firefox

[tell-me-more]

what's the best version of firefox to use for an old pc - 319 MB RAM, 667MHz and where should I download it from? Is there an official website?

[Jumbuck]

official Mozilla site

As far as I know (which isn't necessarily that much) the latest version is faster than ever, which should mean that it will be quicker on an older pc.

You might want to consider using Thinderbird as an email client too.

[tell-me-more]

Thanks.

Pretty good. In fact I'm using it now :)

The other machine isn't supported as it's running Windows Me.

I was a bit disappointed when I tried open office, as to me it's nowhere near as good as MS Office, but I prefer Firefox to IE so far.

Perhaps I'll go the whole hog and try Ubuntu...

[Jumbuck]

One of the great things about FF is that there are many add-ons that you never knew that you would find useful - have a look here if you haven't already done so, and there are plenty of unofficial ones around too.

I tend to use Open Office because it always feel good to escape Microsoft's clutches when possible.

[tell-me-more]

I've only briefly explored the add-ons so far, but does seem like it could be useful. E.g. the map one.

Would be interested to know which add-ons you find useful and if you use Thunderbird too.

My motivation for downloading open office was to escape Microsoft's clutches (that and I had a machine that had no office apps on it) but I found it so abysmally slow and lacking in features compared to MS office that I couldn't use it more than twice, and the second time was just to check it really was that bad.

I should add, infinitely better than any attempt I could have made though.

I'm loving FF.

[Buenchico]

If you're running Windows ME (which is what I've got) this site should most definitely be among your bookmarks:
http://oldapps.com/

Unfortunately there's an error on the Firefox page, because it states that Firefox 3 is compatible with ME. (It isn't). Instead, download Firefox 2.0.0.20:
http://oldapps.com/firefox.php

Chris

[fo3nix]

I'd encourage you to try out Puppy Linux:

http://www.puppylinux.org/

It's a version of Linux, like Ubuntu, but specially developed for those who want very fast speed, often with older computers.

It'll run like a dream on your machine. It also comes with a ton of software built-in, including a web browser, office package, etc.

It's easy to download and burn a live CD with it on, and then you can boot from the CD and try it out, without any change to your internet drive with Windows on. If you don't like it, just restart and take out the CD, and Windows will be none the wiser!

It's backed by a good community who work at keeing it up to date and secure (unlike Windows ME), and can even be set to run entirely in RAM, making it run faster than even many of the very latest PCs.

[tell-me-more]

Thanks for the responses.

I think adblock plus is my favourite add-on. It seems to conflict with iplayer and one or two other bits and pieces, but there are quite a few sites that are now much, much faster to download (presumably because before my machine was wasting lots of energy downloading the ads). Even this site is now much faster to download.

So far it's 1-1 between Microsoft and Open Source. For office, MS wins, for browsing the web, Mozilla wins, although I haven't tried Opera yet.

Any other recommendations? Thunderbird anyone?

[tell-me-more]

If Puppy Linux does what it sets out to do, that could be really good.

I've been saying for a few years now that back when I first started using computers, about 20 years ago, I imagined that by now we would turn the computer on and it would boot up straight away, but if anything it seems to take longer now.

30 seconds would be like a dream.

Firefox is so much better than IE, I'm smiling. Can just flick between windows in next to no time most of the time.