to giving some skank knacker a face lift. Underneath all the plastic lies a skank knacker still.

That's how I viewed Avant. For all that the tabbed browsing was nice, the other features didn't really click with me. Webwasher and my hosts file provided far better ad/popup blocking than Avant's stab at it. Besides that, my machine was still filling with spy and adware. Spybot and Ad Aware still picked up about 100 items between them weekly. Since I switched for Firefox that's down to about five monthly.

I don't doubt though that as Firefox becomes more popular spy and adware routines will be specifically coded for the browser, but as the trend has always been for open-source projects to be more secure (I'll knock on wood here...), I'm not too worried.

Celt

Fenster wrote:

Using Avant browser, to put use an analogy, is akin to giving some skank knacker a face lift. Underneath all the plastic lies a skank knacker still.

That's how I viewed Avant. For all that the tabbed browsing was nice, the other features didn't really click with me. Webwasher and my hosts file provided far better ad/popup blocking than Avant's stab at it. Besides that, my machine was still filling with spy and adware. Spybot and Ad Aware still picked up about 100 items between them weekly. Since I switched for Firefox that's down to about five monthly.

I don't doubt though that as Firefox becomes more popular spy and adware routines will be specifically coded for the browser, but as the trend has always been for open-source projects to be more secure (I'll knock on wood here...), I'm not too worried.

For the last 3 months of using Avant, the only things spybot and ad-aware have picked up are tracking cookies.

Thats it.