FireFox Me!

cormie

Ok,
I think it's about time I got FireFox, recent Page Cannot Be Displayed IE problems may be due to IE, let's wait and see if FireFox will have the same problem.

So, what do I need to download and how do I install it and use it as default over IE? Should I keep IE yeah? Is there a list of extensions with links that can be got for it? What are the best ones?

I'm happy with Thunderbird and find it better than Outlook so let's give FireFox a shot too:)

Any feedback appreciated:)

Airblazer

you can download from http://www.mozilla.com
it's a lot better alright..tabbed browsing is fantastic and you'll wonder how you ever surfed without it..it still have some probs with it but not many and hang onto IE anyway..don't unintstall..not all sites are firefox friendly

Gordon

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ That's what you need.

I still have IE just in case but I haven't had to use it bar checking page compatibility in web design.

Agent Smith

tfaik IE cant be uninstalled




Cormie...... You wont regret it....

thejovialhost

Well as a Firefox convert for the past 30 odd days i must say i never regreted changing from that pathetic excuse for a web browser known as 'IE'. Firefox kicks ass!!:D So many great features such as the aforementioned tabbed browsing. I view 15 of my bookmarks at once, they all load at the same time and i just move through very quickly-it's great!
So to recap Firefox rules, IE drools!
(But still keep IE just in case there are compatibilty issues with some stone-age websites etc.)

Standard Toaster

agent smith wrote:

tfaik IE cant be uninstalled

Under Xp with SP2 you can. Not 100% about SP1 though.



That's a list of my extensions. Check more out here.

unkel

Hey cormie, did you try Opera?

If not, you might be doing yourself a big favour by having a wee go

Sparky

and live rss feeds aswell

cormie

Which is better? Opera or FF? I don't want to download loads of diff ones to see which suits me, don't like clogging up the oul HD with stuff I don't use.

Karoma

FF has a lot of community backing - it'll do almost anything you want via it's nature or extensions. Opera's the browser that never dies..
If download'ing is an issue; i'll download each and post them:)

cormie

What do you mean Opera never dies? In what way? Thanks for offering to DL and post, I have BB, don't worry, I just don't want something on my pc that I don't want. I'm sure I'd just use one if I got them both. So which should it be, Opera or FF? hmmm..

Karoma

FF for now,tbh.
Opera was the initial IE-Killer...that flopped,or floundered at least.
It's only revived due to the abscence of banners and disillusionment of FF.

magick

opera

irlrobins

Karoma wrote:

disillusionment of FF.

Eh?

irlrobins

oh and does anyone know an extension/config that will allow me to do the following:

Lets say I have 3 tabs open, the leftmost one being boards.ie. If I click on a link contained in a boards message (i.e. a pic), it opens up in a fourth tab. If I close this, the third tab is displayed. Is there any way I can set it so that it will return to the tab form where the link was launched from?

Karoma

irlrobins wrote:

Eh?

Probably too strong a word ...
People got turned off with security issues, and some of the "features" that FF has, and some that it doesn't..
It breaks some UI design rules, isn't as safe as some people make out,etc.

I like it:) It kicks IE's ass.
I'll switch to Opera though once it's available for Windows Mobile (PDA) - consistency and proper resizing...ooh yahhh

Oriel

Aaah, IE to Firefox.
It's like going from condoms to using the pill...
There's always the chance, but are you going to risk the pleasure for the "could happen"?

S.

Karoma

:v:

cormie

So Opera if I want to stay safe then Karoma? How does Opera compare to FF so? Are they both basically the same? I suppose you can take IE out of the picture since it's between Opera and FF now:)

Actually, come to think of it, I don't think it is IE that has my connection bad because I notice other annoyances with Thunderbird, MSN and pro evo when trying to connect some times.

Ciaran500

cormie wrote:

So Opera if I want to stay safe then Karoma? How does Opera compare to FF so? Are they both basically the same? I suppose you can take IE out of the picture since it's between Opera and FF now:)

Try both, just uninstall which ever one you don't use and it won't be clogging up your HDD.

Karoma

TBH, Opera would have an advantage in security terms.. but then, FF's disadvantage is it's popularity and OSS nature..
Go with FF. It has a huge support base, regular updates, and is secure enough (Add some extensions to block JavaScript,etc. and it gets even better).

aaf

irlrobins wrote:

oh and does anyone know an extension/config that will allow me to do the following:

Lets say I have 3 tabs open, the leftmost one being boards.ie. If I click on a link contained in a boards message (i.e. a pic), it opens up in a fourth tab. If I close this, the third tab is displayed. Is there any way I can set it so that it will return to the tab form where the link was launched from?

I'm pretty sure I came across an extension that did exactly what you're looking for. Check out the firefox extensions especially the tabbed browsing section.

roo_photo

cormie wrote:

Ok,
I think it's about time I got FireFox, recent Page Cannot Be Displayed IE problems may be due to IE, let's wait and see if FireFox will have the same problem.

So, what do I need to download and how do I install it and use it as default over IE? Should I keep IE yeah? Is there a list of extensions with links that can be got for it? What are the best ones?

I'm happy with Thunderbird and find it better than Outlook so let's give FireFox a shot too:)

Any feedback appreciated:)

Using firefox 1.5 under windowsXP SP2 seems fine so far. If you want best of both worlds, use firefox as your main browser with an extension called 'IE View'. Lets you load pages in IE with a single click, or even select certain sites to always load in IE.

That way you can keep using IE for incompatible pages and that non stop barrel of fun known as microsoft updates.:p

Laguna

I don't understand why you feel aggrieved over a few extra megabytes used by installing Firefox & Opera :eek:. Jesus, I have about five browsers on my computer, fair enough to check compatibility for a website I may be desigining but WTF, how small is your hard drive that you feel you can't install a few browsers? 80mb hdd?

Stark

There's an even better extension now called IE in tab, let's you open a Firefox tab that uses Internet Explorer as the rendering engine

cormie

Laguna wrote:

I don't understand why you feel aggrieved over a few extra megabytes used by installing Firefox & Opera :eek:. Jesus, I have about five browsers on my computer, fair enough to check compatibility for a website I may be desigining but WTF, how small is your hard drive that you feel you can't install a few browsers? 80mb hdd?

100GB:D I just don't like having un-necessary bulk, ok I know a few MB isn't bulk on a 100GB HD but I don't like having loads of crap on it. I'm the kinda guy who has nothing on his desktop. All I have is one folder. Ya know, mininamilist;)

Laguna

cormie wrote:

100GB:D I just don't like having un-necessary bulk, ok I know a few MB isn't bulk on a 100GB HD but I don't like having loads of crap on it. I'm the kinda guy who has nothing on his desktop. All I have is one folder. Ya know, mininamilist;)

No offence, but why?

irlrobins

Laguna wrote:

No offence, but why?

Each to their own. I'm the same, I have as few icons as possible on desktop. And tbh, the less progs installed, the less that could go wrong!

salupa

Ciaran500 wrote:

Try both, just uninstall which ever one you don't use and it won't be clogging up your HDD.

i agree ciaran500.
i use both both but i prefer ff.

cormie

aye, just easier, nothing gets lost, I know where everything is, I know what everything does, I know if I need something or not, I only install what I know I'll need. I just remember my first computer back in '95, ok, it only had a 500mb hd, but the amount of ****e on it was unreal. Installed anything and everything and you just never knew what you needed and what was important, part of something else etc. I don't even have my recycle bin on my desktop, I never use it anyway. When I download something to the desktop I'll put it in it's correct place. Just keeps everything organised much better:)

muckwarrior

Just click on the sig. You wont regret it.

Niall123

I was a IE user. Changed to Firefox. Feckin' best web browser related discission I've ever made.

cormie

btu have you used Opera Niall? Or Muck?

salupa

ye feel sorry for ie user's,no tabbed browsing or mouse gesture's amongst lots of other very handy thing's.

**Timbuk2**

Changed from IE to FF two days ago and I am glad I did

Hate IE, love FF, the tabs and the bookmarks...

muckwarrior

cormie wrote:

btu have you used Opera Niall? Or Muck?

No, never bothered coz I've never had a single problem with firefox.

Alkers

There is tabbed browsing in IE.

cormie

What's tabbed browsing?

HomunQlus

cormie wrote:

What's tabbed browsing?

Internet Explorer Users won't know what that is until Vista comes... IE 7 supposedly has it. :rolleyes:

Tabbed Browsing is the feature that allows you to have as many sites open as you wish, at the same time, in the same window. The websites are displayed in tabs, and these tabs are displayed direct under the address bar. It's one of the major browsing features of Firefox.

Alkers

I am using it at the moment on Xp with IE6.:rolleyes:

Mutant_Fruit

Simona1986 wrote:

I am using it at the moment on Xp with IE6.:rolleyes:

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser will not have to wait until IE7 to experience tabbed browsing. MSN has shipped a new build of its MSN Search Toolbar that adds basic tabbed browsing support to IE6. But the feature is not fully integrated into the browser, instead relying on the toolbar to create tabs.

Tabbed browsing capabilities first appeared in beta releases of the MSN Search Toolbar, but were stricken from the final 2.0 build that was released last month.

:rolleyes:

Alkers

Yup, that's true, I don't see any difference between it and firefox tabbed browsing whatsoever though. Just making the point that IE isn't quite as backwards as some users make it out to be.

Matthewthebig

I use Ff mainly and IE occasionly

IE has used more bandwith

it's rather odd

Capt'n Midnight

Simona1986 wrote:

There is tabbed browsing in IE.

Please explain, without referring to beta versions and third party add front ends.

Edit

Mutant_fruit wrote:

MSN has shipped a new build of its MSN Search Toolbar that adds basic tabbed browsing support to IE6. But the feature is not fully integrated into the browser, instead relying on the toolbar to create tabs.

Hey if you use the IE Tab extension in FireFox you can have multiple IE tabs in FireFox, but it still isn't IE. And FF is only 6MB to download, yip it's 50% bigger than opera. But IE requires monthly patchs that can be as big as a complete browser.

Alkers

Pic attatched - sorry about the size, I couldn't get it below 1mb easily.

Mutant_Fruit

Yeah, but supposing i don't want to install the MSN toolbar, or the google toolbar, or any toolbar! In fact, i hate toolbars (in my mind i associate them with spyware). IE6 has no tabbed browsing, MSN toolbar does.

Of course, theres people saying FF isn't as secure as people make it out to be. You're right, there have been quite a few vulnerabilities found in FF, but i believe fixes are made within the week! Unlike IE, where critical holes have been left open for a few months til they got around to it. That in my eyes makes FF much more secure.

Karoma

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Yeah, but supposing i don't want to install the MSN toolbar, or the google toolbar, or any toolbar! In fact, i hate toolbars (in my mind i associate them with spyware). IE6 has no tabbed browsing, MSN toolbar does.

why?:)

Of course, theres people saying FF isn't as secure as people make it out to be. You're right, there have been quite a few vulnerabilities found in FF, but i believe fixes are made within the week! Unlike IE, where critical holes have been left open for a few months til they got around to it. That in my eyes makes FF much more secure.

Agreed. The OP wanted to discuss merits... (Although: one "fix" was simply to remove an archaic attribute altogether..kinda cheating tbh ) Plus, as I think i stated before: popularity draws unwanted attention; so when Opera becomes extremely popular it'll have flaws discovered quite often, and I don't expect fixes to appear quite as quickly as FF (But faster than IE)

I think that at this point, IE is clearly not an option anymore. The question remains: FF or Opera.

For me, and my recommendation (Until another year): Firefox.

rogue-entity

I have been using Firefox since 0.6 and it was an excellent browser even then.

The reasons why I hate IE are as follows:
IE's "Trident" rendering engine is absolutly crap. It would not hurt MS to make smaller more complient rendering engine that can handle XHTML and CSS2/3.
The Tasman engine used in the Mac version of IE was standards complient but it lacks some CSS support because MS never updated it.
IE's core componants (e.g. the rendering engine) are integrated into the OS, the actual IE program itself is tiny and is just a user interface, but they could have added tabbed browsing and it would have been really handy.
IE is massive, absolutly massive. Firefox is only a 5Meg download and IE is nearly 20 Megs, I mean WTF?
IE is incredably insecure and just attracts malware like a magnet to steel.

Dont get me wrong, I dont think it is a problem that an OS supplier wants to supply a browser installed with there OS, KDE (while not an OS) includes its own browser that is now the core of Apples Safari browser. And Apple supplys a browser with its OS X Tiger. It is just that IE is too big, too uncomplient, too insecure, and too integrated with Windwoes.

cormie

mmmmk, so between Opera and FF?:)

Syth

I like Firefox for the extensions. Some of my favorite include: Adblock, so I never have to see another advertisment again. NextPlease, makes navigating a page split into parts very easy. Greasemonkey, so I can hack the web. Slogger, saves every webpage I visit, my own personal archive.org, etc. I haven't seen another browser that can do all that and is that hackable.

As for the security of Firefox, a lot of the published security flaws were found by people poking around at Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation then fixed them. I don't think any site has used a published Firefox security flaw to attack a computer.

Capt'n Midnight

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Of course, theres people saying FF isn't as secure as people make it out to be. You're right, there have been quite a few vulnerabilities found in FF, but i believe fixes are made within the week! Unlike IE, where critical holes have been left open for a few months til they got around to it. That in my eyes makes FF much more secure.

Months ? - try YEARS

http://secunia.com/product/4932/ Opera has one unpatched
2005-11-16 obfuscating URLs displayed in the status bar.

http://secunia.com/product/4227/ FireFox has 3 unpatched + 1 partial
2 less critical from 2004 unpatched - apple java etc.
1 DoS from 2005-12-08 unpatched ( I don't mind this DoS as much since the worst is deleting history.dat )
1 partial patch for file extension spoofing in downloads ( untick the hide file extensions button and don't save in StartUp folder )


IE http://secunia.com/product/11/ 21 Unpatched
And http://secunia.com/advisories/9534/ - remote code execute unpatched since 2003-08-14
And this one http://secunia.com/advisories/7082/

Jouko Pynnonen has reported multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Java implementation, which affects all versions of Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Outlook.

The problem is that various parameters passed to native methods are unchecked. This could possible lead to a system compromise.

These problems appear to only affect Microsofts Java and not the Java-plugin from Sun.

The easiest solution is to change the security zone settings of Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Outlook. Disable Java execution for all sites that are not trusted until Microsoft issues a patch.

So just keep MsJava blocked until Microsoft issues a patch for this hole
Release Date: 2002-09-09