If anyone is looking for a good Internet browser without the security problems of I.E., Mozilla Firefox (version 0.9 now) seems to finally be ready for prime-time. I’m beginning to use it instead of Opera now, and i’m liking it a lot. My only complaint is that you have to download quite a few “extensions” to get it to have all the functionality that comes installed by default in Opera. Some of these extensions are available from odd places and not easy to find, so this may not be for someone who doesn’t enjoy doing research on the Internet. But it’s free.
I’ve been using version 0.8 of firefox for about a month now, and I love it. I only have to switch back to IE for sites that still insist on using VBScript or ActiveX…
I’ve been using Firefox since before it was Firefox and I have to say, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to IE. Firefox loads pages faster, uses fewer system resources, has a more streamlined interface, allows all sorts of great user-made plug-ins, blocks pop-ups and even inline ads and flash animations. I love it.
What extensions do you use? I’ve been using Firefox but don’t have any extensions installed.
Unfortunately I have to switch to IE to access content on the Intranet at work. Firefox prompts me for a username/password (even from inside the local network) and then won’t let me into the Intranet.
Opera may be able to handle that username/password authentication, if they’re using Microsoft hash authentication; if they’re using NT authentication, then you’re locked into I.E.
The Firefox extensions i have loaded now are:
DOM Inspector - got loaded automatically when i installed something else.
ReloadEvery - stuff that i’m used to with Opera - reloads page every X minutes. I use this to keep my email and Chiffboard refreshed.
googlebar - not necessary. I loaeded it thinking it would give the Google site ranking like the GoogleBar in IE does, but it doesn’t.
Paste and Go - stuff i’m used to in Opera - this one is a minor deal.
Web Developer - great stuff, if you develop or QA Web sites.
Adblock - the best one - block content from specific sites; you can use it to block add banners, since most of them come from a few known addresses like ar.atwola.com or doubleclick.com.
Single Window - to make it work a little more like Opera
miniT - lets me reorganize my tabs with the mouse (like Opera).
‘The ieview plugin is a simple Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox extension (for Microsoft Windows systems), which allows the current page or a selected link to be opened in Internet Explorer. I use Mozilla 99.99% of the time, but there are those moments – particularly when testing new pages, or when viewing that rare IE-only page that’s actually interesting – when I need to see what things look like in IE.’
'Scratching the itch, this plugin adds menu items to the page context menu, and the link context menu. Right-clicking a link now includes an “Open link target in IE” menu item. Right-clicking elsewhere in the main body of the page (not within an image, text box, etc.) gives “View this page in IE.” ’
I always load the TAB Browser extensions into Firfox. Wouldn’t be without them.
I have used Firefox behind a firewall. You can set exceptions to the proxy (for accessing the Intranet) by putting items in the “No proxy for” list, or you can write a ‘proxy.pac’ file (same as IE can use as well) which contains rules for how to use the proxy.
I use firefox on this computer. I have the older Firebird version on my computer. Both are excellent, there’s really not that much difference between the two really. I can say that I haven’t had any problems with self-installing spyware/adware since I started using it. With IE, every time I ran adaware it came up with some new piece of crap, now it just turns up the occasional cookie.
The interesting thing about these banners is that they are powered by Google adwords. i.e. the ads which display are relevant to the text which is on the page.
Take a look at the euro 2004 thread; the banner displays football-related adverts… Could get interesting if people use certain words in their posts…
What’s the difference between Firefox and Mozilla?
Mozilla (Application Suite, also known as SeaMonkey) is a complete suite of web related applications, such as a browser, a mail/news client, a chat client and much more. Firefox is just a browser, which makes it a better choice if you already have a mail client for example. Also, since Firefox is smaller than the whole Mozilla suite, it’s faster and easier to use.
Note, though, that Firefox is not just the standalone Mozilla browser. The user interface in Firefox differs from Mozilla in many ways. For example, Firefox has customizable toolbars.
