Why Firefox?

[Chris]

What would be the
advantage of switching to Firefox? Is it more of a security question than
anything else?

Peace of mind's the main thing.

I started off wondering what all the fuss was about, spent some time
comparing the two, began spending more time with Firefox than IE, then went
back to IE after a month and wondered how I'd managed to put up with IE's
behaviour for so long; the pop-ups alone used to drive me to distraction.

It's lean, quick & highly customisable; I wouldn't be without it now.

- rgds, Chris

 

[Alice]

After reading through the posts, it seems that a lot of people
in this newsgroup are using Firefox as their primary browser.

"13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE"
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=32

 

[mike ring]

After reading through the posts, it seems that a lot of people in this
newsgroup are using Firefox as their primary browser. I've been
thinking about trying it out, but I've got IE 6 and it's doing well.

It started with Outlook Express, after the second time it crashed and
burned my computer.

I tried Mozilla - too big, but went to Thunderbird.

Then I tried Firefox because IE6 is a big resource user - you have to watch
your step if popunders are around.

Quite liked it, but Steven Burn (IIRC) said he liked Avant browser, so I
tried it, and so do I.

It's still resource hungry, being IE6 of course, but has popup protection,
so you don't get ambushed and crash before you realise it. (But I never
browse without Quickresource running)

mike

 

[mike ring]

Today, I set IE back as default. I can't wait until I can ditch IE for
good but it's not there yet.

Karen
http://scootgirl.com/

Have you tried Avant Browser, Karen.

It doesn't half improve it.

mike

 

[scootgirl.com]

<snip>
it doesn't have a
uniform spell checker tool like IESpell
<snip>
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=474

Thanks Ray! That's working for me!

Karen
http://scootgirl.com/

 

[Vrodok the Repentant]

Peace of mind's the main thing.

I started off wondering what all the fuss was about, spent some time
comparing the two, began spending more time with Firefox than IE, then went
back to IE after a month and wondered how I'd managed to put up with IE's
behaviour for so long; the pop-ups alone used to drive me to distraction.

It's lean, quick & highly customisable; I wouldn't be without it now.

Me also.

 

[jo]

Vrodok the Repentant

You is getting old?

 

[Papageno]

Why Firefox over IE-SP2? Better popup blocker; ability to selectively
disable display ads; tabbed browsing; better password manager; better
bookmark system; ability to enable session cookies only; built-in google
search bar; excellent built-in download manager; and more. Using both IE
and Firefox does work, and you will still need IE for the occasional site
that works only with IE. Use them both for a while, and you'll probably
make Firefox your default browser.

Tried it. Then I tried Avant browser. It's a wrapper for IE. So it works
like IE, but adds in all those features we used to see only in the Mozilla
series.

 

[Christopher Jahn]

After reading through the posts, it seems that a lot of
people in this newsgroup are using Firefox as their primary
browser. I've been thinking about trying it out, but I've
got IE 6 and it's doing well. Many of my freeware programs
are integrated with it, and I've got everything working
like I want it. (I have XP Home Edition SP2 on a Compaq
S4000NX, 40 Gig hard drive, 2.4 Gig Intel Celeron
processor, 376 RAM.) What would be the advantage of
switching to Firefox?

Micro$oft put the "suck" in "security. It's like building a
vault and putting a screen door on it; beefy, and open to
everyone on the planet.

Is it more of a security question
than anything else? What about Free Download Manager and
other programs...would they continue to work in FF?

Most of them will work, and the ones that don't can easily be
replaced with ones the do.

Would
using both FF and IE work OK? Does Foxmail integrate well
with Outlook Express/Firefox?

Outlook Express is only twice as insecure as Internet
Exploder.

Firefox works well with whatever your system default mail is.

--
Christopher Jahn
:-(

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

I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen
minutes.
After that, you'd better have a big willy or huge boobs.

 

[Christopher Jahn]

There are flaws in pretty much all software. Now that other
browsers are becoming more popular more and more
vulnerabilities are being discovered in them as well.

YEs, and no. More vulnerabilities, but if you took the
problems found in all non-IE browsers combined, IE's flaws
would still outnumber them ten to one.

And virtually all other companies fixx their software within
days if not weeks. Some IE security bugs are several years
old.


--
Christopher Jahn
:-(

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

Anything is good and useful if it's made of chocolate.

 

[ncSkeet]

I really appreciate all the input. After reading all the posts, I
decided to go ahead and download both Firefox and Thunderbird. I'll use
them for a while, and then decide what I'll use as defaults. They are
already installed; this is my first post to a newsgroup using
Thunderbird. I've been very happy so far - Firefox does seem faster that
IE, and Tbird was simple to set up. I was ready to enter all the normal
stuff, but Tbird did it for me. All I had to do was setup the
Newsgroups, and I was ready to roll.

Thanks again...
_______
ncSkeet

 

[Conor]

Security - built in

ROFL:

http://secunia.com/advisories/12526/

10 "Critical vulnerabilities" including cross site scripting and
execution of arbitrary code on users machines for that lovely IE-like
complete system takeover.

 

[Conor]

"13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE"
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=32

10 reasons to be worried about Firefox/Mozilla

http://secunia.com/advisories/12526/

 

[Rich G.]

ROFL:

http://secunia.com/advisories/12526/

10 "Critical vulnerabilities" including cross site scripting and
execution of arbitrary code on users machines for that lovely IE-like
complete system takeover.

From the site-

Solution:
The vulnerabilities have reportedly been fixed in:
- Mozilla 1.7.3
- Firefox 1.0PR
- Thunderbird 0.8

 

[ozzy]

Have you tried Avant Browser, Karen.

It doesn't half improve it.

mike

I too have uninstalled Firefox; unfortuneately
I really thought it was the best so far.

The link below is very accurate & informative.
"13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE"
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=32

Firefox IS better than IE without any doubt but OS updates still require the IE
package. That will never change; thanks to MS. Going to MS downloads site with
another browser to manually get updates is NOT an option, nor is it possible
for some updates.

Many sites that I visit refuse to open without IE. Yes, I know.... their fault
but when business dictates IE, you must use it. 90% of our clients use IE,
therefore we have to use it also in order to reproduce their symptoms.
hmmmm.... maybe if they were all switched to FF, these symptoms wouldn't be
there LOL

Other glitches that I have noted is that Firefox (FF) has slight problems with
Flashget (download manager).
Sometimes when in FF, it will start the download.
Other times Flashget will start the download.
No amount of changes to the settings has resulted in a reliable, consistent
standard. I always want Flashget to download & never allow FF to download. Once
this is fixed in future versions, I'll go back to it as a backup browser.

I might take up Mike's suggestion for Karen and try Avant browser myself.


ozzy

 

[Papageno]

The link below is very accurate & informative.
"13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE"
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=32

That page gives reasons that apply to Avant, too.

However, here's one for Jay Leno's monologue:
"The Mozilla project is an Open Source project where thousands of
independent programmers can work on finding security holes before they are
exploited."

What a laugh. Thousands of programmers are CREATING security holes, not
finding them. OTHERS are finding/reporting the holes.

 

[Bob Adkins]

After reading through the posts, it seems that a lot of people in this
newsgroup are using Firefox as their primary browser. I've been thinking
about trying it out, but I've got IE 6 and it's doing well. Many of my
freeware programs are integrated with it, and I've got everything working
like I want it. (I have XP Home Edition SP2 on a Compaq S4000NX, 40 Gig hard
drive, 2.4 Gig Intel Celeron processor, 376 RAM.) What would be the
advantage of switching to Firefox? Is it more of a security question than
anything else? What about Free Download Manager and other programs...would
they continue to work in FF? Would using both FF and IE work OK? Does
Foxmail integrate well with Outlook Express/Firefox?

You have the horsepower to run it.

It's a little slower, and a little tricky to set up, but if you're patient
you can be rewarded with a decent browser.

I've tried FF 3 times now, but keep gravitating back to Maxthon, an IE
add-on which has all my favorite features. Maxthon, by the way, has an
option to run on the Mozilla engine. I haven't found any advantages to it,
or I would. I think the security issues are a little overblown.

-- Bob

 

[Conor]

From the site-

Solution:
The vulnerabilities have reportedly been fixed in:
- Mozilla 1.7.3
- Firefox 1.0PR
- Thunderbird 0.8

THe point is that people are putting too much faith in the security of
FF/Moz. They existed and are likely to be still there on systems not
running the two day old releases. IE has been fixed with SP2 but
people, when dissing IE, seem to conveniently forget this fact. I'm
merely pointing out that they're all as bad as each other.

 

[Vrodok the Repentant]

THe point is that people are putting too much faith in the security of
FF/Moz. They existed and are likely to be still there on systems not
running the two day old releases. IE has been fixed with SP2

Really now.

but
people, when dissing IE, seem to conveniently forget this fact.

Or, media-blurb?

 

[Rich G.]

THe point is that people are putting too much faith in the security of
FF/Moz. They existed and are likely to be still there on systems not
running the two day old releases. IE has been fixed with SP2 but
people, when dissing IE, seem to conveniently forget this fact. I'm
merely pointing out that they're all as bad as each other.

The biggest thing firefox has going for it, I think, is that if someone
is coding specifically to exploit a security hole they're more than
likely going to want to get as many ppl to be bitten by it as they can
and right now that's IE. If firefox were the number 1 browser out there
then the intentional things happening out there would be happening to
firefox. We (firefox users) are enjoying a minority status right now in
that if I want to bugger someone up via my site, or pop-up or whatever,
it's not really worth my time to do it to firefox users, not because
they're super-savvy computer gurus with lean-mean-airtight-machines, but
because there's like 1 for every 1000 IE users.

So, while it's vulnerable as well, unless the vulnerabilities of the two
browsers overlap firefox users should be safer, in general, just because
we're not worth screwing with yet because there's only like a dozen of
us out there lol. (tongue in cheek about the dozen part)

And anybody (IE user or firefox user) who doesn't keep their
software/drivers current deserves what they get, IMO. (Exceptions being
when a sleek program turns into bloatware ACDSee did that (not freeware,
but used to be good and now it's freaking HUGE just to look at pictures.)