Firefox .8

[+Warwagon MVC]

Firefox .8

Man makes Fire, Man hunts Fox ....what a great combo.

Today I bring you a review of Firefox .8. After sitting here pondering what to review, again, I thought about some of the applications that I use on a regular basis, That's the best place to start. Their will be 3 groups of people. The first group of people after reading this thread title will say “Oh God not again”. The second group will stare at the screen with a dumb founded look and say “Firefox”? What’s that? Only to remember yet again, when they open the review up, that the name “Firebird” has been indeed changed to “Firefox”. The Third Group will stare at the screen with a dumb founded look and say “Firefox”? What’s that? Only to open the review and still have no idea what the heck it is. So to all 3 Groups, enjoy the read!

What is Firefox?

Ever heard of a web browser? You know, the thing that you surf the web with? I bet you’ve heard of Internet Explorer, heck I bet ? of you even use Internet Explorer. Just think of Firefox as Internet Explorer on crack. But don’t be fooled by what I just said. The only thing this and IE have in common is the fact you browse the web with each. If you’ve ever heard of “MyIE2, or Avant” They truly are Internet Explorer on crack because they use the IE engine. This means if you were to somehow take Internet Explorer off your computer, they would be dead in the water. For the rest of you that have never heard of MyIE2 or Avant, Google is your friend, and if you don’t know what that means… its ok, Google still loves ya.

So Firefox doesn’t run off the IE engine but is IE on crack? I’m lost!

Firefox is IE on crack because it has all the features of IE and so much more. but Firefox runs off its own Engine called the Gecko Engine. The engine renders the webpage and bringing it on screen for you to see. The reason why people like this browser better, is because Firefox tends to render the page faster a.k.a brings the page up on screen faster than IE. Firefox focuses more on loading text than the pictures. Text is loaded first and pictures second. I could go on and on about features but then I would have nothing to show ya later on. So lets get to it.

Downloading and Installing Firefox

First you have to download a copy of Firefox .8 This can be found at

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/fir...oxSetup-0.8.exe

Once downloaded, double click the file to install it

Once completed you should have a Firefox icon sitting nicely on your desktop.

Are you excited yet? No? …. Blah you're no fun!

Upon opening Firefox you’ll notice it looks quite a bit different than IE. The toolbar isn’t as cluttered but the address bar looks the same.

What happened to all the porn sites I had in my IE favorites ?

No worries they are still here. In IE they are called Favorites, in Firefox they are called "Bookmarks". You’ll notice that on the top of the screen there is a bookmark menu. Upon dropping that down, you’ll then have access to your imported IE bookmarks.

Whenever you browsed the net with IE did you ever get pop-ups? Oh you just used the Google toolbar? Well that’s cool, but what is neat about Firefox is that popup blocking is built in and there is no need to install. It already comes pre-installed. Sure you could always get something a little better but the one it comes with gets the job done.

Another feature that people like is tabs. Have you ever had your taskbar filled with Different Internet Explorer windows? Well Tabs allow you to have multiple websites open in a single browser and use your mouse to switch between them. By default the tab support is pretty good but by downloading an Extension you can make it a whole lot better.

Extensions

A who what? An extension is something you can download which adds extra functionality to the browser. Remember in the matrix when they plugged that thing into the back of Neo’s head and after a little while he opened his eyes and said “I know Kung Fu”. Well it’s sort of like that but to add functionality to Firefox you have to download a file called an “extension”. and Firefox has a site just for that.

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/

Tabs

So in this case if I were to download the “Tabbed Browser” extension it would give this browser more functionality towards tabs. Previously, the tabs could only be placed at the top of the screen. Now I’ll be able to move them to the bottom. There are MANY more features in that little plug-in. Check it out.

Download Manager

Have you ever tried downloading a 700meg Linux distro on dialup? You think that, by the grace of god, you will stay connected for 175 hours straight, only go get cut off after the first 40 meg. You then sit at your computer and curse worse than drunken a sailor.

Well if you ever feel like attempting that again with Firefox, you could use the Download manager that is included. When your download gets cut off again at 40 megs, you should then be able to resume it and start from where you left off.

Themes

Have you ever gotten tired of looking at the same old thing every day? (Don’t answer that… someone may kill you in your sleep). In the case of Firefox, you can change that. Firefox gives you the option to change the way it looks. This is called “Themes” . They also have a website just for those too, imagine that. They also make it very simple. First you find the theme that you like, and then you click on "install". Once installed it will say please restart the browser. Once that is done you can go into the options under themes and apply the new look.

Customization

Firefox gives you the option to Add / Remove or just move around the icons or search bars on your tool bar. This can be done by right clicking on the toolbar and choosing customize. A neat little box will drop down and you can either drag from the toolbar onto that new box or drag stuff off the box and put it on the toolbar. Either way it gives you a lot of customization flexibility.

Less Holes

This is really one Feature packed browser. Another reason (and one of the biggest reasons why people like it), is because it runs off the Gecko Engine. If a site was visited (using Firefox) and it contained code to get through an unpatch "hole" that was specific to IE, Firefox would not be at risk. There are a few sites that contain ways to run stuff on your computer via Firefox and in time there will be more but for now they still feel that the IE market is the way to go, because frankly more users are there.

There are still many more features to explore which is why you should download it and check it out for yourself.

Pros>

-Tabbed Browsing

-Download Manager

-Extensions

- Themes

-Less Vulnerable at the moment

- lots of features

-Faster webpage loading

-built in popup blocking

Cons>

-Some Sites are not completely compatible, so not all websites render perfectly.

Edited June 10, 2004 by warwagon

[imtoomuch]

WTF?!

[Redestium]

Nice. :)

[MadCap]

*cough* yeah??? so ........?!?!?!

[null_]

Nice review...

Except in one of your screenshots, it has "warez" :p

[beh]

cool review

[carbonfiber]

ooooh, wares

nice review though

[memNOC]

way too biased a review.. you're not there to persuade people into using FF (or to adverise the product), you're just supposed to talk about the positive/negative features and give your opinion..

also, seems very unprofessional, and even though that's Neowin's trademark, the basis of a good review is professionalism, not rambling about people wiping their asses..

weren't reviews reviewed prior to being public? :unsure:

[Hardice]

Nice review man, good job :)

[Apollo]

interesting review but could be much more in depth like comparisons with other browsers

[kombolcha]

that's a hell of a review :|

[HellBender]

-Not completely compatible with all sites, so not all weebsites render perfectly.

NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE!

Not all sites are compatible with Firefox, not Firefox is not compatible with all sites!

The W3C and other organizations put out strict standards to websites that Internet Explorer does not follow. IE may be the most popular, but it is NOT the standard! Therefore, it is the website creator's fault that his or her website does not work with Firefox!

[supernova_00]

NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE!

Not all sites are compatible with Firefox, not Firefox is not compatible with all sites!

The W3C and other organizations put out strict standards to websites that Internet Explorer does not follow. IE may be the most popular, but it is NOT the standard! Therefore, it is the website creator's fault that his or her website does not work with Firefox!

haha i knew you was gonna say that so I waited for you to say it.

But its true, its the websites fault for being noob dumbass crappy coders that code for IE instead of by standards

btw Nice review

[HellBender]

haha i knew you was gonna say that so I waited for you to say it.

rofl :laugh:

BTW, to maximize porn surfing potential, I suggest you all visit PornZilla and follow the tips. Don't forget to sign up for your free libpr0n registration number today! :laugh:

[Kenny_Dee]

oh guys relax, this is a great review, and tbh, it is all true, thanks.

I think that who haven't tried firefox yet should do so, for his own good :D

Complainers - what is your problem? what was so bad on the article?

[shimon]

what about the 4rth group that doesnt even look at it?!?

[+Warwagon MVC]

what about the 4rth group that doesnt even look at it?!?

No use even talking about that group then huh? :D

[Banzai]

I love firefox, nothing there i didnt know, maby a good guide would be to skining firefox maby i will do a guide to that.

[Schmoove]

I love firefox, nothing there i didnt know, maby a good guide would be to skining firefox maby i will do a guide to that.

Now that would be a good idea!! Explain me how I skin firefox properly, that would really help.

[HellBender]

Now that would be a good idea!! Explain me how I skin firefox properly, that would really help.

Skinning a fox really isn't that different to skinning a cat..

[Steven]

.8 was sooooooooooooo 4 months ago.. :laugh:

Don't you use the latest nighty's?

[darkmark327]

Like it or not, IE is the standard, get used to it. If the site doesn't work, it's very unlikely that the author is going to care about the 1 or 2% that don't use IE.

[john smith 1924 Veteran]

excellent review :)

[supernova_00]

Like it or not, IE is the standard, get used to it.

WTF are you smoking?

[chavo]

Yes firefox is teh r0X0rz!!!!!