Firefox-A Fast, Safe Alternative to Internet Explorer

TechTrax ^ | 9/1/2004 | Kevin Christy

[kezekiel]

I’m not a Microsoft-basher; I use their products productively virtually every day of my life. Excel is my workhorse, Word my constant companion for nearly a decade, PowerPoint my standard for presentations, Visio Professional a powerful tool in my arsenal, and I rely on Outlook to keep track of notes, emails, contacts, tasks, and my calendar.

I have also been using Internet Explorer since about 1996, when it came pre-loaded on a computer I bought. I found it to be adequate, and certainly seemed to be on the cutting edge (anybody remember “push technology”?). But increasingly over time it came to be an annoyance, and may represent the worst of what Microsoft is accused of: arrogance (openly flaunting internet standards and creating new ones on its own), monopolistic aggression (folding IE into Windows, virtually destroying the independent browser market overnight), and outright carelessness (creating a browser with a seemingly endless number of security holes). IE is relatively slow and clunky, has a sub-par user interface, and seems to be an ideal breeding ground for adware, malware, spyware, worms, you name it. Malicious Geeks Want You to Use Internet Explorer

In fairness to Microsoft, a significant portion of their woes with IE are probably unavoidable; IE, with its whopping share of the browser market, is simply a big, obvious target. While there are plenty of script kiddies and crackers who revel in sabotaging all things Microsoft, people who are after you for your private information and who want to push ads on you could care less whether Microsoft wrote your browser’s code or some idealistic troupe of open-source pioneers.

[Paleo Conservative]

Vanity: Cool new feature on Free Republic

I've been told it works in Firefox too.

[Dubya]

I use Firsfox. Its works great for me. Much faster than IE.

[arjay]

I have Firefox as well as IE6. With IE 6 I am able to get each thread on FR to open minimized. I have not found a way to do that with Firefox. Any of you Firefox experts know what I can do to change that?

[za_claws]

using it right now it is good

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

But won't Clint Eastwood steal it?

[Drammach]

I was originally a Netscape user, went to Mozilla a couple of years back, and in the last year, moved to Firefox.. and have been using the Firefox-Thunderbird combo for the last 2 or 3 months now..
I haven't had Netscape on the computer for at least a year now.

I am just about ready to uninstall Mozilla completely, and run with Firefox-Thunderbird exclusively..

Now, if I can just get my brother to stop using IE and Outlook express....

[slatimer]

just switched to firefox myself....I love it..dl much faster than IE

[Arkinsaw]

I use Firefox at work and Mozilla at home. Like 'em both.

[Ex-Dem]

I have Firefox as well as IE6. With IE 6 I am able to get each thread on FR to open minimized. I have not found a way to do that with Firefox. Any of you Firefox experts know what I can do to change that?

I'm not sure of a way of doing that. I usually just do Right-Click on the link and Open Link In New Tab, which adds a new tab with the linked page without switching from the page you're currently viewing.

[E Rocc]

When I was on dial-up Mozilla loaded FR way faster than IE did.

-Eric

[Larry Lucido]

Make sure you have two in the hangar, and use the other one to chase him.

[rwfromkansas]

Beware of opening PDF's in Firefox. It screws up your Firefox browser and stalls your computer.

Open them in IE, but use Firefox for everything else.

[Moose4]

I started using Firefox a couple of months ago and like it a lot. It's faster than IE, with 99% the same performance. The only glitches I have are that sometimes hitting "back" will return me to the top of the previous page (so I have to scroll down again), and I've had trouble with downloads occasionally. Other than that, it's smaller, faster, and tabbed browsing just rocks.

}:-)4

[kezekiel]

:P Thanks, Paleo. First time I ever did this, and this has to be my first reply.

Killjoy.

[Ole Okie]

I've been using Firefox and Thunderbird (both Mozilla) for several months, but I still have and use IE and Outlook Express most of the time.

One reason that I hesitate on Firefox is that I can't cause the titles of the threads that I open in Free Republic to change color (to red, for example). I suspect I'm just missing a preference setting, but haven't found it.

This causes me to not be able to tell which threads I've already opened when I skip through FR.

Anyone have a solution to that one? If I can solve it, I'll probably preferentially use Firefox.

[rwfromkansas]

What is the diff.....It is called Mozilla Firefox?

[Rebelbase]

[buccaneer81]

But won't Clint Eastwood steal it?

He would only have to think to execute the commands. In Russian.

[Musket]

The best thing about FF is no more spyware to clean off - at least for now. I've been using it for a couple months. Once a week I run Ad-aware and SBSD and it's great to always see a result of ZERO.: )