Firefox in Windows?

[tkingdoll]

My web designer friends are rabid about Firefox, telling me how superior it is to IE. I've used it twice and found it buggy, but I've heard later versions are better.

I'm using Windows XP, apart from the tabs thingy, is there any benefit to migrating to Firefox?

And do any Firefox users here use that AND IE, or just that one?

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Mongrel]

Been using Firefox for a year and a half and never looked back

Never had any problems apart from a few pages which tell you that you need to use IE.
The 'tab thingy' is, fo me, a huge selling point. I read an article, open links within the article without having multiple instances of IE in the taskbar (Me thing, detest crowded taskbars >:() and click between them.
The other thing that I love is the Extensions - a bbCode editor, a select and right click straight to dictionary.com, a program that opens my webcomics for me while I'm brewing my morning tea, customisable javascript blocking - it's a long list, there's even one that will open up an IE window in a tab ;)

Bugginess - it takes a little longer to start up, but that's an unfair comparison since IE is integrated within Windows and there is an occassional memory leak when the browser is left open for a while which you may or may not see depending on how much RAM you have.
On a very positive plus side it's much less likely to be compromised by 'hackers' as it's
a) Like the various *nix flavours it's open source, there's much less chance of an exploitable flaw getting through that many independent coders
b) Compared to IE it has a tiny market share, security through obscurity
c) It installs itself secure, you have to unlock it when you need to

Hope that helps :)

[Hazen]

Ditto what Mongrel said.

Firefox actually performs better than IE when making low level system calls, which really says something, since IE originally evolved as an integral part of microsofts' OS.

I've already had a bellyfull of tenth rate microsoft shite and am migrating to Linux.

[vbloke]

I use both FF and IE.

IE is mostly reserved for banking and other things that demand I use IE (ActiveX stuff).

FF is far more secure, more web standards compliant and is extendable - you can set it up so it has lots of useful things like weather reports, rss feed readers, spell checkers and ad blockers.

I'm using 1.5.0.4, which is a lot better than the original version I used (0.4) and it automatically updates itself whenever a new patch is released.

Greasemonkey is a great extension - there are 1000's of scripts that you can use to further extend FF functionality.

It's not for everyone though - I know people who hate it, so try it and find out for yourself.

[Oleron]

FF is nice but Opera is better. It has all the features of FF with faster loading times and rendering.

Apart from online banking or other ActiveX type stuff, I use Opera exclusively in Windows and Linux. It is rock solid in either. I really don't know why more people don't use it.

IE 7 steals many of Opera and Firefox's ideas, like tabbed browsing.

[Admin]

I've never tried it. ???

It sounds similar to Netscape/Mozilla with the tabbed browsing. I use Mozilla on my main computer and it's really the tabbed browsing that's the best feature.

I find that with Mozilla some of the Javascript features that are used of forums like this one don't always work as well.

That'll just be that the browsers were not coded for though.

[vbloke]

Handy tip for Firefox users:

open up Notepad or Wordpad and enter the following:

###

<search version="1" name="Skepdic Search" description="Skepdic Search" method="GET" action="http://www.google.com/custom" searchForm = "http://www.google.com/custom" >

<input name="hl&domains=skepdic.com&q" user>

<input name="&btnG" value="Search">

<input name="&sitesearch" value="skepdic.com">

</search>

###

Save this file in Program Files > Mozilla Firefox > searchplugins folder as Search%20Skepdic.src

If you can, also try and save it into Documents and Settings > (Your Name) > Application Data > Mozilla > Firefox > Profiles > (profile number folder) > searchplugins as well

restart Firefox, click on the little green arrow in the search box and you'll have a "Search Skepdic" option!

I'm too good to you lot...

[vbloke]

Handy tip # 2 for Firefox users:

open up Notepad or Wordpad and enter the following:

###

<search version="1" name="UK Skeptics" description="UK Skeptics" method="GET" action="http://www.google.com/custom" searchForm = "http://www.google.com/custom" >

<input name="hl&domains=ukskeptics.com&q" user>

<input name="&btnG" value="Search">

<input name="&sitesearch" value="ukskeptics.com">

</search>

###

Save this file in Program Files > Mozilla Firefox > searchplugins folder as UKS%20Search.src

If you can, also try and save it into Documents and Settings > (Your Name) > Application Data > Mozilla > Firefox > Profiles > (profile number folder) > searchplugins as well

restart Firefox, click on the little green arrow in the search box and you'll have a "Search UK Skeptics" option as well!

I'm really too good to you lot...

[Admin]

Nice one O0

I'll have to download Firefox for my laptop now to give it a go. :D

[vbloke]

John, if you can design a small 16x16 png icon, I can include it in the code as long as you tell me where it'll be hosted (eg: www.ukskeptics.com/images/search_icon.png) so it'll have a nifty search icon too (and I can give you the code to add to the site so you can add a link to download it if you have Firefox to add it automatically to your search bar).

[Admin]

We already have www.ukskeptics.com/favicon.ico

http://www.ukskeptics.com/favicon.ico

[Admin]

Right, I've saved those files and restarted but I can't see the search option anywhere. ???

I like this Firefox btw. O0

[vbloke]

I've sent you an email with some instructions on how to add it to the site - it should work then ???

Download these extensions for Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/10/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/398/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/636/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/39/
and finally: http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/ and then go to: http://userscripts.org/ and get some great scripts for greasemonkey

[Ginger Rogers]

I am a Mac person, I have safari (which is rubbish) and firefox. I love it! IE is irritating in many ways, I much prefer firefox.

[vbloke]

*coughs*

http://www.ubuntu.com

[Ginger Rogers]

The problem with 'unconventional' OS's is that little other software - or hardware, is compatible with it. particularly software though.
they tell what is compable but they don't tell you about all the programmes you can't run with it. it's bad enough trying to get compatible stuff for macs at times, never mind anything else (though I appreicate taht ubuntu thing is also based on linux as is OSX

[Admin]

I still couldn't get this working. >:(

[vbloke]

hmm.

Did you try the stuff I emailed?

[Admin]

Yes.

Was I supposed to use those files as they were and load them up to the website root?

That's what I did and clicked the link but nothing happened. :(

[vbloke]

I'll have another go at it when I get home tonight then.

Might have got something buggered up in the code.

[Admin]

Marvellous O0

[vbloke]

OK chaps - go to http://badhomeopath.com/firefox.html (if you've got Firefox that is...) and click the link

You should get a little popup box that sends me all your bank details tells you it's going to install the search plugin.

Click "OK", go to your search bar, click the little green arrow and search away!

[Mongrel]

I've sent you an email with some instructions on how to add it to the site - it should work then ???

Download these extensions for Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/10/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/398/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/636/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/39/
and finally: http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/ and then go to: http://userscripts.org/ and get some great scripts for greasemonkey


I'd also suggest;

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/68/ (Dictionary Search)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/491/ (bbCode Xtra)
and
http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/02/07/bugmenot/ (Can often log you into "Free registration to view" and I've found it'll sometimes work for member only Journals)

[Admin]

It works :D

My bank account is now empty. ???