firefox- style over substance

condra

I was impressed by the look of mozilla firefox when I first downloaded it..it gave me so much space to view the website.... so much so that I made it my default browser, but after a few days I was a bit unsure about its performance and stability so I ran a few sites similtaniously in explorer and firefox and explorer destroyed firefox.

The worst thing about firefox is the dissappearing cursor redraw problem when loading a site. It causes much frustration and after brosing a few sites today I found myself feeling quite homocydal... the disappearing cursor subliminaly made me insane.

So for the meanwhile Im back to using the stable but ugly Internet Explorer.

sceptre

womoma wrote:

So for the meanwhile Im back to using the stable but ugly Internet Explorer.

Have you tried help, erm, I mean, Opera? I rather like it.

If Firefox doesn't suit you, it doesn't suit you. It didn't suit me last time I tried it, though I may give it another whirl one of the days. I tend to dislike IE as it's so blimmin slow.

condra

Explorer and Fiirefox seemed very similar speeds when i tested them but when a page is loading in firefox occassionally my mouse will stop redrawing as I move it, making it appear to jump about the page a bit... this doesnt alwys hppn.. wierd..

Diarmuid

I use firefox for a number of reasons (in order )

1. Tabbed browsing. ( for this reason alone it's worth switching)
2. Mouse getures (could not do without this)
3. No popups / ad blocking
4. No spyware/tracking cookies
5. faster (ok so the difference isnt huge but I do notice it)

BTW Before anyone mentions that opera had the first 2 before Firefox. I know . I used to use opera, but I find firefox a cleaner interface with less clutter.

Lockup

Do a search for Mozilla Optimizer. It speeds up page loading significantly. I've found Firefox now opens faster than IE..

Ardent

womoma wrote:

Explorer and Fiirefox seemed very similar speeds when i tested them but when a page is loading in firefox occassionally my mouse will stop redrawing as I move it, making it appear to jump about the page a bit... this doesnt alwys hppn.. wierd..

Oh my god, such problems. Firefox should take a leaf out IE's book - display a blank white screen until the whole page has loaded, removes the need to move the mouse or click on anything...

jor el

womoma wrote:

The worst thing about firefox is the dissappearing cursor redraw problem when loading a site. It causes much frustration and after brosing a few sites today I found myself feeling quite homocydal... the disappearing cursor subliminaly made me insane.

Disappearing cursor I've never noticed anything like this in Firefox at home or at work on my crappy slow Dell. For reasons such as Diarmuid pointed out above Firefox far out shines IE.

Khannie

I've never noticed this either. I use mozilla and firefox on a P2 with 256 megs of ram (it's mostly a dumb terminal). On graphics or javascript intensive pages, the machine sometimes stalls when loading a page, but I can see the processor going at 100% so I just wait.

Maybe try updating your graphics drivers?

Have to agree though, that would melt my buzz

condra

i may have over reacted.. it seems to have stopped .. wierd tho.. it was like that for about half an hour after installing another one of those creepy microsoft updates... i was wondering if maybe microsoft had hijacked mozilla to make it not work as well .. but firefox seems fine again now.. with its cute fully customisable sexy interface...

Hobbes

Never noticed disappearing cursor but what moved me off IE was the insane number of exploits in IE by just using it (and in some cases not using it).

You can streamline Firefox to be better by optimizing the settings.
http://www.farrokhi.net/blog/archives/000235.html

However speed aside I would recommend any browser before IE.

andrew163

Try moox.... optimized firefox. seems to run nice n fast for me..
http://www.moox.org

There's a page there somewhere explaining which one to get depending on what processor you have...

hth

skywalker

Diarmuid wrote:

2. Mouse getures (could not do without this)

can someone explain mouse gestures to me and why they are so useful in some peoples opinions.

WhiteWashMan

i use IE simply becuase im not that fúcking bothered about which browser i use, and i am old enouigh not to get caught up in bandwagon jumping, and microsoft bashing.

Shane™

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i use IE simply becuase im not that fúcking bothered about which browser i use, and i am old enouigh not to get caught up in bandwagon jumping, and microsoft bashing.

Bashing IE and bashing Microsoft are not always the same thing, I still use windows, but I can't stand to use IE, have to in work and it does my head in!

One thing I would like to say against IE and microsoft, a friend of mine has a computer with Win98 or 95, can't remember which one, but his IE kind of died, so I went looking for a replacement, but the OS wouldn't take IE6 and I couldn't get IE4, he lost his OS disks. Anyway I used Firefox to solve the problem, another reason why I love Firefox.

Also I have never had or seen any problems with firefox but then again maybe I should just thank my luck.

Diarmuid

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i use IE simply becuase im not that fúcking bothered about which browser i use, and i am old enouigh not to get caught up in bandwagon jumping, and microsoft bashing.

but I guess you're not old enough to realise some people changed because of reasons given above?

Some people :mad:

NotMe

What I hate about Firefox is the amount of RAM it uses. At the moment I have 3 tabs open and its using 42MB. After browsing for a while it will be up to 70MB and closing tabs doesn't free up ram.

Diarmuid

Diarmuid wrote:

3. No popups

This is not entirely true anymore. Some companies have managed to get around the popup blocker which is rather irritating. For example I was getting popups for "the worlds largest casino" on www.ngemu.com.

Peace

Deleted User wrote:

This is not entirely true anymore. Some companies have managed to get around the popup blocker which is rather irritating. For example I was getting popups for "the worlds largest casino" on www.ngemu.com.

Blocked it on my system.

Anyway, IE exploits were the reason i went to FFox. I found adware/spyware on my comoptuer that i can only attribute to IE.

maxheadroom

NotMe wrote:

What I hate about Firefox is the amount of RAM it uses. At the moment I have 3 tabs open and its using 42MB. After browsing for a while it will be up to 70MB and closing tabs doesn't free up ram.

Apparentely Fx 1.0.1 will have an update to fix this

condra

Originally Posted by WhiteWashMan
i use IE simply becuase im not that fúcking bothered about which browser i use, and i am old enouigh not to get caught up in bandwagon jumping, and microsoft bashing.

Not a particulary helpfull comment.
Competition is a healthy thing and for PC users particulary, its great that David can often take on Goliath. Internet Explorer doesnt suit everyone and I quite dislike its interface. I am guessing you havent tried Firefox. It has nothing to do with "bandwagon jumping" and definatly nothing to do with age. If sense came with age you wouldnt be using offensive language.

Anyway to everyone else...
Thanks for the moox link.. I might try that if I cant fix my firefox problem. I just turned on my machine and *the Cursor redraw problem is back in Firefox*..

RE: drivers- Its a 2 week old Dell. Shouldnt need updated drivers to run Firefox correctly but Ill have a gander to see if there is graphics driver updates anyways..

RE: RAM and Firefox..- interesting, I will look into it.

Basically whats happening is, if I move my cursor around in a figure of eight for example, when a page is loading into firefox, the cursor will go invisable for a split second every split second making it appear to jump about. This doesnt happen when I use IE.

The fact that it doesnt always happen is wierd.. Ill see if I can sort it out. I was hoping other people might have experienced a similar problem but it seems like a uniqie problem.

Peace

Peace wrote:

Blocked it on my system.

Yea it seems to be blocked now, but I googled it and its a growing problem apparently.

condra

Arghhh Im livid :mad:
Ijust downloaded firefox 1.01 and now it has stopped working altogether. It wont connect to any sites. This may be something in the connection settings but either way, once Firefox is on screen the cursor gets messed up :eek:

I really want to use Firefox but not if its gonna be so messy.

I had a look at opera and its massively ugly, worse than IE. I want a browser that I can hardly see. I want to see as much of the web-page as possible...

This is starting to bum me out .. lots of hours wasted ..

condra

The plot thickens..
Now Internet Explorer is the only one working.

I downloaded Avant Browser and K-Melion and neither will connect.. There is something messed up here..

I have "never dial a connection" in my internet settings coz Im using Ripwave wireless thru the ethernet thingy..

why cant things just be simple. I wish I had never discovered Firefox, then I would have been in ignorant bliss using IE... Now I have browser envy as its not workin on my machine and for the meanwhile Im stuck with IE..

condra

I sorted out the connection thing.. oddly enough the new browsers work when i turn ON my 2 firewalls...
Firefox is still gittery so Im now using Avant.. its just like firefox, with a large area for the web pages, tabbed browsing, automatic history deletion, and customisable skins etc etc ... so Im pretty happy with it.

Id reccommend it to anyone who wants an alternative to IE / Firefox.. heres the link

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

Lydesia

Even though i love firefox, one thing that bugs me and seems not other people is that if a page times out or cannot be connected to, FF opens a message dialog box. I just find this irritating when im multitasking.

I prefer the "this page cannot be displayed"

Anyways, FF is still far better

condra

Program Title: Avant Browser

Category: Internet\Web Browsers

License Type: Freeware

Description:

Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser. Avant Browser allows user to browse multiple Web sites simultaneously and block all unwanted pop-up pages and flash ads. All opened pages can be easily stopped, refreshed, closed or arranged with one click. The integrated cleaner helps user to clear all traces and keep privacy. Built-in Yahoo/Google search engine enables user to search for web pages, images, groups, directories, lyrics, software and news in Internet. Program is available in 32 different translations.

Install Support: Install & Uninstall

System Requirement: Win98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher version

Home Page: http://www.avantbrowser.com

Download Link: http://www.qwerks.com/download/5337/absetup.exe

Mirror Download Link: http://eu.avantbrowser.com/absetup.exe

Screenshot: http://www.avantbrowser.com/images/sc.jpg

Program Icon: http://www.avantbrowser.com/images/icon.gif

PAD XML File: http://www.avantbrowser.com/pad/absetup.xml

Author Email: author@avantbrowser.com

Khannie

womoma wrote:

Arghhh Im livid :mad:
Ijust downloaded firefox 1.01 and now it has stopped working altogether.

Your firewall will consider this an entirely new application (because the timestamp on the .exe / size of the file has changed). Check to see if your firewall has auto blocked it.

Peace

Worked fine here!

Diarmuid

womoma wrote:

I sorted out the connection thing.. oddly enough the new browsers work when i turn ON my 2 firewalls...

well you have to add the new firefox to the firewall list of apps that will allow connections to the internet.

Also please tell me that you are not using two firewalls (software) at the same time ?!
Very bad idea. Use just the one. They are not designed to work together.

condra

Strangely enough, Firefox worked once I put back ON my 2 firewalls, but still a few niggling problems. Im not slaggin off Firefox here by the way. Its excellent, just not for me.

Ive undertaken an education in browsers over the last 48 hours, its been frustrating but fascinating.

Im completely loving tabbed browsing and mouse gestures and in Avant I can do things like open a link in a new tab simply by using the middle button or close all but the tab thats open etc..

Its like I rarely have to move the mouse about much, just clicking and click combinations does so much! Im very pleased with it.

It also allows me a large amount of space for the web page Im viewing.

The screengrab in the link above doesnt do it justice so here ATTACHED is one of my own, with the browser looking how I like it.

So if anyone is considering a browser change, remember Avant.

RicardoSmith

I like the tabs mainly. Some sites are faster on IE and some on Firefox. Some sites don't work in Firefox. Other than that I've no problems with either.

Blub2k4

womoma wrote:

Strangely enough, Firefox worked once I put back ON my 2 firewalls, but still a few niggling problems. Im not slaggin off Firefox here by the way. Its excellent, just not for me.

Ive undertaken an education in browsers over the last 48 hours, its been frustrating but fascinating.

Im completely loving tabbed browsing and mouse gestures and in Avant I can do things like open a link in a new tab simply by using the middle button or close all but the tab thats open etc..

Its like I rarely have to move the mouse about much, just clicking and click combinations does so much! Im very pleased with it.

It also allows me a large amount of space for the web page Im viewing.

The screengrab in the link above doesnt do it justice so here ATTACHED is one of my own, with the browser looking how I like it.

So if anyone is considering a browser change, remember Avant.

were either of those firewalls ZA by any chance?

condra

Ya know when a site changes the look and feel of your scroll bars.. This doesnt happen in Firefox... I suppose this can be seen as a good or a bad thing depending on your preference..
example site: www.2advanced.com/flashindex.htm

Anyways Im chuffed with this new browsing experience, just wish I had have copped it months ago. Its just so much easier and less stressfull browsing that now I can "power browse" like a bad motha.

condra

were either of those firewalls ZA by any chance?

Nope- XP and Sygate. Not really into ZA no more so dont use it.

Valentia

If you are running two firewalls together you are asking for trouble.

condra

Ive checked this out and have stoped running Sygate, Now Im just running the XP SP2 firewall which is fine I hope. Firefox has started working again too, but I think Ill stick with Avant, which looks just as cool but is slightly more customisable.

aidan_walsh

XP SP2 firewall

This will only block incoming connections, any malware you might already have will still be able to send data out.

RicardoSmith

ZoneAlarm freeware is better than the SP2 firewall and free. So why would you use the SP2 one?

Diarmuid

womoma wrote:

Ive checked this out and have stoped running Sygate, Now Im just running the XP SP2 firewall which is fine I hope. Firefox has started working again too, but I think Ill stick with Avant, which looks just as cool but is slightly more customisable.

I would recommend Keiro.

Capt'n Midnight

womoma wrote:

Program Title: Avant Browser

Avant Browser, an upgrade to Internet Explorer

This means it still has ALL of the IE vunerabilities and perhaps some additional ones.

RicardoSmith wrote:

ZoneAlarm freeware is better than the SP2 firewall and free. So why would you use the SP2 one?

Licensing - corporate machines have to pay for ZoneAlarm. I've looked at Outpost as an alternative too www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ - but it's fiddly to setup.

For Home users ZA is a no brainer.
For Companies with no budget - http://www.outpostfirewall.com/guide/

XP Sp2 firewall is better than nothing - but you need the full spectrum of other tools and patches.

This week I are mostly pimping this free tool http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/sdefend.htm

AnalogX Script Defender will intercept any request to execute the most common scripting types used in virus attacks, such as Visual Basic Scripting (.VBS), Java Script (.JS), etc and can even be configured to intercept new script extensions as needed! It's very simple to use and helps to ensure that you do not inadvertently run a script no matter what email program you use, or even if you get it via another method.

Capt'n Midnight

womoma wrote:

Program Title: Avant Browser

Avant Browser, an upgrade to Internet Explorer

This means it still has ALL of the IE vunerabilities and perhaps some additional ones.

RicardoSmith wrote:

ZoneAlarm freeware is better than the SP2 firewall and free. So why would you use the SP2 one?

Licensing - corporate machines have to pay for ZoneAlarm. I've looked at Outpost as an alternative too www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ - but it's fiddly to setup.

For Home users ZA is a no brainer.
For Companies with no budget - http://www.outpostfirewall.com/guide/

XP Sp2 firewall is better than nothing - but you need the full spectrum of other tools and patches.

This week I are mostly pimping this free tool http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/sdefend.htm

AnalogX Script Defender will intercept any request to execute the most common scripting types used in virus attacks, such as Visual Basic Scripting (.VBS), Java Script (.JS), etc and can even be configured to intercept new script extensions as needed! It's very simple to use and helps to ensure that you do not inadvertently run a script no matter what email program you use, or even if you get it via another method.

RicardoSmith

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

....
Licensing - corporate machines have to pay for ZoneAlarm...

I doubt that womoma is a corporation. I assume his PC is at home.

A corporation would have bigger issues than a software firewall on client machines. Turning on SP2 firewall would just cause more support issues than its worth.

Capt'n Midnight

RicardoSmith wrote:

I doubt that womoma is a corporation. I assume his PC is at home.

A corporation would have bigger issues than a software firewall on client machines. Turning on SP2 firewall would just cause more support issues than its worth.

wot - you've never heard of womoma inc. ?
just mentioning that there are a few times when you would use SP2 instead of ZA.
I've heard there are SQL issues with SP2 alright and it makes remote management a pain.

condra

www.womoma.com but not a business

anyways.. so I really should use ZA and turn off SP2 firewall??

For the meanwhile what about Sygate? Would it be better to use that instead of SP2 FIrewall?

Oh and back to the origional subject.. Im still using Avant and loving it..

RicardoSmith

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

wot - you've never heard of womoma inc. ?
just mentioning that there are a few times when you would use SP2 instead of ZA.
I've heard there are SQL issues with SP2 alright and it makes remote management a pain.

The only reason to use SP2 firewall is when theres absolutely nothing else. Otherwise anything else is better.