Firefox vs Internet Explorer

[Mattk]

I have always run IE but more and more people seem to be making the switch to FF.Can you tell my what makes it so much better than IE,is it worth bothering to move over and does FF have any bad points ?

cheers.

[Ethel]

The best way for you to evaluate Firefox is to download it and try it.

I have been using it for over two years - and love it!

You can keep it as it comes, or add as many extras as you like.
I have ad-blocker, which easily blocks ads and images with a right click of the mouse, as an example of a useful extra.

I find it is faster than IE, especially with another add on (faster firefox).

Much more secure too.

I have chosen to put 9 search engines in my little search box - which I find extremely useful.

I love the bookmark toolbar - I have 20 small icons at the top of my screen (bbc news, photobucket, wikipedia, answerbank and so on). One click, and the website is open.

Firefox is hugely customisable - the screen can look as cluttered or as minimal as you wish.

Give it a whirl!

[Buenchico]

I agree with Ethel. The best way to find out about Firefox is to try it. It doesn't conflict with Internet Explorer, so you can have both on your PC simultaneously. (You can have separate windows open, in both IE & FF, at the same time if you like).

Firefox has always been more secure than IE but IE7 has, belatedly, addressed many of the issues which FF tackled ages ago.

As Ethel says, FF is easily customised to work exactly as you want it to. However, many people (myself included) are perfectly happy with the basic program.

The default settings in Firefox include a pop-up blocker and a spell-checker (for posts like this one). The default spell-checker uses a US English dictionary but you can download a British English dictionary.

The biggest advantage for me, though, is simply that pages load much, much faster in Firefox than they do in Internet Explorer.

You ask about bad points. Well, there are a few websites which won't load in Firefox. In particular, many banks seem to have websites which are specifically designed to work only with IE.

There are also a few minor bugs which affect the way FF works with Windows Vista. (For example, it's not currently possible to set Firefox to be your default browser in Windows Vista). It's likely that these problems will be fixed before Windows Vista is widely used.

Firefox takes longer to load up when you first start it (but that's more than compensated for by the much faster times that pages take to load once it's running). Dial-up users, who've got IE configured so that Dial-Up Networking automatically connects them to their ISP at start-up, have to connect to the net first and then start FF.

Despite those few 'minus points', for me (and for about 80% of the 'regulars' here in AB's Technology section) Firefox is easily the best browser.

Chris

[Buenchico]

PS: I forgot to mention that you don't lose your Internet Explorer 'favorites' when you use Firefox.

When you first install Firefox, you're asked if you want to copy your 'favorites' across to Firefox (which calls them 'bookmarks' instead). Even if you select 'no', you can still do this at a later date.

The transition really is totally 'painless' and if you don't like it you won't lose anything from trying it.

Chris

[naz_nomad]

Used Firefox since day 1 ...love the tabbed browsing.

I use an I.P address in lots of places ..Italy, Saudi Arabia ...etc

IE displays the I.P address language on Google, but FF always gives me English.

I think the edge FF has over IE is that it wasn't made by Microsoft.

FF wil run on Ubuntu with no problems

[Mattk]

thanks peeps.
i'll give it a whirl.i take it if i dont like it its as easy to uninstall as ie7 ie control panel add/remove click and gone ?

[Coldicote]

I have a website on line including background music. Someone got in touch to say they couldn't hear the music despite having Windows Media Player and Real Player. It turned out that they were using Firefox; but when they tried IE it worked alright.

[Llamatron]

I've used FireFox with Adblock for ages.

It's strange when going back to IE because many sites I use look different as the ads suddenly start working again.

[Ethel]

Mattk

Very easy to uninstall. But don't be hasty. It is quite a small programme, and give yourself time to familiarise yourself with it.

[ermadea]

You can have both and just set one as your default browser, use IE when Firefox doesn't work on some sites and vice versa, Firefox doesn't take up much room.

[Mattk]

Just had a quick play and tbh couldnt notice any difference.