Mozilla and IE

[Ed]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser and,
as such, I am inclined to load it. But are there any conflicts that I might
then have with IE (v6). Do I have to disable IE in some way?

(Currently running Win98SE).

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Tim Weaver]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser
and, as such, I am inclined to load it. But are there any conflicts
that I might then have with IE (v6). Do I have to disable IE in some
way?

(Currently running Win98SE).

Thanks for any advice.

I had a problem with Mozilla loading and displaying garbage characters,
instead of launching the correct app. The redirects (helper apps) weren't
working properly.

 

[FYIS.org/estore]

In Ed posted:

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser
and, as such, I am inclined to load it.

You expected to find lovers of Bill Gates, Microsoft, or IE in this
newsgroup?
<LOL>

DanlK, FYI Services
www.FYIS.org
Visit our Commemorative Collectible www.FYIS.org/estore!
____________________________________________
Don't forget to put this html code on your web page:
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript
src="http://www.georgewbush.com/WStuff/BPForm.aspx">
</SCRIPT>

 

[Semolina Pilchard]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser and,
as such, I am inclined to load it. But are there any conflicts that I might
then have with IE (v6). Do I have to disable IE in some way?

No and no. If it's the browser part you want, I would suggest Firefox
rather than all of Mozilla. Just set it as default browser and forget
IE exists.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/

 

[Rob]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser
and, as such, I am inclined to load it. But are there any conflicts
that I might then have with IE (v6).

No! I am have Mozilla and IE6 on my old win 98 PC. No Problems. I rarely
use IE6.
Mozilla has many more features!

Mozilla also comes with a mail reader etc. You do not have to use these if
you don't want to. If you are only interested in the Browser, then download
Firefox. It is a smaller download. But there is no reason why you
couldn't download the big brother Mozilla and only use the browser portion.

Do I have to disable IE in some

way?

No. But you will have to decide whether you want IE6 or Mozilla as your
default browser. i.e. When you click on an HTML hyperlink in a document,
which browser do you want to open?

Not a big deal. You can STILL use IE6 even if Mozilla is the default
browser. So I wouldn't say you are disabling IE6 in any way...

There is NO risk in trying Mozilla. If you don't like it (very unlikely),
you can always uninstall it.

 

[Tweetie Pooh]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser
and, as such, I am inclined to load it. But are there any conflicts
that I might then have with IE (v6). Do I have to disable IE in some
way?

(Currently running Win98SE).

Thanks for any advice.

Beaware that there are sites out there that only work with IE.

Contrawise there are some that don't work with IE so I find that having both
installed is a great boon.

 

[Ed]

No! I am have Mozilla and IE6 on my old win 98 PC. No Problems. I
rarely use IE6.
Mozilla has many more features!

Mozilla also comes with a mail reader etc. You do not have to use
these if you don't want to. If you are only interested in the
Browser, then download Firefox. It is a smaller download. But
there is no reason why you couldn't download the big brother Mozilla
and only use the browser portion.

Do I have to disable IE in some

No. But you will have to decide whether you want IE6 or Mozilla as
your default browser. i.e. When you click on an HTML hyperlink in a
document, which browser do you want to open?

Not a big deal. You can STILL use IE6 even if Mozilla is the default
browser. So I wouldn't say you are disabling IE6 in any way...

There is NO risk in trying Mozilla. If you don't like it (very
unlikely), you can always uninstall it.

Hey, great, thanks. I've downloaded Firefox and will set it as default as u
suggest. Guess it will take a bit of time for a mouldy oldie like me to get
use to it. I'm not naturally at ease with computer stuff but I want to keep
learning....

 

[Art Iculos Libres]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the internet browser and,
as such, I am inclined to load it. But are there any conflicts that I might
then have with IE (v6). Do I have to disable IE in some way?

(Currently running Win98SE).

<snip>

No conflicts with IE. On one Win98 PC, I have Mozilla 1.6, FireFox 0.8, IE,
MyIE2 (enhancement shell for IE) and an old version of Netscape 4.xx
installed (never use the latter anymore, just haven't uninstalled it).

A few caveats / observations to add to the IE naysayers' comments
regarding the "larger feature set" of Mozilla browsers:

1. Be prepared to scour through the extensions pages in order to get some
basic functionality, especially in FireFox. FireFox doesn't even sort
bookmarks "normally" without downloading a sorting extension that allows it
to sort "folders first".

2. The Mozilla browsers load slowly by comparison to IE because IE
components are loaded at boot. In order to get Mozilla to load quickly, run
the "QuickLaunch" utility at startup. You can also get rid of the Mozilla
splashscreen by running the "-nosplash" switch Desktop icon:

"C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\mozilla.exe" -nosplash

I believe there is another parameter (-quiet?) that does the same thing. In
my experience the browser doesn't load any faster, I just don't like splash
screens.

3. Back to extensions...seems that a lot of them are written by script
kiddies, and so they may or may not work as advertised. Often they don't.
And often they only work with a specific build of Mozilla or FireFox (each
has its own specific extensions).

4. More on extensions...extensions often have to be re-downloaded each time
you update Mozilla and / or FireFox (assuming a new extension has been
written and made available), and each browser (especially Mozilla) is
updated fairly frequently. Extension writers don't always include the
option to install the extensions in the Profile folder, and therefore, when
you upgrade Mozilla or FireFox, many of the extensions are lost (as
Mozilla.org often suggests uninstalling a previous build before updating to
the latest). So once you have gone to all the trouble of installing
extensions and getting the browser(s) to behave as you like, you may have
to start from scratch. Also, uninstalling an extension that you decide you
don't like may wipe out other extension in the folder as the instructions
on the Mozilla extensions pages for uninstalling extensions require
deleting files that contain information about other extensions in the
installation folder. There is an extension called QuickManager to help with
all this (and appears nice in theory) but it never connects to the
extensions properly for me. Maybe you will have a different experience.

Is Mozilla and/or FireFox worth the effort. Maybe, especially if you
really, really dislike Microsoft's products based on philosophy. Otherwise,
the browser(s) come in handy if IE doesn't render a page properly (as IE
comes in handy when Mozilla / FireFox can't render a page properly - see my
final note at bottom of this message).

To get much higher functionality than any Mozilla browser (even after
downloading many of the extensions) or IE as a standalone, try MyIE2 as a
shell for IE. A relatively small, single source solution (as opposed to the
extensions solution of Mozilla) that works great. (For developers,
admittedly Mozilla has some nice extensions, but as far as normal
productivity / usage, IE plus a shell like MyIE2 wins with none of the
hassle in my opinion).

If you must use one of the Mozillas as your only browser, I recommend
Mozilla (without the mail and news client if not needed) instead of
Firefox. Install the Multizilla extension which provides a lot of
functionality in one extension package. FireFox is touted as being
minimalist, but it is as slow loading as Mozilla despite its stripped down
nature.

Some Mozilla links:

http://www.mozilla.org/
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/
http://quickmanager.mozdev.org/
http://multizilla.mozdev.org/

Mozilla ActiveX control - can be used with MyIE2 to utilize Gecko engine
(Mozilla / FireFox) instead of IE. Because of fast development of Mozilla
and MyIE2 (which has 'experimental' functionality with the control), it's
difficult to keep the ActiveX component functional with all versions...it
may work and it may not depending on version of control (which also comes
with the Mozilla package) and the version of MyIE2 you are using:

http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/mozilla.htm

MyIE2 is found here:

http://www.myie2.com/html_en/update.htm

Make your own decision through experience and disregard many of the
comments that outright place the Mozillas above IE. It is usually an
emotional issue as opposed to anything else.

-------------------
One final note:

I use Proxomitron as a proxy and have found that many sites that previously
loaded slowly or hung in IE will load quickly if using this as the
Proxomitron User-Agent header filter (you can do the same thing by changing
an entry in the registry, I believe):

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8

Sites which usually caused problems for IE or IE shells were web forums or
the like. This is obviously a tip that can be viewed as snake oil and of
course your mileage may vary. However, in a much-less-than-scientific
experiment, this seemed to work for me and my setup.

 

[null]

Hey, great, thanks. I've downloaded Firefox and will set it as default as u
suggest. Guess it will take a bit of time for a mouldy oldie like me to get
use to it. I'm not naturally at ease with computer stuff but I want to keep
learning....

Once you wean yourself off IE you might consider using IERadicator:

http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html

Some have reported greater system stability after the buggy spyware
and malware magnet IE is eradicated. Far better to delete OE as well,
and use sane apps for email and newsgroups.


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Art Iculos Libres]

<snip>

No conflicts with IE. On one Win98 PC, I have Mozilla 1.6, FireFox 0.8, IE,
MyIE2 (enhancement shell for IE) and an old version of Netscape 4.xx
installed (never use the latter anymore, just haven't uninstalled it).

Make your own decision through experience and disregard many of the
comments that outright place the Mozillas above IE. It is usually an
emotional issue as opposed to anything else.

<snip>

By the way... to easily and conveniently keep all the Bookmarks and
Favorites synchronized in various browsers, use BookMarkBridge:

http://bookmarkbridge.sourceforge.net/index.html

It allows you to choose which browsers to sync and which items within the
Bookmarks and Favorites to exclude from synchronization (folders specific
to each browser can be excluded; for instance, Personal Toolbar folder in
Mozilla; Bookmarks Toolbar folder in FireFox; and Links folder in IE can be
excluded).

After BookmarkBridge is first run, it creates an *.xml file which can then
be run subsequently as part of BookMarkBridge's command line parameters
quietly in the background without any user input or intervention. Great for
use with schedulers or batch files so your browser bookmarks are always in
sync.

 

[Kerodo]

If you must use one of the Mozillas as your only browser, I recommend
Mozilla (without the mail and news client if not needed) instead of
Firefox. Install the Multizilla extension which provides a lot of
functionality in one extension package. FireFox is touted as being
minimalist, but it is as slow loading as Mozilla despite its stripped
down nature.

I use both Mozilla and Firefox here, and prefer Mozilla slighly also. I
find that Firefox loads just as slow as Mozilla. It does use less RAM than
Mozilla however.

I also used to use Thunderbird, the email/newsgroup client that goes with
Firefox. Since then I found Xnews, which has way more features and is much
smaller and more compact than TB. TB is supposed to be a stipped down
version of the Mozilla mail client, but I find TB to be extremely bloated
by comparison to other programs such as Xnews.

That said, I still prefer Mozilla and Firefox to IE and all the other
browsers..

 

[Donkey Agony]

Once you wean yourself off IE you might consider using IERadicator:
http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html

How does one access Windows Update if one has entirely eradicated IE?

 

[Donkey Agony]

Mozilla ActiveX control - can be used with MyIE2 to utilize Gecko
engine (Mozilla / FireFox) instead of IE.

Hmm, that's interesting. As an avid Avantbrowser user, I was going to
ask of those very familiar with both, if (and why) they preferred MyIE2.
I'm somewhat put off by the name of the latter , but the fact that it
can render pages using either the Gecko or the IE engine is, I must say,
quite tempting.

It's not a browser, but FWIW Topstyle allows use of the Gecko ActiveX
control too.

 

[Kerodo]

How does one access Windows Update if one has entirely eradicated IE?

Good question... I wouldn't recommend removing IE.. You never know when
you might need it..

 

[Christopher Jahn]

Many people on this ng seem to favour Mozilla as the
internet browser and, as such, I am inclined to load it.
But are there any conflicts that I might then have with IE
(v6). Do I have to disable IE in some way?

Nope. No problems at all.

--
Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html

A cat will assume the shape of its container.

 

[Christopher Jahn]

How does one access Windows Update if one has entirely
eradicated IE?

You download the updates manually, which is advisable anyway.

And of course, 3/4 of the updates are for IE flaws, so once
it's gone, you don't need them.

--
Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html

A cat will assume the shape of its container.

 

[Christopher Jahn]

I use both Mozilla and Firefox here, and prefer Mozilla
slighly also. I find that Firefox loads just as slow as
Mozilla. It does use less RAM than Mozilla however.

I also used to use Thunderbird, the email/newsgroup client
that goes with Firefox. Since then I found Xnews, which
has way more features and is much smaller and more compact
than TB.

But it doesn't do mail very well. It's a newsreader.
I use Xnews for news, and Tbird for mail. And that's a winning
combination.


--
Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

 

[Kerodo]

But it doesn't do mail very well. It's a newsreader.
I use Xnews for news, and Tbird for mail. And that's a winning
combination.

Yep, that's a good combo. I'm afraid I still use Outlook for email. And I
doubt if I'll ever change. I like it.. Tbird is good though... And I'm
really getting to like Xnews a lot here. Much better than the others.

 

[bluemoon]

Art

Xlnt review/opinion re Firefox. Couldn't agree more.

After hearing all the raves for quite some time, I decided to give
Firefox a try.

Dumped it 3 days later quite disillusioned, especially after the high
expectations. I figured my negative experience must have a problem of
my own creation or a function of my particular system configuration,
so I just kept my mouth shut.

You accurately pointed out sevral deficits that became immediately
apparent to me. There are also other issues too numerous to mention,
but prime examples are the extremely awkward/annoying bookmark
functions, inability to move toolbars to location of choice &
disabling of my wheel mouse autoscroll function.

I was also disappointed in it's speed & stablity, but perhaps this is
due to the fact that it is recommeneded for Winxp but I run Win98se??

I well understand the serious security related concerns & critisms of
IE, but IMHO the bottom line still puts Firefox in a crude stage of
development, best suited for advanced users who are willing & able to
devote ample time for tweaking and customizing.

blue

<snip>

No conflicts with IE. On one Win98 PC, I have Mozilla 1.6, FireFox 0.8, IE,
MyIE2 (enhancement shell for IE) and an old version of Netscape 4.xx
installed (never use the latter anymore, just haven't uninstalled it).

A few caveats / observations to add to the IE naysayers' comments
regarding the "larger feature set" of Mozilla browsers:

1. Be prepared to scour through the extensions pages in order to get some
basic functionality, especially in FireFox. FireFox doesn't even sort
bookmarks "normally" without downloading a sorting extension that allows it
to sort "folders first".

2. The Mozilla browsers load slowly by comparison to IE because IE
components are loaded at boot. In order to get Mozilla to load quickly, run
the "QuickLaunch" utility at startup. You can also get rid of the Mozilla
splashscreen by running the "-nosplash" switch Desktop icon:

"C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\mozilla.exe" -nosplash

I believe there is another parameter (-quiet?) that does the same thing. In
my experience the browser doesn't load any faster, I just don't like splash
screens.

3. Back to extensions...seems that a lot of them are written by script
kiddies, and so they may or may not work as advertised. Often they don't.
And often they only work with a specific build of Mozilla or FireFox (each
has its own specific extensions).

4. More on extensions...extensions often have to be re-downloaded each time
you update Mozilla and / or FireFox (assuming a new extension has been
written and made available), and each browser (especially Mozilla) is
updated fairly frequently. Extension writers don't always include the
option to install the extensions in the Profile folder, and therefore, when
you upgrade Mozilla or FireFox, many of the extensions are lost (as
Mozilla.org often suggests uninstalling a previous build before updating to
the latest). So once you have gone to all the trouble of installing
extensions and getting the browser(s) to behave as you like, you may have
to start from scratch. Also, uninstalling an extension that you decide you
don't like may wipe out other extension in the folder as the instructions
on the Mozilla extensions pages for uninstalling extensions require
deleting files that contain information about other extensions in the
installation folder. There is an extension called QuickManager to help with
all this (and appears nice in theory) but it never connects to the
extensions properly for me. Maybe you will have a different experience.

Is Mozilla and/or FireFox worth the effort. Maybe, especially if you
really, really dislike Microsoft's products based on philosophy. Otherwise,
the browser(s) come in handy if IE doesn't render a page properly (as IE
comes in handy when Mozilla / FireFox can't render a page properly - see my
final note at bottom of this message).

To get much higher functionality than any Mozilla browser (even after
downloading many of the extensions) or IE as a standalone, try MyIE2 as a
shell for IE. A relatively small, single source solution (as opposed to the
extensions solution of Mozilla) that works great. (For developers,
admittedly Mozilla has some nice extensions, but as far as normal
productivity / usage, IE plus a shell like MyIE2 wins with none of the
hassle in my opinion).

If you must use one of the Mozillas as your only browser, I recommend
Mozilla (without the mail and news client if not needed) instead of
Firefox. Install the Multizilla extension which provides a lot of
functionality in one extension package. FireFox is touted as being
minimalist, but it is as slow loading as Mozilla despite its stripped down
nature.

Some Mozilla links:

http://www.mozilla.org/
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/
http://quickmanager.mozdev.org/
http://multizilla.mozdev.org/

Mozilla ActiveX control - can be used with MyIE2 to utilize Gecko engine
(Mozilla / FireFox) instead of IE. Because of fast development of Mozilla
and MyIE2 (which has 'experimental' functionality with the control), it's
difficult to keep the ActiveX component functional with all versions...it
may work and it may not depending on version of control (which also comes
with the Mozilla package) and the version of MyIE2 you are using:

http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/mozilla.htm

MyIE2 is found here:

http://www.myie2.com/html_en/update.htm

Make your own decision through experience and disregard many of the
comments that outright place the Mozillas above IE. It is usually an
emotional issue as opposed to anything else.

-------------------
One final note:

I use Proxomitron as a proxy and have found that many sites that previously
loaded slowly or hung in IE will load quickly if using this as the
Proxomitron User-Agent header filter (you can do the same thing by changing
an entry in the registry, I believe):

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8

Sites which usually caused problems for IE or IE shells were web forums or
the like. This is obviously a tip that can be viewed as snake oil and of
course your mileage may vary. However, in a much-less-than-scientific
experiment, this seemed to work for me and my setup.

 

[null]

How does one access Windows Update if one has entirely eradicated IE?

For Win 9x/ME, what Windows Updates do you want or need? Personally,
I've downloaded the critical OS security patches before eradicating
IE.


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg