IE Vs. Firefox

senordingdong

Alot of people I know, who know more about computers than me, suggested I use Firefox. I have been using it for some time but I don't knwo much about computers, so can anyone actually tell me, in lay mans terms, what makes it better?

kaimera

Faster, less resource usage [apparently], more customisability via add-ons etc, safer browsing.

That said, a little plugin for IE7 - IE7Pro - really adds to IE7.

Tzetze

This piece was originally written with regard to Win95 and older versions of IE, but it still applies today. Quite an eye-opener.

andrew

Opera 9 Is quite good, has some useful features and crashes alot less than IE.

Dorsanty

What people get from Firefox is really based on their needs.

Firefox with no addons installed wouldn't be a major improvement over IE7. In this situation it's really which one looks and feels better to you when using. I say IE7 as tabbed browsing is an essential thing these days.

But with addons installed Firefox is the business. For example fasterfox & adblockplus are essential addons. One improves how firefox downloads pages from web sites and the other stops the downloading of useless advertisements that only suck up bandwidth.

To me the internet is a peaceful place with very few ads and few popups. Having said that I do allow adverts from '.ie' sites because revenue is dependent on people seeing these ads.

Opera is also very good but I've just never felt the need to make it my #1 choice.

My current browser is a version of Firefox 3.0. It's not out yet but it's nice to see what's coming in the future. Also it's meant to be better with Vista then the older versions.

muckwarrior

I love Firefox, but one claim I'd dispute is that it uses less resources. I've always found it to be an absolute RAM whore!

ircoha

senordingdong wrote:

Alot of people I know, who know more about computers than me, suggested I use Firefox. I have been using it for some time but I don't knwo much about computers, so can anyone actually tell me, in lay mans terms, what makes it better?

In laymans terms and I know less about PC's thanthe OP: I u/stand the key difference is in the area of security because IE is inextricably linked with the windows OS and security flaws in IE can lead to 'easier' exploitation of the OS than when using FF, because it is a separate product not linked to the OS.

I gather the same concept applies to most of the MS apps, particularly Outlook

IrishKnight

muckwarrior wrote:

I've always found it to be an absolute RAM whore!

Can I suggest you do what they say in this web page if you haven't done already...

Soundman

IrishKnight wrote:

Can I suggest you do what they say in this web page if you haven't done already...

Doesn't work.

IrishKnight

hmm, meh, there is talk that it will be fixed in Firefox 3

Ruu_Old

Didn't they say that before FF2 was released?

Soundman

Ruu wrote:

Didn't they say that before FF2 was released?

Yes they did.

quarryman

yeah doesn't work. ram usage keeps going up.

senordingdong

Well that sheds some light, thanks folks.

NullZer0

kaimera wrote:

Faster, less resource usage [apparently], more customisability via add-ons etc, safer browsing.

That said, a little plugin for IE7 - IE7Pro - really adds to IE7.

Actually recent versions of Firefox are more bloated... as far as my experience goes!

dulpit

The only reason I use Firefox is because of the various add ons... No other reason, I never notice an increase in performance, security or anything else...

I'd like to be able to use IE, the font used is cool i think, but it doesn't have the add ons i'm used to...

kaimera

Actually recent versions of Firefox are more bloated... as far as my experience goes!

True; even the nightly builds of Firefox 3 are bloated at times.

I use Opera 9 anyway tho lately I am using IE7 + ie7Pro addon more and more.

zilog_jones

I've been using Opera since it was gammy adware and Firefox didn't even exist. Firefox does have the advantage of many 3rd party add-ons, so I use it for some things like downloading FLVs