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.

[captmar-vell]

YEP!

firefox 0.8

no problems, no bots, spyware, popups etc.,

[kezekiel]

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.: )

Yup. No doubt. Same experience here. IE is to spyware as flop is to flies.

[Arkinsaw]

Mozilla is the open source version of the old Netscape Navigator. It is based on the same engine as Firefox, but has all the bells and whistles (and the baggage that goes with them). Firefox is stripped down, streamlined, and simple.

Sooner or later I will switch to Firefox overall, but I still like the old Mozilla for now.

[kezekiel]

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.

Try Tools:Options:General:Fonts&Colors. There's a Link Color section where you can control that. It should have worked right out the gate, though... I wonder if you have zeroed out your History so that Firefox doesn't keep track of where you've been?

[Petronski]

Mozilla has more choices.

[dr_who_2]

I'm using it now. Slight improvements over Mozilla (bookmarks), but it's still got some bugs (bookmarks).

[Oblongata]

"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."

The middle mouse button is set up by default I think to open a new tab. Just middle click on a link and it gets its own tab.

With tabbed browsing you can read FR all day without stopping. Just scroll down breaking news middle clicking on threads to read. Threads open on tabs in the background. Leave front page open, read threads one by one closing them as you go. When just the front page is left, refresh. Repeat.

I have this down to a system if you cant tell.

[Ex-Dem]

Lol, I usually use a laptop and I don't have the coordination to be able to press both buttons at the exact same time to simulate a middle button.

[Drammach]

Goto tools, options, general, fonts&colors, check color boxes for visited/unvisited links..

[stylin_geek]

I use IE on my Windows box, Firefox on my Linux box. I have to admit, I do like the tabbed browsing.

[Cricket24]

Where can I download it? Will it run with windows 98? I have a 5 year old computer that needs to be replaced but I can't help it....I'm attached to it!

[Oblongata]

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."

Are you red/blue colorblind by any chance? The reason I ask is that default links are blue, clicked on links are purple. My brother is red/blue colorblind. He can usually tell red from blue, but cant distinguish blue and purple.

Try this(I have 1.0 pre-release version):

1. Go to tools menu

2. Click Options

3. Go to general

4. Click on Fonts and Colors

5. Go to the links section and click on Visited Links

6. Select any color on the list you desire

7. Enjoy!

[Pit1]

I have to put in a plug for Opera 7.5. Using for about 6 months. Browser and mail work great. The tab feature on the browser is very handy.

[Fiddlstix]

I have IE, NS, Avant Browser, and Firefox. Have had for a long time.

Mainly because certain "tags" only work with certain browsers. For instance the <blink> tag works with NS, etc, while the <marquee> tag works with IE, etc.

All the browsers can be useful depending on what you are doing (or viewing) at the time.

[Yeti]

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?

Get the TabBrowser extension. I have mine set so that all browser links open in a new, unfocused tab.

Firefox rocks. You need to check through the extensions(there should be a link near the top of your bookmarks), because many of them are very, very useful. There are tons of them.

[Drammach]

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

according to system requirements page, it runs on Win98..

[Drammach]

Extensions are good.

I am using google toolbar, Ad Blocker, and Image Zoom..

[Yeti]

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

I don't have that problem.

Maybe you need newer versions of either the Acrobat plugin or the Firefox browser. Firefox is at 1.0 now.

[Terabitten]

I tried to d/l Firefox, but it crashes when I try to import my settings from IE. I have a gazillion bookmarks, and I don't want to have to rebuild them. Any suggestions?

[George Smiley]

Now you need to build a Windows 2000 distribution CD that won't install Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.

It's not simple, but it's doable.

Then you've gotten rid of about 80 percent of the security holes.