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How is FireFox great?

Asked by area91,

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parad0x

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If anybody's really curious about the speed difference in starting up IE6 and FireFox, I made a video. You can see FireFox is a bit slower, but the difference is so minimal it certainly shouldn't be enough to keep you from using FF. The video was made on my P4 2.6GHz w/1GB DDR running Windows XP Pro SP1, and the browsers are IE6 (with latest updates) and FireFox 0.8+ with several extensions.

The Video (~1.3MB)

(You'll need this codec to view it: http://www.techsmith.com/download/tsccdefault.asp)

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Grand Master

icecaveman

Posted
Posted
If anybody's really curious about the speed difference in starting up IE6 and FireFox, I made a video. You can see FireFox is a bit slower, but the difference is so minimal it certainly shouldn't be enough to keep you from using FF. The video was made on my P4 2.6GHz w/1GB DDR running Windows XP Pro SP1, and the browsers are IE6 (with latest updates) and FireFox 0.8+ with several extensions.

The Video (~1.3MB)

(You'll need this codec to view it: http://www.techsmith.com/download/tsccdefault.asp)

Good attempt but nowhere professional, evel less acurate than Apple's benchmarkings :)

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Redestium

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to say the truth, i've been a Myie2 user for a while, but im starting to get fed up with some of the problems im having with the IE engine, especially when a page that has one of those "Must press yes to view webpage.". if it pops up, it crashes my browser, so im slowly making the switch to firefox. im going through the learning curve. i wish i could customize the toolbar like in MyIe2, and i like having buttons that close the tabs that i can move to where i want, and not have it on the right side out of the way of where my mouse is.

Middle clicking a tab will close it in FX.

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Pegus

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Posted
to say the truth, i've been a Myie2 user for a while, but im starting to get fed up with some of the problems im having with the IE engine, especially when a page that has one of those "Must press yes to view webpage.". if it pops up, it crashes my browser, so im slowly making the switch to firefox. im going through the learning curve. i wish i could customize the toolbar like in MyIe2, and i like having buttons that close the tabs that i can move to where i want, and not have it on the right side out of the way of where my mouse is.

Ya middle-clicking a tab will close a window for you. Similarly, middle-clicking a link will open it in a new tab!

Also, try right-clicking the toolbar... the area around the address bar and menus up the top. It is VERY customisable, far more than IE.

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nexx

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Well that could be problem when using Linux... most distros support only 3 buttons out of the box and the middle mouse is copy

Middle mouse is traditionally paste in unix systems, and it is by default in firefox on linux.

You can disable this by going into about:config and setting middlemouse.contentloadURL to false

:)

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krmathis

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it does not load up instantly like IE does...

Mozilla Firefox does actually start up in half the time of Internet Explorer on my computer! :whistle:

FF = 2-3 sec. IE = 5-6 sec.

By the way, I am running Mac OS X. Which does not pleload any IE modules...

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Danrarbc

Posted
Posted
Also, try right-clicking the toolbar... the area around the address bar and menus up the top. It is VERY customisable, far more than IE.

Very true.

I've got it looking like Safari right now (PearPC got me into a little bit of a Mac mood, so I'm running those skins :p )

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Bearded Kirklander

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Firefox is supposed to be faster and leaner because it is browser only and not tied to the operating system. It offers tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and things like that. It is not bad but I don't think it is great yet.

I like Mozilla better but have started using MyIE 2 and like it best, even though it uses the IE engine built into windows. It is only 700k in size by itself and installs right over IE and works great.

One thing is that Firefox is not even at 1.0 yet. I find the .9 releases to be more stable for me than .8, and I like the new default theme in the .9 RC download, so I am thinking by the time Firefox hits version 1.0, it will be faster and better and worth another try.

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#Michael

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I have been doing a lot of thinking on this matter. And I may have figured out why we have so many FF/Opera/MyIE2/Avant fans here.

It is because it is something different, something that we chose to use. Since there is little choice in choosing the OS (and I by no means dislike the alternatives), we want a choice in what internet browser we use.

Just my thoughts. It's not whats faster/better/more secure....it's what appeals to us. So for some it's plain IE, others it's an IE front end, and for some it's a complete alternative to IE.

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Apollo

Posted
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It's not whats faster/better/more secure....it's what appeals to us. So for some it's plain IE, others it's an IE front end, and for some it's a complete alternative to IE.

i think you're wrong, i don't use FF because it's a "different" browser and not the standard... i use it for it's features like tabbed browsing, pop-up, theming, etc, etc

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Bearded Kirklander

Posted
Posted

Whatever browser makes you happy, you should use that.

Why do people have to fight over which is better? Firefox is a good browser with lots of features and even more with extensions. It is lean, powerful and hopefully will be less buggy with the 1.0 release. It doesn't invade your whole system, it is cross-platform and FREE! How is that bad at all? It is cool.

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Experienced

Shannon

Posted
Posted (edited)
it does not load up instantly like IE does...

That's because explorer (Windows GUI) is basically IE. That's how Microsoft won the browser war. They got sneaky and integrated IE into Windows itself.

Open up My Computer and in the address bar, type in www.google.com and hit enter. :whistle:

Edited by Shannon
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Proficient

Jonathan Downin

Posted
Posted
That's because explorer (Windows itself) is basically IE. That's how Microsoft won the browser war. They got sneaky and integrated IE into Windows itself.

Oh yeah, and IE was better than Netscape at the time of the browser wars. (Of course this is just my opinion, so please don't flame me)

Note: I am a Firefox user...

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Experienced

Shannon

Posted
Posted
Oh yeah, and IE was better than Netscape at the time of the browser wars.  (Of course this is just my opinion, so please don't flame me)

Note:  I am a Firefox user...

Yeah, but back then the margin wasn't something like 70% like it is now, was it?

Here are the W3School June '04 stats:

IE 6: 72.8%

IE 5: 8.9%

O 7: 2.2%

Moz: 11.2%

NN3: 0.3%

NN4: 0.3%

NN7: 0.7%

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stncttr908 Veteran

Posted
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Posted

I like Firefox at times because if there is ever a feature I'm lacking there is always an extension to be found. Open source is great because people just keep building and building onto it. I still primarily use IE, but I need a change once in awhile.

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Pegus

Posted
Posted

Those saying we merely use FF or an alternative browser because it's different are wrong. We use it because we find it more useful and suitable to our needs. I used to be a Netscape user, back when it was a better browser than IE. Then, IE became the better browser (i found anyway). Now i find FireFox the better browser. Simple. If you like it, use it. Don't criticise just because someone doesn't think the way you do. With enough coding, FF could also be made to load with the OS if enough people wanted - there goes your speed advantage.

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