Mozilla Firefox?

Do you need it?  No.  Do you want it?  Perhaps.

Here's a Google search.

Do you need it? Not really.  Do you want it?  It's your call, pros and cons both ways.  I like it.

If you get it, be certain that you're going to the legitimate web sites.  This is true of any software you download, always go to the author/publisher/owning org's website for download links.  Some faked sites have been reported that have modified versions of the software which carry a virus in them.

Firefox is an alternate web browser, and can be used instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) for most websites.  The Firefox web browser is generally considered more secure than IE, and is less prone to be an avenue for spyware or other malware to enter your computer.  It also offers newer features not yet available on IE, including better privacy controls, tabbed browsing, etc.

The only downside is that any website which utilizes ActiveX programming controls will not function correctly in Firefox.  For those websites, you can still fall back onto IE as it will still be in your computer.  The main site where this will be an issue will be the Windows Update website (not surprising that MS requires their own borwser for the site).  Some other sites, mainly financial sites, will also not function without ActiveX controls.

Message Edited by Jason98036 on 02-24-2005 09:14 AM

Hi bicyclebill1,

Checkout this website Firefox Browser Blog at http://firefoxbrowser.blogspot.com/ It say.

1) Standards compliance. If you don't design/maintain websites, then this means nothing to you. If you do, it means everything.

2) Tabbed-browsing. IE doesn't have it.

3) Popup blocking. Windows XP users who have SP2 now have it, but what about Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000?

4) Security. Firefox will not give a malicious site the ability to run arbitrary code. IE shouldn't, but who knows? It's been exploited numerous times.

5) Extensions/Themes. There are so many extensions and themes whose functionality is not duplicated on IE, it's rediculous to try to count them. IE has no native theme support.

6) Performance. Firefox easily out-performs IE in general page rendering time on old and new hardware and interprets JavaScript much faster.

7) Privacy. Browsing history, cookies, and cache data are only stored in one place by Firefox, and when you ask Firefox to delete those files it deletes them! IE/Windows maintains your entire history and typed-urls in system-level hidden files that aren't deleted when you ask to delete them. You can't even browse to those files in Explorer.

8) Cross-platform. Firefox is compiled and tested for many hardware/OS platforms, whereas IE only works with Windows x86 machines and Apple machines running Mac OS.

9) Community-driven. Firefox is distributed by a community of developers/testers/users who take input from each other and from the current browser market. This means Firefox is always up-to-date with features that the users want. IE hasn't had a major release in something like 7 years, and is distributed commercially with only limited user feedback.

10) It's the underdog. Firefox is an underdog in the new browser wars that are beginning to emerge because of Microsoft's laziness. I just like to root for the underdog, especially when it's as awesome as the Fox.

11) The download's are easy becuse you can put the download program's and bookmark's off the internet into my documents folder with the installer icon so it will be easer to find. Also it makes it so ease to burn to on the CD install the program quicker.

12) No ActiveX controller=no code being executed from you simply being on a webpage.

13) IE = hackers paradise.

14) The tons of extensions, like Adblock, Gmail Composer, Google Preview, etc.

15) Multiple search engines. IE can't even do this without extra third party toolbars.

16) Much harder to get spyware and other stuff making your Windows install unstable, since there's no ActiveX problems, and because Firefox is a smaller target for hackers than IE.

My favorite feature in Firefox is Adblock.(and popup blocker) Ever since Firebird 0.8, I've enjoyed browsing without ads. Of course, you have to add sites to the block list, but once you use the wildcards, like for instance "*ad" , it will block all images that come from an address with the word "ad" in it. (you can also block by the whole address, like http://advertisements/ad.com, etc.

Don't like someone's picture sig, or avatar? (like in some forums) you can block those too.

If you go to websites that have distracting drop-down windows, you can eliminate those too. Just block all blockable elements that end in ".js". Some javascript you may need, so you will have to find the offending JS by trial and error, unless you simply disable all javascript. (But then you won't be able to reply or add new messages to this forum)

I also like Forecast Fox, and FoxyTunes. Actually, I like a lot of extensions and themes.

CERT (the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team) recommends anything but Internet Explorer:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/28/cert_ditch_explorer/

WinXP SP2 = security placebo?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/02/winxpsp2_security_review/

Alternative browsers are Mozilla (includes e-mail client), FireFox (by Mozilla, no e-mail client. Thunderbird is available as a separate download) and Opera (includes e-mail client).

Please visit the following sites for more information:

http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/

http://www.mozilla.org/
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

http://www.opera.com/

All the Best!

Can someone explain tabbed browsing to me?

 

Yup, very nice feature. That was the main reason for me to switch to firefox. I am going back to IE now, see below.

Popup blocking. Windows XP users who have SP2 now have it, but what about Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000?

Who cares?

Security. Firefox will not give a malicious site the ability to run arbitrary code.

Neither will IE.

Extensions/Themes. There are so many extensions and themes whose functionality is not duplicated on IE, it's rediculous to try to count them.

Yup, correct. Some of the extensions are really, really nice. Another reason for me to go to firefox. Most of the themes are unuseable, in my opinion, but some are cute...

Performance. Firefox easily out-performs IE in general page rendering time on old and new hardware and interprets JavaScript much faster.

That has been pretty much debunked as a fairytale by now. First of all, on reasonably up-to-date hardware, you won't notice much of a difference in speed either way. However, firefix is much, much slower rendering tables than IE. And on the firefox boards, you can see more and more users complaining about firefox being noticeably slower than IE...

Privacy. Browsing history, cookies, and cache data are only stored in one place by Firefox, and when you ask Firefox to delete those files it deletes them!

So does IE. Again, no difference there.

Cross-platform.

Who cares?

Community-driven.

Again, so what? An IE7 beta has been announced for this summer.

It's the underdog.

So?

The download's are easy ...

I don't see the point here, sorry.

No ActiveX controller=no code being executed from you simply being on a webpage

Huh? Neither does IE execute code that you don't want to execute. If you don't like it, you are free to turn off ActiveX support in IE. However, there are quite a few extremely useful ActiveX controls available. None of them will work with Firefox. Ever.

IE = hackers paradise

Nonsense.

The tons of extensions, like Adblock, Gmail Composer, Google Preview, etc

Yes, we had that already. One might mention the many nice ActiveX controls for IE. As an aside, if you are interested in security, then firefox' extensions are a disaster; ActiveX is much better designed in that respect.

Multiple search engines.

[Shrug.] If you feel you need 'em. I just use IE's keyword search, which gives me the same, without an additional, useless address bar wasting space.

Much harder to get spyware and other stuff making your Windows install unstable, since there's no ActiveX problems, and because Firefox is a smaller target for hackers than IE.

The "ActiveX problems", on a properly updated system, are non-existent. Spyware problems, by and large, are unrelated to IE.

 

Thanks everyone for all the comments. I downloaded Firefox and used it some today. Right from the start, a website I have to go to at least every hour does not work on Firefox. Bummer!  All else was ok, but it got to be such a pain to have to go back and forth from IE to firefox, that I just went back to IE and stayed for now. I can't see many compelling reasons to change to Firefox in my particular case, but I am sure there is much more to lean. More comments are welcomed.

 

 

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@bicyclebill1 wrote:

Can someone explain tabbed browsing to me?

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Well, go with what you are comfortable with. Not everyone will be pleased with other's suggestions. I never thought prior to Firebird (now Firefox) I would try a third party browser. But I got sick of all these popup windows (not popup ads from websites, not from messenger) from IE itself. Saying "there is an error on the script of this page. Do you want to continue running scripts?" I'd click yes or no, and it would repeat several times, at certain websites (And yes, I had notifications about script errors turned off, and disabled script debugging) , or a pop-up warning me about stuff I already knew, and even the silly "Out of memory at line 5" error in IE.

And the stupid "error on page". So? I cannot fix it. Firefox is a lot less of a headache to me.

I just am pleased with Firefox. Except for the incapatibility at a few websites (for which the Firefox extension "IE view" is good for)

Thanks for the news on the update. Got it!

 

I learned awhile bac that no browser can be 100% safe. I am sure Microsoft (and other hackers) are working on ways to expose vulnerabilities in Firefox. I don't use Firefox for the security (I used to), I use it because of it's customizability. And the ability to block all ads and popups.

Of course, Firefox seems faster than IE.

Whenever a browser becomes popular, it becomes a target.

FireFox does seem faster . . but I find that some sites do not show up quite the same . . I use both, FireFox just to learn something new, but I find myself going back to IE for "Mainline" browsing.

wrs