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Message Board > Malarkey > Firefox Vs. IE / IE Vs. Firefox

January 4, 2006, 22:32
PB
Defender of the faith
630 posts

Some people here seem slightly enthausiastic about Firefox.

Personally I like the tabbed browsing, which is one of the main reasons that I'm using it now. It might be more secure, but I don't recal ever having any serious (security) problems with IE.

I tend to use the Internet mouse a lot to scroll on webpages (click the wheel on your mouse). This feature seems somewhat buggy in Firefox. This is mostly graphical (the scroll icon doens't always load directly when you click the wheel), but also when you press and hold the wheel, the scroll icon might jump from it's place.

It probably is true that Firefox is using the standards, which is a good thing in my opinion. On the other hand, some websites that you want to use are specifically designed for Internet Explorer, so you can't use them in Firefox.

Don't get me wrong, I do like firefox, and I think it's good to have such an inventive drive to the browser "industry". But when Windows Vista implements the tabbed browsing (and possibly improves security) I might switch back to Internet Explorer unless Firefox stays ahead with good ideas...


Ps. Any replies? :P :) :O O_O

[Edited on January 4, 2006 by PB]
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January 4, 2006, 22:41
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

*Posted from Bugs*

How about security? Speed (I'm talking about browsing speed, IE is very slow every time I open it)? Being able to add any feature you like through small extensions? Less crashes? No shitty security hole ridden ActiveX? Comforming to modern standards? Supporting the latest advances in HTML/CSS? Good popup blocking? Really awesome find text feature? Quick searches (putting "wp Lol" in the address bar will search for "Lol" on wikipedia for instance)? Being able to turn off annoying features in Javascript (like changing status bar text, disabling right click, changing window size etc)? A decent bookmark organiser? Customisable toolbars? A hightly useful download manager?

And that's as standard without any add-ons. Which leads me to wonder why Firefox is 5.0 meg and Microsoft can get away with IE being about 17 meg. What?

[edit]

I have absolutely none of the problems you have mentioned with the scroll wheel. Are you using FF 1.5?

[Edited on January 4, 2006 by Fiona]
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laffo
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January 4, 2006, 22:46
PB
Defender of the faith
630 posts

Yes, I am using 1.5, I'll try to make a screenshot of the graphical bug (as that's the only one you can make a screenshot of)

EDIT:

It usually takes half a second at most to load the image, but it gives the unconfortable feeling that there might be many more bugs. Also when you croll using this technique, the part displayed behind the icon is usually from the position of the website on the previous frame. It seems not possible to make a screenshot of this.

[Edited on January 4, 2006 by PB]
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January 4, 2006, 23:18
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

That's very minor, PB.

I've been using Firefox for a while now and I don't think I'd go back to IE in a hurry, thought that might just be because I can't be bothered switching again.

Firefox is very easy to convert to, as 99% of the interface is in exactly the same place as internet explorer. So if anybody's curious I say give it a try - you have nothing to lose really.

Tabbed browsing is a small bonus - it keeps your taskbar tidy if nothing else. The thing I like the most about Firefox though are the quick searches. Not the search box next to the address bar, but the searches you can do by typing in the address bar itself. For example you can just type "google <term>" to do a google search or "wp <term>" to seach on wikipedia. And you can set your own searches up too.

The extensions are good too. I use one called ieview which puts an item on the right click menu for viewing pages in internet explorer which is handy for those incompatible pages - there are a few.

One thing I will say against Firefox though is that it doesn't seem to be very good with media plugins. Whether its embedded sound files or streaming video, I just can't seem to set it up right to play anything, no matter how many times I install Realplayer, Quicktime, Windows Media Player, etc etc. I've heard that some people have problems with Flash, even.
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January 4, 2006, 23:54
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

I have 14 extensions installed. The ones I couldn't do without being:

Image Zoom. (Right click on any image - Zoom it. Awesome.)
GMail Notifier. (Checks my GMail for me and tell me when I get new ones.)
Foxytunes. (Control nearly any media player from within FF.)
Chatzilla. (Fully featured IRC client.)
Web Developer. (Greatest ever. I'ld be lost without this. There's a web developer bar for IE but it's frankly pretty lackluster.)
HTML Validator. (Chucks a little icon in the corner telling me if a page is valid HTML or not. Marvelous.)
Add N Edit Cookies. (What it says on the tin, quickly play with cookies. Great for checking for security holes and removing any cookies if need be without chucking the lot away.)
Fasterfox. (This one is unbelieveable, as if Firefox wasn't fast enough when browsing, pages load -even faster- with this one.)
IEView. (For quickly dropping into shit browser mode.)

Extensions really do rock, there's even a fully featured and half decent FTP client. O_o

My only gripe would be with media plug-ins. But sometimes I see this as more a blessing because I can no longer be treated to some BS embedded MIDI.
IEView helps with that on the extremly few occasions that I need to view media. Flash has never done anything but work fine for me. (Except this one time Adblock stopped it showing up the video. Meh.)

Also might I mention that I find Firefox very stable, it crashes about once a month, if that even. Whereas when I was using IE it was every odd day. When I go to other places that only have IE in, not only do I instantly notice the collosal difference in speed and things it's missing, it crashes all the time.

And don't get me started on the HTML/CSS/Javascript standard stuff, I could rant about that all night.

[Edited on January 4, 2006 by Fiona]
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laffo
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January 5, 2006, 03:35
Sandman
F3n!x0r
1194 posts

Bang in your Faec. Ferret has spoken. Using the 1.0.7 here without issues. The only thing I think is rather uncool, is that Java needed the 133Mb version. Well in my case it did anyway. O_O
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BennuWiki
Yes, my avatar has grey borders in IE (so get a decent browser)
ROOFLEZ ROOFLEZ
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January 5, 2006, 03:45
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

The hell? I wonder why...... I didn't.

[edit]

Anyway the only viable excuse to not use Firefox is laziness and stubborness. It took me mooooooonths to convince Frim to even try it, and now look at him singing it's praises.

[Edited on January 5, 2006 by Fiona]
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laffo
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January 5, 2006, 10:05
PEader
お前はもう死んでいる
1486 posts

I have problems with Firefox running java plugin and windows media plugin at times.

Anyway as a user I prefer Firefox because it lets me be in control of the pages I look at but the main thing that attracted me was tabbed browsing. Some times I look at hundreds of pages and grouping them in tabs in seperate browsers is awesome. Of course with bigger screen sizes tabbed browsing will become redundant and we will have the mdi client thing like in image editors.

The quick searches and bookmarking of all tabs in one go keep me there. There are just so many things it does better then MSIE.

If MS Internet Explorer is starting up slower then Firefox you have a problem with your copy. No way should Firefox start faster then MSIE. Repair your installation or remove all those porn dialers.

[Edited on January 5, 2006 by PEader]
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January 5, 2006, 14:49
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

It does not start faster initially, but if I have one Firefox window open any other subsequent windows will open faster than any amount of IE ones, and either way all my comments about speed were directed towards browsing, you know pages loading and shite.
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laffo
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January 5, 2006, 17:01
Frimkron
Frustrated Megalomaniac
703 posts

I find Firefox is slower at rendering the page. Although it connects to it faster.
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January 5, 2006, 19:07
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

Use Fasterfox.
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laffo
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January 5, 2006, 19:16
PB
Defender of the faith
630 posts

I have no problems with crashing in both Firefox and IE. I do like the extra functionalities that Firefox has (expecially tabbed browsing, but I like it that the addressbar also brings up the most likely page when you enter a search word.

I hardly use IE anymore, but I never found the browsing speed anoying, however I do find it anoying that it takes so long until Firefox has started (while IE is started a lot quicker).

Overall I think that Firefox is better than IE at the moment, but I don't know what Vista's version of IE will bring. And since it comes with the operating system, I don't know if I'll be bothered to install Firefox unless it stays way ahead of IE...
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January 5, 2006, 21:09
Deadmaster
Where is Johnny?
458 posts
I'll admit, I was stubbon. I didn't wanna switch until I had a virus which stopped me from searching for pants on Ebay :(

... but anyway. Main reason I use Firefox is because of how poor IE is - at least four bugs (crashes upon minimisation on some websites, sometimes doesn't change the title bar, when you click on text links they *sometimes* get larger before you go to the next page, sometimes doesn't load a page completely and tells you it's "done"), activex, and security holes.

Also, Firefox has tabbed browsing - which I seriously couldn't live without!!!

Also, PB, sites designed for IE are generally designed poorly. Proper web designers will test their website on at least two browsers if not more, and different resolutions before releasing (I tested mine on IE and Firefox since those are the most popular, and fixed the problem unaligning links in IE). Different browsers intereperate code slightly differently, so web designers need to test their site on at least a couple of browsers.
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January 5, 2006, 21:44
PB
Defender of the faith
630 posts

Yes well with some websites, design isn't the top priority. For instance the website of my bank used to be not compatible for Firefox (they fixed this now). It's not important there that it looks good, but it's important that it's secure, functional and userfriendly.

Also sometimes it costs extra time to test some things for two brosers, so companies might choose to test only for IE (because most users still use IE). For instance, I once had to create a Java applet for a company and when my application didn't appear to run for Firefox, they tolled me not to fix it and focus on IE compatibillity. If I had focussed on compatibillity for both browsers, it would cost extra time, which could be spent better.
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January 5, 2006, 22:50
Deadmaster
Where is Johnny?
458 posts
That doesn't change the fact it's badly designed.
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My site still needs updating and redesigning. My last.fm page.

GO TO TEXTUAL ANARCHY II YOU FISHDOG YOU
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January 5, 2006, 23:47
TheMI3
Starving Artist
520 posts

Quote:
can just type "google <term>" to do a google search or "wp <term>" to seach on wikipedia.


HOLY SHIT! I never knew that!

wow.

Anyway, I use Opera on my mac, mostly because i couldnt get anything else to work with the uni's fucking proxy (I even tried IE for mac:().

Anyway. Link us to faster fox, im lazy!
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January 6, 2006, 00:33
PB
Defender of the faith
630 posts

https://addons.mozilla.org/ext … ication=firefox

EDIT: I haven't installed it. Also I thought that the software industry was going to try to move more of the workload from the servers to the client, so I don't think that this prefetching fits in that well... On the other hand, I just remember that as a vague memory of something I heared or read...

[Edited on January 6, 2006 by PB]
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January 6, 2006, 02:49
Woody
HEAD BLACK MAN
722 posts

Did someone say prefelching?
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boredome is the bitter fruit of too much routine
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January 6, 2006, 07:21
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

YES.

Quote:
HOLY SHIT! I never knew that!

You can make your own too.
If you go to bookmarks > quick searches. You can right click on the properties of the existing ones and see what you need to define in a bookmark to get the one you want.
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laffo
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January 6, 2006, 10:07
PEader
お前はもう死んでいる
1486 posts

Quoting Frimkron:
I find Firefox is slower at rendering the page. Although it connects to it faster.

That behavoiour can be modified in about:config I wouldn't recomend doing it though.
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I see 57,005 people.
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January 18, 2006, 09:32
Gul
BSc.
6 posts
Quoting Deadmaster:
That doesn't change the fact it's badly designed.


That doesn't change the fact that I still cannot open the page in FF. The start up time of FF is annoying too. I still use IE, and you won't hear me complaining.
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January 18, 2006, 16:09
Rincewind
programmer
1545 posts

Internet Explorer is awesome. I mean, *I* use it.

Hey Gul, back in town eh. ;)

At the moment people are working hard on a new articles engine, and when that's finished I really think you should upload your fractal tutorials! They deserve it to be read. :thumbs:
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Personal website: http://www.loijson.com
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January 18, 2006, 19:30
Fiona
games are terrible
-9616558 posts

The "testing for two browsers" thing is total crap anyway, since IE is the only one of the most popular browsers that doesn't follow standards, you find you make websites for everything else once and then have to edit it for IE. :F
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laffo
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January 19, 2006, 13:35
Eckolin
Quite Whiskered
388 posts

Quote:
Internet Explorer is awesome. I mean, *I* use it.


Well, that settles it, doesn't it? :)
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Maker of Games...
Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Need help with coding? I probably wrote something similar.
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January 23, 2006, 21:47
Deadmaster
Where is Johnny?
458 posts
Yeah. Rince, master of wisdom. XD

IE is crap, it doesn't conform to newest CSS standards like Firefox does which means I have to spend EXTRA TIME CODING MY WEBSITE WHICH DELAYS ME RELEASING UPSPRING GROAAAAAAAAH
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My site still needs updating and redesigning. My last.fm page.

GO TO TEXTUAL ANARCHY II YOU FISHDOG YOU
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Message Board > Malarkey > Firefox Vs. IE / IE Vs. Firefox

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