New FireFox -vs- New I.E.

[mattyd]

I have always been a fan of FireFox. Not only a fan but a heated supporter of FireFox in comparison to Internet Explorer. Most of the time I felt very justified in this stance. Mozilla: less bugs, more plug-ins, a myriad of themes and customization. Robust programming. A challenge to the juggernaut, Microsoft. This I felt until the latest (and I felt finest) release of FireFox landed on my harddrive; at first it was a magnificent upgrade to an already fine app. That is until the bugs revealed themselves: lost favorites, no homepage loaded on boot, the disabling of some of my fave non-Mozilla apps I use everyday. Enough was enough.

I ventured to try the rumored new release of Internet Explorer, and do you know what-- it is quite nice. It is designed to fully operate with my XP, not try to run just enough then contradict its priority. A browser is only just that-- a browser.

The Open Source community will issue diatribes against Microsoft (and many are justified) but after my experience(s) with Unix\Linux, I find these operating systems almost unbearable to work with and remain productive. Many would argue otherwise. I pray I am never paid to work on such a system professionally. But, maybe I will change my view someday with the correct exposure and qualified teachers\mentors.

I love the idea of Open Source and I try to stay involved to an extent on low-level dev projects in the coding community but I see most of linux releases to be botique, clone versions of one-another all hoping to create a software landslide via pure numbers.

My Windows XP can be better, sure (as ALL code could be) but I use her everday, I use the MS C++ compiler everday, and it allows my system(s) to run at workhorse levels. Routine maintenance keeps the engine humming along.

Who has used the latest FireFox build and the new I.E.? What do you think about them in comparison?

Regards,
sharky_machine

[blud]

Personally, I've used firefox, since... well, at least the last 3 years. I find myself using the new IE more these days, just for basic compatability reasons. The new IE now offers the features I loved about firefox, so I don't really see a need to use firefox on a windows system anymore.

[manutd]

I also used Firefox for a while until IE7 came out. When I downloaded it, I was really impressed by the UI, the cleaness of it, and the functionality. I've now switched to IE, although I still will occasionaly use Firefox.

[DavidRyan]

I've got both on my PC at work, but after a week of using IE7 for all my browser needs I've gone back to using FF2 for everything. I even use IE tab for WSUS pages and the like which require the IE renderer.
I stayed with FF basically through inertia and ideology (much as I hate to term it as such). I'm used to the theme, have had no bugs to deal with. Also, I can't stand the new IE interface.
My main reason for using FF though, is that I believe it unwise to use a web browser which is completely integrated into the operating system in the way that IE is.

[Ancient Dragon]

I find IE7 more difficult to use then IE6 despite the new tabs. I still like FF better and use it all the time at home. I'm not allowed to use FF at work -- only IE.

[mattyd]

Thank-you for all the interesting responses ;)

sharky_machine

[manutd]

Personaly I like the tabs, so I don't have 6 windows open :)

[WolfPack]

I like IE7. IE6 sucks. Only used Firefox whenever possible when it was IE6. Made sure that FF was my default browser too. But right now, I use IE7 as much as FF. Out of habit, sometimes I click the FF button in the quick launch panel, but now the default browser is IE7. If I could only transfer my bookmarks from FF to IE7. :-|

[mattyd]

If I could only transfer my bookmarks from FF to IE7. :-|

I just did this a few days ago. Before I try to explain, though, I suggest you find some definitive steps on the Net about this. But this is what I did (I think ;) )

• You need to save a copy of your FF bookmarks as a HTML file. I believe you can do this under 'manage bookmarks' (or something similar in FF)
• After FF bookmarks are saved as HTML file: open IE7-> goto "+*" (plus-star icon) on IE7 Favorites toolbar -> select "Import and Export..." from this drop-down list -> select and Import your saved HTML, boomark file

Is this what you were asking about? Hope it helped. Worked great for me.

[WolfPack]

Ah yeah. Worked fine. Thanks.

[mattyd]

Ah yeah. Worked fine. Thanks.

You are welcome. Glad it worked.

[lol_hacker101]

I use IE 7 when I visit a IE-only site, but for the most part, I use FF. no matter what the heck Bill Gates and Microsoft do to IE, i'm sticking with Mozilla.

[~s.o.s~]

Never used IE, always use FF.

Personally what I feel is that IE sucks...(atleast IE6).

Hell, even Avant Browser is better than IE.

I found IE7 layout too complex. FF is simple and really better. I switched back to IE6 since i switched back to winxp_sp2. one thing to clear that FF was never my default browser....but still i use FF.

[WaltP]

Never used IE, always use FF.

Personally what I feel is that IE sucks...(atleast IE6).

How can you say this? You've never used it so what is your opinion worth? :twisted:

I haven't upgraded to IE7 yet (downloading now), but FF is my browser of choice, with IE available for the few times it does things better (such as not garbling downloaded file names).

[~s.o.s~]

How can you say this? You've never used it so what is your opinion worth?

I thought you would understand seeing the name of the topic :D
"New Firefox v/s New IE"

I have never used, wait, not even seen the new IE7. Used IE6 a long time back (when it was introduced) but then after Firefox started to catch up have been using Firefox, Opera etc.

[WolfPack]

I think IE7 can only be installed on genuine Windows machines. Wonder why such a important upgrade isnt given free. There are a lot of pirated copies out there.

[manutd]

So that the pirates can't get the better software :rolleyes:

[WolfPack]

So that the pirates can't get the better software :rolleyes:

Okay, so why the other updates then?

[mattyd]

Okay, so why the other updates then?

I read about this a few weeks ago, in the words of Microsoft (paraphrased): "All Windows users will be able to download security patches and service packs no matter the authenticity of their Windows software, while premium downloads such as IE7 will not be authorized to illegal versions."

Why this is exactly I don't know. Perhaps as punishment ? :rolleyes:

[WolfPack]

I read about this a few weeks ago, in the words of Microsoft (paraphrased): "All Windows users will be able to download security patches and service packs no matter the authenticity of their Windows software, while premium downloads such as IE7 will not be authorized to illegal versions."

Why this is exactly I don't know. Perhaps as punishment ? :rolleyes:

Yes. That is what I know too. Maybe MS doesnt think that IE6 is so much a security risk as people make us believe.:-|

[mattyd]

Security: FF && IE

http://www.miraesoft.com/karel/2006/10/02/firefox-security-getting-worse-microsoft-improving/

[rixius]

: ) I still prefer firefox, although I am glad Microsoft has finally put out something decent.

[scru]

Personally, I have no preference. Honestly. Sometimes I'd find myself using Firefox, other times IE. Firefox 3 *does* have some cool features, but they're more like the new features in Vista, than say an actual product revision. Not really enough to warrant me making a cold switch.

[hollystyles]

I love FF for it's extensions, I can browse without a mouse, squash all the adds, interogate HTTP Headers ... etc etc etc If I need IE rendering for a non-standards site right click the FF tab and switch rendering engine.

I prefer IE's dev toolbar add-in though and thats when I use IE mostly. IE is perceptably slower to me particularly opening new tabs. It makes my teeth grind sometimes.

[GrimJack]

I use FF because I don't like advertising all over my screen. I particularly hate those roll-over and scroller adds that require that click to close. There may be add-ons to IE that do the same thing but I have not found them (or really tried). I only use IE7 when I am contracted to a house that requires it.

MS is a for-profit business - I can not imagine them being as vigilantly anti-adverts as FF which is a non-profit business. And, of course, I don't trust MS to do anything that interferes with their bottom line. This is why I choose to use Google for all my searching needs, they try very hard to separate search results from advertising. I once used yahoo to search Alzheimer's and got the message "you can purchase Alzheimer's at ----"

[Infarction]

Out of curiosity, have any of you tried out the new IE yet? Any thoughts on how it compares?

(disclaimer: I'm not using it yet either... :P)

[scru]

I don't trust MS to do anything that interferes with their bottom line. This is why I choose to use Google for all my searching needs, they try very hard to separate search results from advertising.

Haha, because Google is *so* much less of a corporation that MS is. As for the advertising, it's not so much that Google wants to hide their ads from you, no, they're just a lot more sneaky with them.

I say anybody who trusts one corporation while denouncing another, especially Google over MS, needs therapy.

[GrimJack]

Haha, because Google is *so* much less of a corporation that MS is. As for the advertising, it's not so much that Google wants to hide their ads from you, no, they're just a lot more sneaky with them.

I say anybody who trusts one corporation while denouncing another, especially Google over MS, needs therapy.

NO! NO! NO! Google puts their paid ads along the top and the right side; whereas, MS and Yahoo put their paid ads within the search results so there is no distinction. The more you pay, the higher up in the search results are.

and NO! NO! NO! I do not trust google - I use NoScript to block googlesyndication and google-analytics; I do not use googletools or google desktop.

I use trackmenot to confuse search engines; I use TrashMail to confuse registrations.

I use EQuakeAlert to see what is happening geologically around the world (there was an M-5 quake in Indonesia

[Dani]

> MS and Yahoo put their paid ads within the search results so there is no distinction

GOTO.com (later renamed to Overture) used to do this. Once they were bought out by Yahoo!, they stopped and took on a structure similar to Google. I don't use MSN so I cannot be 100% sure but I don't believe they do this either.