With IE dipping below 90% of usage share mainly because of Firefox, tell us why you like Firefox.
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it is free software. Free as in freedom.
I can block anything I dont like on a page.
I can force all new pages to stay in one browser, reload all tabs between sessions, and reorganize tabs when I need to.
I can run the same browser on any computer with any OS I'm using.
Because it handles URL history better than IE.
But then I like IE much better for a ton of other reasons.
The way it handles...
Bookmarks (I have hundreds...and categorized),
Seceruity people tell me it is safer so I use it. The way I can customize the bars/toolbars, Extensions, Tabs, lastly the download manager just rocks.
I wish it would just autoupdate and I wish I could export my favorites to the IE folder for it. But otherwise I would be a permanent user of Firefox if some sites did not require IE like most internet updates that require ActiveX and what not.
I guess that with the Firefox leading developer posting not thought about ramblings about an alternative html rendering module, and in the process claiming that it's better to release on time (quantity) than to release quality, I'm starting to look a bit different towards Firefox.
It's a good browser, but, it's just another face in the crowd which got some good marketing and hype going on.
I prefer, in order (most used on top):
Opera
Konqueror
Firefox
IE
I like it because it is so easy to roll out patches to all my company's PCs.
Having used Firefox from version 0.5 (when it was called Phoenix), now I use Konqueror on Linux and Opera on Windows.
What I don't like Firefox is that it's such a huge memory hog. Its speed is the same as the old Mozilla suite but with 1/10 of its features. And in the meantime its main competitors have become faster and more usable, so no need to use Firefox anymore for me.
Because it's open source - sometimes having ideals is nice.
I switched to Phoenix from Opera for this very reason and although I think Opera is still superior in some fields (though not all) Firefox fits better with my overall life philosophy. I like to think of it as being an ethical consumer .
You know, some of us did use Netscape 4.x back then. I never liked IE, and used Opera for a very long time after I stopped using Netscape 4.x and begun using Firefox, rather then ever using IE. I thought, I still think and probably will always think that IE is shit (no I don't think that's too harsh).
Because FF allows me to view webpages how I want to...without big flashing banner ads. Granted this is a plugin, but no other browser has it so easily integrated.
I view IE like I do those fake spyware removal tools. It's like, "I'll block out all of my competitor's ads..I promise, oh and since you have all this extra space now here are some of our friends' ads to fill it." M$ does this. It's characteristic of corporations. FF is corporation free!
I like Firefox because I can easily unistall from my machine if I dont want it anymore. Unlike some other browser.......
I don't like Firefox. I'm a Khtml/WebCore guy. Gecko feels (note: *feels*) slow, and other than that Firefox itself (the UI) is unbearably slow on my Mac. Safari loads in a few seconds, whereas Firefox takes 25 seconds to load. Tha't unnacceptable.
Yes, the Gecko engine is much slower than Safari on the Mac. If you have a mac, stay with Safari (if you don't mind its javascript deficiencies). But if you are on the PC, and your PC is kinda fast, go for Firefox.
I like firefox because it's very clean, simple but not limited
i voted tabs, but it's actually tabs AND performance. and to lesser extent cross-platformness - combined, they hook new users and later ease migration to linux and/or other FOSS alternatives.
Extensions, tabbed browsing, reliable, free (in all ways), and sane rendering.
Well tabs are a must, but I'd have to say security and performance. Ultimately that's what got me away from using IE addons. I needed some extentions as well such as drag and drop, but Firefox is a much better browser because I'm not likely to bork my entire system just by accidently going to a site.
Firefox is not good piece of software, but:
1) everyday anti-MS people heroldize that IE is complete crap, though I suppose these people silently use all MS products, so most of people reading these articles think that all their computer problems are because they use IE. Ridiculous, but obscurants are great tool for establishing public oppinion
2) anyway it is free, people like free stuff.Though sometimes freewares are quite dangerous, but in this case the fact that it is open-source makes it more reliable
3) why not to test something new. I know a lot of people are mad to download something and install onto their computers. Some people just cannot live even day without installing new piece of software
Despite IE is outdated and it does not support many features that are in fashion now, it is very good backbone browser. Nothing to do here. IE4 was crap, despite its novel features to those days and I and most of people used Netscape, but IE5+ still gain over.
Personally, I use Maxthon as it is more friendly than IE, but sometimes I need to use IE. I have Firefox and Opera also installed on all my computers, and I attempted to give them credit, but they have a long way ahead, though Opera is much better than Firefox.
I like firefox because of a combination of those options mentioned.... security and standards compliance is great; Tabs and Extensions (and performance) make me more productive... in comparison to IE, I'm definitely much more productive working in Firefox.
It's nice to be able to just hit a button and have an simple interface to various sites, mass link downloading and other added features. I also like the idea that if the browser doesn't have a function that I'd like, it's not to hard to create it. The open sourceness of Firefox is nice and all, but it's the extendability that makes it neat. I like to know that Abe Vegoda is still alive and that I can, in theory, spell check before I post.
More importantly I've seen a few full apps and games created quickly using nothing more than some simple xul and a few graphics. Of course this is available in Mozilla, but Moz tends to be kinda bloated.
Does anyone know if there is an OSNews extension? Cause if there is I'd use the hell out of it.
I guess I didn't add the java plugin after I upgraded FF because I don't get options to vote on the poll. I'll do it when I get home.
Why I like FF, I like tabbed browsing. Its convienent to middle click on a link and have a new tab pop open while keeping the original page and spot open. Also that it prompts me to download a file instead of just downloading and installing (think spyware) which has saved my butt more than once.
I like FireFox, essentialy for the Tab-browsing. Extensions are bonuses.
Opera has Tab-browsing, but FireFox transfer automaticly all my IE bookmarks, and has all standard plug-in already in.
I still need IE for some site.
Tabs and speed of the browser is the only reason i use it. It doesn't work with all sites though hence the need to use IE. If Microsoft put out a version of IE with Tabs tommorrow i would dump Firefox in a heart beat.
Tabbed browsing, adblock, and popup blocking. No spyware as well. Other browsers can do similar things, but when I was trying out alternatives Firefox seemed the fastest and and had the friendliest GUI. JMHO
I like Find-As-You-Type. Makes my whole browsing experience so much more enjoyable. BTW, it's implemented a lot better in Mozilla Suite than in Firefox (due to bugs with the Find bar), but that's another story.
Yes, I hear much noise about XP SP2, IE 7, etc...
But what about WINDOWS 98/me? Firefox is the _one_ safe option (well, and opera) for those OSes. So, security is THE reason for me
Scrapbook (http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla) makes it all worthwhile for me: it's the sole reason I switched from Opea to Firefox.
For those not in the know, Scrapbook allows you to:
-Save whole web pages, and even more useful, just a selection from a web page. Complete with graphics, plugins and whatnot
-You can highlight and annotate saved pages
-It has a DOM eraser tool that allows you to eliminate arbitrary DOM objects from saved pages
-Categorisation into folders
-Full-text searching thru all saved pages
I seriously think it should be integrated into the main Firefox distribution, it's that good. It you're doing research on the Web, or on dial-up it's a godsend.
Other nice features of Firefox:
-Right-click on search field, select "Add keyword for this search" and bang! instant search thru the address bar. Nice.
-Many, many extensions
-Profiles, with the ability to use multiple ones simultaneously
-Checking for updates to extensions and the browser
What I don't like:
-Not fast enough on Linux. On Windows it feels much snappier.
-Extensions can sometimes conflict among themselves and cause slowdowns. Not much can be done about that save to ask extension developers to be more careful and to write tighter code.
-No binary updates: updating Firefox involves downloading the whole pile once again. To be solved in 1.1 apparently.
-Native tab handling not powerful enough: tabs cannot be moved, no tab-list as in Opera, no option to open tabs next to the current one. Some of these niggles (or maybe all of them?) can be solved thru extensions.
-Hierarchical bookmarks should be thrown out of the window. Come to think of it, all pure-hierarchical info-management systems should just go. Labels. extended attributes, tags, these are much more powerful, and are featurewise supersets of hierarchical systems.
Why isn't there an 'All of the above (except for the last one)' option?
I like Firefox because:
1) More secure and security updates are WAY faster than Microsoft's
2) Extensions. I have 54 extensions installed in my Firefox and it's STILL blazingly fast. Each of those extensions adds a nice ability not in the default program.
3) Stability. Firefox is incredibly stable now.
4) Tabbed Browsing. I'm sorry but I just can't ever use a browser efficiently again if it doesn't have tabs.
5) Standards Compliance. It renders fantastically and is getting better all the time.
6) Bookmarks management. I still don't understand how people can like the way IE does it. Firefox's bookmark management is just fantastic.
7) AdBlock. This can be classified under #2 but god damn. There simply is no better browser experience than Firefox + AdBlock together.
8) Speed. After tweaking it a bit it can be very fast. The default settings are a little tame unfortunately.
I'd like FF even more if it automatically calculated a MD5 for each download file. Still miles ahead of IE though :-)
I think the GUI of Firefox feels slow, but the loading of webpages feels much faster than IE (which seems to wait until the entire page is loaded until it's shown, very annoying).
I also like the Find toolbar, which is the best findbar I've ever seen in any application.
I like the bookmarks system, it's much easier to find back a bookmark than it is using IE.
I like AdBlock & co. (though I'm not disabling every ad out there, just the most annoying ones).
I like the Javascript console.
I like that cute little fox in my taskbar and menu's 
I like the built-in RSS functionality.
I like the weatherbar that's in the statusbar of each FF view (yet another fine extension).
I like how FF puts the cursor into the location bar each time when I open a new FF view so I can start typing the web address without moving the cursor into that location bar first (IE doesn't).
I like the popup blocking and the anti-spyware attitude of the Fox.
FF seems to be a happy memory drinker, that's the only thing I don't like.
FF is slower than IE and has Java probs. I am still using IE and using FF for those few web sites that requires up to date HTML rendering.
I wish they'd drop XUL.
I still like Mozilla "Seamonkey" much more: Only one programm that needs to be updated. Better usability for power users.
If I want Calendar functionality in Mozilla Seamonkey I install the Calendar extension.
With the new programms I can:
- install Calendar extension in Firefox
- install Calendar extension in Thunderbird
- install standalone Calendar programm
so:
Calendar code more difficult to maintain.
In worst case I have 3 programms running using quite similar code, but not sharing them in RAM, so 3-times the MemoryUsage. Security hole found => updating 3 programms, somehow silly.
Why?
Standards
Tabs
Security
OSS
Why Not?
Only one: You are on a Mac, like I have at home (just use Camino or Safari)
If I am using Windows or Linux, Firefox it is. On a mac, firefox is next to unbearable compared to Camino or Safari.
personally i love firefox on a linux or windows install. it's really fast and clean.
i have to agree with thom on the mac thing though. as much as i'd love to use it as my default browser i can't. the interface is just frustratingly slow.
FireFox is FASTER than other browsers I have used (both in launching and browsing). It has a huge assortment of available plugins (as opposed to IE). It gets security fixes out QUICK.
Oh, and all you who only like FireFox because "it uninstalls" and because it's "open source" are lame. IMHO, those are NOT good reasons to use software.
You'd have to be a damn idiot not to like Firefox. At least on the PC platform. Mac performance is spotty anyway.
Or you prefer something smaller and faster, such as K-Meleon or Opera. Opera's also got Firefox beat in customization, UI, security, and standards-compliance.
Because..performance and security i feel like I am on linux when on windows .. HO HO HO HO
Firefox doesn't rock, it's just slightly better. They both do essentially the same function to the end user. I use Safari personally because I prefer how it handles tabs, handles URL history, and how it blends into the native LAF of my OS.
Yes, its true. I don't like Firefox, however, I do like Moz. Sorry all, I just prefer Moz to FF.
As for the comments, being slow, its not gecko that is slow, its XUL. Now, I am not preaching other browsers here but K-Melon is darn quick as a browser. It has removed some of the intermediate layer in the design.
Check the compile time options. There is better preformance with -O2 instead of -O. Makes a big difference.
That means I can browse the web in a relatively secure manner using the same tool regardless of whether I'm using my OS/2 box, a Linux box, or a Windows box.
Even my older versions of Windows can use the updated browser, unlike Microsoft's offering.
I have to agree with the Mac implementation being slow. Really, I think Firefox rocks on Windows, but on Mac it's slow, and on Linux, Konqueror is lighter, faster, more integrated, and comes with most of the important features built in (though if you count all the available extentions for Firefox, FF has a much cooler featureset). Like someone above said, Firefox doesn't rock, it's just a bit better.
Plus the whole thing about cutting corners to provide a better experience for users is hogwash. Who likes re-downloading Firefox for every x.x.X release? Why not just quit cutting corners?
I like the approach Firefox uses, Give the user just the very basics needed for functionality and let the user add any extra features they might want. Get the core working fast and efficient (I know firefox still needs a lot of work in these areas)
I wish OpenOffice would take this route, just basic stuff and let everything be an extension.
The philosophy should be each part does one thing really well, and then the application incorporates all those really efficient parts together.
Apart from plugins, tabs, speed, activeX...
Because it doesn't take me back to the beginning of the url while I am typing it...
I hate IE for that most of all.
Oh, and all you who only like FireFox because "it uninstalls" and because it's "open source" are lame. IMHO, those are NOT good reasons to use software.
In your world the poll would have one option, right?
Pro: I can't stand browsing anymore without my mouse gestures and tabs.
I also like not having active X.
Cons: It does have a serious memory leak. If I leave the same window open for a day or two it easily gets over 100meg.
The way the whole program locks up while slooowly loading a .pdf and firing up reader. Yes, this is mostly Adobe's fault, but does it have to lock up all tabs? Eventually I was driven to look for a decent third party reader that loads x10's faster.
Because the point of a browser is to surf the web. Firefox lets me do that without installing spyware, allowing pop-ups, running like a dirt slow hog, trying to be smart for me by integrating with Windows Explorer or MS Office, and a bunch of other reasons.
I'm not sure how valuable that poll really is. Personally, I think there are several important features (many listed in the poll and others not) but any single feature really isn't that big of deal (except tabbed browsing). It's the combination of having all of those features available that makes Firefox so much better than IE.
I read about 30 webpages every day when I get back from work. These are divided into 6 categories. I simply use "Open in Tabs" for every category, one after another, closing each tab with CTRL-W going from page to page.
Reading 30 pages in IE would cost me at least twice the time and saves me enormous use of the mouse. And I like the idea everything can be organized.
So far, Safari does everything that I needed from Firefox, except for some reason I'm having weird DNS errors every now and then. It's definitely either Safari or the Mac itself; it doesn't happen on the various PCs running Linux and Windows in the home. Otherwise though, I simply love it. One thing that I find particularly useful is the built-in RSS feed manager; it's simple and does exactly what it should, without the complications of standalone managers.
Because I can use the same browser on any computer.
Because my browser gets better MTBF than my OS (uptimes of over a month for the OS).
Because I can choose when and why to upgrade. If there is a feature I want I can be using it as soon as it is implemented.
And yes, because of its standards compliance. Much easier to do web design on than IE (and for extensions, DOM Inspector helps a lot too).
For me it would be all the above. I chose the tabs though (relaizing Opera also has it). I didn't care, personally, for Standards compliance since I'm not a web developer. I realize its important, and there's no sense in extra programming and hours of testing for one or two browsers.
On April 6, 2005, Anand Lal Shimpi of www.anandtech.com, responded via weblog to questionable practices & ethics of hardware review websites. http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/default.aspx#198
He wrote: ...
"But I worked hard these past 8 years, AnandTech grew from nothing to where it is today - with over 6 million monthly unique readers. " ...
People replied to the blog and those replies can be seen at http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/comments.aspx?bid=198
Comment #33 Posted on Apr 7, 2005 at 4:26 AM by Jon B, wrote:
"3. You use a lot of Firefox/Mozilla based benchmarks in your latest articles. Why? Has Firefox overtaken IE's marketshare or are Firefox usage more common amongst the Anandtech reader. Maybe you motivated this move in an article I missed, please point me to it if that's the case. "
Comment #38 Posted on Apr 7, 2005 at 10:33 AM by Anand Lal Shimpi, wrote:
"3) Firefox is used by more than half of the AT readership, it has replaced IE as the number one browser amongst AnandTech readers."
Anand's comment reveals that FireFox has surpassed MS IE for his site. I'm sure that IE is still dominant for many many sites, but that lead is slowly being erroded by FireFox.
I like Firefox a lot, but Opera still has it beat for features, speed, and working with some company pages I need for work. (And I really the the ability to block automatic redirection in Opera!)
When I am just surfing the web, I use Opera with everything locked down for fast browsing with no aggravation. Then if I see a page that I want to check out better, I load it in FF with adblock and all the "goodies" turned on. So they work well together.
Either way IE stays in the closet, where it should be kept at all times...
amaya 9.1 rules 'cause its 100% W3C compliant and not only a browser 
While I personally use Epiphany (using Mozilla 1.7.x not firefox), because the inferface is nicer to use IMHO. Firefox does provide some nifty plugins like adblock, popupsmustdie, translate and many more. Oh and it's more secure than IE.
I'm looking forward to Firefox 1.1, bring it on!
The tabbed browsing is the only feature that draws me to it, though I rarely have more than two pages open at a time, so its not a huge benefit for me. I like the integration into windows that IE gives me, which is why I keep going back.
because it's free software and conforms to standards
because it's free software option missing ...
The big thing for me is the tabbed browsing.
#2 security (was a windows user)
#3 overall just better, and it works on any OS.
Since I dont use KDE, and never liked Opera, FF is the only way to go.
Yes its a mem hog, and some sites dont render right(there falt), and it does have its issues. I would still use FF any day of the week.
With IE(when I had to use it) I was afrade of "surfing the net", to worryed about getting hacked because of some lame script.
Well then, you may like Opera's UserJS 
I imagine that's not your only reason for liking it though,
I prefer Dillo. It has tabs, is lightweight (less than half a meg), and fits in much better with WindowMaker. If I want to view a site that requires Flash or other heavily graphical stuff, I open it in Safari on my iBook.
Grease monkey is the grease for getting it in the anus
Every week, Firefox have security issues.
There is nothing in that poll that makes Firefox any different than the full blown Mozilla.
On a P2-400 w/ 128MB with WinXP, Firefox takes 10 seconds to load while IE takes 2.
On an Athlon 64 2800+ with 1GB of RAM in Linux, Firefox takes 3 seconds to load while Konqueror takes 0.5s.
The slow loading times of Firefox give me time to contemplate the important things in life, instead of dealing with the rushed modern world of click click click instant results.
Firefox can resize the fonts of a whole webpage very well 100 times better than IE. I have high myopia in my eyes and i need big fonts to reduce stress in my eyes.
I'm typing this in firefox, it's been a nice ride, the extensions are cool... But in all honesty lately I've been thinking about switching back to Galeon as it's back in shape after going through some real shit times...
was an opera junkie till about 5.. used firefox as soon as it was available for public consumption. ( whenever that was )
why do i like it?
well, the search plugins are pretty cool. also, tabbed browsing) esp. like Open Link in New Tab), and the Qute skin help me enjoy my browsing experience..
with regards to the bugs, i am impressed by the way the foundation handles it; fixes it as soon as possible.
i don't expect it to be totally bug free.. i don't know if anything can possibly be released bug free... and if we wait for every bug fix to be incorporated and tested, i doubt we'd get anything out the door!
I forgot to mention that I do still use Firefox here at work (I haven't talked them into buying me a Mac...yet!) and I do so because I like my tabbed browsing. Also, I run it off of my USB thumb drive so if my workstation were to die or otherwise be replaced/upgraded, I don't have to worry about losing my bookmarks.
Two reasons:
1. Bookmarking RSS feeds
2. Web Developer 0.9.3 exension
Two of the features I can't find anwhere else (yet) and have come to rely on heavily for work and play...
Check out this article on abeNd.org for a method of deploying, managing and locking down the Firefox browser in corporate environments:
http://www.abend.org/article.php?story=20050420162658991
This article describes some performance enhancements for the browser:
http://www.abend.org/article.php?story=20050502111446869
And this one just has some general news about the new release, the market share, the Frefox/KDE thing, etc.:
http://www.abend.org/article.php?story=20050512131359519&query=fire...
Oh and btw, IBM is converting 300,000 users to Firefox:
http://www.abend.org/article.php?story=20050513170713792&query=fire...
i can't stand the separate url and search entry boxes that firefox has.
While IE doesn't yet (Running it in Wine isn't that optimal...)
.. firefox.
opera rules.. i rarely surf anymore so browsers are of little use really. theres like 5 sites i visit.. dunno why i still visit this one...
That's because both IE and Konqueror are preloaded into RAM whenever Windows or KDE is started. So when you run those apps, you aren't actually starting them, you're just creating a new window for an app that's already running. I think it would be nice if Firefox had a similar option, but maybe its more difficult since it has to run on lots of platforms.
***And seriously, can we just block all comments from anonymizer.com***
One word why Firefox rules: EXTENSIONS!
They are easy to make, plentiful, and the added funcitonality can save you lots of time/annoyances. The downfall of the extension system though is extension conflicts and firefox updates. On mozillazine I read about a warning to developers that Firefox 1.1 will again change the extension API slightly so once again older extensions might break. But the good news is that extensions designed correctly will alert the user if they need to be updated and the user can then click the update button in the extensions manager.
I feel tempted to add a plug for my own LGPL'd extension MenuX since I need more testers so I am pasting the link here if people want to try it out. It allows you to customize the navigation toolbar and collapse any toolbar or menubar in Firefox. http://markbokil.org/index.php?section=mozilla&content=c_menux.php
-mark
You can fix that separate search box/url box problem in Firefox. Just right-click on the nav toolbar and select customize. Pull the search box off. Now create a bookmark and give it a keyword of say 's'. Set the url of the bookmark to 'http://www.google.com/search?q=%s'. Now to do a search you can just type 's cat food' and Firefox will do a search on google.
-mark
Firefox doesn't "rule", it just so happens to suck less than all the other sucky browsers out there. Firefox seems to be getting more buggy and less stable by the hour.
Firefox rules, not because it has feature x or y, it rules because it has all these cool features while remaining cross-platform!
[quote]Firefox seems to be getting more buggy and less stable by the hour.[/quote]
Hmm. I am not certain this is based on fact. The last bug report I saw for 1.1 Firefox nightly builds showed a decrease in bugs. I ocasionally have Firefox crash when I am running a Java plugin but it is the Java plugins fault really. I leave Firefox running for several days on my linux box without rebooting it. I don't have too much Windows experience with it. Maybe it is more stable on linux.
cross platform. i use linux at home and have to use windows at work and school. firefox is happy wherever. and not having tabs is the most frustrating experience when you're researching and are bouncing back and forth between pages.
i've never tried safari because i can't afford the hardware it runs on.
opera renders things all screwy. maybe it's because of incompliant pages, but it annoys me enough that i stay away. i'd like to see more stanards compliance, but i also need my stuff to work.
konqueror... well, it sucks if you run gnome. it is so close on load times with firefox that it's not worth the hassle.
epiphany? huh... just tried it right now. seems snappy enough, but i have no where near enough experience to really judge it. hated galeon though.
and ie? no tabs... spyware succeptibility. but i will say that our oracle based expensing software at work will only open in IE, which gets really old since i do everything else in firefox. plus some big companies like rockwell software have their heads up microsofts hole and still write activex applets to run in IE.
It's Free (as in speech and beer).
It's secure (well, all software has bugs; but like any F/OSS, those are fixed in Firefox very quickly after they are discovered).
I can't browse without Adblock + Tabs...WAAY nice.
The WebDeveloper extension kicks butt.
It's cross-platform: I use it in GNU/Linux and FreeBSD at home and on Windows at work.
The only thing it's missing in my view is better font rendering. Then again, I've not tried very hard in this aspect so it's likely my fault.
GGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Firefox!!!
Because the extension support makes it so powerful. There are some extensions I'd hate to surf without. I also like the fact that I am supporting an open source program.
You know of course you are all helping out the old MS hornet by telling them and everyone else what you think. But I guess they'd eventually catch on... right?
I do not trust the Microsoft and I do not want to feed its monopoly, security is also another point
It seems like a lot of people switched from Opera, switched early. Try it again.
It isn't "hot" or "sleek", but it is very nice, simplistic and powerful. It also comes with it a lot of integrated features that you need extensions for in FF.
I really like it.
My laptop has quite high resolution display (1400x1050). IE is pretty useless in this situation - everything is just way too small, and there is no way to zoom comfortably. There are some pages which IE refuses to zoom no matter what you do.
Firefox allows me to zoom to any level just the way I like without limitations.
1. extensions
2. how it looks (on Linux and Windows!)
tabs, themes, and extensions! It's a premier software product at a very good price (0.00)
After Ben Goodger's comments about "cutting corners," and the recent slew of security vulnerabilities that are plaguing Firefox, all the reasons I like to use Firefox are beginning to evaporate.
Web Developer extension is a must for web designer.
Tab browser is essential. Hopefully it will be integrated in the incoming Firefox update version.
Using MenuX, you can customize your Firefox by removing all gui and only use mouse navigation.
Efficient rendering.
After Ben Goodger's comments about "cutting corners," and the recent slew of security vulnerabilities that are plaguing Firefox, all the reasons I like to use Firefox are beginning to evaporate.
What you don't understand is how developer reacts to fix these kind of vulnerability. Since it took less than a week to solve that issue, that just reinforce the argument about active security. No software in the planet will be totally secure. Due to its open source nature, Firefox support is more efficient than any proprietary browser support.
I like because it has TABs support, good privacy management, popup blocker, download manager, it's autoscroll is nice, good keybindings, it's free software, and i can run on any OS
it's very clean and not limited, and i like it
My experience has been that more and more spyware are written and targeted on IE than Mozilla-based browsers. They easily install spyware (tool bars, etc...) when one browses websites using IE
no, not opera. I forgot to mention that another reason I like firefox is because it's free!
Haven't tried opera, I'm sure it's great, but last I heard it wasn't free (without ads anyways).
I like it (and Thunderbrid and the Moz Suite) becase I can have all of my data on one shareable partition (or network) and share it all across any platform or computer I happen to be on at the time. My mail, bookmarks, etc stay with me whereever I go. Always sync'd. Love it. OS/2, Windows, Linux, etc. They don't care. OS-agnostic really. Like openoffice!
Firefox promotes this type of flexability;
http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org
That's the main reason why it's such a good browser; the simple things are simple, and the complex things are indeed possible and (often) also simple to do.
Greasemonkey is a bit much to wrap your mind around if you're not a good web developer, though what it can do doesn't require that you be one.
http://dunck.us/collab/GreaseMonkeyUserScripts
http://platypus.mozdev.org
It is tough choosing just one reason for your liking towards FF
My reasons for the choice are
a) Easy to use, uncluttered interface
b) ADBLOCK Extension +Filters
c) Security and good defaults
d) Themes /Skins
Disadvantages
a) The Memory Hog Problem 
b) Patching should be there
c) Lack of trouble free automatic updates
- It's free
- I can make extensions, or add someone extensions.
- It's fully integrated with linux, and windows.
- Tabs are really usefull.
- I hate non free software for using at home.
- RSS insede is a great idea.
- I can manage my finders on internet.
- It has Less attakers
- Of course, is not from MICROSOFT.
Open source, quite lightweight (hope to see more shrink in the future...), optimized (i use moox), localized, multiplatform, fast corrected, and http://secunia.com/product/4227/
Need more ?
All browsers look ugly by default. Skinability is key.
Firefox takes that further by allowing you to customize anything. Remove the search bar. Remove the home button. Move all toolbars into one slim bar. Remove any menu option you don't need. Add your own toolbars. Add your own right-click (context) menus. Add anything you can do with javascript or XUL.
AdBlock, Greasemonkey, Platypus extensions: take control of any webpage, making them all look however you want them to look, removing anything annoying from the page.
Sage: a great extension for built-in RSS reading. Can be styled exactly like Safari's if that's your thing. Can be customized however you want, again, using javascript and XUL.
Speed and ability to handle a huge load of tabs is awesome. Its fairly scalable, and I regularly browse with 5-30 tabs open. But the memory leak with images will be annoying until 1.1 is released next month, meaning until then you have to bookmark all tabs and reopen the browser every once in a while until then.
Those back-to-back vulnerabilities are a bit of a punch in the face, but every product has them, and I've never seen a product have the kind of turnaround that the devs had on those bugfixes. Combine that speed with the binary patching of 1.1 and automatic updates and it will be the holy grail of security, next to the impossible feat of writing perfect software.
Those giving Goodger crap about his comments don't get it. Firefox got where it is today (4x as many users as other products) by setting goals and sticking with them. The 1.0 release could have been more complete if they wanted to release 2 years from now. We have Firefox and all of its extensions today because they chose to "cut corners" and work on what's important to users, and allow them to write whatever they want to add to its usability.
I tried Safari in PearPC, alongside Firefox, and Safari was clearly slower. I don't know where people get the idea it is faster. Safari waits until almost the whole page was loaded before displaying anything. No way that I could use a browser that uncustomizable. Camino is the same. I guess form over function is the paradigm of that market.
Opera is another story. It looks especially ugly and overbearing by default. It also comes free with ads, paid for, or ripped off. None of those seem like good options when there's a more extensible alternative, that incidentally more people also use.
I tried Safari in PearPC, alongside Firefox, and Safari was clearly slower. I don't know where people get the idea it is faster. Safari waits until almost the whole page was loaded before displaying anything. No way that I could use a browser that uncustomizable. Camino is the same. I guess form over function is the paradigm of that market.
I'm on a iMac 17" 800 MHz 768 M (yes, that's low, but I'm not alone) here, and I have to tell you Safari is clearly faster overall than Firefox on this computer. Most of the UI actions in Firefox are too slow to keep up. Especially scrolling, which looks like a slide show, and that the UI widgets don't "get" the clicks I do every time. Firefox renders the pages faster, like a second or so, but that's one of the few places it's faster.
Don't think I'm bashing Firefox, I love it on Windows. Also, in my opinion, Firefox looks better than Safari, but the feel of Safari is so much better.
I don't know about others, but form and function is what keeps me on the Mac side. And you can customize Safari, through third party software and changing "hidden" prefs (ie plists).
well when I use IE it gets only 12 - 24 hours to get
thousends of viruses and torjans and adwares and ...
but with I'm useing firefox for about a 6 months and my system in safe!
another thing is that it's simple and customizable! I love it's simplicity. Opera is so confusing!!!
and better than all it's OpenSource which make it the best for now! I think Firefox project is one the most successful OpenSource project in the history of GNU!
With my work I need to save and print many web pages, lot of these are protected mail and homebanking pages and when tryed to save them with IE the browser told me that not was possible because protected pages. Firefox instead save this kind of pages without many problems.
Tabs: 5/5, tabs rock, all sorts of GOOD GUI rocks.
Security: 3/4, I don't know if it really is. I suppose they had less bugs from start compared to MSIE from start.
Themes: 1/5, I use one, beyond that nothing to tell.
Performance: 4/5, very important, allthought server speed is probably a larger issue.
Extensions: 4/5. nice to have, adblock <3
Standards compliancy: 4/5, doesn't make firefox a better experience, but makes the web a better one.
Bookmark: 1/5, what's so good about it? Haven't checked. RSS bookmarks might be useful.
Other:
It's not a microsoft product: 4/5
Quite portable: 4/5
Memory usage: -3/5
Speed compared to KHTML-based browsers: -3/5
Stupid start-to-type-something-in-url(?)-or-google-field-then-do-something-el se-come-pack-and-click-and-it's-all-gone-feature: -5/5
URL removed after failure to reach something: -10/5
It doesn't cut away part of the webpage when printing: 5/5.
I saw someone else also said "memory hog", how does it come firefox uses hundreds of MB of ram after a week or so even if you have closed all tabs? Cache of things? Whatever it's I don't want it
but it's better than anything else out there, cos the other linux browsers suck even more and IE sucks most of all. All computer programs sucks. Firefox is best of breed and it still sucks.
firefox still need tons of basic, simple features, like...
- turn off i-frames
- turn of meta-refresh
- selective java blocking (just like selective image blocking)
- selective domain blocking
- ability to install multiple copies on same OS
- easy proxy use
and stop doing stupid shit......
- stop loading the website immediately when i hit "stop" instead of continuing to load shit i don't want
- stop downloading the page AGAIN when i try to save it. it's already in memory, save THAT, dammit
- stop processing when i leave a page, there's way too many sites that try to set cookies when closing a page, what's up with that?
- stop the moronic cookie handling behavior like blocking cookies from a site where i choose "accept for session"
I could go on for hours. This is the best browser out there and I can pick it apart at every feature, as I'm sure everyone else can too. Are all programmers retards?
It looks minimalistic and pretty.
Many useful extensions (especially Adblock!)
Shows most webpages how they are supposed to be
Tabs!
Bookmarks management is allright...but I usually just put every bookmark into the same folder whatever browser Im using... So it gets messy anyways.
No problems with loading time for me... I'm on a 3GHz P4 with 512MB RAM and it starts in about a second. I can wait for that. Even with many programs open (Dreamweaver MX (via Wine), Zend DE, Evolution, Rythmbox).
1. Because it is FREE as in Freedom
2. Because it is superior in everything
The reason why Forefox is good can not be broken down to single things. It's power lies in that it is very powerful in successfully combining and using those things. For example, I'd really love FFox without the extensions, but the 14 extentions I regularly use, combined with the default goodnessess in FFox (tabs, live bookmarks, standards compliance, speed, themes, size, usability) it just results in a helluva powerfull and easy to use browser.
Hell, even if the only thing FFox had was the Adblock extension, I'd still stick with it.
To me FireFox (on Windows) feels like using a skinned version of IE with plugins, and all the "useful" functions are things that Opera allready have (like mouse gestures and tabbed browsing).
BTW! I use Opera, it's safe, reliable and fast.
It's quick, customizable, stable, secure, for free. Simple as that. And best: It's not by Microsoft.
Linky+Magpie are the ultimate combination. Adblock also helps.
That's just because of this functionality that I use Firefox. This ability to open an entire bookmark directory in one clic is just great.
I must admit that if Mozilla had this thingy too, I would not use Firefox at all. It contains far too much memory leaks. :/
because it's NOT installed on my machine. Too much hype, when it's too obvious that Opera is so much better. If you've been an Opera user for a long time, you'll NEVER like any other browser (except for some reason- IE).
Firefox is plain Mozilla with the extensions. Someday, it'll end up the same old bloated browser. That is because of too much hype. If this open source is tightly controlled like the Apache dev't (no so much hype), I think a much better, meaner browser will come out.
but still i use it, because IE sucks more. some trojan hacked to my IE and now i cant really use it. so i switched to firefox. the tabs are nice, the UI sucks, and worst of all - its slow as hell. why does it need 40MB in ram just to show google?! when i work with many sites it gets well over 200MB, and then its all slow as hell cuz of thrashing. i dont understand why wouldnt they let me create *SEVERAL DIFFERENT PROCESSES*, instead of a giant one. this way, if one process gets slow, i could use the others without notice. but no.
-tomer
Cross platform support is actually the most important point for me. I use Firefox on Windows, Linux and Zeta. Of course the synchronize bookmarks extension comes in nicely especially since I also use more than just one computer.
* better popup blocking in general in my experience
* tabbed browsing
* adblock extension
* easier profile management (as in I can move profile from Windows to linux to Solaris and keep my history and passwords etc....)
Disadvantages to me:
* Memory usage is not great.
* Startup could be faster on Windows.
Because:
* It's not Micro$oft
* It's free
* Multi Tabs
* CTRL-F
* CTRL +/-
* Plug-ins
* New Version's daily
Multi-vote should be possible!
* tabs
* standards compliance
* adblock extension
Firefox is more standards compliant - other browser have tabs etc... but M$ Internet Explorer will never be standards compliant, unless you are referring to M$ own internal standards.
- turn of meta-refresh
I can do this for individual tabs using the MiniT extension.
- ability to install multiple copies on same OS
On windows at least, zip builds just need to be unpacked, not installed. No problem switching from one to the other, though you can't run multiple copies at the same time.
- easy proxy use
Apparently some work was done on this recently for 1.1. But have you tried the SwitchProxy Tool extension?
stop loading the website immediately when i hit "stop" instead of continuing to load shit i don't want
It might be that the browser is simply rendering stuff already downloaded, not downloading more--I don't know what it is you're using to judge this.
As for the other things you mention, I agree that most of them are annoying.
I have Safari & Firefox on my Mac Mini. Firefox is way faster then Safari on this machine.
I thought it was weird that every Mac person commenting on here says that Safari is much faster.
Is there something I'm missing?
Actually I think gecko is ok, but think firefox is much too little polished:
1.) after triple-clicking, it correctly selects a whole line, but does not really enter a line selection mode
2.) after doubleclicking the tabbar to open a new tab, focus does not go automatically to the location bar.
3.) No 'up' button for webpages without extensions.
...
But a cool new project really could be the killer-extension for firefox: Conkeror http://conkeror.mozdev.org/
It makes surfing with keyboary only possible, much better than only the find-as-you-type thing.
the OSX version is slow and buggy. I prefer Safari instead.
2.) after doubleclicking the tabbar to open a new tab, focus does not go automatically to the location bar.
Weirdly, as a side effect of one of my extensions, this works for me. I've yet to isolate the cause of my fortune, though.
Platypus is another potentially killer extension
http://platypus.mozdev.org/
All modern graphical browsers are junk. They eat too much memory, they are slow, they have too much `bells and whistles' things (for me, that's anything more than HTML rendering - skins, flash, java, javascript, DHTML and so on), they lack features and tunability. They turn into complete bloatware. Elinks is best browser ever - all features required for browsing (including tabs), no unneeded features and excellent tunability.
If they could only merge the eLinks- and links-gui features...
Links-GUI is fast, but it can do anti-aliasing, some JavaScript and images too. eLinks can't do that, but has tabbed browsing and SSL.
Dillo is still crap IMHO, as it does not support frames. And FireFox is so large, slow and memory-hungry.
Konqueror is quite a nice compromise, I think. It might not support all websites as well as FireFox, but most work fine and it is a *lot* faster.
But then, Konqueror doesn't run natively on Windows.
well the its give tapped browsing+search words within the site+ speed
it is higly customizable through a powerfull extensions design.
I was a user of IE and by mistake I clicked somewhere and it installed spyware all over my PC. I had to reformat the disk and find a better alternative.
I personally like fire-fox because of it's modulairity.As default ff features like every other modern secure browser.The extensions are what makes fire-fox a very powerfull companion.Extensions such as adblock (eg: *doublick*,blocks any URL with "doubleclick" in it),webdeveloper (eg:easy one "click away configuration of javascript/java-enable/disable,referrer-logging-enable/disable,etc).
I allways browse with java,javascript,referrer-logging,cookies,image-animations disabled and have a lot of wildcards issued with adblock.Which makes browsing the web not only a lot more secure but allso more adfree and faster.
Adblock is the main reson that I use firefox, I really hate different kind of ads and banners and crap.
Safari is more efficient. Firefox can be tweaked to be as fast as your machine can make it. But firefox is terribly enifficient, especially when tweaked.
Not that it matters. If you had a 233 iMac you'd say safari is much faster.
I'd say right now, for efficiency of rendering that probably nothing compares to Opera (which is part of why it's the darling of small devices).
Fast is not a good word to use with software, it's a terribly loaded word.
I use Firefox because of the tabbed browsing (yes I know Opera had it before but I just prefer the way it's handled in Firefox). The various extensions are also a pluss and the speed with which they fix security holes appears to be very good. If I find something that seems better, I'd probably switch. For linux I found Kazehakase ( http://kazehakase.sourceforge.jp/ ), through an article on Newsforge, and it appears to have some nice features and the potential to be a top-notch browser. Has some problems right now, biggest one is with domain names ( .com, .net, .org, .jp and .gov appear to be the only ones that don't start a google search when entered in the address bar as www.url.com. With any other domains you need the http:// before the www.).
I've not had this problem with memory usage since 1.0. It does take it a while to clearn image memory, but I always find it does get rid of it.
I usually don't let a browser session run for more than a day though (it's a psycho-dark-alley-web-browser not a file explorer or desktop environment).
Well I like FF for most of the reasons above, but I do hate that with more than a few plugins, its about as stable as MacOS7 was on a boat load of INITs.
It crashes in the middle of nothing. Still I want to try out some more of these plugins, some are critical like adblocker and downThemall, others are probably junk.
Seems like plugins are the achilles heel.
And most of all I understand FF and what it is doing
IE on the other hand is obfusciated beyond belief, it actually was quite nices once about 5yrs ago.
I like FF because its kicking Bill Gates butt. And thats the only way to keep him honest!
Unlike microsoft, they update their code if they find mistakes in it. It is safer because they pay attention to their software. Also, dont forget great extensions like session saver, and mouse gestures. On a side note, i love the tabbed browsing.
the only problem I found with Firefox was the "100% CPU usage" on Flash-ads sites. Few seconds after opening one of those sites, the laptop fans go crazy! Now I have to use the FlashBlock extension until this problem is solved...
btw, speaking on Firefox -> Gecko Engine, have you heard of the Symphony OS? It's Knoppix-based, and still in alpha, but the concept (and screenshots!) look promissing. Its rendering engine is Gecko:
screenshots: http://www.symphonyos.com/a3.html
homepage: http://www.symphonyos.com/index.shtml
no, not opera.
Yes, opera. You said because it's cross-platform, and so is Opera.
And personally, I use whatever product I like the best, not because something is free. But hey, common sense is not for everyone.
Opera is my favourite browser!
Firefox is the best browser i've ever tried along with oprea. But FF is free faster smarter and safer.
firefox beats internet exploder
The way it loses my bookmarks every 4-5 months.
The way it forces me to download the whole thing every updates (yes, I'm aware that this will be fixed in 1.1).
The way its tab browsing isn't mdi-like, like Opera's.
The way it manages to be so sluggish (especially on linux).
The way it completely chokes on java applets (which is one of the reasons I adblock most of them).
The way its login system sucks compared to Opera's.
The way it doesn't remember the url that was used to open a tab when the said tab times out.
The way it can't resume downloads when the download wasn't started with firefox (it can't resume on top of a partial file created by wget, for example).
And please, stop saying 'Internet exploder' or 'M$', it just sounds silly (almost as silly as my english, or my abnormally large use of parenthesis). Not that I use it or anything.
Despite those downsides, I still use Firefox, since Opera doesn't have Adblock.
and please, stop saying 'Internet exploder' or 'M$', it just sounds silly (almost as silly as my english, or my abnormally large use of parenthesis). Not that I use it or anything.
I am mostly a linux Fedora user. I occasionally have to boot in Windows XP mode to test something. The other day I rebooted into XP mode and the desktop appeared and then I got a warning about Explorer making a fatal execution error and it collapsed on me. Keep in mind this is a virgin XP installation with only two applications installed on it: Firefox and Thunderbird. If it walks and talks like a duck then it must be a duck. Exploder is still a fitting name.
And please, stop saying 'Internet exploder' or 'M$', it just sounds silly
Well, I never heard anyone say "M$" out loud, now that would really sound silly. Anyways, why would anyone change their written or spoken way of quite clearly and concisely expressing their opinion in such a way ? Because you, or some wierdo microsofties say so ? Oh come on, go to your happy place or something, let us be.
About m$, windoze, exploder, micro$oft, whatever else (and there exist some more stupid versions), one has to be honest: they exist for a reason. Eliminate that reason, and maybe some other, more appealing nicknames will be born.
more of a seamonkley guy myself because i hate firefox's interface, particularly the find-as-you-type crap (and i like the sidebar).
but i'm part of the mozilla family for fayt and the extensions mostly, that it doesn't install spyware is nice but not a reason to pick it over anything but IE.
is quite acceptable given the fact, that the internet explorer caused html based worms and virii, there were none before that browser.
the internet exploder engine also is the sole root of all email virii.
About m$, windoze, exploder, micro$oft, whatever else (and there exist some more stupid versions), one has to be honest: they exist for a reason. Eliminate that reason, and maybe some other, more appealing nicknames will be born.
So then you have no issue with "Linsux", "Open sores", etc.
Major reasons why I use FF:
1.) stability and security. Since FF isn't integrated into the OS like IE, there is less risk of getting infected/exploited.
2.) The skins out there are relativity clean and nice looking, but the default skin is ugly.
3.) supports web standards and RSS links
Cons:
1.) speed/responsiveness of the browser is so-so.
If I had a mac I'd use Safari and if I was on linux I'd use Konqueror... but you take what you can get on windows.
I think Net Positive is superior to all other breoseeers,except maybe Enigma for windowze
I use Mozilla Firefox mainly because it is a Free web browser. The Free Software option is missing on the pool.
The way it loses my bookmarks every 4-5 months.
That's not so much a bookmark problem as it is a profile problem.
See thusly:
http://the-edmeister.home.comcast.net/tips-html/tips-create_new_pro...
...I still use it. I got used to it I guess. But if it's not fixed by the time IE7 beta comes along I'm switching back.
1 - Security.
2 - Pop-ups blocking.
3 - Add-block and Flashblock extensions to block banners and Flash adds, thus saving bandwith.
4 - By right clicking on the webpage and going to Webpage information - Media, I can save streaming media to the hard drive.
5 - FRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
"About m$, windoze, exploder, micro$oft, whatever else (and there exist some more stupid versions), one has to be honest: they exist for a reason. Eliminate that reason, and maybe some other, more appealing nicknames will be born."
Valid or not -- and I'm not in any way a fan of Microsoft products or how they act -- this is what I think when people use M$ and other mangled words in place of the correct ones;
http://img.penny-arcade.com/2002/20020722l.gif
The second thing I think is that the person using them is just a shill attempting to make advocates of non-Microsoft software and services look bad by association.
Please, if you are not a troll and can't be reasoned with, stop using these terms and making us look bad.
Microsoft deserves to be called on many things. They are a net negative to both the Internet and software and operating systems in general. Calling them names, though, does not serve to enlighten anyone who is unaware of those very valid issues.
The tabbed browsing
The extensions
The speed, or at least on Windows.
The compact size.
Not much else, really. I guess that would make me a candidate for Opera. I tried it once back when it had a gigantic ad-bar at the top of the screen (which judging by these comments it no longer has) at the behest of a guy who claimed all other browsers were demon spawn (or something to that effect)... The first thing I did was to try to check my email, which he said was the only thing he still used IE for. I went back to Netscape 7.1...
Perhaps sometime soon again.
>- turn of meta-refresh
>
>I can do this for individual tabs using the MiniT extension.
i don't want to individually process this crap, i want ALL of it turned off permanently, like even IE does. This is not the task of an extension, it's a task of basic functionality.
there's only 2 uses for this: 1-adverts, 2-redirection.
which brings up the glaring flaw that redirection doesn't have it's own function.
>- ability to install multiple copies on same OS
>
>On windows at least, zip builds just need to be unpacked,
>not installed. No problem switching from one to the other,
>though you can't run multiple copies at the same time.
you CAN NOT SWITCH, cos the current running installed version just copies all settings to the other installed version. and then copies back again, and again, etc. this is either moronic programming or predatory practices ala MS
and the whole point of having multiple versions installed is to run them similtaneously
>- easy proxy use
>
>Apparently some work was done on this recently for 1.1. But >have you tried the SwitchProxy Tool extension?
>
i'm NOT loading an extension for every pathetic issue. MOST extensions are more of a pain than they are a help. i've tried several proxyswitching exts, but they ALL suck, really suck
right now i use a global proxy switcher, which is not acceptable since i want multiple browsers open similtaneously from multiple proxies. that means i have to test and copy IP addresses for each browser. and you know what? it's still preferable to any proxy switching extension i've ever tried.
>-stop loading the website immediately when i hit "stop"
>instead of continuing to load shit i don't want
>
>It might be that the browser is simply rendering stuff >already downloaded, not downloading more--I don't know what >it is you're using to judge this.
>
all rendering should stop IMMEDIATELY - downloaded or not. but i'm talking about continued processing of links in the html code. it still continues to get cookies, images, etc, etc until all of it's idiotic qualifications are met, and then it still continues processing the html after that including META-REFRESH like behavior for links, cookies, etc. it's like a runaway train that will not be stopped if the html code is clever enough - this truly deeply sucks - since it's usually an iframe stuffed with adverts. these iframes NEVER STOP processing. hitting "stop" does NOTHING
i'm using my firewall as judge, which i have setup for firefox to "ask for confirmation" on every internet connection attempt (test pc).
often i have to save the page to a file & edit it because the number of requests it generates are too numerous and never-ending
I like firefox for all of the reaons in the poll.
Because I can use the same browser at work (windows) and at home (linux).
Because it's not as bloated as Mozilla suite was.
Because it's truely free (speech and beer).
Because it works.
I use it becasue it is available both on Windows and Linux.
... It does ? ...
Leo.
I'm glad you asked Leo! Yes, Firefox does rule.
Greasemonkey - http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org
Platypus - http://platypus.mozdev.org
It's refreshing to be able to click and edit a live web page, save the results, and have those changes dynamically applied the next time I go there.
* Remove banners.
* Move elements (cut/paste).
* Clean up a page quickly for printing.
To use Platypus once you have it installed, right click on a page and select it or select Platypus from the tools menu. Now, each part of the page will be highlighted when you mouse over it.
Press Del to delete an element, hover to another area, and paste the deleted part by pressing Ctrl-V. Want to duplicate something? Use Ctrl-C instead of Del. When you are done, press Ctrl-S to save the script. There are more options, though that's the basics.
Next time you reload the page, your changes will be dynamically applied like a style sheet.
I don't know of any other web browser that does anything like this. Like tabbed browsing, this has become a standard part of dealing with the web for me.
"i don't want to individually process this crap, i want ALL of it turned off permanently, like even IE does."
I understand--I'd like the same thing. But for me at least, I run into a (unwanted) meta-refreshing site so rarely, that doing it on a tab-by-tab basis doesn't bother me that much. Your experience is obviously different.
"cos the current running installed version just copies all settings to the other installed version. and then copies back again, and again"
No, it's not a copy operation exactly. It's the browsers sharing the same profile. You can easily change the profile before opening the browser. See thus:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder
Alas, this doesn't help you because for you:
"the whole point of having multiple versions installed is to run them similtaneously"
Fair enough. I believe that this is a profile issue (as so many are!), which I gather the Mozilla people are rather adamant about.
"i'm NOT loading an extension for every pathetic issue. MOST extensions are more of a pain than they are a help."
Well, yeah. Most applications for an OS are also more of a pain then they're worth, but that doesn't mean that shunning all applications (other then those pre-installed) is the optimum choice. I've got 24 extensions running right now, 15 of which I use multiple times a day. You can pry them from my cold, dead hands. Further, most people's definition of "must have" features will diverge. I don't want everyone's desires cluttering up my browser interface. Just like I'd appreciate it if Microsoft stopped bundling their music player with the OS.
"all rendering should stop IMMEDIATELY - downloaded or not."
While I like your severe vision, I suspect that such behavior would cause too much confusion in most people, and thus will never be accepted into Gecko.
You're right, it's not; and that's why you don't value free things.
Ummmmm.... it's not IE?
On ZDnet and many other Microsoft friendly areas on the web, they usually mention security as the main reason to use, or not to use Firefox.
Interesting to see that more than 85% of the people who like Firefox do so for other reasons than security.
Really, I do... or should I say did.
But between my experiences with bugzilla, that it leaks memory like a sieve (especially when using tabs or multiple windows) which of course leads to the inevitable crash. (and one more person says "What you had is a hang, not a crash" they are gonna get a size 9 up their backside)
I'm pretty much DONE with Firefox... I still am forced to use it for compatability testing on web pages, which is increasingly becoming a major annoyance, especially since the release of v 1.04 - is it just me, or did they forget to unset the parking brake when they released this one... Not that I've EVER seen it peppy to begin with (despite all the BS claims about it being faster... SURE it is...).
It has the best javascript debugging tools of any browser I have tried... Which isn't saying much, they all pretty much suck ass in that department, Gecko just sucks ass LESS.
>Next time you reload the page, your changes will be dynamically applied like a style sheet.
>I don't know of any other web browser that does anything like this. Like tabbed browsing, this has become a standard part of dealing with the web for me.
Ibrowse is doing that since years on the Amiga.
But we had to wait for FireFox to "invent" it for it to become revolutionnary.
Leo.
PS: Opera, IB,... are also doing tabs since years but again: who cares ?
You're right, it's not; and that's why you don't value free things.
I value something if it is worth doing so, not because it is free. That's called being practical, and not political.
But.. you get what you pay for
Quite simply....it is not IE. M$ is just an abusive monopoly that needs to be put down like an old dog with rabies.
Firefox gives me the exact same experience on Linux, OS X and Windows....with no surprises.
;-)
and the coolest logo around!!
I have an aging Satellite Pro ( Celeron 500 ) with 128 Megs RAM and I can run Firefox with a couple other programs on both
XP and Linux.
While this machine can be painfully slow, I have yet to have a crash even when running AirMagnet Surveyor simultaneously ( bit of a resource hog, that one ).
Either you have serious hardware problems or you've got quite the boat anchor, there.
And, for the record, after all these years, Opera still RULES!!
I find Firefox very average. But I run a mac, and we have a huge range of quality browsers to choose from.
My pick is Camino just because it useable (ie isn't too slow) when you don't have lots of RAM.
I like Firefox because it runs on Linux
My primary machine is a Barton 2500 w/ a gig of RAM, but I've also tested on a Athlon 1.3 w/512 and a P-150 Laptop with 128.
It hogs memory like a pig, and on the machine with 128 I can crash it in under A MINUTE. It only takes longer to crash on the other machines because they have more RAM to soak the leak.
Good example of the 'leak' - Open task manager, Do a google image search for say... beach pictures. Open all the results from the first page in their own tabs, then close all the tabs. Lather, rinse repeat until Memory use goes through the roof because it doesn't release all its memory from closed tabs. Eventually you'll crash firefox so bad you have to kill it with task manager.
This effects tabs, multiple windows, and appears to REALLY be made worse by the {censored} download mananger (which is the WORST part of Firefux)... You want to grind your machine to a halt, just try saving multiple images or files - that it even BOTHERS running saved images through it's download manager seems like wasted horsepower - something that's made worse by it occasionally re-downloading images you are already displaying...
and after putting these into bugzilla and seeing them as 'unconfirmed' for more than a year and the attitude the bugzilla maintainers threw me, I pretty much say {censored} firefux and {censored} it's developers... and I'm actively campaigning against the promotion of this crippled piece of junk that has caused more headaches for me and the people I do repairs for than IE ever has.
Good example of the 'leak' - Open task manager, Do a google image search for say... beach pictures. Open all the results from the first page in their own tabs, then close all the tabs. Lather, rinse repeat until Memory use goes through the roof because it doesn't release all its memory from closed tabs. Eventually you'll crash firefox so bad you have to kill it with task manager.
How many times do you need to do this to get this effect?
On my 1024x768 screen I can open 30, or so tabs. I have opened and closed 20 such screens of 30 tabs i.e. 600 images. It's starting to get boring. As far as I can see the memory gets released every time. The machine I'm using is an old 500 MHz pentiom III laptop with 500MB RAM running Fedora Core 3. Are you sure this isn't a windows problem?
Quote: "With IE dipping below 90% of usage share mainly because of Firefox, tell us why you like Firefox."
Why always be so negative?. In stead you could have said "Firefox has been gaining ground in the browser market, mainly because of it's remarkable features. Tell us what you like about Firefox"
I do like Firefox and use it as my main browser. But I don't think it gives me the right to abuse people with other choises. Why could you not have formulated your statement in a more possitive way?
Remember: Abusing others reveals your own weaknesses.
Tabbed browsing, better, although not (yet) complete standards conformance, IE is TERRBILE in this regard, pop-up / ad blocking, performance and its size - <5MB download :-)
Keep up good work FireFox developers!!!
P.S. any time table for Sunbird v1.0?
I discovered the world outside IE when I got Mozilla 1.6 with a computer magazine. Even before connecting to the internet, I was highly impressed.
Still, I find some things better in the Mozilla browser than in Firefox, like the handling of language files and the preferences menu, but using a browser that is not being updated any more is not an option. Besides, I've fell in love with some extensions and themes for Firefox.
Theres Firefox1.0.4 for Ubuntu. You have to use the backports repo.
Internet Explorer is cool bot one problem if you run it as RootAdministrator or is some cases as a user it allows edits to the Windows Registry - Big software engineering flaw, Big Problem period.
FireFox is not part of the operating system. It is just an HTML viewer. Plus lets face it no matter what OS I am running I can use FireFox WIndows,MAC OX, Linux, Unix, how great is that. Best of all it's free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Sakki
"Why always be so negative?."
The dipping below 90% for IE thing is a pretty big psychological milestone, considering that browser's near total dominance for so many years. It's news. Further, I don't see how it is abusive. The headline wasn't "IE users are stupid." It was "IE users are the ones switching." Who's getting hurt, here?
@deathshadow
"You want to grind your machine to a halt, just try saving multiple images or files"
The unstatisfying solution for that at least is to turn off Download Manager History (Tools>Options>Privacy>Download Manager History). The Download Sort extension automatically saves files to pre-assigned folders based on filetype for me, so I usually know where things end up.
I agree with you that the Download Manager is quite annoying. I believe others do as well, since there are a few extensions that can help you bypass it altogether and use specialized download programs.
But in general, I think people with lower end machines should probably use Opera if they don't need power user features.